Against the Wind

In the first quarter, Wang Yi scored 12 points, 10 of them against Gobert.

Of course, that wasn't much by Wang Yi's standards. But in addition to those 12 points, he also had seven assists.

Those seven assists had let China's other players score seven uncontested layups inside.

In other words, out of China's 30 points in the first quarter, a whopping 26 had involved Wang Yi.

That had France's head coach, Vincent, furious.

He wasn't exactly known for his temper, but he wasn't especially hotheaded either. He rarely lost his temper like this in the first quarter.

But they hadn't managed to stop Wang Yi, nor had they managed to stop China's other players.

In other words, they'd gotten everything wrong in the first quarter.

They might have been trailing by only three points, but judging by the way the game was going, they were completely on the back foot.

Every time China scored, it looked effortless. Wang Yi's passes to his teammates were especially easy to finish: they either strolled up for a layup or dunked it.

Meanwhile, every basket France scored had been a struggle.

If they hadn't hit three miraculous three-pointers, the gap would already have grown to more than 10 points in the first quarter.

After venting his anger, Vincent began to calm down.

He told the players, "Of course, our coaching staff made some mistakes too. We'll review them and hold ourselves accountable when we get back. We didn't expect Wang Yi, who's usually good at shooting threes, to start attacking the paint this game. And we didn't expect him to start passing, either."

"But it's not too late to correct our mistakes. Since he's started passing, we'll do everything we can to cut off his connections with the other players. We've all studied