“Whoa!”
On the sidelines, Ginobili couldn't help but clench his fists and raise them to cheer for Tang Tian.
Scola shook his head with a smile.
Ginobili was now every bit the Chinese fan.
Tang Tian's consecutive 5 points stabilized the situation for the Chinese team and gradually calmed the emotions of the Chinese players.
Although the Australian team was very aggressive, with Tang Tian, getting past the half-court line was not a problem at all for the Chinese team.
Their full-court press didn't work for a while, so they had to give up.
After all, although this tactic was fierce, it consumed stamina exponentially.
The two teams fell into a stalemate again like in the first half, with the point difference fluctuating around 20 points.
The game went on until the last five minutes, and the point difference between the two sides was still as high as 16 points.
Under normal circumstances, in a FIBA game, with this much time left and this big of a point difference, you could basically take off your starters and announce your surrender.
But Lemanis was not reconciled, and he still put his starters on the court.
If you don't take off your starters, I won't take off mine either.
Li Chunjiang was also very reasonable.
The result was that Tang Tian's golden skill continued to activate, and the Chinese team once again started raining three-pointers from the outside.
The point difference was instantly widened to over 20 points.
The Australian team was completely beaten, and Landale even made a malicious foul during the defense and was directly ejected by the referee.
He cursed as he walked towards the player tunnel, and the audience booed him.
This was a true case of losing both the game and face.
In the end, with their outstanding performance in the first half and the sustained momentum in the second half, the Chinese team slaughtered the Australian team 87-60 and marched proudly into the World Cup semi-finals.
When the game ended, all the fans in the stadium stood up and cheered.
From the group stage to the quarter-finals, every game for the Chinese team had been a do-or-die situation, and they had fought hard.
Including this game against Australia, fans thought the game would be very intense.
But no one expected Bogut's surprise move, coupled with the Chinese team's own stable performance, to make the game surprisingly easy.
World Cup semi-finals!
After the historic championship win at the 2016 Olympics, the Chinese team once again broke their best record in the World Cup!
Now their goal was the champion trophy as big as a bowl that Yao Ming had presented at the opening ceremony.
The fans were cheering, and the Chinese team players, like in the last game, stayed at the scene after the game to celebrate with the fans.
The Australian team's coaches and players didn't even shake hands and quickly left the court.
Just like Lemanis said before the game, with Simmons joining the team, the Australian team was here to make history this time.
They were prepared for it, and the Australian fans were also looking forward to it.
But now, forget about history, they didn't even make it to the semi-finals.
Moreover, they lost so badly.
They left through the mixed zone, and there were many reporters outside, filming this embarrassing scene.
"fxck! fxck.china! fxck!"
It was at this moment that something unexpected happened.
As Bogut walked into the mixed zone, he kept cursing.
Obviously, the team was ravaged, he was booed, and he also felt that the referee was targeting him. Coupled with being benched for the entire second half, his mentality collapsed.
Now, leaving the scene, his unhappiness finally accumulated and erupted.
However, he didn't seem to pay attention to the occasion.
This was different from when he and Landale were whispering in the training hall before the game. The mixed zone was full of reporters from all over the world.
By cursing like this, he was directly cursing the whole world.
Moreover, many cameras were set up, and it was all recorded.
Argentina and China were the first to advance to the semi-finals. The remaining semi-final teams would be determined between the United States and France, and Spain and Slovenia tomorrow.
However, after this day's games, what was trending was not this news, but Bogut's post-game rant against China.
This aroused extreme dissatisfaction among Chinese fans.
Before, when Bogut criticized Sun Yang, he only used subtle sarcasm like, "I think those athletes who swim with Sun Yang should smash the podium so they can't receive awards."
But now he was directly cursing, and to all the world media.
The nature of this was completely different.
The Chinese Basketball Association also immediately filed a protest with the FIBA official.
As the host of the World Cup, the image of the Chinese team was very important.
Moreover, it wasn't like the black whistle situation of the South Korean football World Cup back then. With the referee basically not favoring the home team, this kind of behavior was unacceptable.
The Chinese team's protest eventually paid off.
After a full investigation, FIBA made a decision to suspend Bogut for one year.
This suspension would not allow Bogut to participate in FIBA games in the coming year.
In other words, Bogut could play in the NBA, he could play in professional leagues in any other country, but he couldn't appear in world-class competitions.
Naturally, this also included the Tokyo Olympics next year.
Bogut was already 35 years old.
Originally, the Australian team had already qualified directly for next year's Olympics. At that time, he would be 36 years old, and the Tokyo Olympics would be his last world-class competition.
But now, his few uncontrollable curses directly ended his national team career in advance.
Bogut was very dissatisfied with the punishment, and the Australian team also appealed to FIBA to reduce the suspension time.
However, the pressure from the Chinese Basketball Association was great, and FIBA ultimately rejected the Australian team's appeal.
After learning the news, Bogut completely gave up and directly posted the "fxck.china" message on Twitter.
But as soon as his message was sent out, it was deleted in seconds, and his Twitter account was blocked.
Tang Tian had long guessed Bogut's nature and had already told Karl and Twitter to make arrangements in advance.
This wave of events angered Bogut so much that he almost died on the spot.
He didn't even stay with the national team for rest and recuperation, and directly returned to his country in disgrace alone.
Some fans posted his embarrassing picture taken by reporters online. His hair was disheveled, his face was haggard, and it was met with cheers from the fans.
This was truly satisfying.
Bogut's departure was an interlude in the World Cup event.
The quarter-finals continued the next day.
The first game in the afternoon was between Spain and Slovenia.
Led by Dončić, Slovenia had performed bravely all the way, and could be called the biggest dark horse of this competition.
However, against the Spanish team that "fished in the group stage and exerted their strength in the knockout stage," they didn't gain much advantage, and were ultimately suppressed and defeated throughout the entire game.
The Spanish team also became the third team to advance to the semi-finals.
The last quarter-final was between the United States and France.
After experiencing a series of warm-up matches, especially the warm-up match with the Chinese team, the French team woke up and had performed well in the group stage so far.
However, facing the powerful American team, they didn't have much of a chance throughout the game, and were ultimately defeated by a score of 30+ points.
This Dream Team XIII showed strong dominance.
So far, the semi-finals of the Men's Basketball World Cup have been finally determined, namely Argentina and China in the upper half, and Spain and the United States in the lower half.
According to the competition system, the two teams in the upper and lower halves will face each other to determine the final two teams.
In other words, the Chinese men's basketball team's semi-final opponent will be the Argentinian team that defeated them in the group stage.