After 17 games of returning from injury, Zhao Rui did not play comfortably in the first game of 2022. In the 32nd round of the CBA regular season, the Guangdong men's basketball team lost 93-106 to the North Control men's basketball team that lacked a major general, and Zhao Rui contributed 16 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, and was extremely hard at both ends of the attack and defense. However, his efforts eventually became futile. What is even more worrying is that he also withdrew from the game at the last moment of the game.
This was the game that Zhao Rui had longed for for a long time. Previously, due to the aggravation of the ankle injury and the extreme physical discomfort, Zhao Rui could no longer play for Guangdong after playing the first game of the second phase of the regular season, and the time of that game was still December 26, 2021. After more than two months of recovery and rest, Zhao Rui's body has made great progress, but after the start of the third stage, he can only watch the game on the sidelines, until this game against Beijing Control, Guangdong only arranged For Zhao Rui's comeback, during which he has missed 17 consecutive games in Guangdong, which is also Zhao Rui's debut in 2022. This is also a game that Guangdong fans or Zhao Rui fans have longed for for a long time. When Zhao Rui came back tonight, the topic of "Zhao Rui's comeback" instantly rushed to the hot search, and it was not difficult to see the attention of the majority of fans to Zhao Rui.
But after all, Zhao Ruijiu was absent from the battle, in order to let him go step by step, Guangdong head coach Du Feng did not let him start at the beginning, but replaced him after 5 and a half minutes of the first quarter. At that time, Guangdong started poorly, scoring only 6 points, but it was 9 points behind the lack of many main players in North Control. When the duo of Hu Mingxuan and Xu Jie did not work well, Du Feng hoped that Zhao Rui could use his impact to change Guangdong's passivity and inject more energy and vitality into Guangdong.
The effect of Zhao Rui's substitute appearance is also obvious. Just 4 seconds into the game, Zhao Rui created a foul on North Control foreign aid Landsberg. Half a minute later, Zhao Rui made another foul on the North Charge. In the few minutes after his debut, Zhao Rui fully demonstrated his presence. Whether it's making fouls, grabbing rebounds, or stealing and breaking through layups, Zhao Rui is almost everywhere. In the last attack of the first quarter, Zhao Rui showed his ability even more. The top of the arc and Zhou Peng blocked the demolition, Zhao Rui broke through from the gap to the basket, in the moment of attracting the two defenders of the North Control, Zhao Rui gave a wonderful pass to Ren Junfei under the basket, assisting the second fly under the basket to easily score.
This is the best embodiment of Zhao Rui's ability. As a tall defender with a height of 1.95 meters, he can organize the offensive Zhao Rui's impact on the basket, the scramble for rebounds, the all-around ability to defend the opponent's small foreign aid, and hu Mingxuan and Xu Jie, who are significantly better than the block or height loss, in the rapid counterattack, Zhao Rui's impact is at the top of the local defenders, whether it is the misplaced attack to open Wang Shaojie's tough layup, or the calm attack that changes speed and route in the counterattack, Zhao Rui has shown his best breakthrough power. After returning from the second quarter, Zhao Rui continued to make a foul and break through the basket performance of the North Control, but still gave Guangdong a lot of help. The defensive end chased the opponent to fan the ball out of bounds, which reflected his firepower. In the final attack of the second quarter, Zhao Rui broke through the left hand layup 2+1, still full of destructive power on the offensive end.
If you only look at the first three sections, Zhao Rui's performance can be quite satisfactory. Although he missed some layups that were close at hand, considering that Zhao Rui had not played for such a long time, it was normal that the feel still needed to be adjusted. More often, his impact on the basket and the pressure on the defensive end are enough to reflect why he is indispensable to Guangdong. Zhao Rui, who is particularly eager to win for Guangdong, is also full of hard work in his comeback debut, and almost any place that can help Guangdong can see him running hard or fighting. In the stadium of Foshan International Sports Culture and Performing Arts Center, Zhao Rui's every performance of hard work can win the cheers of the fans on the spot.
However, Zhao Rui is finally a comeback after a long time, his physical fitness has not reached the best, and after resting for such a long time, he has fought so hard in such a high-intensity game, which also caused Zhao Rui's physical fitness in the fourth quarter to plummet. He still quickly assisted Hu Mingxuan in a quick long pass at the beginning of the final quarter, playing a foothold in The North Control, but the further the game went, the physically exhausted Zhao Rui began to make frequent mistakes or miss the layup. When Guangdong has not been able to further narrow the point difference, but the game time is constantly passing, Zhao Rui's mood has become more and more impatient.
Three minutes and 31 seconds before the final, Zhao Rui defended north point defender Wang Junjie and was convicted of a foul. For this decision, Zhao Rui expressed his dissatisfaction by smashing the ball at a distance from the referee. This action immediately triggered complaints from the Beijing Control side, but fortunately, the referee did not punish Zhao Rui's technical prisoner at the first time. But Zhao Rui still did not calm down, when the referee asked Zhao Rui for the ball, Zhao Rui, who always refused to hand over the ball, was eventually blown and punished for technical fouls.
What's worse is that in the next round, Zhao Rui counterattacked with the ball, but his lower limbs were unstable at the moment of jumping under the basket, resulting in his right foot being weak, and he had to quit the game to the sidelines for treatment. At present, it is not clear whether Zhao Rui's injury is serious, but in view of Zhao Rui's many career weaknesses, his comeback debut and his retirement because of his feet, it is still inevitable that people are worried about Zhao Rui's injury. When the regular season competition has gradually entered the end, Guangdong simply cannot afford Zhao Rui to have any more mistakes.
After losing to Beijing Control, Guangdong was overtaken by Shenzhen and the ranking has slipped to sixth in the league. In a game of upset defeat, Zhao Rui, who has just returned, also retired due to injury, and for him, it is not difficult to imagine how uncomfortable this comeback battle feels.