All-Around Alley-Oop

Duant's Melancholy

Under the assault of Wang Yi's alley-oop three-pointers, Dragic's confidence took a hit.

Over the next two minutes, he got three open looks, but still couldn't sink a single shot.

And just like that, an uprising was violently put down by Wang Yi.

Still, Slovenia had earned its way to the quarterfinals for a reason.

That uprising had been suppressed, but Chalmers in the paint was starting trouble again.

During one possession, he grabbed three offensive rebounds in a row.

Du Feng was seething on the sideline.

During the break between quarters, he gave the players a thorough dressing-down.

He was especially hard on Zhou Qi.

You're 2.17 meters tall, and a guy who's 2.03 meters keeps grabbing offensive rebounds right over your head—three times in a row—and then scores.

Who else am I supposed to yell at?

That was one of Zhou Qi's flaws during games. Every now and then, he'd lose focus.

Like throwing an inbound pass off a teammate's head and out of bounds.

Or passing the ball into a teammate's back and letting the opponents steal it.

And then there was that famous Polish Center incident.

Of course, one person couldn't be blamed for every lost rebound.

The whole team had made mistakes on that defensive possession, and everyone got chewed out.

They didn't dare take their anger out on Coach Du Feng, so they could only vent it on Slovenia.

On their center.

As soon as the second quarter began, China Team stepped up its efforts to protect the boards.

Over the next three minutes, they didn't let Slovenia get a single rebound.

Especially when Wang Yi saw Zhou Qi and Chalmers battling for position. He'd play the opportunistic fisherman, pick his moment, jump in from beside them, and reach over their heads