บท 99: Chapter 99: The First Olympics Victory
"Come on, everyone, let's maintain this scoring advantage!"
An 18-point lead against the XB men's basketball team was not a very secure margin.
So at the start of the fourth quarter, Wade Dong kept encouraging his teammates. Although Wade Dong was the last to join the national team, from the first day he joined, he had unknowingly become the team's leader.
Every teammate respected him.
Guo Qi had just challenged Wade Dong, but if he were honest with himself, Guo Qi also admired Wade Dong. After all, the gap between them was obvious, and he had to respect Wade Dong.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the XB men's basketball team began to attack the basket.
Calderon blew past Chen Jiang and drove straight to the basket, but Guo Qi, who had been holding back his energy, was waiting for this moment.
Block!
"Slam!!!"
Guo Qi swatted the ball away with a clean block.
After completing the block, Guo Qi immediately pounded his chest and roared, trying to release his pent-up frustration.
"Still immature."
Wade Dong muttered. He could easily make three or four blocks like this in a playoff game. If he pounded his chest and roared after every block, his chest would be very sore.
However, Guo Qi's block also sent a message to the XB men's basketball team that he had changed and that the paint he guarded was inviolable.
Pau and Marc Gasol tried to catch up, but facing a team with Wade Dong and trailing in the fourth quarter made it too difficult to catch up.
Because when they scored that damn ball, Wade Dong would respond in kind.
"Great shot!!!"
"Ah ha!!!"
"Oh ho!!!"
"Beautiful!!!"
The time in the fourth quarter ticked away, and the fans watching the live broadcast became more and more excited. The Chinese men's basketball team maintained their scoring advantage, and victory was within reach. How could the fans not be excited?
107:93!
With 56 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the XB men's basketball team was still trailing by 14 points.
They tried to shoot three-pointers, but the results were not good because the Chinese men's basketball team had Wade Dong on the perimeter!
Facing Wade Dong's defense, it was very difficult for anyone to shoot three-pointers easily... Even if they managed to shoot without getting blocked, making that damn ball into that damn basket was extremely difficult.
"Beep!!!"
The referee blew the final whistle.
115:95!
In the first game of Group B in the Olympic men's basketball tournament, China won by 20 points against the XB national team.
This game could be considered a major upset because no one expected the second favorite to win the championship, the XB national team, to lose to China by 20 points.
Wade Dong played the entire game without a minute of rest.
Game statistics:
Wade Dong: 67 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks.
Other players: Not important...
In the first three quarters, Wade Dong scored 45 points. In the crucial fourth quarter, Wade Dong carried the team's offensive burden and scored 22 points.
In the past ten years, no one had scored 67 points in a single game at the Olympics. Of course, this was also related to the number of shots Wade Dong took. He shot 37 times, making 22 shots, with a shooting percentage of 59%. Since Wade Dong played the shooting guard position, this was a very high shooting percentage.
After the game, Pau Gasol found Wade Dong and said, "I feel like you've gotten even stronger."
The XB men's basketball team lost this game fair and square. They really couldn't stop Wade Dong from scoring.
"It's not that I've gotten stronger."
Wade Dong raised his eyebrows and smiled, "It's that you haven't seen my true strength before."
Gasol deliberately put on a serious face, "So you're saying you didn't use your full strength in the playoffs?"
This year's Lakers were not weak either, with Kobe, Gasol, Bynum, and a deep bench. They finished third in the Western Conference during the regular season. With such a lineup, they lost 1-4 to the Suns in the Western Conference Finals. If Wade Dong hadn't used his full strength in the playoffs, that would be quite a blow.
"You could say that."
Wade Dong teased, "After all, I was playing the power forward position in the playoffs, you know... I'm not very good at the power forward position."
"Hahaha... Are you trying to insult me?"
Gasol also laughed, "But don't get too cocky, our competition isn't over yet. We'll meet again in the semifinals."
This laughter was a bit forced. Wade Dong's words were too arrogant. Gasol played the power forward position, and Wade Dong dominated him at the power forward position, which implied that Gasol was weak.
Of course, what Gasol said about meeting again in the semifinals was true. Before the Olympics started, everyone knew that with the current strength of the Chinese men's basketball team, as long as Wade Dong didn't get injured, making it to the semifinals was almost a certainty.
...
All the athletes lived in the Olympic Village.
Wade Dong had just finished his game when he received a call from Kidd.
This guy was unusually relaxed. The US team had just won a big game in the afternoon, and Kidd didn't call a single timeout during the entire game... So when he heard that Wade Dong had finished his game, he immediately asked if Wade Dong had time to meet up for a drink.
Kidd knew all the players on the US men's basketball team, but he felt he wasn't as close to them as he was to Wade Dong. After all, they were both on the Suns, and Kidd had already planned that after the Olympics, he would go to China. He wanted to try the extremely spicy Hunan cuisine and drink some of the Niulang Mountain Erguotou that Wade Dong recommended.
"Get lost!"
Kidd was very enthusiastic, but Wade Dong's response was very irritable.
He didn't have time to drink with Kidd.
Was he in the same situation as Kidd?
Was Kidd as important to the US men's basketball team as Wade Dong was to the Chinese men's basketball team?
Wade Dong was both a father and a mother figure, and the two teams were very likely to meet in the final. Everyone was aiming for the Olympic championship, and in terms of honor, the Olympics still had national boundaries. Kidd wasn't really inviting him for a drink; he was probably trying to gather intelligence.
In Group A, the US team had no opponents. In fact, no team could cause trouble for the US team before the final.
After all, this team had Kobe, James, Durant, Paul... It was a starting lineup of All-Stars, which would be invincible even in the NBA.
The US men's basketball team's dominance in the world was similar to China's dominance in table tennis, diving, shooting, gymnastics, weightlifting, and other sports.
...
However, the victory over the XB men's basketball team in the first game boosted the national team's confidence.
This was the first time in the national team's history that they had defeated a world-class powerhouse in a major tournament, and it was the strongest lineup of the XB men's basketball team.
Many fans who watched the live broadcast were so excited they couldn't sleep. They eagerly discussed the game in groups and on forums. It seemed like the moment of triumph for the Chinese men's basketball team had finally arrived.
For so many years, the Chinese men's basketball team had finally seen hope for a medal at the Olympics.
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