The men's basketball game of the 20th Asian Games begins first, and the Chinese men's basketball team is ready to go

China News Service, Nagoya, September 10th. The 20th Asian Games will open in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 19th, and the men's basketball competition will start first on the 10th. In the four group matches on the first match day, Qatar, Chinese Taipei, South Korea and the host Japan won.

This Asian Games is the third time Japan has hosted the Summer Asian Games after the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games and the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. According to the schedule announced by the organizing committee, eight sports including basketball, football, modern pentathlon, volleyball, cricket, table tennis, hockey and soft tennis will be launched before the opening ceremony. The preliminary events are mainly group matches and preliminaries, and the first batch of gold medals will be produced on the 20th.

There are 12 teams participating in the men's basketball competition. The Chinese team is in Group C with the Philippines, Bahrain and Kazakhstan. On the first match day, in Group B, Qatar defeated Iran 59:53 in the opening match.

At the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games and the last Hangzhou Asian Games, the Chinese Taipei men's basketball team ranked fourth. The team's main defender, Chen Yingjun, who plays for the Beijing BAIC Team of the Chinese Men's Basketball Professional League (CBA), said in a recent interview that he will compete in this Asian Games as the last Asian Games of his career, and his goal is to achieve a result better than fourth place.

In the match that day, the Chinese Taipei team defeated the Jordan team 83:80. Chen Yingjun contributed a team-high 16 points and 5 assists, and teammate Lin Tingqian scored 15 points and 4 assists.

In Group A, South Korea defeated Saudi Arabia 82:66, and the host Japan defeated Indonesia 98:53.

The Chinese men’s basketball team’s 12-man roster for this Asian Games is: Cui Yongxi, Hu Jinqiu, Jiao Boqiao, Li Hongquan, Zhu Junlong, Zhao Jiayi, Liao Sanning, Hu Mingxuan, Li Yuezhou, Pang Zhenglin, Wang Junjie, and Yu Jiahao.

The Chinese men's basketball team lost to the Philippines by 1 point in the semifinals of the Hangzhou Asian Games and eventually won the bronze medal. Although the men's basketball results in this Asian Games do not involve the allocation of World Cup qualifications and are not linked to Olympic qualifications, the Chinese team still aims to win the championship. The Chinese men's basketball team will debut on the 11th. The first opponent is Kazakhstan, and then it will face Bahrain and the Philippines on the 12th and 14th respectively.