Wang Yi was accelerating into his drive when Durant gave his jersey a sharp tug. The fabric stretched out like a slingshot.
Wang Yi reacted quickly, immediately going into his shooting motion and tossing the ball toward the basket.
Unfortunately, the referee didn't call a shooting foul.
Calls like that often came down to the referee's judgment in the moment.
The referee could decide that Wang Yi had shot while Durant was tugging at his jersey, in which case he would get two free throws.
Or the referee could decide that Durant had tugged his jersey first and Wang Yi had only shot afterward. In that case, it would just be a regular foul, with no free throws.
The China Team players didn't think much of it yet, but Wang Yi furrowed his brow slightly.
There was something strange about France team's defense.
France team had such strong defensive resources that they'd committed very few fouls during this Basketball World Cup.
They simply had no need to rely on fouls to stop their opponents from shooting.
As a result, France team often finished games with fewer than ten fouls.
Across their first three group-stage games and the knockout rounds that followed, they'd only committed more than ten fouls in one game.
But now Durant, seeing he couldn't stop Wang Yi, had directly tugged at his jersey.
That was very unusual.
The foul count wasn't high enough yet, so this time there were no free throws.
China Team then inbounded from the sideline, and this time the ball went to Pang Bo.
With Antoine defending him in the low post, Pang Bo would have a hard time scoring, so he passed to Zeng Fanbo, who was cutting to the basket.
Zeng Fanbo couldn't get a shot off against Gobert's defense either,