China's last game at their first FIBA World Cup on home soil ended with a victory over South Korea in the southern city of Guangzhou, but the tournament was a disappointment as they failed to achieve their goal of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Now back in Beijing, coach Li Nan reflected on their performance. 

Expressing his anguish, Li told Chinese sports broadcaster CCTV 5: "I haven't slept well since I came back, because we didn't achieve our goal, we didn't make it to the Olympics. I am so sorry for disappointing the fans and the Chinese Basketball Association." 

Even though China launched their campaign at home with a comfortable win against Cote d'Ivoire, they suffered two back-to-back defeats against Poland and Venezuela which shattered the host nation's hopes of progressing to the tournament's knock-out stage.

"At the beginning of our first game against Cote d'Ivoire, the players were under so much pressure that they didn't coordinate well on offense. We got 70 points with only one three-pointer. So we won by playing defensive," recalled Li. 

While defending under fire NBA player Zhou Qi for his below-par show, the Chinese coach clarified: "As for the game against Poland, it's a pity that we lost in the last seven seconds, but I think Zhou Qi should not be blamed for his inbound pass, because he just did what we practiced in training. There are two reasons we chose Zhou for the job. He is tall enough to make the pass, and it is easier for power forwards to that role. Though the result was disappointing, Zhou should not be blamed for that." 

China won their classification match against the Republic of Korea, but their Olympics dream was shattered when they were comprehensively beaten by Nigeria. 

"The absence of Zhou Peng and Ding Yanyuhang affected us a lot and we had only Zhai Xiaochuan as the forward. And as for Kyranbek Makhan, he did not play much because we preferred to choose Abdusalam Abdrurixit and Zhao Rui to substitute Zhai Xiaochuan. Meanwhile, I think the absence of Zhou and Ding also affected our player's confidence," he added.