The Liaoyue War stopped and fell, between the ups and downs, no one had expected that the final victory or defeat would be controlled by 23-year-old Zhang Zhenlin and 22-year-old Xu Jie.
In 49 minutes and 42 seconds, Zhang Zhenlin played the entire second half and overtime, and two three-pointers in the last quarter allowed Liaoning to complete the counterattack from the full game, and two three-point reversals in overtime to lock in the victory. 33 points and 9 rebounds, this is the highest score of Zhang Zhenlin's playoff career, and his regular season career-high 46 points are also against Guangdong, and 8 three-pointers are also so sharp.
Du Feng guided in the battle of life and death with a small fight, Guangdong Qi soldiers exhausted, Zhang Zhenlin became the eye of the array.
Tang Jie appeared in just four minutes of the game, the first playoff game of his career, and he had never appeared in several previous games. Guangdong in a desperate situation to find another way, a change in the previous short rotation of the shackles, Tang Jie appeared on the scene to chase Guo Allen, Guangdong contracted defense, Liaoning instead overwhelmed.
Since then, Xu Jie, who has appeared on the scene, has become a firm executor of the guangdong small play big idea, with a height of only 178cm, he is the thinnest player in the Liao-Yue war. Guangdong once lined up the magical lineup of Xu Jie, Tang Jie, Hu Mingxuan, Wang Shaokai and Su Wei on the field, defending Liaoning with the ultimate defensive rotation speed.
This line of thinking runs through the whole game, Zhang Zhenlin, who is 205cm tall, has become the key to Yang Ming's guidance to deal with the changes, and in the second quarter, Liaoning has also changed the lineup, allowing Zhang Zhenlin to go from the Top 3 position to the 4th position, and once let him and Li Xiaoxu guard the inner line together in the second half. But Liaoning's response is right in the middle of Guangdong's lower heart, fighting speed, spelling conversion, Guangdong has the upper hand.
Zhang Zhenlin, who is already in the second year of his career, has seen the speed of guangdong's conversion and understands the weaknesses of the opponent's defense. Zhang Zhenlin in the last quarter decisively fired cannons on the outside, and in the last quarter and overtime, he shot a total of 7 three-point shots, and all 3 shots in overtime were actually three-pointers.
Dunk king Zhang Zhenlin is not only physically talented, but also has excellent projection skills.
One of the most talented players in the league today, Zhang Zhenlin is considered to be the representative of the future front line of the Chinese men's basketball team as soon as he enters the league, but in his rookie year he still swings in the 3-4 position, and the national team is inexperienced and does not perform well. This season, he has focused on improving his ball holding and defensive ability, and although his shooting percentage has dropped significantly from last season to 42.4%, his role on the floor is even greater than in the past.
As the head coach of the national team, Du Feng coached in the past year, very much hope to transplant Guangdong's playing style to the men's basketball team, the inside line he has Zhou Qi and Hu Jinqiu, the two continue to improve has been able to compare with the peak of the year Yi Jianlian. On the defensive line, in addition to bringing Guangdong, he also has a double star in the Liaoning backcourt, but the front line is really difficult to choose.
Du's guidance was exhaustive, and the life-and-death battle completely broke the rotation of Guangdong, and exchanged the extreme small lineup for the opportunity to attack Liaoning. But in the end, it was Zhang Zhenlin, who grew rapidly, who shattered Guangdong's hopes. His impact on rebounds is still as strong as last season, and in the position war, tall three-point shooters are also points that Guangdong defense can't take care of, and this night's 6 three-pointers buried the guangdong dynasty's last counterattack.
Zhang Zhenlin's performance is exactly what Du Zhenlin expects to see in the national team, resolute three-point shots, smooth transfer of the ball, and active defense, Zhang Zhenlin seems to be everywhere on the field, and this vitality is the destroyer of the balance of power in the Liao-Guangdong war. In the past, Guangdong had super strong forwards to help Sony Weems, and Director Du was also looking forward to having the same impactful players in the national team.
Opposite Zhang Zhenlin, the younger Xu Jie made people shine.
The core figure of Guangdong's offensive and defensive ends is Zhao Rui, who played 43 minutes and 53 seconds in the whole game, and is also the most balanced star of attack and defense among local defenders. He averaged 20+ per game in the playoffs last season, and his performance after returning to the national team this year was very impressive, but he missed many games in the regular season due to injury, and now he is the best leader after Yi Jianlian and Zhou Peng.
Du's guidance of rice cooking is very tragic, Guangdong's extreme small lineup, and even once put Zhao Rui under the basket to protect the frame, although Liaoning was caught off guard, but it was not a long-term solution after all. Zhao Rui's physical strength on the offensive end was also not guaranteed, and he was too tired to break through at the last moment, so Du Gave Xu Jie the opportunity.
In the final moments of the CBA semifinals, in the life and death of the league's top-level showdown against the Liaoyue War, we finally saw a picture that could not be imagined: Xu Jie, who was 179cm tall, faced Eric Moland, a big foreign aid 30cm taller than him, and resolutely completed the singles, breakthroughs, emergency stops, mid-range, and knife drops at the top of the arc.
At first glance, unlike what Chris Paul has done in the NBA for more than a decade, many people have always thought that Xu Jie is at most the level of the CBA main lineup rotation, but this season he averaged 12.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.1 steals, shooting 44.5%, even a little higher than Zhang Zhenlin.
Like the elf Xu Jie, he is the biggest harvest in Guangdong this season, not one of them.
Zhao Rui's injury and Hu Mingxuan's downturn, the final achievement is Xu Jie's experience in a season, he played 30.9 minutes per game, and he stubbornly carried those rounds that he could not carry. Before single-handedly picking out Morland, he played against Howe in the last battle, and after pulling away on the left side, he clearly moved across the three points, which was also very exciting.
Xu Jie in the playoffs was better than in the regular season, averaging 14.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1 steal per game, shooting 47.7% from the field and 44.4% from three-point range. The singles arranged for him are not Du's temporary intentions, no coach will use the end of a season to make a bet, in fact, Xu Jie has completed a lot of small hits this year, and this move will be the norm of his career in the future.
In the Liaoyue War, the season ended early after Zhou Peng fell, and the national team had a heavy task shortly after the end of the season, and Zhang Zhenlin used this victory to prove to Du that he would be the best candidate for the main front of the national team. The core of Liaoning is still a double star in the backcourt, but maybe he can't wait two seasons, he will be Liaoning's number one star.
Xu Jie's competition is far greater than Zhang Zhenlin,Before that, many people said that if it wasn't for Du Feng's guidance as head coach, he couldn't have entered the national team. It is true that his physical condition is the worst in the national team, can enter the national team a year later to see, today's Xu Jie, cool and clear-headed, vacant three-point accurate and stable, small play level has also undergone the test, he is not the level of the national team starting defender, but the big list is indispensable to him.
The CBA's player ecology is not good, and the competition is far less fierce than that of the NBA, but the internal competition between Liaoning and Guangdong has always been ahead of other teams. When the veteran carries the weight forward, the young people will not take the opportunity to lazily rest, they will continue to temper themselves until they take over the ten thousand pounds of burden.
Guangdong fell on the road of charging is very tragic, but the backs of Zhao Rui, Hu Mingxuan, and Xu Jie make people feel at ease, and Liaoning once again leads to the finals, and you can read in Zhang Zhenlin's face, that is the champion.