After a 119-85 victory over Ningbo, Shanghai successfully won its first game in 2022, winning four consecutive games. With this wave of consecutive wins, the 14-3 Shanghai team surpassed Guangsha and Zhejiang team to temporarily rank second in the CBA, second only to Liaoning (15 wins and 2 losses). Under the leadership of Li Chunjiang, the local tycoon team, which ranked 14th in the CBA last season and missed the playoffs, has the goal always been to reach the level of championship competition?
Judging from the match against Ningbo alone, the Shanghai team did show a clear advantage in strength. Just two minutes into the last quarter, Shanghai's score has already exceeded 100 points, and established a huge lead of 27 points, Guo Haowen's continuous steals and dunks allowed Shanghai to instantly suppress the opponent at both ends of the attack and defense, and also let the game gradually lose suspense.
But such a game does not actually explain anything. First, The Ningbo team is a new army that has only entered the CBA this season, from local players to foreign aid, the general strength is limited, most of the local players are low-ranking draft players and marginal people of other teams (loan or transfer to Ningbo), foreign aid is also an unknown role. Before the game, they only ranked second to the bottom of the league with 1 win and 15 losses; second, Ningbo's foreign aid Trotter did not play in this campaign, without his breakthrough tandem (averaging 4.9 assists per game), scrambling (averaging 7.4 rebounds per game) and defense (averaging 4.6 steals per game), Ningbo was more difficult, and the third quarter no longer had the advantage of double foreign aid (Ningbo foreign aid was 5 times in the fourth quarter, and often sent double foreign aid in the third quarter). Therefore, in the case of the disparity in strength between the two sides, it is not surprising that the Shanghai team, which has many soldiers and two foreign aides, has won a big victory.
On the contrary, the ups and downs of the Shanghai team in the game are worth summarizing. In the first quarter, Shanghai trailed by 3 points at the end of the first quarter after a 16-8 start. In the fourth quarter, the Shanghai team, which still sent foreign aid, was also blocked several times at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. Dong Hanlin, Li Tianrong and Liu Zheng were covered successively; Franklin's pass was directly cut off. At the same time, Shanghai has also been hit by Ningbo for three consecutive points, as well as many defensive leaks. If it were not for the limited strength of Ningbo players, Shanghai would have been chased again in the fourth quarter.
It is not to criticize Shanghai, first, because their goal is to compete for the championship, and naturally they must demand themselves according to the standards of the championship team. Second, for Shanghai, being chased for points at the end of the quarter is actually a clichéd problem. In the first stage, they had such a problem, especially in the first stage of the final battle against Shenzhen. In that game, Shanghai was reversed after leading by 14 points in the final quarter, and Shenzhen's Shen Zijie, Gu Quan and foreign aid Booker all received the fifth offense relatively early, but Shanghai was eventually reversed. After the start of the second stage, the old problem of Shanghai relaxing after taking the lead was not solved. Playing Xinjiang, they had 7 minutes left in the final quarter to lead by 16 points, but the Xinjiang team chased only 3 points in the last minute, although winning, but Shanghai won is very difficult; followed by Guangzhou, Shanghai after leading by 22 points, but Guangzhou in the last half minute of the score. In the end, Shanghai only narrowly won by 4 points.
Now, Shanghai will still habitually relax after playing Ningbo big score lead, and it is the main players who will also make mistakes when they are on the field, it is no wonder that head coach Li Chunjiang is still blue in the face when he leads the big score. Such a performance, in exchange for any high-demand head coach will not be satisfied, not to mention the Spring Brother who has led the team in Guangdong for 10 years and 7 championships. The habitual relaxation after the big score lead is also one of the places where the Shanghai team is currently one of the biggest gaps between the championship teams, in other words, the current Shanghai team is not as good as many champions teams or champions who have proved themselves in terms of competition temperament. Not giving the opponent any chance to breathe easily, beating the opponent until he falls down, and making the opponent afraid before the confrontation is the temperament of the championship team, obviously, Shanghai still needs to experience in this regard.
On the other hand, although Shanghai has now become the new second place in the league, they need more hard battles to prove themselves if they want to become a real championship team. Because the season has started to play so far, Shanghai team often plays very easily against weak brigades, in addition to the big victory over Ningbo, they won 30 or 40 points in the first stage against Sichuan, Tianjin and Fujian, and the second time they played against Fujian they were stunned to win 50 points. However, if the opponent has some strength and background, the performance of the Shanghai team is often not stable enough.
So far this season, the only strong opponent that Shanghai has defeated is Zhejiang, but that is still the first stage, Zhejiang team did not have foreign aid at that time, and Shanghai has foreign aid Franklin. Of course, Shanghai also beat Beijing in the first stage, but at that time, Beijing was also an all-Chinese class. Moreover, Shanghai also lost to Beijing in the first stage. Other times, their fights with Guangdong and Shenzhen ended in defeat. Until the start of the second stage, their opponents' strength is generally average, but even so, Xinjiang and Guangzhou still made Shanghai break out in a cold sweat at the end of the quarter.
According to the schedule, Shanghai will not be able to meet strong opponents until mid-to-late January, when they will encounter Shenzhen, Zhejiang and Guangdong. If Shenzhen's Shen Zijie can play at that time, the defending champion Guangdong can also adjust to the state, and Shanghai can still win such a hard battle, that is the real proof of their strength.
This season, the Shanghai team has made significant progress under the leadership of the new head coach Li Chunjiang, especially compared to the past two seasons that have also attracted significant reinforcements. But Shanghai's goal is clearly not just to return to the playoffs, shanghai, which has entered the long-term era, has already aimed to compete for the championship again after changing hands two years ago, but the first two seasons have not been satisfactory. Now, Shanghai is making a comeback, and the goal is still the championship. But if it wants to become a real championship team, Shanghai obviously needs to continue to practice.