On January 8th, Beijing time, Yang Ming's last excuse has completely disappeared. Liaoning's new foreign aid has unleashed their full firepower, outperforming Guangdong's ace player, and there's no longer any need to say that there's no one available.
Liaoning Men's Basketball Team won a very important come-from-behind victory against Sichuan, and an intriguing detail from this game was that the top three scorers for Liaoning were all foreigners. Besides Ferg with 31 points and Wells with 18 points, the remaining standout was starting center Patton, who went 7 for 11, scoring 16 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, dishing out 3 assists, and blocking 3 shots. His performance was very versatile, and his efficiency was extremely high.
This data shows significant improvements on both offense and defense compared to the first game, and after further defensive coordination, he will only get stronger, even averaging 3 blocks per game is possible. Moreover, Patton also demonstrated great dominance in the paint, even completing an astonishing alley-oop slam dunk with Zhao Jiwei, which shows how impressive Patton can be.
Despite Yan Shouqi digging a deep hole and both he and Li Huyi committing six fouls, Patton still held up for Liaoning, providing them with significant help. After this stunning performance by Patton, you have to admit a fact: Yang Ming now has no more excuses to complain, so what else are you complaining about?
Just how strong is Patton? He's much better than Guangdong's big foreign aid. Guangdong's ace superstar, their core foreign aid is Morand, but Morand only scored 14 points in this game. Although he had more rebounds with 11, there was no advantage in terms of blocks and assists compared to Patton, and he even had fewer blocks. This indicates that Patton is at least stronger than Morant, and this level of ability is already sufficient. Yang Ming really can't find any more reasons.
Furthermore, Liaoning's fourth foreign aid is also on the way, and it can be said that the team has provided him with very substantial and dedicated support. In this situation, Yang Ming must now lead the team to achieve good results. If Liaoning continues to struggle like this, bluntly put, they definitely won't be able to beat Guangsha and Shanxi this year.