Incredible Difficulty: China Women’s Basketball Survives Czech Republic, Five Unexpected Issues Raise Concerns Over Top-Eight Hopes

For China Women’s Basketball and the Czech Republic in Group D, this matchup was an unquestionable do-or-die battle with no room for retreat. Throughout the game, the Czech Republic controlled the initiative, keeping China under pressure on both offense and defense.

In the final minute, the Czech Republic still held a five-point lead, with victory seemingly within reach. Facing elimination, China Women’s Basketball finally awakened: Luo Xinyu hit a cold-blooded three-pointer to break the deadlock, and Yang Shuyu made a crucial layup to tie the game, dragging a collapse-bound contest into overtime. In overtime, China opened with a 5-0 run, withstood the pressure, protected the lead, and eventually secured a narrow 74-70 victory for its first win, keeping control of its group qualification hopes. However, this performance offers little hope for reaching the top eight.

The victory was worth celebrating, but after watching the entire game, no fan could truly feel happy. Behind this incredible comeback were five major problems that exposed China Women’s Basketball’s current situation, with the team’s decline exceeding expectations.

The win relied on a desperate burst of form; being dominated for most of the game made the victory undeserved.

This was the hardest point to accept: the victory did not come from overall tactics, but from individual rescues in the final two minutes. For most of the game, China Women’s Basketball was controlled by the less powerful Czech team, falling behind in offensive and defensive rhythm, with stalled passing, defensive lapses, and a silent offense throughout.

If the Czech Republic had not lost focus defensively in the final quarter, allowing openings from the outside, and if Luo Xinyu had not made the three-pointer while the opponent underestimated Yang Shuyu’s driving threat and made defensive mistakes, China would not have had the chance to tie the game and complete the comeback.

Zhang Ziyu’s mentality collapsed, the talented young star completely lost herself, becoming the biggest weakness.

The most disappointing player in this game was undoubtedly interior prospect Zhang Ziyu. Her poor performance was completely beyond expectations. In previous warm-up games and the high-level matchup against the United States, Zhang had consistently produced double-doubles, showed no fear against world-class interior players, and displayed outstanding talent and potential, making her a future core player in fans’ eyes.

However, against the Czech Republic, Zhang Ziyu completely disappeared throughout the game. She made only one field goal, scoring three points with six rebounds, producing disappointing statistics. Looking at the game as a whole, the Czech tactics were not particularly sophisticated; instead, the opponent frequently disrupted Zhang’s mentality through physical contact and small fouls.

The key duo completely went silent; Wang Siyu struggled after returning, with the team’s worst plus-minus rating.

Wang Siyu and Zhang Ziyu are a key substitute combination that the team has focused on developing. They have lived and trained together for a long time to build chemistry, with the goal of having the experienced Wang guide the younger Zhang in adapting to the pace of international competition and gaining tournament experience, becoming a major weapon off the bench.

However, this key combination completely failed in the game. Their plus-minus ratings ranked among the bottom two on the team, and they not only failed to create chemistry or support the bench unit, but also struggled individually. Their three-point shooting remained poor, with no improvement even against an incomplete opponent.

The three-point shooting is still not good enough.

After a full summer of training, multiple warm-up games, and the intense experience of facing the United States in the opening game, expectations were that China Women’s Basketball’s perimeter shooting would steadily improve. The result was still disappointing.

China shot 8-for-26 from three-point range in this game. Although it appeared slightly improved compared with the previous two games, the quality of the shooting was far from convincing. Most of the team’s three-point attempts missed, came hurriedly, or lacked rhythm, with Luo Xinyu’s game-tying three in the fourth quarter and a key overtime long-range shot artificially lifting the overall percentage.

What was even more frustrating was that Czech outside defensive leader Cechova was absent in this game, further weakening an already vulnerable Czech perimeter defense. This should have been an excellent opportunity for China to cut the deficit or create separation. Yet even against a weakened opponent, China’s outside shooters still failed to find their rhythm, with efficiency far below the passing standard for international competition. The long training camp has not produced visible results, and perimeter shooting remains a major obstacle the team cannot overcome.

Twenty-five shocking turnovers, numerous easy points given away, with attitude issues outweighing ability problems.

China committed 25 turnovers in the game, the most glaring and alarming statistic, and the main reason the team remained passive throughout. More concerningly, most of these turnovers were not caused by the Czech Republic’s intense pressure or aggressive defense, but by basic mistakes such as sideline inbound errors, uncontested cross-court passes, and lapses in concentration when receiving the ball.