In the last game of 2021, Liaoning won two consecutive wins with a 128-109 victory over Fujian. The liaoning team's winning process was not stable, and even in the last moments of the final quarter, the game was again suspenseful due to the expulsion of the main defender Guo Allen. But this still can't stop Liaoning from finally winning a big victory, and after the small episode of this game, Liaoning team also made the next game, that is, the "New Year's Day War" and the Guangdong team's showdown.
Facing a Fujian team whose strength is far inferior to its own, the Liaoning team played quite easily in the first three quarters. It can even be said that before Guo Allen was expelled, the mentality of the Liaoning team was very relaxed. First, the strength of the Liaoning team is there, the advantage is obvious, they do not need to exert all their strength to win the game; the second is that the Liaoning team before going to Japan to participate in the World Preliminary Round to return to the quarantine of the national players are still recovering, head coach Yang Ming does not want them to consume too much, so the Rotation of the Liaoning team in this game is more frequent, and the playing time is generally not high; the third is the next New Year's Day war, and the opponent of the Liaoning team is their old opponent Guangdong team. Even if the defending champion suffered a rare losing streak after the start of the second stage of the regular season, and the last game was a fiasco of 26 points to Shanxi, the Liaoning team did not dare to be careless.
In this mentality, for a long time to control the game, the third quarter once led by 25 points, most of the time ahead of the double-digit Liaoning team, played very easily. On the offensive end, they rarely forced singles, and even Guo Allen did not force his personal ability to solve the problem. When the hand feel is not good and the mistake is wrong, Guo Allen rarely does not go up, but uses the pass to drive his teammates in the next round. Many times, the players on the bench of the Liaoning team are talking and laughing, the main players are almost sweating, and the head coach Yang Ming sits quietly most of the time to watch the game.
It wasn't until the fujian team continued to chase points in the last quarter, and the Liaoning team wanted to harvest the game as soon as possible and start to increase the intensity of defense, which was the episode about Guo Allen. In the last 3 minutes and 51 seconds of the last quarter, Fujian defender Li Yiyang dribbled forward, Guo Allen stumbled on his feet when defending, and the referee also sentenced Guo Allen for a foul, and this foul finally made Guo Allen lose his cool, after Li Yiyang's free throw, Guo Allen gave the referee a thumbs up to eat a technical foul, and was finally expelled from the game.
But that still didn't change the course of the game. With Fergus coming on as Guo Allen scored consecutive points, Liaoning regained control of the game and widened the points gap again, and Liaoning finally won a 19-point victory. Although Guo Allen's expulsion is something that the Liaoning team definitely does not want to see, because the CBA has changed the rules this season, players do not need to be automatically suspended for a single game if they are expelled for a single foul + technical foul, so Liaoning does not need to worry about Guo Allen's next absence and Guangdong game. Moreover, after this episode, it may be more inspiring to Guo Allen, and it will also give the Liaoning team more focus on the game.
In this match with Fujian, Liaoning is actually ready for the next match against Guangdong. In addition to letting the main players stay strong, the Liaoning team also practiced the defense of the joint defense for a rare long time. It is reasonable to say that with the strength of the Liaoning team to face such an opponent as the Fujian team, they do not need to use joint defense at all, and zhao Jiwei, Guo Allen and Fogg alone, who have the top defensive strength, are enough to create a lot of pressure on Fujian, not to mention that Han Dejun and Moland's ability to protect the basket is also good.
The reason why Liaoning did this is obviously to prepare for the match with Guangdong. In the second stage, Guangdong's three-point feel fluctuating, if Guangdong is still unable to adjust the feel in the New Year's Day war, then Liaoning's joint defense will also give Guangdong more pressure, at the same time, Liaoning can also reduce the defensive pressure of the front in the face of Zhou Peng, Weems and even Ren Junfei, who may even come back. Although the strength of Fujian is far inferior to that of Guangdong, Liaoning does play a good defensive role by relying on joint defense, and has contributed to the team's multiple rapid counterattacks to open up the point difference. Moreover, after Fujian's last-minute points, Liaoning will also be more vigilant. In the match against Guangdong, in the case that the details may still determine the fate of the game, Liaoning is bound to be more focused in the next game, even if they lead more.
On the other hand, after Guo Allen was expelled from this game, the next game will definitely hold his breath to play a better performance. In the first stage of the regular season, he complained that the referee had been expelled from the technical fouls in the game against Shanxi, and in the next big victory over Jilin, he contributed 19 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists in 22 minutes, controlling the mistakes at only 1 time, and the overall performance was significantly higher than when playing Shanxi (15 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 turnovers), especially in the two-point attack, Guo Allen was more determined and more aggressive. Facing zhao rui, Hu Mingxuan and Xu Jie in the New Year's Day battle, Guo Allen's desire to attack will only become stronger.
Liaoning as a whole is also ready to play against Guangdong. In the big victory over Fujian, the Liaoning team played no one for 30 minutes, and the physical distribution of the whole team was more even. Compared with the past two games in Guangdong, which seems to be sleepy and tired, Liaoning's physical condition looks much better, which will also be a big advantage for them when facing Guangdong.
In recent years, every season's Liaoyue war has been a splash on Mars, worthy of the CBA's most exciting game. Each encounter between the two sides has intensified after the last two seasons of the Metropolitan Division Finals, and this summer's National Games final, with other players on board. Now, for the first time this season, the two sides have met, and the heat of the game is not hard to imagine. Liaoning, which ended the game first, has obviously made preparations in advance.