On January 10th, Beijing time, the 29th round of the CBA regular season ushered in an intense competition. In this round of events, Liaoning Team hosted a thrilling match against Beikong Team, eventually winning with a score of 104 to 101. In fact, by the end of the game, Liaoning Team had already made the outcome of the game seem certain with their previous excellent performance. It was thought that victory was in hand, but who could have expected that in the final stages of the game, the Liaoning Team players may have become complacent due to feeling that victory was within reach, resulting in a slack situation. This slackness almost allowed Beikong Team to seize the opportunity for a comeback. Such a thrilling scene greatly angered Liaoning Team's head coach, Yang Ming. Even though the team ultimately won the game, Yang Ming still found it difficult to suppress his anger. After the game, he severely criticized the entire team, stating that the players' performance was simply unacceptable, and their overly arrogant attitude meant they did not take the game seriously enough. Such a careless game state really made Coach Yang Ming extremely dissatisfied!
After the game, a series of messages came from the Liaoning Team side, totaling five aspects of 3 concerns and 2 joys. No wonder Coach Yang Ming would appear extremely dissatisfied, after all, although this game was won, there were indeed many problems exposed. The first is the performance of the local players on the court. Taking the total points scored throughout the game as an example, Liaoning Team scored a total of 104 points, but the combined points of the three foreign players reached as high as 65 points. As a result, the remaining seven local players who took the field only managed to score a total of 39 points. Such scoring efficiency is indeed quite low, making people gasp! Even Fu Hao, who receives top salary and is a national player, frankly admitted in a post-game interview that he and his teammates' performance in this game was indeed poor, and their overall game state had not yet been adjusted to the best.
Furthermore, it must be mentioned that Zhao Jiwei and Wang Lanqin, these two national-level guards, performed less than satisfactorily in this game. Looking at the data from this game, Zhao Jiwei shot 12 times and only hit 4; Wang Lanqin even missed all 3 shots and scored no points. You know, the two of them are the mainstays of Liaoning's guard line, and such offensive performance urgently needs to improve their offensive efficiency. After recovering from injury, Zhao Jiwei seems to have never been able to regain his previous precise shooting touch, and the average number of turnovers in the game has even increased compared to before. Wang Lanqin, who previously performed well on the court, has recently seemed to be plagued by some kind of "low-hand feel curse," gradually showing poor hand feel.
Moreover, there is a situation that cannot be overlooked, which is the problem that Li Xiaoxu encountered. You know, Li Xiaoxu is a veteran with a glorious record, and his contributions and qualifications in the team are obvious to all. However, basketball games ultimately determine heroes by wins and losses. Taking tonight's game as an example, Li Xiaoxu encountered a very tricky situation on the court, being targeted by the opponent. Beikong Team even adopted a strategy of leaving him open, and in this game, Li Xiaoxu's shooting performance was indeed unsatisfactory, with a total of 13 shots but only 2 hits, such a low state undoubtedly provided great convenience for the opponent's defensive arrangements. Once the opponent sees that Li Xiaoxu is in poor form, they can allocate more defensive energy and resources to other places, as a result, the other four teammates of Liaoning Team will suffer, being endlessly double-teamed by the opponent, playing a tough game. So, if Li Xiaoxu cannot stabilize his state and find his touch in shooting as soon as possible, future opponents are likely to follow Beikong Team's approach and target Liaoning Team in the same way, which is indeed a considerable hidden danger for Liaoning Team's subsequent journey.
There is a piece of good news, which is that the team's rotation situation is currently very good, and the situation where players play for more than 40 minutes will no longer occur. You know, for Liaoning Men's Basketball Team, a team with a relatively older age structure, ensuring that the main players can rotate fully is absolutely crucial! With the addition of Patton and the return of Zhao Jiwei, Liaoning Team now appears to be more flexible in terms of personnel rotation. Just taking tonight as an example, Patton only played for 17 minutes. In this case, Coach Yang Ming can actually give Patton more opportunities to perform on the court, and he might be able to bring more surprises to the team on the court.
In this game, Liaoning Team faced pressure at home that was no less than when playing away, which can be clearly seen just from the free throw环节. Next, Liaoning Team will continue to face strong teams such as Qingdao Team, Shanghai Team, and two teams from Zhejiang, and such a schedule arrangement is indeed quite challenging. It will not be easy to pass smoothly! However, there is also exciting news. It is reported that Liaoning Team's fourth foreign player, Weber, has completed registration-related matters, which is equivalent to injecting a new source of vitality into the team. With the gradual integration of Patton and Weber into the team system, Liaoning Men's Basketball Team's immediate combat effectiveness on the court will surely continue to rise. As a result, at least in terms of physical fitness of the main players, stronger guarantees can be obtained, which also lays a relatively solid foundation for the team's subsequent journey.
