On April 8, the 2021-22 CBA playoff quarterfinals (best-of-three) continued in Nanchang Division. There are two games today, namely Guangsha vs Jilin and Shanghai vs Shenzhen. Here's a preview of today's game —
15:00 Guangsha vs Jilin
This is the second time in the history of the two teams that the two teams have met in the playoffs, and the second consecutive season in which the two teams have met in the playoffs. Last season, Guangsha easily eliminated Jilin in the first round of the playoffs. Today, the overall strength of Guangsha still occupies a clear advantage. The twin towers of Hu Jinqiu and super foreign aid Okafor are Guangsha's biggest advantage, as the MVP of this season's regular season, Hu Jinqiu has won 20+10 in both regular season games in Jilin this season. Okafor, who joined in the final stages of the regular season, has been fully integrated into Guangsha. In the face of Jilin, which has no big foreign aid and mediocre local internal strength, Guangsha needs to give full play to their internal advantages. Main defender Sun Minghui's performance in the two regular season games in Jilin fluctuated, if he can have a better performance, Guangsha's hope of winning will be greater.
Jilin swept Beijing 2-0 in the first round of this season's playoffs. After completing the promotion of "below grams", the confidence of "dark horse" Jilin doubled. In the first round, foreign aid Jones played a triple-double and a quasi-triple-double, and was still the number one contributor to Jilin's victory. In the regular season, he led Jilin to defeat Guangsha. Facing Guangsha in the playoffs, Jones's play still affects the fate of Jilin Province. Jiang Weize, who is called "CBA top five players" by Jones, and Jiang Yuxing, who was selected to the second team of domestic players in the regular season, are the other two strong points in Jilin outside of Jones, and "two gingers" also need to share the pressure for Jones.
19:35 Shanghai vs Shenzhen
It was also the second time in the history of the two teams that the two teams had played each other in the playoffs. In the 2016-17 season, Shanghai lost 2-3 on aggregate to Shenzhen. In the regular season this season, although Shanghai ranked high, it was double-killed by Shenzhen. Wang Zhelin only participated in the second game between the two sides due to injury, scoring 17 points and 7 rebounds on 7-of-10 shooting, but the Shanghai double foreign aid performed mediocrely, especially the small foreign aid Franklin. Coming to the playoffs, if Shanghai wants to win Shenzhen and avoid being "under the gram", in addition to Wang Zhelin needs to play well, the performance of double foreign aid Feng Lai and Franklin is also very critical.
Shenzhen swept Shandong 2-0 in the first round of this season's playoffs. The core of the team, Shen Zijie, shot 15 of 18 in two games, such as entering no man's land, and the dominance of both ends of the attack and defense was full. As the best defensive player in the regular season this season, Shen Zijie needs to continue the performance of the first round and the regular season double-kill Shanghai in order to create a counterattack opportunity for Shenzhen, and the alignment between him and Wang Zhelin in the inner line of the two national players is full of points. Other players in Shenzhen, in addition to the double foreign aid Booker and Salinger, Gu Quan is also a very important firepower point. In the first round, he scored 38 points and 19 rebounds in two games, contributing a lot to Shenzhen. Against Shanghai's front group, Gu Quan needs to continue the fiery state of the first round.