On August 31, Japan’s men’s basketball national team faced Qatar (Toyota Arena Tokyo) in the second match of Asian qualifying for the 2027 World Cup, with Rui Hachimura posting a team-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers. The team cruised to a lopsided win, topping 100 points and following their opening victory over Saudi Arabia with a second straight qualifying win. On the 5ch Geinou/Sports Express+ board, threads were full of praise for Hachimura’s scoring and physicality, while other posters debated how heavily the presence — or absence — of NBA-caliber players tips these games, drawing comparisons to Japan’s struggles in other sports.
Aug 31 (Mon), 9:04 PM JST — Sponichi Annex
◇World Cup Asian 2nd Qualifying: Japan vs. Qatar (August 31, 2026, Toyota Arena Tokyo)
On the 31st, Japan’s men’s basketball national team (world No. 22) faced Qatar (No. 76) in their second match of the 2027 World Cup Asian 2nd (final) qualifying round. Rui Hachimura (28, Clippers) starred with a team-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers. The team also cruised to a lopsided win, topping 100 points to move to 2-0 in final qualifying.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
I figured the team would basically be a one-man Hachimura show, but the gravity he creates for everyone else is incredible too.
You could really see how far Japanese basketball has grown.
Used to be full of guys who'd get open off his gravity and still couldn't finish — now they're knocking it down left and right.
you can rest any one of the three and the team still holds together — that's what makes them strong.
Exactly. Back when coach Hovasse (Tom Hovasse) only had Hawkinson and Watanabe, he'd play both the whole game and they'd be gassed by the end. I figured once Hachimura joined he could finally rest one guy and cruise to the finish with room to spare — but then he went and played all three wire-to-wire anyway, like some coach from a scrappy underdog high school team.
With Hachimura out there, they'd flat-out demolish them, no question.
That's how big the gap is.
Without him, they'd probably just lose like usual.
>In the opening game on the 27th (28th JST) against Saudi Arabia, Hachimura had a monster game with a team-high 89 points.
89 points, insane!
Honestly, just let that guy play by himself at this point.
Hawkinson: "You guys can say whatever you want, but…"
He's a bit of an outlier even by NBA standards.
Having that gorilla-level physicality AND shooting better than pure shooters is just unreal.
In terms of sheer muscle, Zion's got him beat.
His shooting ability is just absurd.
seeing an NBA-starter-level guy in a game at today's level, the gap is on a whole different dimension.
Makes you wonder what the actual Dream Team is even like.
At the Olympics you can't win because the opponents are stacked with multiple NBA players.
Japan could beat African teams, but they never end up in the same group.
Winning internationally basically comes down to how many NBA players you can field.
Basketball depends way more on individual talent than soccer does.
Sure, that's true, but the team is strong because everyone has a clearly defined role.
Hachimura can create his own shot, but he's also excellent playing off others.
If you mix that up, basketball starts falling apart the way soccer does.
The head coach really matters a ton in basketball.
Ohtani just needs some rest.
Anyway, that aside, Inoue (likely boxer Naoya Inoue) is obviously on another level.
That said, not many teams actually have a Hachimura-level player.
France, Canada, Slovenia with Luka, Turkey with Şengün — those matchups would be tough, though.
Forgot about getting demolished by Germany already?
Only 12 teams make the Olympics.
Given the rankings, even if Japan qualifies, they'll almost certainly draw two of USA/Canada/a European power in the group stage.
It's basically hopeless.
Last time, the one game they actually had a shot at winning — against Brazil — they got blown out.
With soccer's Kubo, you honestly can't tell the difference at all… makes you wonder if he's even needed.
If Kubo hadn't gotten injured, they could've brought on Junya Ito in the second half against Brazil, and things might've gone differently.
Exactly. Basketball is fundamentally 1-on-1. On a small court, it's a game of the strong guy hunting mismatches against the weak guy over and over.
And if they send a double-team, someone else gets open. Whoever kept defending old man Hovasse by saying Japan would be fine without Hachimura clearly didn't understand basketball at all.
Don't go losing to a team like Qatar, Poichi (nickname for national team manager Hajime Moriyasu).
Japan's soccer team made the Olympic semifinals and quarterfinals — they probably don't want to hear that from a basketball team that's gone winless at the last two straight Olympics.
And in Paris, both the men's and women's basketball teams went 0-6.
Add up every win from Japan's men's and women's basketball, volleyball, and rugby teams combined, and it's still fewer than the men's and women's soccer teams got on their own.
Surely soccer would crush a No. 76-ranked team too, right?
They blew out Tunisia, after all.
Background and Talking Points
This match was the second game of the 2027 World Cup Asian second (final) qualifying round, with world No. 22 Japan defeating No. 76 Qatar by topping 100 points. Coming after their opening win over Saudi Arabia, it gave Japan a 2-0 start to final qualifying. Rui Hachimura, an NBA player, was the difference-maker, with the talent gap translating directly into the team’s scoring output. Most thread comments praised the performance, but given the ranking gap with Qatar, some posters tempered the optimism, asking how Japan would fare against teams like Iran or China — suggesting a lopsided win over a weaker opponent shouldn’t be equated with competitiveness against top-tier nations. The discussion also drew comparisons to Japan’s national soccer team, which was reportedly struggling around the same time, developing into a broader debate about how much having NBA-caliber players matters across different sports at the international level.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[Men’s Basketball] Rui Hachimura Erupts for 30 Points! 6 Threes & a Thunderous Dunk — Japan Wins 2-0, Tops 100 Points in Back-to-Back Blowouts“.
