The CBA playoff quarterfinals kicked off, a battle of grudges

After the first round of contention, the CBA Playoff Quarterfinals (Quarterfinals) will officially kick off on April 7. The same is a three-game two-win system with a small fault tolerance rate, but the difference is that with the addition of more strong teams, this round of the series will be more intense, and the enmity of each group will be staged again.

The confrontation between the Liaoning team and the Shanxi team seems to be full of strong "hostility", just because there are too many stories between the two sides. Not to mention that Shanxi's first round of victory was Guangzhou led by Liaoning Meritorious Coach Guo Shiqiang, and the Liaoning generals and Gao Shiyan, who was loaned abroad, did not bring good luck to the "old uncle", just to say that the experience of the two teams in the past few years is enough to write a lot of grievances.

Shanxi head coach Yang Xuezeng and veteran Zhang Chunjun should be particularly familiar with Liaoning. In the 2015-16 season, Liaoning, which was widely expected to win the championship, lost to Sichuan in the finals, and in the end, Yang Xuezeng, who coached Sichuan, became famous, and Zhang Chunjun also proved himself with his steady defense against Hudson. Today, Yang Xuezeng and Zhang Chunjun have joined forces in Shanxi, and Liaoning's local main lineup is almost unchanged, with a slight difference that Yang Ming has become the head coach of Liaoning, and Zhao Jiwei, who was reimbursed early for injury 6 years ago, can now come in handy. Guo Shiqiang's goal that could not be achieved in the first round will undoubtedly be achieved by Liaoning soldiers.

For Liaoning, there are still many "old acquaintances" in the Shanxi squad, foreign aid Simmons and Feld, and the local shooter Yuan Shuai are not strangers. Simmons first landed in the CBA last season to join Liaoning, but Simmons' play style is not suitable for Liaoning. After a dismal performance of 9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 16 games and averaging 12.1 minutes per game, Simmons was abandoned by Liaoning. This season, the former NBA striker returned to the CBA and successfully established himself in Shanxi, scoring the third highest score per game in the playoffs in the first round of elimination of Guangzhou, and averaging the top 8 rebounds and assists per game. Facing his old club Liaoning, Simmons should have been full of motivation without mobilization. It is also worth mentioning Liaoning's large foreign aid Moland, which is the first time he has stood in front of Shanxi as an opponent. In the past two seasons, he has worn the Shanxi jersey and worked hard for the team. This time, he and Simmons were both facing the Old Lord separately.

Feld and Liaoning formed a feud earlier. In the 2018-19 season, Felder, a newcomer to the CBA, helped Xinjiang eliminate the defending champion Liaoning 4-1. In the regular season this season, Shanxi beat Liaoning in the first meeting, and his "head-kick" foul against Zhao Jiwei in the last moments was not small. Now, Feld, the best international player in the regular season this season, will face a wheel war between Guo Allen, Zhao Jiwei and Ferge. There is also the original coach, the former Liaoning player and Close friend of Zhao Jiwei, who will also face his old club Liaoning in the playoffs for the first time in his career. He has made great progress in front of Guo Shiqiang, and he will not show mercy to Liaoning.

The showdown between Liaoning and Shanxi will be particularly eye-catching, and the fight between Zhejiang and Guangdong should also be quite fierce. As the two teams with the smallest ranking difference in the quarter-finals, Guangdong and Zhejiang have been mars splashes in the last two seasons. In the regular season this season, Guangdong and Zhejiang each won a big victory over their opponents, and when Guangdong suffered a fiasco, Zhao Rui was expelled for two technical fouls because he complained twice that the referee had received two technical fouls, and after the expulsion, Zhao Rui was also suspended for insulting the referee and fined 50,000 yuan. In last season's regular season, Guangdong and Zhejiang each won two games, in the duel, Du Feng was expelled, Marzan Brooks Achilles tendon rupture season reimbursement... These factors will push the series in Guangdong, Zhejiang to a climax.

In the past two seasons, Zhejiang has risen strongly under the leadership of young coach Liu Weiwei and has become the most successful youth army in the CBA, whether offensively or defensively, it is quite similar to Guangdong's style. They want to seize power, and the veteran giant Guangdong will not give in. In this round of competition, the two sides are bound to fight until the sky is dark. It's a shame that this series is just a best-of-three format.

There are also stories between Shanghai and Shenzhen. Five years ago, the two teams met in the playoffs, and even the regular season rankings were the same as this season - Shanghai third, Shenzhen sixth. In the end, Shenzhen was on the bottom, leaving shanghai's lonely back. In the fourth quarter of the second game of the series, Shenzhen foreign aid Pago's three-point kill was finally judged to be two points on the line, and the two sides finally entered overtime and Shenzhen lost. At that time, the CBA had not yet established a replay center, and although Shenzhen striker Gu Quan took out his mobile phone to play the scene taken by others to try to prove that Pago did not step on the line, he did not change the penalty, and this scene also led to a long stop of the game and chaos on the scene.

After 5 years, Shanghai and Shenzhen have changed greatly, the Shanghai players who participated in the playoffs 5 years ago have all left the team, and the familiar faces of Shanghai at that time are almost only the then head coach Liu Peng is still in the Shanghai squad (assistant coach). Shenzhen's player of the year, Shen Zijie became the core of Shenzhen from the rookie of the year, Yang Linyi became the main force from the marginal person at that time, and Qiu Biao, who did not play in Shanghai, became the head coach of Shenzhen. There is also Gu Quan, who celebrated with the "throat cutting" action after shooting a key three points in the life and death battle, and is still the backbone of Shenzhen. What is more special is that Luo Hanchen, who helped Shenzhen eliminate Shanghai in that year, is now the main defender of Shanghai.

In this season's regular season, Shenzhen doubled against Shanghai, and it is precisely because of this that Shenzhen will deliberately let water lose some games in the final stage of the regular season and lock in the sixth place in the regular season, so as to look forward to facing Shanghai in the quarterfinals. Now that Shenzhen has fulfilled its wish, how will Shanghai respond? It has also become highly anticipated.

Comparatively speaking, the enmity between Guangsha and Jilin is much less, except that the two sides fought in the playoffs last season, and there are almost no antagonistic factors in the history of the two teams, but the affection may be more. Guangsha head coach Wang Bo was the main player in Jilin when he was a player, and he and Wang Han, the current head coach of Jilin, fought side by side in Jilin that year. Although they have long been their own masters, there is not much interaction between the two people. Last season's All-Star Weekend, Wang Bo also helped Wang Han tie. At the same time, Guangsha core defender Sun Minghui is facing his hometown team, which also makes Guangsha Jilin series look a little different.

The CBA is a jianghu, and it is inevitable that there will be swords and lights and drums and horns. With the collective appearance of the regular season finalists Liaoning, Guangsha, Shanghai and Zhejiang in the quarterfinals, the competition for the playoffs this season will also usher in a new bloody storm, and these grudges will also help the eight-round competition to reach its peak.