The regular season has long passed the halfway point, the top of the 7 teams in Liaoning, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Guangdong are fiercely competing, and on the edge of the playoffs, the same flag is waved and the war horses are hissing.
Xinjiang, Sichuan, Qingdao and Tianjin are currently 8 wins and 15 losses, and just rank 13-16, outside the playoff circle, so it seems to form a playoff challenger alliance and attack the team in front of them. In front of them, Jilin won 9 wins and 14 losses, only 1 game difference, while Shandong and Beikong 12 wins and 11 losses, the gap is not particularly large.
At the end of last season, the battle for a playoff spot between Guangzhou and Beijing Seemed to be in sight, but now, the competition seems to be more intense, and every game is crucial, especially the record of each other. By the way, this season's schedule has been shortened to 38 rounds, or only 15 games remain, and the teams are already in full swing in the second stage.
Tianjin Lian Ke is a strong opponent and suddenly sees the hope of the playoffs.
A few days ago, the epidemic suddenly hit Tianjin, the severe situation and the ferocious disease did not crush Jinmen, they stood on the front line of the fight against the epidemic, silently leaving only a great back for the world. Perhaps because of the disaster, the Tianjin men's basketball team is more united and has erupted into a stronger combat force.
The players wrote their blessings to the city on their shoes, Shi Deshuai wrote "Defeat the epidemic, Tianjin refuel", Jin Xin wrote "Tianjin all peace" and "refueling pancake fruit", He Siyu helped "fight the epidemic, Tianjin refueling", Lin Tingqian from Taiwan also posted on personal social media: "I hope the epidemic ends as soon as possible, Tianjin refuels"...
Back on the pitch, Tianjin signed two small foreign players in the second stage, veteran Taylor Rochester and Kenny Burton, one experienced, calm and good at the big picture, and the other with a strong scoring explosion. In order to experiment with the reasonable rotation of double foreign aid and the team, Tianjin spent half a month, and also paid a painful lesson of being reversed by Shanxi.
In the last 4 rounds, Tianjin has basically formed a stable rotation, with Lin Tingqian as the core of the all-China class playing the first quarter, the next two quarters of double small outside (Tianjin can play 4 quarters and 5 people), the last quarter depending on the status of foreign aid and the team needs to choose. At the same time, the team will also send veteran Zhang Zhaoxu and foreign aid to protect rebounds, or simply open up the space with a small lineup to bombard, the Shanxi small lineup to start first, and Zhang Zhaoxu to start against Jilin.
Tianjin's squad rotation is entering a mature period, and Zhang Degui recently welcomed his assistant Zhang Qingpeng, who advised young defenders on the sidelines and helped the team with experience. The team's main player is in good shape, Rochester currently shooting 45.8% from three-point range, Burton has shot 44 points against Shanxi, and local core Lin Tingqian has shot 20+ in two consecutive games.
However, tianjin's playoff prospects are still not optimistic, and a wave of difficult schedules is coming.
In the next 4 games, Tianjin will play against Beijing, Guangdong, Sichuan and Beijing consecutively, which is very tricky. Tianjin is now well manned in the backcourt, but on the front line, He Siyu performed poorly, Jin Xin was more stable, and in the big forward, De Shuai was like hitting the wall, especially the three points were getting worse, and MengZikai and Tian Yu, who were good at three points, were really thin.
Tianjin has a good frame, but to really play the playoffs, it needs a smoother offense and a systematic defense. Although the schedule is difficult, Tianjin still has a backhand, and former NBA player John Henson is expected to arrive in the third stage of the team, a skilled offensive player with a live big outside in hand, which is worth looking forward to. Of course, the success or failure of the playoffs is not all, and whether you can find a stable and long-term winning path is the key to building confidence.
Compared with Tianjin, which only reached the playoffs once in 2014, the three competitors are not good stubble, especially Xinjiang, which has been among the strongest teams in the past few years. Xinjiang paid the price of a slippery slope due to the internal vacuum caused by the departure of the twin towers, but after the addition of Arnette Moldy, it once won 6-5.
However, Xinjiang's winning streak has long ended, and they are currently suffering two consecutive defeats, reversed by Zhejiang by 20 points, and revenge by Sichuan. These two defeats are not due to strength, but Xinjiang's eager return to the playoffs shows an impatient side, unable to hold the advantage against Zhejiang, and too eager to destroy the opponent with full-court oppression against Sichuan.
Despite the losing streak, Xinjiang also has good news.
One is the veteran Who has made Xu comeback, and although his first game performance is abnormal, he can undoubtedly alleviate the pressure of the backcourt rotation, and the second is the growth of the youngster, 21-year-old Ilifrati has recently flashed a lot. The third and most important point is the Xinjiang schedule, the remaining 5 games in the second stage, after playing Shandong and Liaoning, facing Ningbo, Tongxi and Jilin, there is a chance to win consecutively.
Moretree now averages 29.7 points, 14.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, shooting third in the league, averaging nearly 40 minutes per game, which can be called the first foreign aid of the season. Driven by his strong force, Xinjiang's offensive system is running rapidly, and the team has played 3 consecutive games with 30+ assists.
Xinjiang is only lacking in the experience of key balls at present, and if they want to break into the playoffs, they must adapt to the opponent's strong defense and have a lineup that can stabilize the control of the game at key moments. Abdul Salad, Qi Lin, Tang Caiyu, Yu Dehao and others all have to work hard to have a chemical reaction with Moldry, and this playoff team needs to regain its glory.
Similar situation, Qingdao also encountered, after the arrival of Dez Wells and Dacarey Johnson, once 4-3 wins, but soon suffered a wave of 5 consecutive losses, of which 3 points lost to Xinjiang, 6 points lost to Beikong and Shandong, was reversed by Guangzhou and Xinjiang in the second half. The sudden power outage is Qingdao's biggest trouble today.
The rotation in Qingdao is slightly chaotic and lacks stability.
After the start of the second stage, Qingdao has never used the same starting lineup for more than 2 games, which can be explained by Wu Qinglong's coaching hope to match different matches with different abilities of the two foreign aides. However, the squad around the two foreign players has also been changing, and although there are many on-the-spot factors that have led to this situation, from the results, this is already a big problem.
Among the four teams with the same record, Qingdao has the thickest configuration, and the local team in the playoffs last season is in the team, and the double foreign aid has joined, and Qingdao has played 12 players per game for 3 consecutive games. In this way, wang qingming, Gao Shiao, Hong Zhonghua, Wang Hong and other players often appear on their bench, and the injury factors naturally cannot be ignored, but overall, Qingdao is indeed the healthiest and the most neatly manned.
Wells is good at impact, Dacari dominates the basket, the two foreign aides have distinct characteristics, and Qingdao's ideal state can even be directly divided into two groups like team training, and the game is five up and five down. But the reality is that under the pressure of the record, Qingdao's pace of groping for lineup combinations is very difficult.
There is not much time left for Qingdao, with the next two games against Sichuan and Fujian, followed by consecutive challenges to Guangdong, Shanghai and Zhejiang. If you can't find a suitable and stable combination of double foreign aid, under the stable attack and defense of the strong team, Qingdao will be difficult to overcome, and competitors will not stop.
Sichuan is the most stable of the four teams, but the rotation is also the most fragile.
With veterans Hamad Haddadi and Han Shuo pressing the team, Coach Zhou Jinli really does not need to worry about how to play at key moments, and when the score is anxious, the power of experience cannot be underestimated. But the trouble is how to get the two veterans of the hundred battles in Sichuan to retain enough energy to cope with the difficult situation.
To this end, Sichuan has brought in a big foreign aid Sterling Manley, who has repeatedly provided wonderful blocks with height and arm spans on the defensive end, but the offensive end is inefficient and is obviously still adapting to the team's tactical system. With 17.1 minutes per game, 9.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks, Manley's task was not satisfactorily completed, in short, he was able to save Some Physical Energy for Haddadi.
Haddadi's playing time has been greatly reduced, but Han Shuo's burden is still heavy, before winning Guangzhou, the 35-year-old played the whole game, sent 16 assists, and recently the playing time is high, less than 35 minutes is rare. Sichuan ushered in Zhang Hui's comeback, but he only had an occasional aura, only 3 of 3 in 14 shots, 5 assists and 5 mistakes, or could not share for Han Shuo.
To enter the playoffs, Sichuan is key to Han Shuo and Haddadi, and their substitutes Zhang Hui and Manley are crucial. In addition, Sichuan is on the front line, with the growth of Zhu Songwei and Zhang Dianliang, plus veterans Chen Chen and Guo Jinlin, it is still enough. Only recently Li Honghan was injured, and Jing Hanyi had to play at a high load.
The situation in the playoffs changes three times a day, and no one knows what will become after the first game. The four teams have inadvertently reached a record alliance that has left Fujian, Jiangsu, Ningbo and Tongxi, and those four teams may be at the bottom this season. It is not easy to not be left behind in the playoffs seat competition, every game in the future is a card position battle, but also a physical battle, endurance war, winter swimming to the beginning of spring, it is not easy to go ashore.
Jilin, who is only one game ahead, can the playoff goalkeeper sit firmly?