Brazil send China crashing to their fourth consecutive loss; Win 98-59: London Olympics Men Basketball Recap
On Saturday night, the Brazilian men basketball team handed China their 4th consecutive loss at this year’s Olympics.
Marcus Vieira scored 14 points and led five Brazilians in double scoring figures for a 98-59 rout. He played for just 17 minutes but went 6 of 9 from the floor, including two three pointers on three attempts.
Guilherme Giovannoni and Leandro Barbosa scored 13 apiece; Tiago Splitter had 12 points; Marcelo Machado added 10 while Anderson Varejao nearly missed a double-double with 9 points and game high 13 rebounds.
China were paced by their small forward Fangyu Zhu, who scored 13 points with 8 of them coming from the free throw line. Jianghua Chan was the only other Chinese player in double figures with 10 points.
Brazilians entered the game as the favourites and wasted no time in cementing that notion. They started the game with a 9-2 run and made it 14-4 just inside the last three minutes of the first quarter. China just couldn’t find
their offense in the first stanza, by the end of which they trailed by 9-25.
The cold shooting crept onto the Brazilian camp at the start of the second quarter. It took the South Americans 3:45 minutes to score their first points in the period. That however did not harm their lead much as the Chinese kept
on struggling from the floor and could add just two points in that span.
Deep into the second quarter, Brazil was leading by 38-16, before China outscored Brazil 5-4 and went into the break trailing by 21-42. Brazil started the second half with an 11-3 run to extend their advantage to 52-24 and led
by 70-38 at the close of the third period.
China had found some offensive groove in the latter stages of the third quarter, but an 8-2 Brazilian run at the start of the last quarter really put an end to whatever resistance the Chinese were left with.
Brazil eventually won 98-59 and is now placed at second position, above Spain, in the Group B.
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