On the court, a one-point difference separated Shenzhen from the CBA Finals. Off the court, Shen Zijie, the core of the Shenzhen team, who was absent due to injury, also lost his best chance to redeem.
After being scolded for three consecutive years, this was Shen Zijie's best chance to redeem. But because of his serious foot, Shen Zijie could only sit on the sidelines in civilian clothes to cheer and nervousness for the Shenzhen team in the crucial life and death battle.
During the game, the camera turned on him from time to time. When the team's big foreign aid Sullinger shot a three-point shot in the last minute to overtake Shenzhen by one point, Shen Zijie got up excitedly and roared. He really wanted to celebrate with hugs and high-fives with the people around him, but everyone around him was laughing at himself, and he didn't care about "Big Bird". Calm down, like the rest of the game, he lowered his head and locked his eyebrows almost the whole time, blocked the lower half of his face from time to time with his hands, and carefully watched his teammates fight on the field.
He wants to play more than anyone, not only because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Shenzhen to compete for the finals, but also because he wants to prove himself more than ever and help Shenzhen more than ever.
As you know, since Shen Zijie was promoted to the core of the Shenzhen team in the 2020-21 season, when his performance was widely recognized, his various bizarre behaviors also wasted the efforts of the Shenzhen team for one season in a row, and even recruited himself.
In 2020-21, Shen Zijie averaged a career-high 16.7 points and 11.3 rebounds, plus 2.8 blocks, which are still the highest of his career. That season, he was widely acclaimed, and the Shenzhen team, which chose to rebuild and trade Li Muhao and Yu Dehao before the start of the season, also returned to the playoffs under Shen Zijie. In the regular season, he completed the final kill again in front of Zhou Qi, a 23-year-old local super insider, which seems to have been born.
But before the start of the playoffs, Shen Zijie chose to go out privately in violation of the rules of the conference system at that time, and Shen Zijie was banned for one game. In the end, in the first round of the 12-8 playoffs, Shenzhen lost to Beijing in a single knockout format, which also caused Shen Zijie to be criticized a lot.
In the 2021-22 season, Shen Zijie averaged 14.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game, once again leading Shenzhen to the playoffs. After sweeping Shandong 12 to 8, Shenzhen met Shanghai in the quarterfinals. It would have been a great lead, and with the regular season having the upper hand against Shanghai, all signs are that Shenzhen can advance to the semifinals. But when the big score was ahead, Shen Zijie suddenly burst into foul language and scolded teammate He Xining for not defending, and even chattered after He Xining's explanation, resulting in infighting among the team and losing a good game. And this is completely Shen Zijie's pot, the fact is that He Xining has long retreated, and Shen Zijie himself did not see it.
In addition, last summer, Shen Zijie represented the national team for the second year in a row, but performed poorly in international competitions.
In this way, this young insider, who had high hopes, led to widespread criticism because of his impetuous personality and manners.
This season, Shen Zijie's performance has declined significantly, and he even misplaced to grab rebounds against Guangzhou, and was actually grabbed by the short opponent behind him for consecutive rebounds. This also made public opinion almost swallow Shen Zijie.
He himself was depressed and decadent. At one point, he told his father, "I basically didn't want to fight, I told my dad, 'If I don't have fun, I won't fight, I'm too tired.'" But at the end of the regular season, the CBA coach's vote showed that Shen Zijie was re-elected as the best defensive player, an unexpected award and recognition from the CBA coaching community, which gave him some confidence and made him choose to persevere.
But after the start of the playoffs, Shen Zijie was still a little anxious. He said he was anxious, insomnia, and really stressed, just because "I made too many mistakes, so I always remind myself that I have to be cautious this year." He's also really become more mature, both in terms of performance and mannerisms, completely different from his own playoff self in the past two seasons.
Before the semifinals, Shen Zijie scored 22 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in Game 3 and Game 4 of the series, and finished a key layup in less than 2 seconds in Game 4, almost scoring the winning goal for Shenzhen. Unfortunately, Shen Zijie was severely stubborn in this layup and could not play at the last moment, and as Zhejiang returned the game to the home court with a three-point shootout, the Shenzhen team without Shen Zijie finally lost by one point in the tie-for-five.
Shen Zijie told his girlfriend that he "regretted not insisting on playing in the final minute of Game 4", but to be fair, Shen Zijie in this season's playoffs has changed the way some people think about him.
But the final ordeal is known only to him. This is his best chance to redeem, if he plays, the Shenzhen team can definitely get more help, whether it is to protect the basket or some offense under the basket, even if the Shenzhen team enters the finals Shen Zijie's performance declines, it will not affect his reputation too much. After all, this is the best opportunity for the Shenzhen team to impact the finals so far, and Shen Zijie's performance is also seen by everyone.
But with Shenzhen grabbing five games and losing one point, Shen Zijie, who was watching the game off the field due to injury, can only leave regrets after all. Compared with the teammates who played but failed to win the game, Shen Zijie is obviously the one who regrets the most.