At the break, Younas re-emphasized the team's offense, and on the defensive end, he wanted the perimeter players to be unleashed, pushing the opponent to the three-second zone and allowing the interior players to solve the problem. At the same time, he also asked Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian to pay attention to the number of fouls they had, if they left the game early because of too many fouls, it would be difficult to say whether the game would be won or lost.

Younas's warning worked at the beginning of the second quarter, perhaps because of the fear of the Chinese team's interior defense, the Croatian players began to attack the interior frequently, hoping to cause the opponent to foul. But Yao Ming is very smart, anyway, the head coach has already stated that he wants to compete with the opponent on the offensive end, and those guys who deliberately come up to find fouls can dodge.

Yao Ming's temper is actually very good, but seeing that the other party is constantly trying to make his own fouls, no one can bear it. And Yao Ming's way of fighting back is to continue to attack the basket on the offensive end, aren't you trying to make me foul? Then I'll beat your inside line first! In comparison, Yao Ming let Croatia's interior players go off the court to rest is really a piece of cake.

Seeing that the situation is not good, Lipiza can only use his interior players to make symbolic interference, hoping to recover the lost points on the outside and in the middle distance. But you can't always rely on luck to eat, the closer you are to the basket, the higher the shooting percentage is a truth, and the farther away from the basket, the lower the shooting percentage. Croatia's offense is now largely supported by Barnic and Pranic, who used to play for the Nets, and the others miss consecutive shots as if they were infected.

The Chinese team took the opportunity to play a wave of small climaxes and opened the score for the first time in this game, but Croatia still stubbornly bit the score and did not let the score difference be stretched to double digits. Of course, even if they are down by double digits, they can still catch up, after all, it is now the knockout stage, and it is possible for any team to lose, which is also a hotbed for dark horses.

Halfway through the second quarter, Younas finally replaced Yao Ming, although Chang Wei worked hard to improve the physical fitness of the players, but Yao Ming is still a tall interior line with a height of nearly 2.30 meters, and often has to fight opponents under the basket. It was already surprising that he could hit this time in one go, and in order to ensure his fitness, Younas replaced him with Wang Zhizhi.

After Yao Ming's departure, Lipiza breathed a sigh of relief, and he thought Croatia's chance had come. So he walked to the sidelines, shouted a few words at Barnic, and asked him to continue to hit the inside line with the ball, in Lipisa's view, Wang Zhizhi's dominance on the defensive end is far inferior to Yao Ming, and at this time strengthening the breakthrough should receive good results, and even tie the score.

It has to be said that Lipisa's vision is very poisonous, after Barnic began to play the breakaway ball, Croatia's attack began to become smoother, and the simple breakaway shot also helped them reduce their turnovers. Under the leadership of Banic, Croatia played a wave of 7-0, instantly narrowed the gap to only 1 point, and could complete the comeback at any time, but Younas still sat firmly in the Diaoyutai, and he did not even call a timeout, because he believed that the Chinese players on the field could solve this thorny problem by themselves.

Even if it can't be solved, it doesn't matter, if there is difficulty in finding Yao Ming, this is the coaching philosophy of the recent Chinese men's basketball head coaches.

Fortunately, the Chinese players on the court did not live up to Younas's trust, and Zhang Qingpeng, who rarely gets a chance on the outside, suddenly broke out, scoring 5 points in a row by shooting inside and out, temporarily helping the Chinese men's basketball team stop the bleeding. Originally, Yao Ming had already stood up and was about to go to the technical table to wait for a replacement, but now that he sat down again, it seemed that he could continue to rest on the bench for a while.

The tug-of-war between the two sides continued until the end of the quarter, and Younas unexpectedly held on to the next five minutes with a lineup without Yao Ming, and was not overtaken by Croatia. At half-time he praised everyone in the dressing room, but at the same time he warned everyone not to be arrogant in the second half, lest the opposition take advantage.

The 15-minute break in the FIBA game, plus the 5 minutes in the second half of the second quarter, had already regained his energy. At the beginning of the second half, he was very active in raising his hand under the basket to ask for the ball, showing a strong aggression, Croatia did not notice for a while, he scored several goals in a row under the basket, and also sent an assist to Wang Shipeng in the bottom corner by the way.

This wave of 9-0 small climax directly stunned Croatia, including Barnic, Croatian players did not score in sports for nearly 3 minutes, and only relied on Pranić's breakthrough to make fouls to score 2 points, and the Chinese team once stretched the difference to nearly 20 points. But then they relented, and Croatia, who came to their senses, took the opportunity to fight back and narrow the gap back to single digits, and it was clear that they did not give up, and all the players on the field still hoped to beat China to advance.

However, Yao Ming is still a problem they can't solve, not to mention that Yao Ming, who is in hot form at this time, is still trying to pull to the outside to shoot three points. After Chang Wei's offseason training for several seasons, Yao Ming actually has a three-point range, but he himself is not used to this offensive method, and the team has not arranged a fixed tactic for him. But FIBA's three-point line is closer to the basket than the NBA, which is just a big two points in the NBA for Yao Ming.

Yao's two three-pointers at the top of the arc were the straw that crushed Croatia, and they couldn't find anyone to defend Yao's long-range shots. If Yao Ming just tried his hand casually, but the hit rate was amazingly high, obviously it was not reckless, and Lipisa really couldn't think of any other way to stop this behemoth that could be inside and out.

In a way, the entire second half became Yao Ming's time, and he exploded with 21 points and 7 rebounds in 15 minutes of playing time, and finished with 37 points and 14 rebounds, contributing 4 blocks and 2 steals by the way, completely dominating the interior. Under Yao Ming's full play, several Croatian interior players suffered a total of 12 personal fouls, one of which was also sent off, which can be said to be a big defeat, which is also the fundamental reason for Croatia's loss.

After winning this game, the Chinese men's basketball team finally reached unprecedented heights in the Olympics - the semifinals, and there is hope to continue to move forward. When they left the court, the cheers of the entire Wukesong Stadium did not subside for a long time, which was undoubtedly a victory for the entire Chinese basketball and an important step for China in basketball.