On New Year's Eve, the Beijing-Liaoning match took place at the Beijing home court. In the end, the Beijing team defeated the Liaoning team 105-90, achieving a double kill for the season and also ending Liaoning's four-game winning streak.
Although Liaoning's lineup was incomplete, it was not easy for the Beijing team to win this big game. After the game, head coach Xu Limin praised the team, saying, "We have experienced a low point, and it is rare that we performed well in both offense and defense in this game." Xu Limin also singled out two players for praise. He highly praised Zhou Qi's comeback, saying, "Zhou Qi had a very severe cold, but he took the initiative to request to play today, and this spirit inspired the whole team. Zhou Qi is very important to our team, and he has made a great contribution." Xu Limin spoke objectively; last night, Zhou Qi completely restricted Liaoning's local twin towers, Han Dejun and Li Xiaoxu, on both offense and defense. These two only scored a total of 8 points and 11 rebounds, far from their performance against Guangdong in the previous game. Beijing won last night because of their dominance in the paint; Zhou Qi played 28 minutes, scoring 10 points and 10 rebounds, with 4 steals, the highest plus-minus value in the team, and they won by 30 points when he was on the court. He and Solomon completely dominated Da Han and Li Xiaoxu. As Xu Limin said, Zhou Qi made a huge contribution and was one of the main contributors.
The other player singled out for praise by Xu Limin was Zhang Cairen. He set a new career-high in single-game scoring last night, playing 28 minutes, shooting 10-for-15, including 7-for-12 from three-point range, scoring a team-high 27 points, as if aided by divine assistance. Zhang Cairen's explosion was unexpected, as he is a veteran player who is already 30 years old, and it was not easy for him to perform so bravely in such an important game. You know, in the past under the bald coach Yanis, he almost had no chance to play, receiving few opportunities to get on the court, becoming a substitute's substitute, and Beijing fans have been clamoring to send him away, saying that keeping him serves no purpose. But in the last three years, he has gradually come into his own, becoming a key rotation player, and his playing time has increased from about five minutes in the past to around 20 minutes now.
In the past, Zhang Cairen didn't have much of a shot, mainly focusing on defense. But now it seems he has evolved; he must have put in a lot of effort in training to achieve today's performance. After the game, Xu Limin highly praised Zhang Cairen, saying, "Zhang Cairen played at his highest level today, consistently hitting key three-pointers." This veteran coach also called on the team to learn from him, saying, "This is crucial to Zhang Cairen's usual efforts; all our players should learn from him." Zhang Cairen truly made a significant contribution to winning the Beijing-Liaoning battle. Who wouldn't love a player like him? Last night, all Beijing fans were happy for him and celebrated his birthday, sending him birthday congratulations. And Zhang Cairen lived up to this congratulation. What do you think?
