Arnette Moldy slashed 41 points to reverse Qingdao, Xinjiang, which has been reduced to a fish belly since Zhou Qi left, finally came to the playoffs again, looking up, and the hope of 2022 is always there.
Xinjiang has won 6-5 in the last 6 games, and the new big foreign assistant Mortree has been credited with 41 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, which is his first 40+ after joining Xinjiang, and the fourth time in his CBA career. It is necessary to mention that the last time he took 40+ opponents, it was also Qingdao.
After the war, Mortree averaged 30.1 points per game, second only to Fujian small foreign player Robert Gordon, ranking second in the league, while averaging 15 rebounds per game, jumping to the first place in the league. In addition, he can contribute 4 assists per game, 2.9 steals and 2.1 blocks, steals 2nd in the league and 5th in the league.
Xinjiang, without twin towers, unexpectedly harvested a sacred pagoda.
Before playing for Xinjiang, Moldy had never played such an efficient offensive performance, even if the NCAA won the best rookie in the division at the University of Texas at El Paso, pushed Anthony Davis to become the division rebounding king at Mississippi State University, or the 3 single-game 40+ in Tongxi, which was far less hot than today.
Since being selected with the 27th pick in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft, Mortree's career has not been smooth, and he was eliminated by the NBA after two seasons of struggle in Philadelphia, and his arrival in the CBA in Jiangsu was not remarkable. Since then, he has wandered in various leagues around the world, iran, the Philippines, South Korea, estonia have all had his footprints, but there is no place that can help him achieve success.
At the beginning of the 19-20 season, Moldy finally ended the wandering and rooted in the CBA, but at the same time, Xinjiang was his third team in three years, still adrift. A month ago, when I wrote about Mortree, not many people believed that the foreign aid, who was supposed to have been brushing data on weak teams for many years, could make a difference.
After a month, let's bring his strengths back out.
13 rebounds per game in the 20-21 season, 3rd in the league, 4.5 offensive rebounds per game, 2nd in the league; 2.7 assists per game, the same as Zhou Qi; almost full attendance and 36.2 minutes per game; good offensive skills, 66.7% shooting rate at the end of the basket, 44.8% shooting rate on both sides of the mid-range bottom line; gradually changed three-point shots in recent seasons; averaged 8.1 free throws per game, shooting 82%; wandering around seizing opportunities to stay in the CBA, becoming more and more in line.
At that time, it was thought that Moldy could maintain the above half of the advantages in Xinjiang, as a stand-in for Zhou Qi and MoTai, everything would be fine without being scolded, but I did not expect that he would be so outstanding. So far, he has not shot 3 points in Xinjiang, and the offensive choice is an unprecedented and reasonable state in his career.
He has improved his offensive efficiency to the top level of the league, shooting 70.8% from the field, third in the league, the top two are Shen Zijie and Hu Jinqiu, who do not have so much middle distance. With a true shooting percentage of 74.8%, it ranks 1st in the league, 3rd in effective shooting, 4.5 rebounds in the frontcourt, 2nd in the league, 3rd in the PER league, behind Qingdao foreign aid Dez Wells and Beijing foreign aid Jonathan Gibson.
Moretley is entering the peak of his career, he threw away offensive redundancies such as three-pointers, backs, etc., picked up deadly weapons such as mid-range, fast-attack follow-ups, etc., and currently he can average 12.1 sports goals per game, only 0.9 fewer than Gordon, but 5.7 fewer shots.
Xinjiang's fit with Mortree far exceeded expectations.
In addition to the internal vacuum left by the departure of the twin towers, Moretelli instantly became the team's first internal choice, and the big foreign aid with mobility as the biggest advantage met one of the most willing teams in the league to play fast. Xinjiang's round of 92.5, ranking 3rd in the league, 4th in the fast attack scoring league, Adi Jiang coach is willing to play the team.
Thus, against Qingdao, Morel played the strongest game of his CBA career. He had only won once in three 40+ times, and in the Jiangsu derby on December 9, 2020, he scored a career-high 49 points, while having 19 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks, when the fierce battle was fierce to overtime, Moretley played 51 minutes, shooting 14-of-30.
In contrast, this victory was efficient, Moldy played 37.8 minutes, 20 points in the third quarter, 16 of 25 shots, 41 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. The same place is that the main foreign aid of Jiangsu is Wells, who is now playing in Qingdao, and it seems that Moldy is dedicated to Wells and Qingdao.
Speaking of the field, Xinjiang under the guidance of A has always built a team with the inner line as the core, the most obvious in the 18-19 season before Zhou Qi's return, when they tried Nick Minnalas, Hamad Haddadi, Al Jefferson, Gianel Stokes 4 big foreign players in one season, and there were many local interiors in the squad.
In the first stage of the season, the twin towers withdrew, and the team was still slow. They only won 3 games in total, namely the new army Ningbo, the shanxi who played the run and bomb, and the Tongxi at the bottom of the league, and the common point is that the internal line is relatively weak. Shanxi's inner line is good, but its play style is not mainly based on the inner line, and it will not restrain Xinjiang's play.
After the internal line was restricted, a group of young blue-collar workers who mainly played the No. 4 position in Xinjiang, as well as the No. 2-3 players who mainly focused on projection, were overwhelmed. In particular, Qi Lin's three-point shooting rate is only 31.7%, the real shooting rate is only 47.4%, and Tang Caiyu is slightly better, but it is only 35.2% and 50.9%.
After Mortree's arrival, the two gradually became comfortable.
Qi Lin's three-point shooting percentage was 39.5 percent in eight games in the second phase, almost returning to the state of last season, especially during the three-game winning streak, 13-of-25. Tang Caiyu's three-point projection is not much different from the first stage, but the last 3 games, 10 of 21, twice in the season 20+ are in the second stage.
In the first stage, Abdul Shalamu won the rest time, Mortree was not only incredibly efficient, but also averaged more than 40 minutes per game, with Moree to support the team, A coach was also relieved to let Abu take a break in some games. In the second stage, Abujun came off the bench and did not play more than 40 minutes.
Xinjiang is currently 8-13 and has a fairly optimistic playoff outlook after back-to-back defeats over rivals Qingdao and Sichuan. Mortrey can be said to be a life-saving straw in Xinjiang, and it is about to drag Xinjiang out of the pit, but Xinjiang, which has not yet reached the time of firecrackers, has not yet reached the time of firecrackers.
Although Having Mortree on the inside as a strong point can support Xinjiang's tactical system, win rest time for other main players, and help the main scorers on the outside to find confidence, a Moldy cannot establish an interior advantage like the twin towers last season.
In the second stage of Xinjiang, the three-point projection is still bad.
In 8 games, even if 5 of the past 6 games have been won, Xinjiang has not hit more than 9 three-pointers, no three-point shooting rate has exceeded 34.8%, and the most rebounded game has only 49. Compared with last season, Xinjiang averaged 48.1 rebounds per game, shooting 36.3% from three-point range, scoring 10.3 per game.
Yes, Xinjiang has performed well recently and touched the threshold of the playoffs, but in fact, Mortree's excellent offensive status and the recovery of Qi Lin and others have masked the overall sluggish projection situation, and Moldy's internal strength has created the illusion of rebounding advantage. This also corresponds to the two younger groups in Xinjiang, and it is also the part that the team needs to improve.
The injured Arslan shot 22 three-pointers in the second stage and only hit 2 of them, no matter what the reason, A and Xinjiang really can't afford to endure his sluggish performance in the backward stage. He only got 14 minutes in this game, the most crucial, reversal of the third quarter, he did not play.
Instead, A gave the young Ilifrati a chance, playing the longest 24.6 minutes of his career and scoring in double-figures for the first time. After Xinjiang gradually got back on track and the rotation became full, the requirements of A's coach for the team began to become different, and players who were able to fight and have impact became the first choice, and he needed the team to always maintain vitality in the offensive and defensive rhythm.
Similarly, in the No. 4 position with Mortree, except for the occasional Abdul Salam on top, the competition among the rest of the young people is also increasingly fierce. Azmat is good at the middle distance, but just happens to clash with Mortree, his time and opportunities are shrinking, while Rutubra is very positive, scoring in double figures in the second stage of 4 points, he is likely to squeeze out Azmaty and Revkatijan, and return to the starting point at some time thereafter.
In the past decade, Xinjiang has been working hard to develop youth training, which has led to the presence of so many young Xinjiang people in the squad today, but to gain a firm foothold in the professional arena, they still need to fight for a way out. After Mortree joined, all the team wanted to do was stay alive and improve their outside accuracy, and for these youngsters, the work after playing was more concise, which was their chance to get ahead.
Xinjiang grabbed Moldry's life-saving straw, but it's just getting back on track, and the team is back in the playoff sequence, and now it's the first step. In the next schedule, they will have to face top teams such as Zhejiang and Liaoning, and will also play against strong internal teams such as Sichuan and Shandong, and they cannot always expect Moldy's 20-point super god performance in a single quarter to save the team.
Moltry is a little clever, helping to fly Qi Lin violently buckled, Xinjiang's fast attack is like the meltwater of the Tianshan Glacier stretching endlessly, yesterday it was still struggling in the desert, and today it has seen a trickle to breed new hope.