{"id":1043191,"date":"2026-09-04T16:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043191\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:21:15","slug":"angel-reese-looked-microscopic-while-guarding-chinas-zhang-ziyu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043191\/","title":{"rendered":"Angel Reese looked microscopic while guarding China’s Zhang Ziyu"},"content":{"rendered":"

For WNBA<\/a> standards, Atlanta Dream<\/a> forward Angel Reese<\/a> is tall. However, China\u2019s Zhang Ziyu absolutely towers over her.<\/p>\n

Reese was tasked with guarding Zhang Ziyu when China and Team USA squared off in the first game of group play in the 2025 FIBA Women\u2019s Basketball World Cup<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

At 6-foot-3, Reese certainly isn\u2019t short, but Ziyu is an astounding 7-foot-3 and makes just about every human on the planet look tiny.<\/p>\n

And that was no doubt the case when Reese was fighting for her life while trying to guard Ziyu in the post.<\/p>\n

Not only is Reese shorter, but Ziyu has more mass than her, also, which only made Reese\u2019s job more difficult. Kudos to the Dream star for hanging in tough, though.<\/p>\n

Reese and the rest of Team USA ended up doing a decent job on the China center, who came off the bench and finished the game with 13 points.<\/p>\n

MORE: FIBA Women\u2019s World Cup TV schedule, full list of games<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The vast majority of those points came from the free-throw line, where Ziyu was an impressive 9-of-10. She was just 2-of-4 shooting overall.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re used to seeing bigs in basketball struggle from the free-throw line, but that was not the case for the Chinese star.<\/p>\n

Team USA vs. China recap<\/p>\n

\"WNBA:Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) before the game against the Connecticut Sun at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect (Reuters).<\/p>\n

Team USA managed to take care of business against the underdog China, wining 94-61.<\/p>\n

Team USA had three leading scorers, including Caitlin Clark, Rhyne Howard and Paige Bueckers, all of whom came off the bench and contributed 14 points.<\/p>\n

Ziyu was tied for the team lead with her 13 points, along with Luo Xinyu.<\/p>\n

MORE: WNBA\u2019s Li Yueru forced to miss FIBA World Cup<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was immediately clear China had big problems against a superior opponent.<\/p>\n

Team USA jumped out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back.<\/p>\n

Up next for Team USA is Italy, and China will take on the Czechia. Both of those contests will take place on Sunday, Sept. 6.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark assists Angel Reese bucket<\/p>\n

\"WNBA:Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese (5) reacts against the LA Sparks in the first half at Crypto.com Arena. Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect (Reuters)<\/p>\n

The Reese-Clark rivalry is taking a rest for this FIBA World Cup, as the two ladies are on the same team, which no doubt takes getting used to because they have been foes since college.<\/p>\n

We did see Reese and Clark hook up for a bucket, though, as Clark notched her double-double after an assist on a Reese basket.<\/p>\n

Reese, who like Clark also came off the bench, finished the game with five points on 2-of-4 shooting, nine rebounds and one block.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/strong>\u00a0Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For WNBA standards, Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese is tall. However, China\u2019s Zhang Ziyu absolutely towers over her.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1043192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[1496,1503,213052,62,67,132,68,232,231954],"class_list":["post-1043191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-angel-reese","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-fiba-world-cup","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba","tag-zhang-ziyu"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117213693514082794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}