Long-sought 1 win & final tournament advance
The Japan Men’s Basketball National Team played against Argentina in the final round of the Tokyo Olympics group league.
In Japan, Gavin Edwards, whose shoulder was injured in the previous match against Slovenia, could not participate, so he chose a small lineup with Makoto Hiejima. Rui Hachimura, Yuta Watanabe, Yudai Baba, Daiki Tanaka, and Hiejima started the starting lineup.
Facundo Campazzo sank three points in a row, and Argentina, who was addicted to the outside shoot offensive, took the lead. On the other hand, in Japan, the outside angle shot is not decided, but conscious of the paint touch, he attacks and bites mainly on the inside. Hiejima, who was selected as the starting pitcher, led the offense by making a successful 3-point shot from the step back to the drive.
However, Marcos Delia’s inside play, which allowed 10 goals, cannot be stopped. In Japan, where the number of goals scored in the paint area increased, Hachimura, who was hit by a thorough mark, couldn’t get on the rhythm and ended up with no points, carrying a double-digit behind from the first quarter with 16-26.
Hachimura’s condition did not improve, and the point difference did not close, such as allowing a 3-point shot after scoring. Even so, Hachimura finally scored in the remaining 3 minutes, and Baba and Watanabe’s haste was decided to get on the rhythm. Then, Baba screwed in the tap chute and returned the point difference to 38-46 to the single digit to finish the first half.
In the second half, Baba’s Coast to Coast and Hachimura followed the haste and narrowed the gap by 4 points, but the momentum stopped when Hachimura was called an offense foul at the chance of haste. After losing points from the offense rebound and breaking the defense, he took a 3-point shot and chased around double digits again.
Good play such as the final quarter with 12 points behind, Tenketsu Harimoto’s 3-point shot and dunk from Baba’s steal is born, but it ends in a single shot. Moreover, the hotlines of Campazzo and Luis Scola cannot be stopped. 41-year-old Scola dives into the court and does not pass possession, scoring a 3-point shot, and loses even with an obsession with the ball.
With 3 minutes and 30 seconds remaining, Scola scored a 3-point shot and the match was 67-88. After that, he was controlled by the matchmaker Argentina and lost with a final score of 77-97.
Japan did not score a 3-point shot until the end, with only 6 out of 26 successes (23%), and Argentina had 14 out of 36 successes (39%), a big difference. In addition, Hachimura scored 13 points, but the field goal success rate was low at 35%.
The “historical win” at the Tokyo Olympics did not come true, and it was a tournament that made us feel the difference with the rest of the world.
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