Chapter 390: Two Straight Wins, Next Up Germany!
It was already 12:00 AM in Beijing when the game finally ended.
Zhu , Wang , Coach Du, and Sun Dasheng were still buzzing from the win. The moment they got back to the Olympic Village, they started talking about going out for drinks to celebrate.
Nobody was shocked. On this national team, late night barbecue and alcohol were practically part of the scouting report, especially for Zhu. He was almost never seen without cigarettes or a glass nearby. There was even a half finished bottle of XO sitting on his bedside table.
Zhu loved to brag about it, too.
"Even if I smoke and drink, I can still give you 20 plus a night," he always said. "So tell me, am I that strong, or are my opponents just that weak?"
That mindset was common among a lot of domestic players. CBA intensity was too low, the pressure was too light, so bad habits never felt expensive. Then international play came, and the bill showed up, especially in conditioning. No excuses, just reality.
Zhu 8 slapped Chen Yan on the shoulder and tried to pull him along.
Chen Yan smiled and declined politely. "I have been burning too much energy lately. After the Olympics, you can drink however you want. I will even toast you. But not right now."
Zhu 8 laughed and raised a fist. "Fine. After the Olympics, I am drinking until the world flips over."
Nobody forced Chen Yan. Everyone lived differently.
Yao Ming did not go, either. Neither did Yi Jianlian. Discipline mattered just as much as talent, and that was exactly why those 3 were in the NBA.
…
Back in his Olympic room, Chen Yan lay on the bed and checked his system.
This win had earned him 20 Honor Points. He was not sure if it was because the Olympics only came once every 4 years, but the reward for each Olympic win was higher than what he usually got in the NBA.
He did not spend the points.
He had a plan.
…
On August 14, China played its third game of the Beijing Olympics, against Angola, the African champions.
Before the tournament, Angola was a game the coaching staff had circled as a must win. After what China showed against Team USA and Spain, the fans treated it like a formality.
Then the ball went up, and it instantly looked messy.
China did not come out with the same edge as the first 2 games. Several guys looked slow, heavy, and distracted. It did not take a genius to connect the dots.
Some of them were playing through a celebration hangover.
At the end of the first quarter, China led by only 2, 25 to 23.
The second quarter did not improve. China still could not find rhythm, and Angola smelled opportunity. They ran the floor hard, hit the gas in transition, and by the time halftime arrived, Angola had flipped the game.
46 to 40, Angola.
Angola played like their temperament, fiery and wild. Everybody ran, everybody jumped, and once their confidence caught fire, they attacked like the rim owed them money.
At halftime, Yao Ming snapped.
Not because they were down.
Because their fight had disappeared.
Jonas was drawing up adjustments when he slammed the tactics board in frustration. To him, this had nothing to do with sets and diagrams. This was mental.
"Stay focused," Jonas barked. "Play with urgency. I have said it over and over. Look at the people in this arena, and the people watching at home. Think about what you are playing for. This is your first, and maybe only, chance to play an Olympics at home. Go win the game. Do not leave regrets."
When China ran back out of the tunnel, their eyes were different.
The third quarter opened with Yao Ming going straight to work. He caught it, turned, faked, then floated it softly off the glass for 2.
Then Chen Yan answered with a statement of his own.
On the very next possession, he used a screen, exploded downhill, and rose in the paint for a thunderous dunk over Reonel Paulo and Muzaadi, Angola's 2 bigs.
That dunk hit China like an adrenaline shot. Guys roared. The bench jumped. The entire arena woke up again.
Angola's players stared at each other in disbelief. They had built their identity on athleticism, on being the team that could outrun and out jump people.
Tonight, Chen Yan made their advantage look ordinary.
Yao Ming and Chen Yan took over together. They accounted for China's first 10 points of the second half, and the score turned fast.
Those 2 were China's floor. As long as both showed up, China's level could not drop low enough to lose to Angola.
By the end of the third quarter, China had pushed the lead into double digits.
Angola tried to make a last stand in the fourth, but speeding up without control only made them collapse faster. China stayed steady and widened the gap.
Yao Ming and Chen Yan kept producing. Wang Zhizhi and Li Nan started hitting 3s. Zhu 8 and Sun Dasheng looked like they finally sobered up, and their defense flipped from sluggish to physical, fighting for position and bumping cutters instead of watching them.
Final score, 101 to 70.
China erased a halftime deficit and crushed Angola by 31.
Yao Ming led the team with 31 points, plus 8 rebounds and 4 blocks. Angola's front line was simply too small. Athleticism was not enough against a center like Yao. NBA big men could not contain him consistently, and Angola was not going to be the exception.
Chen Yan played 32 minutes and finished with 29 points on 9 for 19 shooting, including 3 for 7 from deep, plus 8 for 9 at the line. He added 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
His jumper was only average that night. Most of his damage came at the rim, off drives and in transition. And he did not use his Status Improvement Card.
Using it on Angola would have been a waste.
After the game, some domestic outlets even described Chen Yan's performance as "average," which was really just proof of how fast expectations had exploded after his first 2 games.
People forget quickly.
Michael Jordan's Olympic single game high was 29.
Chen Yan had just matched it on a "quiet" night.
And with that win, China now had 2 straight victories in group play.
The attention around the team climbed into the stratosphere. In Beijing, you could not walk through a mall, ride a subway, or sit at a food stall without hearing someone argue about rotations and matchups.
Only soccer could compete with basketball's popularity.
The difference was, basketball got praised.
Soccer got roasted.
While the basketball team stacked wins, the national soccer team had already packed its bags. Three games, 1 draw, 2 losses, 1 goal scored, 6 conceded, and the same familiar conclusion.
Consistent, in the worst way.
After Angola, Jonas called a small team meeting and emphasized discipline again. If they wanted to go further, they had to act like a team that belonged there. Jonas knew this was a golden generation. He refused to let bad habits waste their talent.
The media grew optimistic about advancing from the group.
The players were no longer satisfied with that.
They wanted a better seed.
And the next opponent was Germany.
…
Before the Olympics, China and Germany had been placed in the same tier. Similar structure, each with an All Star caliber interior star and an NBA level big beside him.
After 3 games, nobody said that anymore.
China had won 2 of its first 3 and looked dangerous.
Germany had lost all 3, falling to Team USA, Spain, and Greece.
For Germany, the next game was do or die. Lose again, and the trip was basically over.
Historically, Germany had won 8 of the previous 10 meetings with China, but that record meant nothing now. China had proven itself against Team USA and Spain. If Germany lost, even by a lot, their fans would not be shocked.
On August 16, China's fourth group stage game tipped off at Wukesong.
The arena was packed. At this point, it did not matter who the opponent was. Tickets for any China game were almost impossible to get.
Even during warmups, Germany could feel the pressure.
Soon, the starting lineups appeared on the big screen.
China starters: Chen Yan, Sun Dasheng, Zhu 8, Yi Jianlian, Yao Ming.
It was a ridiculous average height. The shortest player was Chen Yan at 198 cm. Everyone else was over 200 cm. It might have been the tallest starting 5 the Olympics had ever seen.
Germany starters: Sowitsch, Hamann, Greene, Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Kaman.
Germany's fame came mostly from 2 NBA names.
Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks star, a former regular season MVP who had already dragged his team to the NBA Finals.
Chris Kaman, an NBA big who joined the German team through family roots and heavy persuasion from Dirk. Kaman was born in Michigan, but his great grandfather was German, and Dirk pushed hard to bring him in.
Right now, though, Kaman was probably wondering what he had signed up for. Group B was a true group of death. Germany had not won once. It felt less like a campaign and more like an exhausting tourist trip where every stop came with a beating.
The game began.
Yi Jianlian won the tip, giving China the first possession.
Chen Yan dribbled into the front court. With this lineup, you could say China had no true point guard, or you could say they had 2, depending on how you looked at it.
Hamann picked Chen up.
Chen took 1 step behind the arc, then another, and as Hamann glanced away for a split second, Chen rose and fired.
It was deep. Two steps behind the 3 point line.
Germany had scouted it. Hamann knew Chen had that kind of range. He just did not expect him to pull the trigger immediately.
Hamann barely reacted. He could only turn and watch the ball fly.
Swish.
A clean splash.
0 to 3.
Wukesong erupted on the first shot of the night.
A 3 like that did more than add points, it punched the entire building awake.
The internet exploded too.
No hesitation, he really shot that.
And he really made it.
If he is starting from there, how far is he going later.
Someone even joked that Dulux should stop chasing Chen as an endorser, because this guy shoots fast, shoots far, and hits the target too cleanly, it is bad for the competition.
The jokes were flying.
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