On April 7, Beijing time, the CBA playoffs 8 into 4 a contest to take the lead, Liaoning men's basketball team to meet the Shanxi men's basketball team, the first half of Shanxi bit the score, half behind 7 points. Liaoning broke out in the third quarter to open up the point difference, although Shanxi stubbornly chased points, but Liaoning still grasped the advantage, and finally defeated Shanxi 116-104, won the series of opening red, in the three-game two-win format to take the lead, to win the hot strong impact on the championship.
Liaoning is the regular season champion, to yi wait for the direct promotion to the top 8, Shanxi won the 9th place in the regular season, the first round they eliminated Guangzhou 2-1, under the leadership of the famous coach Yang Xuezeng, Shanxi's combat effectiveness is very good, they also defeated Liaoning in the regular season. In this game, Simmons and the original coach both face the old master.
Both teams are the strongest lineups to play, Shanxi in the first quarter of the state is good, biting the score, Simmons is very excited to face the old owner, Liaoning relies on Guo Allen to maintain the advantage, the first quarter Liaoning took a 5-point lead. Liaoning gradually opened up in the middle of the second quarter, leading by 15 points at one point, but at the end of the quarter Liaoning made consecutive mistakes, conceding 8 consecutive points in 50 seconds, and Liaoning only led by 7 points at halftime. Guo Allen was in very good form, scoring 15 points and five assists on 5-of-6 shooting at halftime.
Shanxi's physical weakness began to appear in the third quarter, Liaoning seized the opportunity to quickly open up the point difference, Guo Allen was unstoppable in this quarter, almost no false hair, 15 points and 5 assists in a single quarter of 8 shots, 7 shots in a single quarter, the first three quarters have 30 points and 10 assists, Liaoning once widened the point difference to 24 points in this section, and At the end of the third quarter, Liaoning led by 20 points, almost killing the suspense of the game in advance.
Guo Allen continued to play in the final quarter, Shanxi came up to play a wave of 6-0 to narrow the point difference, and Shanxi scored 5 consecutive points after the suspension, and the point difference came to single digits. Liaoning quickly stabilized the situation and opened the point difference again, Guo Allen forced Zhang Ning to score, Liaoning led by 17 points, and there were less than 4 minutes left in the game. In the subsequent game, Liao Basket firmly controlled the rhythm, and finally defeated Shanxi and won the opening of the series.
Guo Allen played an MVP-level performance in this campaign, 16 of 21 shots, 2 of 2 of the outside, 6 of 6 from the free throw line, efficiently bombed 40 points, 10 assists and 3 rebounds, the highest plus-minus value of the whole team, showing the style of the first point guard in Shanxi, when Shanxi was crazy to chase points, Guo Allen stood up, proving that he was the strongest trump card of Liao Basket. Zhang Zhenlin, Zhao Jiwei, Ferge, Moland and Fu Hao also scored in double figures.
Although Shanxi lost, their performance was very tenacious, Simmons on the bench scored 25 points, another bench player Yan Pengfei also got 22 points and 9 rebounds, the original coach scored 17 points, and Feld also had 25 points.