At the doorstep of Shenzhen, the Chinese men's basketball team gathered the strongest strength of the red and blue teams, and recalled Yang Yiming, an NBA player who was originally training abroad, in advance, and finally retreated in the face of the menacing American men's basketball dream team. 87-97, although the first three quarters opened the score difference too large, killing the suspense of victory and defeat in advance, although there was no miracle to win the dream team, but the Chinese team with Yang Yiming as the offensive arrow overwhelmed the dream team 31-17 in the fourth quarter, and there was no shame in losing.

Against the world's lone dream team, even if the opponent only discharged its own second team, the Chinese team could have lost. Losing is a psychological expectation that every fan who comes to the scene to watch this confrontation has long been made. It's not terrible to lose, as long as there is a performance worthy of the fans' expectations, even if it can be handed over. The Chinese team's counterattack in the fourth quarter was definitely more than a difference, and it was a great value.

But in Jakarta, Indonesia, the red team of the Chinese men's basketball team faced the Iranian team, which had 4 wins and 1 defeat in the history of the Asian Games, but the only defeat came from the final in Incheon four years ago, but there was not much way out!

In the face of old opponents, in the face of this battle aimed at regaining the hegemony of Asia, and in the face of Chairman Yao Ming, who was personally present to supervise the battle, the men's basketball team cannot afford to lose.

The situation of "it's okay to lose, don't lose too ugly" in the Shenzhen warm-up match is no longer applicable to the Chinese national team on the night of the decisive battle in Jakarta.

Four years ago in Incheon, the young Chinese men's basketball team, which had only Yi Jianlian as a reliable fulcrum, trailed the Iranian team with two Asian stars, Haddadi and Bahrami, at the beginning, and struggled to catch up, but still lost 67-75 in the end.

Four years later, two teams from different circumstances met again in the final of the Asian Games.

Hamad Haddadi, Mohammed Bahrami. They are representatives of Iran's "golden generation". The former has played for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA for five years, and is the strongest interior player in Asia after Yao Ming. Although Bahrami has never played in the NBA, he has set a precedent for Asian players to play in Europe, far exceeding the ability level of most Asian players, and can be described as the strongest forward in Asia for many years. This combination of inside and outside, plus Kamrani and Alphah and Davari in the point guard position, has been the strongest opponent of the Chinese team in Asia since the rise of the 2009 Tianjin Asian Championships.

Oh no, maybe the other way around—

Since the 2009 Tianjin Asian Championships, the Iranian team overwhelmed the Chinese team 80-52 and won the Asian Championship championship to officially announce the rise of the "golden generation", in the following ten years, the Chinese team has been playing the role of the opponent's strongest opponent in Asia.

That's right, from Tokushima, Japan in 2007 to Manila, Philippines in 2013, the Iranian men's basketball team won the Asian Championship three times in six years, becoming a veritable new hegemon in Asia. On the road to the rise of the new hegemon, there is not only the severe pain of the Chinese men's basketball team losing the gold medal at the Incheon Asian Games four years ago, but also the embarrassing defeat of 52-80 in the Tianjin Asian Championships and 51-70 in the Manila Asian Championships. Also in Manila, after losing to South Korea and Iran one after another, the Chinese men's basketball team defeated the Chinese Taipei team that had never lost in the quarterfinals, creating the worst record in the history of the men's basketball team in the Asian Championships in 38 years.

But the golden generation that has dominated the decade, Haddadi and Bahrami, both inside and outside, also have an old day. Haddadi is 33 years old and Bahrami is 30 years old, and not only are they old enough to be nicknamed the "two old men" by fans, but the other golden generation in the Iranian team has also averaged over 30. The remaining substitutes are limited, and the Asian hegemon that has stood for many years has finally shown a dilemma of not being able to catch up.

But compared to the Chinese team, which has also experienced the pain of not being in the throes of the blue and red, the Iranian team gave up the opportunity to train in Jakarta this time, and still recruited almost all the members of the golden generation, with the intention of giving full play to the residual heat of the "veterans" and defending the men's basketball championship of the Asian Games!

The Iranian team, which did not have the advantage of rotation and physical strength, took the lead at the beginning of this final. In the first quarter, Zhou Qi competed with Haddadi, Haddadi opened up the situation with a mid-range shot, and Zhou Qi immediately turned his back and responded with a jumper; Zhou Qi's big demon king can dunk Haddadi with him, but Haddadi, who is getting older and more demonic, just relies on his footsteps, turns around and wipes into the penalty area, and dunks with one arm on the spot.

Equal.

But in comparison, this Chinese team is still young.

Zhou Qi in the red team has become the second Great Wall of China for the Rockets, and Ding Yanyuhang almost landed in the NBA last year, and he was called "four-character foreign aid" in the CBA league; Wang Zhelin can cut the terrifying data of double twenty in the league, and he also proved himself to be an absolute killer in the Asian Games; There are also new stars such as Abdul Salamu, Fang Shuo, and Dong Hanlin who have been paid attention to by scouts in advance, among which Abdul Salamu has received invitations to the NBA Summer League; Not to mention Yang Yiming, a rocket who rose to the pinnacle of basketball in one season...

But even with them, the Chinese team is still too young. Their instability is almost as revealing as their edge.

In the first game against the Philippines, the red team was almost shockingly reversed, and in the end, they were a little lucky and a little strong to win by two points. In the second game, the extremely mediocre Kazakhstan men's basketball team, although the Chinese team hid the main force, it was still unreasonable to lead by only 1 point in the first half. In the knockout stage, he defeated the host Indonesia by 35 points, and then took revenge on the Chinese Taipei team by as many as 23 points.

In front of the experienced Iranian team, they exposed the most serious problems since the tournament.

The Iranian men's basketball team has followed the European basketball style since the beginning of cultivating the golden generation. They are extremely skillful in man-ball coordination, with inside and outside connections, blocking, breakouts, and joint defenses. European basketball minimizes the individual differences in individual abilities of each player and brings everyone into one, which has worked wonders for a declining but increasingly experienced Iranian team. They firmly controlled the rhythm of basketball in their own hands at the beginning, and imagined using the ball to pull people and consume the physical strength of the young people of the Chinese team. And the Chinese team also fell into the trap, after Zhou Qi scored a few response balls in the opening, regardless of defense or offense, the team was in chaos after several consecutive shots. When you suddenly realize that the situation is not good...

The Chinese team has quietly fallen behind by as many as 16 points!

Coach Li Nan called a timeout on the sidelines, and even Chairman Yao Ming, who had a serious expression, walked to the court seat and gave a lecture to the Chinese team's inside after the bench.

But this time, falling behind by 16 points in a single quarter, facing an opponent who is determined to win on the stage of the finals, can Yang Yiming still retreat?