In their second game in the NBA Summer League, China's men's national basketball team lost to the Sacramento Kings 94-77 on Saturday but improved their performance from the opening defeat to the Miami Heat.

Guo Ailun, China's best guard, appeared on the court after missing Friday's game against the Heat and proved that he's still one of the most reliable options of the team by putting down 20 points and five assists. The other Chinese player who dropped double-digit points was Ding Yanyuhang with ten, along with four rebounds and four steals.

Guo's comeback enriched China's offensive solutions. He and Zhao Jiwei kept putting on screen players with Zhou Qi who finished three alley-oops, placing Sacramento's interior defense under unexpected pressure. When the opponents chose to close in to protect the paint, China gained better shooting opportunities from the outside and managed to grasp some. The team went 8-23 from the 3-point line.

The other two things China did better were rebounding and stealing. They actually beat the Kings in the former 35-29 and tied  9-9 in the latter. There are a lot of things related to physical conditions in basketball but rebounding has more to do with attitude and focus. Chinese players cannot change their leaping ability but at least they can compete with opponents when it comes to will.

There's one more thing for which China deserved praise: they did not lose control or freak out when referee calls were not on their side. China in total were called 34 fouls, 21 happened in the first half, and eight of them were on Guo Ailun (fouling out number in the Summer League is 10). By contrast, Sacramento only received 12 fouls in the first half.

The good news was that Chinese players tried to get used to the referees' standard instead of complaining. As a result, China managed to reduce their fouls to 13 in the second half – Guo only committed one foul in the fourth quarter. This is good progress because referees' standard of calling fouls keeps changing from game to game and the sooner you can adapt, the quicker you can establish an advantage in the game.

Of course, China still lost the game and they did so because there were things the team failed to do well. In Saturday's game, those included turnovers (22-14), 3-pointers (11-8) and free throws (21-5).

Committing more turnovers gave the Kings more chances for easy points in transition; trailing in threes meant China's defense failed to take care of the most dangerous part of the game. As for free throws, the Kings managed to earn 29 free throws (and made 21) from the 34 fouls by China; by contrast, China only got 13 free throws from the opponent's 27 fouls, not to mention that they only made five. Simply speaking, China still has a lot to work to do on playing more aggressively and improving their fundamental skills like shooting.

China will next play against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday.