Chinese men's national basketball team defeated their Cameroonian opponents again 85-63 in their second exhibition game in Xi'an of northwest China's Shaanxi Province on July 28. However, the victory also exposed some problems for China, one of them being the underperformance by the team's forwards.
Zhai Xiaochuan #9, Abudushalamu Abudurexiti #23 and Zhou Peng #10 of the Chinese men's national basketball team /VCG Photo
In this game, China's three forwards, Zhou Peng, Zhai Xiaochuan and Abudushalamu Abudurexiti, played 22, 12 and 26 minutes respectively on the court but scored a total of 15 points – five from Zhou (2/5), three from Zhai (1/3) and seven from Abudushalamu (2/6).
Such performance, by any standard, was not good enough in offense. Nonetheless, these three are already the best forwards coach Li Nan has. Compared to them, Chen Linjian and Kyranbek Makel lacked the ability of carrying the ball to launch an offense.
The major reason that China is in today's difficult situation are injuries, which cost the team their best forward player Ding Yanyuhang. When was healthy, Ding's posed a great threat to the opponent's defense with his penetration. His speed, quickness, and strength guaranteed that he can always earn something from assaulting the rim, either straight points, or free throws.
Ding Yanyuhang (C) has to depart Chinese men's national basketball team to focus on recovery. /VCG Photo
Unfortunately, Ding has been battling leg injuries for nine months and things did not seem to get much better. He did not play in any of China's games since they came back from the U.S.. Coach Li Nan announced Sunday that Ding departed the national team to focus on recovery.
"Ding's absence is a big loss to the team because we don't have enough choices in the forward position. He could not practice enough (because of injury) and we did not want him to continue like that. For the sake of his future career, he must recover first," said Li.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup is only a month away but China has not confirmed which 12 players will be on their final roster. The team already has reliable options with big men including Yi Jianlian, Zhou Qi, and Wang Zhelin, plus guards Guo Ailun, Zhao Jiwei, and Zhaorui. But in today's basketball, good forwards tend to determine the reach of a team.
(CGTN Sports Scene's Liu Jiaqi contributed to this story,)