The third quarter was also 21 points behind Liaoning, who ranked first in the regular season standings, and almost no one at this time would believe that the Shanghai Sharks men's basketball team would eventually be the winner of this game.
But such a big reversal is happening!
In the CBA regular season focus battle that ended tonight, the Sharks, who ranked second before this round, were 102:100, and the miraculous reversal defeated the leader Liaoning.
Through this victory, the Sharks have equaled Liaoning in the regular season win rate, the same 25 wins and 5 losses, temporarily rushed to the top of the standings with a slight advantage of mutual record dominance. The last time the Sharks were at the top of the standings in the regular season was in the 2016-17 season.
In this game, the biggest contributor to the Sharks filling in the 21-point "big pit" is Liu Zheng, who cut the team's highest 28 points.
The Sharks did well at the beginning of the game, Ren Junwei scored a strong attack under the basket, and Wang Zhelin pulled a three-point shot from the outside line, once taking the lead. But in the face of Liaoning's playoff intensity defense, the Sharks are obviously not adaptable. After being hit by Liaoning with a small 14-0 surge, the trailing point difference has been widened to double digits. In the first quarter, the big sharks made as many mistakes as 7 times under the strict defense of the Liaoning team. And in the rebounding in the backcourt, the Sharks also had problems, being grabbed 8 by the opponent in a single quarter, which directly led to the team's complete inability to play its own fast attack counterattack characteristics.
Liaoning, who entered the second quarter with a six-point advantage, continued to put pressure on the Sharks defensively. With no players on the team who can score with super individual ability, it is difficult for the Sharks to tear open the Liaoning team's defense line when the team cannot play the overall offense. On the contrary, Liaoning's backcourt double gun Zhao Jiwei and foreign assistant Fogg frequently scored, coupled with Zhang Zhenlin's external shot and internal surprise, always maintaining the point difference between the two teams at more than 10 points. At the end of the first half, the Sharks shot just over 30 percent from the field to 42:55, 13 points behind the leader Liaoning.
In the third quarter, the Liaoning team once widened the score gap to 21 points, but after taking a big lead, they also relaxed on the field. Although the Sharks were mainly on the bench, they took advantage of the situation to play a wave of high-quality counter-attacks, and at the end of the quarter, they still pushed the point difference back to 13 points.
In the final quarter of the showdown, the Sharks came up with a tight pressure on the whole field, and many times broke the ball to narrow the point difference to less than 10 points. In particular, Liu Zheng, who repeatedly hits outside the three-point line, is also the final finisher of the quick counterattack; and in defense, Liu Zheng's close defense and broken balls have well limited the offensive organization of the Liaoning team.
Wang Zhelin and Feng Lai's inner twin tower combination also began to play, and when there were 7 minutes and 14 seconds left before the end of the game, Wang Zhelin scored a strong attack from the basket, and the Sharks finally surpassed the score at 87:86 after a wave of 18:4 "big climax".
Since then, the scores of the two strongest teams in the league have alternately risen, and they have been glued until the last minute. After Vonle's basket attack, the Sharks led by one point 101:100. In the final stage, although Wang Zhelin made 1 of 4 free throws, it was Liu Zheng who caused the opponent to make mistakes with active defense in the final attack of the Liaoning team, helping the sharks finally win the "top battle".
Liu Zheng scored 28 points (5-of-7 from three-point range), 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 assist in the game. Wang Zhelin had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks; Vonle had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks.
First-year youngster Lee Tim Wing also had a brilliant performance, especially in the fourth quarter of the glue, he repeatedly made internal and external shots to send key points to the team, and scored the second highest 17 points in the whole team.
In this game, two members of the Liaoning team, Guo Allen and Li Xiaoxu, are absent due to injury, so the sharks cannot be complacent. The third phase of the regular season saw the two teams meet again, on March 18.
Of course, being able to achieve a 21-point reversal in the face of Liaoning does reflect the overall strength and temperament of the Sharks this season, and the huge progress compared to previous seasons, and it can even be said that it has revealed a little bit of championship appearance.
The next round of the Shanghai Sharks men's basketball team is at 3:30 p.m. this Sunday against the current tenth-ranked Jilin team.