On July 31, the Chinese women’s basketball team suffered a second consecutive loss, falling 59-81 to the Serbian women’s basketball team in their Olympic group stage match. Previously, the Chinese women’s basketball team lost in overtime 89-90 against the Spanish women’s basketball team in their first group stage game.
The Spanish women’s basketball team and the Serbian women’s basketball team, who are in Group A with the Chinese women’s basketball team, both have records of 2 wins and 0 losses, securing their advancement as the top two teams in the group to the quarterfinals of the Olympics.
The Chinese women’s basketball team and the Puerto Rican women’s basketball team both have records of 0 wins and 2 losses. The Chinese women’s basketball team has a point differential of -23, while the Puerto Rican women’s basketball team has a point differential of -4. Therefore, the Chinese women’s basketball team must win by a large margin against the Puerto Rican women’s basketball team in their last group stage game to qualify as one of the “two best third-placed teams” for the quarterfinals. This means that at that time, the Chinese women’s basketball team will need to compare their point differential with the third-placed teams in Group B and Group C.
The teams advancing to the quarterfinals will be ranked and seeded based on points and point differential from the group stage. Teams ranked first and second will be in the first tier; teams ranked third and fourth will be in the second tier; teams ranked fifth and sixth will be in the third tier; and teams ranked seventh and eighth will be in the fourth tier.
In the draw, teams in the first tier will only face teams in the fourth tier.
Therefore, if the Chinese women’s basketball team advances to the quarterfinals, they will definitely be ranked seventh or eighth and will face very strong teams in the first tier, most likely the United States or France.
