Fiba Basketball World Cup: China’s latest sorry defeat sparks Weibo inquest – ‘a shameless bunch with no motivation?’
- China’s defeat by Puerto Rico means they fail to reach the second round and will scrap for the minor placings, with the possibility of their worst-ever finish
- Fans query whether bringing in naturalised NBA star Kyle Anderson made any difference, and say hiring a foreign coach ‘is not a fix’
Chinese social media users did not hold back after witnessing China lose their third match in as many outings at the Fiba Basketball World Cup.
A 107-89 loss to Puerto Rico in Manila on Wednesday meant that China failed to qualify from their group and were dumped into the classification round to scrap for the minor placings. They are on course to record their worst-ever finish at the tournament.
At minus-80 points overall in the group stage, China ranked second-last among the eight teams who remained winless.
“We were not determined enough on the defensive side, the players didn’t do well communicating with each other on the court,” guard Zhao Jiwei said.
“We did not play with enough flexibility – just executed according to the system and lost some of our characteristics along the way.
