In Changchun, which is minus 15 degrees Celsius, even if the heating in the stadium is turned on, it will not be able to resolve the cold state of the Guangdong men's basketball team.
Following the previous round of 12 points to Guangsha, this round they lost to Shanxi, losing 26 points.
The last time the Guangdong men's basketball team suffered two consecutive defeats was 1476 days ago in 2017. At that time, the Bayi team was still in the league, Ding Yanyuhang was still the MVP of the alliance, and the UAE League and the Lakers were eyebrow-to-eye...
So, after the second stage of the league reopened, what happened to the Guangdong men's basketball team?
After another consecutive defeat in 1476 days, Du Feng was anxious
"Everyone's thinking may be too loose to be ready to come back and play the game, this is really not expected." At the post-match press conference, Du Feng went around and around, or said this cruel word at the end.
In fact, in the first game lost to Guangsha in the second stage, Du Feng did not criticize the players too much, but simply said: "This situation is also normal, I hope to find the feeling as soon as possible." ”
At that time, the Guangdong team, Du Feng and four players who went out to the World Preliminary Tournament flew directly to Jilin and ushered in the first game after only one day of training with the large troops, so it was not surprising that the team lacked tacit understanding.
But when the original coach threw 8 three-pointers in front of Guangdong, and Shanxi hit a record of 125 points for Guangdong's highest score loss this season, Du Feng's patience seemed to have reached its limit - in the whole game, Guangdong only shot 68 times, while opponent Shanxi was as high as 94 times.
The Shanxi team's running and bombing style can be thrown by everyone, making Guangdong's defense appear full of loopholes. Guangdong's slightly sluggish attack is more reflected in 30 free throws, and they frequently impact the inside line without opening the situation, beating twice as many free throws as the opponent, but also paying the price of 23 mistakes.
This is the third time in the history of Shanxi to defeat Guangdong, the first time is in 2012, when Guangdong, who won four consecutive championships, finally lost the championship; the second time was the 2016-2017 season opener, the UAE League was absent, and finally Guangdong reached the finals.
Now losing to Shanxi for the third time, Guangdong is still in adversity.
Fiasco is not the first
The loss of 26 points was not a small blow to the Guangdong team. But more crucially, the picture of Zhou Peng pouting and expressionless off the field has appeared on the Guangdong team more than once.
In addition to the two consecutive defeats in the second stage, Guangdong team has previously lost 23 points to Zhejiang and 24 points against Beijing.
The Guangdong men's basketball team has now polished this system for three years, and has also been studied by opponents for three years, and naturally cannot retreat in every competition.
What's more, no one in basketball can be young forever.
Taking the match against Shanxi as an example, Guangdong's starting players are Hu Mingxuan, Weimus, Zhou Peng, Du Runwang and Yi Jianlian, with an average age of more than 29 years old. In contrast, Shanxi, ge Zhaobao, the oldest starter, is 29 years old, and Jonathan Simmons, the oldest in the team, is only 32 years old.
To make matters worse, at the beginning of the second phase of the league, injuries found Guangdong.
Zhang Hao, who has a stable playing time, seriously lost his foot in the training on the occasion before the start of the game, and needed to be injured for 3-4 weeks. Zhang Haojia fractured his fifth metatarsal bone during the rising period and basically announced the season reimbursement
In the first stage of the game, Zhang Haojia's playing time and three-point shooting rate were the top of the team, and he could contribute 7.6 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1 steal per game.
"Injury is the most painful and powerless thing for every athlete, who should have fought with his brothers on the court, but now he can only cheer for his brothers at home, which is actually very painful." Zhang Haojia's updated social media was full of helplessness.
Coupled with Ren Junfei and Zhao Rui, who needed to take a break because of the World Preliminary Round, the originally wealthy Guangdong bench suddenly looked a little stretched.
According to Du Feng, the day before the match, the team had just made a brief position adjustment, and even couldn't get together against the trained players. As a result, Liu Quanbiao, the "youth team bully" who returned to the stadium after 523 days, played 28 minutes on his comeback debut.
"I think there are too many people scattered in this month, four people are not in the team, Weems has to run together again, and everyone's state and commitment are still not enough." I hope that everyone's thoughts are still coming back, the season has begun, and we can't relax here. ”
The difficulties faced by the Guangdong team are far more difficult than imagined, but Du Feng can only drive the team members forward with a hard scalp.
Guangdong was tired, and Du Feng was also tired
If guangdong team started the second stage of two consecutive losses, the main reason is from injuries and insufficient preparation, then the core problem of Guangdong team this season is still in the attack.
This season, Guangdong averaged only 100.4 points per game, ranking seventh in the league. Although the slippage of the data is not unrelated to the all-Chinese squad, compared with the powerful firepower of 120 points per game during the three consecutive championships, the slippage on the offensive end is visible to the naked eye.
With the loss to Zhejiang on October 30 as the timeline, Guangdong scored more than 100 points in the first seven games of the season, while since then, in the 8 games, only 2 times have broken 100, against Tianjin and Jiangsu without foreign aid. It can be said that the Guangdong team is experiencing another round of offensive lows.
The reason is naturally related to the players, the first stage of Hu Mingxuan suffered from allergies, the shooting rate fell from 50% last season to 35% today; the UAE League ushered in a comeback this season, but just like you can't ask the 60-year-old Jackie Chan to jump the Rotterdam building again, you also can't ask the UAE To play a step past the opponent in the game.
When the offensive firepower cannot remain high, the Guangdong team can only match the playoff level defense to make up for the lack of firepower.
The state of the players is clear on the field, and the consumption of the coach cannot be ignored - from the league to the National Games to the national team, the transformation of Du Feng's identity is always in a seamless state.
In the window period of the game, Du Feng not only has to think about the plight of the team, but also takes into account the investigation of the national players, but his personal energy is limited after all.
At the end of the window period of the game, Du Feng said in an interview during the isolation period: "Isolation is the best relaxation, usually I really can't find the time to relax, this isolation is a very good time node, you can go to quietly think about the previous game, take a good rest." ”
"Seeing my photos from two or three years ago is so different from the photos I have now, and even a little scary." Du Feng's words revealed exhaustion to some extent.
However, the confidence of Guangdong fans is that they have encountered countless difficulties in the past 20 years, but the team has always had a way to quickly get out of the mud.
At the beginning of the season, Du Feng also emphasized the direction of the regular season: "It is not important to win or lose in the regular season, mainly to vigorously cultivate young players, and the team can enter the playoffs." ”
So sometimes, losing streaks isn't a bad thing.