On April 9, Beijing time, the first round of the CBA playoffs was 12-8 as scheduled. The Shanghai men's basketball team, ranked 5th, and the Jiangsu men's basketball team ranked 12th, and the Shandong men's basketball team, ranked eighth, and the Guangzhou men's basketball team, ranked 9th, took the lead in the battle.
In the end, the Shandong men's basketball team lost 76-93 at home to the Guangzhou men's basketball team; The Shanghai men's basketball team beat the Jiangsu men's basketball team 119-95 at home to win the match point of the series.
In these two games, we witnessed the MVP of the edge, and we witnessed the rise of the shining teenager.
Shandong VS Guangzhou Under grams, teenager flash
At the age of 19, Cui Yongxi became the starter of the Chinese men's basketball team; At the age of 19, Choi Yonghee was elected the CBA Star Player of the Year and was selected into the CBA All-Star Team; At the age of 19, Choi Yong-hee scored 20 points in a single game in the first game of his career playoffs, while pocketing the victory.
In this round of the series between Shandong and Guangzhou, Guangzhou was not the dominant party in terms of personnel or strength before the game. Looking at the ranking, Shandong ranked 8th, followed by Guangzhou ranked 9th; Looking at the personnel, Shandong's main players are not plagued by injuries, while Guangzhou's main center Li Yanzhe and defender Tian Yuheng are unable to play due to injury. Judging from the head-to-head record, this season's regular season, Shandong played 2-0 against Guangzhou. Moreover, Shandong also has a home field advantage in the playoffs.
Despite this unfavorable objective conditions, Guangzhou relied on a more solid outside defense, more selfless team cooperation, and Cui Yongxi's brave play to win Shandong in one fell swoop away from home and take the lead in this round of 3 games and 2 wins series.
In the whole game, Guangzhou grabbed 53 rebounds, 6 more than Shandong, gave 16 assists, 6 more than Shandong, and 3 more blocks than Shandong.
"This game is a win for our team. I've always stressed that whether it's defensive or offensive, we have to play team basketball. Today's match was actually very difficult, because Li Yanzhe and Tian Yuheng were injured before the game and could not play. And Shandong is also very strong, it is a very difficult game for us. Winning today is a win by team and defense. Everyone did a really good job and reflected the team basketball. And the second one, we have to give it our all and prepare, which is very important for us. After the game, Guangzhou men's basketball head coach Guo Shiqiang said.
The most intuitive reason why Shandong lost the game is that their shooting in this game is too poor. In the whole game, Shandong shot 29.8% from the field on 25-of-84 shooting, a new low in team history in a single game in the playoffs. He shot just 21.9 percent from 7-of-32 from three-point range. Starting guard Gao Shiyan felt even more cold, hitting only 1 of 13 shots, scoring only 6 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. The two small foreign aides were also muted at the same time, totaling 2 of 11.
However, poor shooting feel can only be regarded as a fig leaf, but it is not the root cause. The opening offensive feel of both sides was not good, and the two teams only hit 1 of their first 8 three-point shots. In the second quarter of the game, both sides did not score for nearly 3 consecutive minutes. Instead, Gillenwater scored five straight points on the inside to help Shandong 33-32 again. Later, Guangzhou team through three points and free throws, and played a 7-0 attack wave, Chen Peidong three points to stop the bleeding, Jia Mingru and Jiao Boqiao hit two consecutive three-pointers, Guangzhou team 47-40 Shandong team led to end the first half.
In the third quarter of the game, Guangzhou strengthened the strength of the outside clip, forcing Shandong to make consecutive mistakes. And Shandong, which has repeatedly failed to open the situation on the offensive end, has also shown slackening on the defensive end. In one of the rounds, after blocking, the defensive Shandong watched Chen Yingjun go to the empty basket.
Winning Shandong, Guangzhou won their second playoff game in team history. Last year, they won their first playoff victory against Shanxi in the playoffs 12-8, but they still did not escape the fate of elimination. This year, the young team in Guangzhou has gone to the next level under the guidance of famous coach Guo Shiqiang and become a more mature team. However, no matter how mature the team is, it must also have the backbone, there was probably only one Chen Yingjun before, and now there is Cui Yongxi.
In this game, Choi Yongxi played 42 minutes, cut 20 points and 5 rebounds, and had a plus-minus of +13. In the game, Choi Yonghee was quite active, showing his rich offensive methods and excellent physical talent to the fullest.
In the first quarter of the game, he staged a good scene of one-handed blocking Jia Cheng, which shocked four people.
Fixed-point three-pointers, mid-range shots in the stop, step-back jumpers, breakthrough layups, baskets... Playing the playoffs for the first time, Choi Yong-hee has no court fear, and he always has a way to get the ball into the basket.
Guo Shiqiang will specially develop tactics for Cui Yongxi, the whole team will create singles opportunities for Cui Yongxi, and foreign aid will willingly cooperate with him, which shows how much Cui Yongxi is valued in the Guangzhou team. In the CBA, when the team will give the offensive responsibility to a 19-year-old, what does that say?
After returning from the national team, Choi Yonghee turned into a butterfly. Under the promotion of Jordjevic and the reuse of Guo Shiqiang, Cui Yongxi has improved his ability step by step, and his self-confidence on the field has increased geometrically as his ability improves.
If you've watched Cui Yongxi's game, you'll have a little more faith in Guangzhou winning the series, and you'll expect more from Chinese basketball.
Shanghai VS Jiangsu Wang Zhelin dominates the inside line, showing the strength of MVP
This season, the Shanghai men's basketball team and the Jiangsu men's basketball team have met twice in the regular season, with Shanghai beating Jiangsu 116-101 and 90-84 home and away respectively.
Therefore, the series between Shanghai and Jiangsu was originally a set of games with little suspense, but with the ban of Shanghai overseas aid Bradsoe, the situation of victory and defeat seems to have a suspense. However, under the leadership of Wang Zhelin, the most valuable player of the season, Shanghai is still strong, and it is like a storm that lightly beats Jiangsu.
In this game, Wang Zhelin, who scored 61 points in the final round of the regular season, once again showed his edge. He played 36 minutes and 41 seconds, shooting 16-of-23 from the field and 1-of-4 from the field to score a game-high 33 points, plus 12 boards, 4 assists and 3 blocks.
According to statistics, this game is the second 30+10 in Wang Zhelin's playoff career, and the last time has to be traced back to the 2018-19 season. At that time, Wang Zhelin represented Fujian, and he had 31 points and 23 rebounds in the playoff game against Liaoning. Coincidentally, that season was the first time in Wang Zhelin's career that he was named the Most Valuable Player in the regular season.
Shanghai overseas aid Bledsoe on April 5 in the fourth quarter of the game between Shanghai and Beikong with 6 minutes and 37 seconds, and during the field against Beikong player Ma Yong, after the on-the-spot umpire awarded Ma Yong a foul, Bledsoe still swung his arms, causing the two sides to fight each other. Bradsoe was suspended for four games and fined RMB 140,000.
Perhaps because of Bradsoe's absence, Wang Zhelin was full of fire at the beginning of the game, scoring seven consecutive points on 3-of-3 shooting in the opening game. Blackney hit a three-point shot, and Liu Zhixuan and Xu Mengjun hit three points in a row, approaching a three-point gap. Wang Zhelin countered to score four consecutive points, and at the end of the first quarter, Shanghai led by seven points 36-29.
In the second quarter, Jiangsu once chased the score to 47 draws. It was Wang Zhelin who played a role again, hitting a 2+1 basket while also shooting a mid-range emergency stop. At halftime, Shanghai led Jiangsu by 10 points 67-57. In the second half of the game, the leading Shanghai did not slack, did not let Jiangsu find a chance. With Liu Zheng's three-point shot, Shanghai led by 21 points. In the final quarter, Wang Zhelin and Yan Pengfei took turns attacking the inside line, widening the gap to 26 points. The game loses its suspense.
From this game, it can be seen that the two sides are indeed not on the same level. After the game, Jiangsu men's basketball head coach Li Nan also concluded: "I don't think we are very comfortable with this fierce confrontation, and the two sides fought fiercely throughout the first half. But after the third quarter, we were not very comfortable with this close pressing, the defensive hardness was relatively large, there was interference with our offense, and we were hit by Shanghai too much.
Shanghai's 2-0 knockout of Jiangsu seems to be a foregone conclusion, and it's no surprise that they will face their old rivals Shenzhen in the next round. If Shanghai sweeps Jiangsu, then Bledsoe will miss the first two games of the series against Shenzhen. Although Merleau Trimble's performance is also remarkable, is Shanghai willing to bear without Bledsoe?