The 2024 Paris Olympics will start its women’s basketball off with a game between Team Spain and Team China. Spain’s qualifying games weren’t the best despite them winning two out of the three. They narrowly beat Hungary 73-72 and had a slight edge over Canada in their 60-55 win. Megan Gustafson was the top performer for the team by a mile, averaging a solid 14.3 points during the qualifiers.
Team China lost once to Team France in the qualifiers 50-82. However, they dominated in their other two games, beating Team New Zealand 94-47 and Team Puerto Rico 105-69. Li Meng was the heavy hitter of the qualifying round, averaging 19.3 points per game. It’s looking like China could really be a force in this Olympics.
Spain vs. China Game Details
Fixture: Spain vs. China
Date and Time: July 28th @ 7:30 am ET
Group: A
Streaming: Peacock and NBCOlympics.com
Spain vs. China Team Review
Team Spain
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Raquel Carrera led her team in points in their last qualifying game against Team Japan with 19 as well as in rebounds with seven. The assists leader for the team was Maite Cazorla. With two steals and one block, both categories were led by Laura Gil. Gustafson also put on a show with her 15 points and five rebounds.
The whole team contributed in points that game, but it still ended with a loss. In order to win against China there will need to be some better performances coming from the starters. Gil contributed in other areas but only scored five points. Cazorla also only had five points and Maria Conde had six. This unit will have to bring more to the table against their strong opponent.
Team China
In their dominating performance against New Zealand, starter Han Xu came out hot with 21 points, six rebounds, and four blocks. She’s going to be trouble for this Spain team. At 24, the 6’11” center is dominant on the boards and has a great shooting efficiency hitting 100% of her shots from the field and going 3/3 from three in this game. Following this was the performance of Li Yueru, who led the team in rebounds with 12. She also had 16 points in her 22 minutes of play.
This China team is full of fantastic players. They play hard and excel in all areas. It wouldn’t be shocking if they got the win over Spain. They still had a few players who struggled to score, but the efforts of the rest made this a nonissue. The staters and the bench both included players who poured on the points.
Possible Breakout Players of the Game
Team Spain
A breakout player for Spain could be Queralt Casas. She scored seven in the game against Hungary, but she is capable of much more than this. She’s second in points leaders for her pro team, Valencia, at 9.5 per game. She also falls in second for rebounds with 4.6 and third in assists with 2.6. Look for her to try to increase her scoring in this game, as it will be a major necessity against China. Hopefully. she can bring a bit of fire to this 2024 Paris Olympics debut.
Team China
Zhang Ru has struggled in her past few games with the team. However, she had some flashes of solid gameplay in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup back in 2022. She started against New Zealand and bombed with zero points. The only way to go at this point is up unless she puts another zero on the board. I can see her breaking out this game and having at least 10+ points.
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