In three days, the third phase of the CBA regular season will officially begin. This is the final stage of the regular season, and the remaining 10 rounds will also determine the final regular season rankings and playoff qualifications. In this final sprint stage, the intensity of the competition is not difficult to imagine, and these 10 rounds of competition also have a lot of suspense to be solved.
Suspense 1: Can Liaoning retain its top position?
Liaoning currently leads the league with 25 wins and 3 losses, two wins ahead of second-place Shanghai team. In the previous regular season, the Liaoning team was the leader most of the time, and the strength was evident.
But in the upcoming third stage, the Liaoning team's challenge is not small. In 10 games, they have to play two games against Shanghai team and two games against Zhejiang team, and Zhejiang team is currently ranked 4th in the league, 3 wins behind Liaoning team, and Shanghai team is the same as the strong team. Although the Liaoning team is stronger, it is not easy for them to win all four games, and once they lose to Shanghai, it may shake Liaoning's final ranking.
On the other hand, the Liaoning team itself has hidden worries. The team's main center Han Dejun did not operate after the fracture of the nasal bone, but chose conservative treatment, and the first confrontation with the Shanghai team is the second game of the liaoning team in the third stage, Han Dejun will be released from the ban (previously suspended for 7 games due to a fight with Weems), but how the state of The Great Korea is still uncertain, and the importance of the Great Han to Liaoning needs no further words; at the same time, the main defender of the Liaoning team, Guo Allen, is still not ideal, and on the afternoon of the 24th, he also said on the social media: "Extremely depressed." The two main players are plagued by injuries and illnesses, which may also have a greater impact on Liaoning in the strong dialogue.
Suspense 2: Can Guangdong kill back the top four?
Guangdong team general manager Zhu Fangyu has said that the team's ideal ranking is to go to the second place in the regular season. But don't say the second place, guangdong team just wants to reach the top four, in fact, it is not easy.
At present, Guangdong team ranks fifth in the league with 20 wins and 8 losses, and Guangsha, who is third behind, and Zhejiang, who is fourth, are both two wins. Moreover, Guangdong was double-killed by Guangsha this season, and although the two encounters with Zhejiang were tied (both sides were 1 win and 1 loss), Guangdong lost to Zhejiang in small points. That is to say, unless Guangdong can achieve better results than Guangsha and Zhejiang in the third stage, otherwise, the results of the three teams will remain the same, and Guangdong will still lag behind.
Guangdong's advantage is that their opponents in the third stage are generally not strong, but Zhejiang and Guangsha will fight each other twice. At the same time, Zhejiang will also fight two battles in Liaoning, and Guangsha will also fight with Shanghai once, which may make Guangdong fishermen profitable. However, in view of the uncertainty of the strong dialogue, Guangdong has almost no initiative to enter the top four, and can only look at the final results of the top four teams.
If Guangdong ultimately misses out on the top four, it will be Guangdong's lowest ranking since the 2001-02 season (seventh) and will also be guangdong's first playoff playoff (starting in the 2017-18 season). It was also the first time in the history of a defending CBA champion that he had played in a playoff playoff.
Suspense 3: Can Xinjiang make the playoffs?
Xinjiang currently ranks thirteenth in the league with 12 wins and 16 losses, two wins away from twelfth Jilin. In the third stage, they will play two games in Beijing, two games in Shenzhen, and once against Guangdong, and the schedule is not small. This is a huge test for Xinjiang.
If Xinjiang misses the playoffs, it will be the first time they miss the playoffs since the 2014-15 season. In the 2014-15 season, when Xinjiang missed the playoffs, it was Zhou Qi's first time playing in the CBA. This season, the Xinjiang team did not have Zhou Qi.
Suspense 4: How effective is Beijing's four foreign aid?
With Dunmont unable to join North Control this season (currently with three foreign players), Beijing has also become the only team in the CBA to have four foreign players this season.
The four foreign players of the Beijing team are Jeremy Lin, Gibson, Brown and Hamilton, and in terms of foreign aid configuration, Beijing has made too many teams envious. However, since last season, the CBA has changed the foreign aid policy, and the Beijing team sitting on the luxury four foreign aides also needs to follow the policy of using four sessions and 4 people. After not being able to send two foreign aid and the other two single foreign aid as often as in the past, it is difficult to hoard foreign aid to make a qualitative change for the Beijing team. Even for Yannis, who is good at coaching the team's defense and is not very good at building offense, when and how to choose between the four foreign players may be a big problem.
Suspense 5: Can Ding Yanyuhang make a comeback?
Because he was injured by his teammates in the training before the second stage and injured his leg, Ding Yanyuhang missed all the matches in the second stage. At present, Xiaoding is basically recovering from injury, and the third stage will comeback to represent shandong again.
But the question is, after another injury and a long absence, can Ding Yanyuhang, who has not played in the CBA for the previous three years, still break out? I'm afraid no one has an answer to this. This season, Xiaoding has returned after a gap of three years, and although the performance of 14.2 points per game in the first stage of the regular season is not amazing, Xiaoding has not played for so long and has performed after suffering two serious injuries, which has exceeded the expectations of too many people. In 10 games, he had 19 points in his comeback debut, and one game scored 34 points, 9 of 15 three-pointers, and 20+ in two games, which was still very good and occasionally exploded. But in the third stage, will Xiaoding still have such a performance?
Also: Can Allen Guo qualify for the regular season MVP?
According to the regular season MVP selection rules established before the start of the season, "you must play at least 26 regular season games to participate in the selection." So far, Guo Allen has only played 17 games, and if he wants to qualify, he must play at least 9 of the only 10 games left in the third stage. But at the moment, Guo Allen's leg injury has not healed, allowing him to basically maintain full attendance in the third stage, which seems very difficult. If he can't play at least 9 more regular season games, then Guo Allen will not even qualify for the regular season MVP selection this season, which will also be the second consecutive season for Guo Allen to be absent from the MVP candidate because he does not meet the relevant conditions.
The reason why Guo Allen was not put into the five major suspense is because combined with the current information from all aspects, Guo Allen's leg injury is difficult for him to play at least 9 games in the third stage. For this reason, Guo Allen did not qualify for the regular season MVP, and the suspense is actually not big.