SENDAI (Japan) - There was an intense energy in the air for Team China heading into the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.

From Wu Qian to Guo Ailun, among others, the players were full of focus and determination, just as you would expect from the stars of a proud basketball nation like China. Once they went into action for the first time of the World Cup Qualifiers, they did not disappoint.

"Historically, there’s only a few times especially for Team China to beat Japan while scoring over 100 points and today is one of this history."

Team China pounced out to a 19-2 run in front of Japan’s very own fans in Sendai for their first game of the Qualifiers, grew the lead up to as much as 30 points, and cruised the rest of the way to the victory.

"As a team, we desperately wanted to play this game well," said Guo Ailun at the postgame press after scoring 24 points in the opening bout.

"That’s why you can see in the first quarter, we were fighting well for every single possession."

"Everyone actually put their efforts on that because we all knew how important this game meant to us."

Normally, a double-digit win against a team of Japan’s caliber on their homecourt would be enough. While China were pleased with the victory, they were not yet completely satisfied.

"Looking back at this first game, I think the fans will see that we have got  a lot of room to improve," said coach Du Feng in the postgame press conference on Saturday. "We were not 100 percent focused. When we were leading by 20 or 30 points at that time, our focus and concentration dropped down a little bit and Japan actually took the opportunity to chase us and get the points back a bit."

"These are all the things that we have to improve in the next game. As I said, for tomorrow’s game, it’s entire 40 minutes, it’s about intensity, that’s what I focus for the next game."

These were not a statements made by a strict coach like Du only to fire up or discipline his team. It was understood within the team that they had done well to win in this first game… but they were capable of being even better.

This was something that was addressed after the game as a team meeting was called when they got back to the hotel.

"After [the first] game we had a short meeting," Coach Du later revealed. "The intention for that meeting was that I just wanted the players to stay focused because that Japan team, they have perseverance. They have a strong fighting spirit. They will put more effort in the game."

"That’s why I told the players that when we play the second game, we must put our 200 percent of our energy and effort."

And that’s exactly what China did.

They burst out of the gates in the second game with an 8-0 run right from tip-off and ended the first quarter with an 11-0 run. Even without Zhou Qi, who had suffered a light injury in the previous game, on the floor, China were in complete control. They put on intense pressure on Japan’s guards and they moved the ball well. They had some problems connecting from beyond the arc in the first game, but had no troubles here after going 6-11 in the first half.

They finished with 14 three-pointers on a 58.3 percent conversion rate.

China ended up with a 106-73 win in a game that had a point difference up to as much as 41 points.

Coach Du Feng doesn’t break much of a smile, especially in the early stages of the road towards the World Cup, but he couldn’t hide a slight tone of satisfaction while talking about how his boys had performed.

"As you could see in today’s game on both ends, we did well in execution," he said in the press conference of the second game. "Good execution according to the coaching intention of what was intended for them and they delivered. This is to give credit to the good ability of the execution of the strategy."

It was a well-balanced effort from top to bottom by all players on the squad. Aside from big man Ren Junnfei, all of China’s players put points on the board and it was the perimeter players that really stood out.

Guo was his usual spectacular self with 14 points in just 19 minutes and 7 shot attempts. 2000-born Xu Jie scored 13 points and made 3 threes. Rising prospect Zhang Zhenlin was perfect from downtown and finished with 17 points, highlighted with some monstrous jams.

Zhao Rui created the most buzz with a team-high 27 points and hot hand shooting, going 6-9 from three-point land.

"Historically, there’s only a few times especially for Team China to beat Japan while scoring over 100 points and today is one of this history," said Du.

This was a relatively younger China team than usual and coach Du challenged them to go even harder after a convincing win. Their response was what Du had seen in the past China national team squad that he was a part of as a player and what he expected to see as a coach

"At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 when I took over the job as the head coach of team china again, you could see at the time that more young players were coming to join the team."

"You all can see and find out that one of the things for Team China, when looking back, first of all, is the spirit and, second of all, is the stability of putting in all of their effort. This actually is a tradition which is before performed by the older generation and now it’s delivered and carried to the younger generation."

"I think this is one of the points that has been done well in these two games by the team."

Nonetheless, these are merely the first two games of the World Cup Qualifiers. There are still more strong opponents for China to face in the upcoming windows, serving as more tests for the tradition of spirit and stability that coach Du speaks of. Whether it’s the other teams in Group B in Australia or Chinese Taipei or any of the other teams in Group D which China could face in the second round should they advance or any of the other teams in the World Cup 2023 should they qualify, China are ready to put in 100 percent - and even more - to claim the win.

Even if they eventually face Japan once again down the road reinforced with their stars of Rui Hachimura, Yuta Watanabe, and Yudai Baba, that’s just another game that coach Du is looking forward to see how things go.

"If they come back and join the team, they will bring more energy to Japan," he said when questioned about Japan’s foreign-based trio. "I think only the results of the game will tell us, so we’ll see when we get to play against them."

FIBA