Chinese Taipei vs Japan – Preview & Prediction (Sep. 16, 2026)

In the last few years, Chinese Taipei are mostly fielding their strongest roster led by their Italian head coach Gianluca Tucci, so it comes as no surprise they are making noise at the highest level of Asian basketball. For many years, Chinese Taipei were considered a minnow in Asian basketball, but after they naturalized new foreigners and appointed Tucci as the head coach things have changed as they consistently create problems now against the top Asian teams and even had an excellent run at the FIBA Asia Cup last year. For this tournament, Taipei summoned almost their strongest roster- the biggest names that are missing are two young stars, heritage players Adam and Robert Hinton along with Mohammad Bachir Gadiaga. Still, the Chinese Taipei squad is full of quality led by their naturalized center Brandon Gilbeck. He is supported by quality shooters and scorers like Lin Tingqian and Ray Chen, who are the main stars and offensive leaders for Chinese Taipei. In the group stage, they immediately produced an upset as they stunned a star-studded Jordanese team 83:80. They were also close to beating Iran, losing narrowly by three points in the end and then confirmed the favourite status against an inferior Qatari side that was easily beaten 91:69.

Although not with their ideal lineup, Chinese Taipei are looking good and powerful enough to trouble a team like Japan today. Head coach Gianluca Tucci has taken Taipei to another level in Asian basketball and definitely has enough quality in his roster to make today´s match interesting and avoid a blowout loss.

Japan are the hosts of the Asian Games and recently played with their strongest ever roster in the World Cup qualifiers led by NBA stars Hachimura and Kawamura. However, they have decided to intentionally field their B team for this tournament with their second-choice import Alex Kirk. A very strange decision as they would be the leading favourites with their main stars, but even with this B roster, they still look strong and are playing solid basketball. Japan opened their account with a 98:53 rout of Indonesia and then routinely took care of business against Saudi Arabia with an 86:80 victory. Their first real test came in the final group stage match as they took on a loaded Korean side – they managed to keep up until the final five minutes when they completely fell apart and lost 100:83 in the end. They are definitely not 17 points below South Korea, but they are the inferior team compared to the main gold medal favourites, especially with their B team. Today, they are playing at home and are expected to beat Chinese Taipei, but we think it will not be easy as Japan are playing without all of their main stars.

The Japanese team is still strong even with their B selection and could scrape a third-place finish. They are not good enough to win the gold and they should be tested today by a very potent Chinese Taipei team that is playing at a high level.