On February 17, Beijing time, the NBL regular season ushered in the 12th round of matches, and the Melbourne Phoenix and Melbourne United team launched a derby match in the same city. Zhou Qi started in this game, and in the first half of the game, he staged a number of violent dunks, with the help of Zhou Qi, the Phoenix led Melbourne United by 1 point 42-41 to end the first half. In the third quarter of the game, the two sides came and went, but the Phoenix still led the opponent 68-64, and after entering the final quarter of the game, Zhou Qi failed to play earlier, and the Phoenix team was finally reversed by Melbourne United. Zhou Qi played 23 minutes and 14 seconds in this game, shooting 6-of-12 and having 13 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks. Although Zhou Qi performed well on the defensive end, he could only rely on the opponent's feeding cake in the attack, and he shot many times without success.
When he first joined the NBL, although the cycle was a bit uncomfortable, with the help of his teammates, he quickly entered the state, and even had a single game to cut 22 points, 10 rebounds and 7 blocks of the explosion performance, not only became the NBL block king, but also joined teammate Crick on the local "Herald Sun". During that time, Zhou Qi's performance not only conquered Fans in Australia and China, but even NBA scouts noticed him, and the Lakers once wanted to sign Zhou Qi on a short 10-day contract, but was rejected by Zhou Qi's team because he wanted to sign a long contract.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, Zhou Qi suffered from food poisoning at the end of January, diarrhea and vomiting, so he missed 2 games. Zhou Qi returned from a game against the Wildcats on Feb. 4, but he only played 12 minutes and 25 seconds in that game, and only got 4 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block. Since then, the Phoenix team has 11 points and 7 rebounds in the game against the Eagles, Zhou Qi only got 5 points and 10 rebounds in the game against the Kings, and zhou Qi got 11 points and 7 rebounds in the game against the skydiving ants. In the 5 games after Zhou Qi's comeback, he averaged only 8.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, and the team only achieved a record of 2 wins and 3 losses. From the past 5 games, it can be seen that Zhou Qi is completely in no state, although his defensive skills are still there, but on the offensive end, he can basically only rely on his teammates to feed the cake, or grab offensive rebounds to complete the second attack, and he cannot provide more help to the team at the offensive end. Perhaps because of this, Zhou Qi in recent matches, the coach did not particularly trust him, and his playing time was almost always around 20 minutes.
Fans believe that if Zhou Qi continues to play in the NBL in his current state, then his desire to return to the NBA will also become a piece of paper. Zhou Qi's current confrontation ability has been greatly improved than before, but in terms of shooting, he still has no progress, and if he wants to return to the NBA, he is bound to improve his shooting ability.