On August 1, the Paris Olympic Games 3x3 basketball group round-robin continued, and the Chinese 3x3 men's basketball team defeated Serbia, the world's number one team, 21-15. Facing the strong rival Serbia, the Chinese men's team maintained a high level of concentration throughout the game. The Serbian team scored a long shot at the beginning, and then the score was slightly ahead, and the Chinese men's team was chasing closely. In the middle of the game, the Chinese men's team scored 6 points in a row after falling behind 7:9, and then expanded the score to 19:11. In the last two minutes, player Zhao Jiaren caused a foul and made two free throws, and the Chinese team won the first victory with 21:15. All four players of the Chinese team played well in this game, and Zhang Ning's performance was particularly eye-catching, scoring 11 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist.
In the Olympic men's three-person basketball power rankings officially released by FIBA before the start of the Olympics, the Serbian men's basketball team topped the list, while the Chinese team ranked last.
In the three-person men's basketball world rankings on the FIBA official website, Serbia ranked first, ahead of the second-placed United States team, while the Chinese team ranked sixth.
Where do points come from: During the Paris Olympic cycle, the points for the three-on-three men's basketball team mainly depend on the players' participation in various levels of points events organized by FIBA. A player's personal valid points are the sum of the points of the 9 highest-scoring events. The sum of the personal points of the top 25 players on each team is the national points that determine the final ranking. This means that players accumulate personal points by participating in different levels of competitions and achieving good results during the points cycle specified by FIBA, which in turn affects the overall points ranking of the entire national team.
The two sides met in the last Olympic Games:
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese 3x3 men's basketball team, composed of Hu Jinqiu, Li Haonan, Yan Peng and Gao Shiyan, faced the powerful Serbian team in the first match of the group stage, but lost to their opponents 13-22. The Serbian 3x3 men's basketball team lost to the Russian Olympic team in the semifinals and eventually won the bronze medal. The 3x3 Men's Basketball World Cup has been held eight times, with Serbia winning six championships and one runner-up. In the 2023 FIBA 3x3 World Cup men's final, Serbia defeated the United States 21-19 to win the championship. The FIBA 3x3 World Cup has been successfully held for eight times since 2012, and the Serbian team won the championship in 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2023.
First victory over the United States in the Paris Olympics:
In this Olympics, the Serbian men's three-person basketball team defeated the world's second-ranked United States team 22-14 in the first round of the group round-robin match. It is conceivable how strong the Serbian men's three-person basketball team is.