The finals of the CBA2023-24 season officially began, and the first game was played by Liaoning Bengang at home to meet the challenge of Xinjiang Elite. As the defending champion, the Liaoning men's basketball team made a dream start in the first quarter and established a double-digit point difference, but the Xinjiang team did not give up, repeatedly approaching the score, and even forced the Liaoning team to replace the main force to stabilize the situation in the last two minutes, and finally the home team also won the series 121-112, taking a solid first step for the cause of three consecutive championships!
In this battle, the difficulty of the game actually far exceeded what the score presented. After the rematch in the second half, Yang Ming directed Han Dejun to the starter, and achieved good results, and the score difference once stretched to as many as 21 points. The huge lead gave Yang Ming the illusion that he could be rotated appropriately, so he replaced Dahan and Fergus, and replaced Handdi and Moreland. Unexpectedly, this substitution attempt, almost playing with fire - the Xinjiang team saw that there was only one reliable ball control point left in Jiwei on the Liaoning court, and immediately pressed the whole court, and the score difference was suddenly narrowed to less than 10 points.
Just when everyone was sweating for the Liaoning team, an old man and a young man in the Liaoning team stepped forward to save the team. Han Dejun fully explained what it means to "have an old man in the family, if there is a treasure", "Kung Fu Panda" took out eighteen kinds of martial arts in the third quarter, and scored 12 points in a single quarter, stabilizing the position of the Liaoning team. Han scored 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting, and he had a great advantage in the face of Wu Guanxi and Lee Yanzhe. And this is the 26-year-old Fu Hao, who relied on his play in the fourth quarter, scoring 13 points in a single quarter to lock in the victory for the team. Fu Hao shot 12 of 15 from the field, scoring 29 points, 9 rebounds and 1 assist, with such an efficient performance, Fu Hao was also elected MVP in the first game of the finals.
Of course, although Liaoning won the first victory as desired, it cannot be taken lightly, the three players in the team have played more than 40+ time, which consumes a lot, especially Jiwei, who only rested for two minutes, and the Xinjiang team is also consciously consuming him, this round of the series, Jiwei is destined not to be easy. Director Yang Ming also said afterwards that in fact, they won on the experience of the finals, and their whole team still needs to work harder, Fu Hao said that he has more time to play to show himself, and it is an honor to be able to fight side by side with a legendary veteran like Dahan.
For the Xinjiang team, they need to stabilize their emotions. The forward combination of Abdul Salamu and Qi Lin, who had high hopes, did not play at all in this game. Qi Lin was even whistled for a controversial foul in the game because of the round of defending Fu Hao (the front elbow was fouled but not blown, and then the thug was controversial), and he was directly angry and turned on the Korean referee who blew the penalty, and thus received a second technical foul and was ejected from the game. It can only be said that Qi Lin still needs to better control his emotions, the team needs him to provide stable projection, and only Jones and Wiggington can't beat the Liaoning team.
Of course, the bigger problem lies with Abdul Salamu. As the MVP of the regular season this season, Abudu directly turned on the stealth mode this time, made 2 of 8 in the whole game, and a beautiful long-range shot disappeared, he shot 1 three-pointer, and repeatedly missed opportunities under the basket close to the basket. Abdul Salamu's performance is undoubtedly disappointing. I still hope he can cheer up as soon as possible, after all, the fans still hope that both sides can play at their best level and give us the highest level of game content, come on!