China News Service, Beijing, July 12th. Without Zhou Qi, Guo Ailun, Zhao Jiwei, Wang Zhelin... The Chinese men's basketball team with an uneven lineup lost 81:93 to the South Korean team and suffered a defeat in the first game of the 2022 Men's Basketball Asian Cup.

　　The 2022 Men's Basketball Asian Cup kicked off in Jakarta, Indonesia on the 12th.

Before leaving for Jakarta, many of the Chinese men's basketball team who had just ended the third window of the World Preliminaries had nucleic acid positives and could only stay in Australia. The Chinese men's basketball team had to urgently recruit 5 players from China to rush to Jakarta.

On July 11, the Chinese team announced the list of 12 players for the Asian Cup. Zhou Qi, Zhao Rui, Xu Jie, Hu Mingxuan, Sun Minghui, Wang Zhelin, Gu Quan, and Fu Hao were the players participating in the World Preliminaries. Fan Ziming, Zhai Xiaochuan, He Xining. And Jiang Weize was recruited from China, and Liaoning double stars Guo Ailun and Zhao Jiwei were unfortunately absent.

　　However, Zhou Qi, who was selected for the Asian Cup roster, did not appear in the battle between China and South Korea.

It is reported that Zhou Qi is still in Australia and will leave for Jakarta in the near future.

Due to the unexpected situation of this Chinese men's basketball team, there is little chance of joint training before the game.

Therefore, although there are more wins and fewer losses in the historical confrontation with the South Korean team, the Chinese men's basketball team, which has a seriously uneven lineup and insufficient regrouping, is facing great challenges.

　　From the beginning of the campaign, the Chinese team fully felt the difficulty of the competition.

The two sides fell into a tug of war after starting 6:6, and the first quarter drew 19:19.

In the second quarter, the South Korean team once led by 6 points at 34:28. The Chinese team succeeded in catching up with many outside shots and ended the first half with a 45:43 lead by 2 points.

　　At the beginning of the second half, South Korea started 6:0, overtook the score with 49:45, and led by 6 points again at 65:59 at the end of the third quarter.

In the last quarter, the weak Chinese team's offensive and defensive quality declined, and finally lost 81:93.

　　Zhao Rui and Gu Quan each contributed 22 points, Sun Minghui had 14 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, Fu Hao had 8 points and 6 rebounds, and Fan Ziming had 5 points and 11 rebounds.

　　In this Asian Cup, the Chinese men's basketball team is in Group B with South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Bahrain. The strength of the Chinese men's basketball team and South Korea should be higher than the other two teams in this group. The battle can also be called the battle for the top spot in the group.

According to the rules, the first place in the four groups of the Asian Cup will directly advance to the quarter-finals, and the second and third places in each group will cross for a play-off to determine the other four quarter-finals.

　　Although the Chinese men's basketball team missed the victory in the China-South Korea battle, it would be no problem to qualify as the top three in the group.

It is believed that with the return of Zhou Qi and the gradual tacit understanding of the team cooperation, the Chinese men's basketball team will bring exciting performances and results in the follow-up competitions.

　　The Men's Basketball Asian Cup, formerly known as the Asian Men's Basketball Championship, was founded in 1960 and has been held for 28 sessions.

After 2015, the Men's Basketball Championship was changed to the Men's Basketball Asian Cup.

The Chinese men's basketball team participated in the Asian Championships for the first time since 1975 and won 16 championships in the first 22 Asian Championships (Asian Cup).

After the Oceania team joined the Asian competition, it changed the pattern of Asian basketball. The world powerhouse Australia team became the new overlord of the last (2017) Asian Cup.

Affected by the epidemic, the men's basketball Asian Cup originally held in 2021 was postponed to 2022.

　　At 21:00 on the 14th, Beijing time, the Chinese men's basketball team will face the second opponent Bahrain in the Asian Cup group stage.

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