In the first game of the CBA playoff semifinals of the season playoffs tonight, the shanghai sharks men's basketball team, the third place in the regular season, lost to zhejiang Guangsha, the second place in the regular season, 93:108.
Zhejiang Guangsha has killed the big shark twice in the regular season stage, and it should be said that their overall strength is indeed above the big shark.
The two teams fought for defense in this game, and the Sharks had a smooth hand in the opening stage, especially Liu Zheng came up to score 4 points in a row, and then used a dunk after a steal. After a wave of 7-0, the Sharks took the lead in raising the lead to double digits. However, since then, Hu Jinqiu and Okafor's interior twin towers have played a role in limiting the Sharks' attack. Coupled with their accurate three-pointers on the outside line, relying on a wave of 12:0 small climaxes, Sharks head coach Li Chunjiang had to call the first timeout.
After the suspension, the Sharks continued to improve their defensive intensity, and Zhejiang Guangsha did not score a single point until the end of the season. However, the big shark itself did not have a very good way to do anything too good for Zhejiang Guangsha, which was also strictly guarded, but narrowed the gap of the original 9 points to 5 points.
In the second quarter, the Sharks, whose offense was still not going well, were pulled away by their opponents again. Fortunately, in the second half of the quarter, the Sharks' outside line regained its touch, Liu Zheng hit two three-pointers, and Ren Junwei also hit a three-pointer, narrowing the point difference to 3 points at one point. Zhejiang Guangsha remained solid on offense and maintained a good scoring rhythm, and they entered the halftime with a score of 46:40.
In the first half, whether it was the Sharks or Zhejiang Guangsha, the mistakes of both teams exceeded 10 times, which showed the fierceness of the competition. Zhejiang Guangsha, which can shoot the most accurate shots in the league's regular season, suppressed the shooting rate to 37.8%, indicating that the Sharks are still successful defensively.
Liu Zheng, who shot 100 percent from three-point range, was the Sharks' highest half-time scorer and the only player to reach double figures, scoring 12 points, two rebounds and three steals.
In the opening stage of the second half, Hu Jinqiu of Zhejiang Guangsha fell into no man's land under the basket and scored 8 points in one go. The team's three-point shooting rate of up to 50% helped Zhejiang Guangsha expand the point difference to 13 points.
Big Shark head coach Li Chunjiang sent Li Tianrong at a critical moment, and the "first-year freshman" became a surprise soldier. He started by scoring the basket twice, then stealing the opponent's pass and then getting on the basket and scoring two more points. The Sharks played a 11-0 run in the final moments of the third quarter to narrow the gap to two points, with Lee Contributing 8 points alone.
In the fourth quarter, Lee Tim Wing hit another three-point shot to help the Sharks win 75:74. He scored 11 points on all five of his first five shots, making him the team's highest shooting percentage in the regular season.
But since then, the Sharks have fallen into a foul crisis, not only the whole team has reached 5 fouls early, but the main center Wang Zhelin has also been replaced with 5 fouls on his back. Liu Zheng, who performed well in this game, could not reappear due to ankle problems.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhejiang Guangsha once again took the lead, and gradually expanded the point difference to 16 points with more than 1 minute left through continuous three-point shooting. The Sharks were unable to return to the sky and could only accept the result of the first defeat in the semi-finals.
The shark's highest scorer in this game was Liu Zheng, who retired early and did not play in the final fourth quarter. He scored 17 points and contributed five steals. Big foreign player Von Lay had 15 points and nine rebounds; Qishi Li Tim Wing had 13 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal in 16 minutes. Captain Jellyn Wang had 15 points, four rebounds and two assists; junior foreign player Franklin had 12 points, six rebounds, eight assists and one steal.
On the Zhejiang Guangsha side, Sun Minghui scored a double-double of 27 points and 11 assists; Hu Jinqiu and big foreign player Okafu combined to get 42 points and 22 rebounds under the basket.
In the semi-finals of 5-3 wins, Zhejiang Guangsha won first, and the second match between the two teams will be played at 7.35pm this Friday.
In another semi-final match played yesterday, Liaoning won the first big victory over defending champions Guangdong.