Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team will be challenging Shanxi Men's Basketball Team, which is also a dark horse in its own right. Judging from the comparison of various data from both teams this season, Shanxi Men's Basketball Team clearly has a stronger dark horse quality. This game has also attracted wide attention from the media before the match. Shanxi Men's Basketball Team has advantages in rebounds, three-point shooting accuracy, and points per hundred possessions. On the other hand, Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team's advantages are more reflected in steals. Regarding this game, it will be very difficult for Qiu Biao to lead Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team to pass the test, especially in dealing with several advantages of Shanxi Men's Basketball Team.
First: The disadvantage in inside rebounds, Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team needs to do better.
In terms of inside strength, Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team is not at a disadvantage. However, considering the number of rebounds, Shanxi Men's Basketball Team is among the top in the league, while Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team ranks relatively low, especially in defensive rebounds, which has been a long-standing problem for Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team. How to solve the rebounding disadvantage is a problem that Qiu Biao needs to think about.
Firstly, the team should attack more under the basket or create more scoring opportunities for inside players on offense to reduce Shanxi Men's Basketball Team's chances of grabbing rebounds. As long as they can maintain a comprehensive hit rate of five to six percent, Shanxi Men's Basketball Team will not get too many rebounds. Secondly, Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team is not at a height disadvantage in grabbing rebounds, but their positioning awareness for rebounds is poor. This is also why the team has such a strong inside line but has never had high rebounds over the years. Qiu Biao can emphasize this point more before the game and work on assisting and positioning for rebounds.
Second: Reduce three-point shooting moderately to avoid Shanxi Men's Basketball Team making a wave.
Shanxi Men's Basketball Team's overall scoring is very stable, which is why they have outstanding results this season. Their points per hundred possessions rank first in the league. Whether it's transition offense or set offense, Shanxi Men's Basketball Team can maintain relatively stable continuous output, which is the most terrifying thing about this team.
Therefore, Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team must not rely on three-point shots for scoring. After all, their three-point shooting this season is really worrying. The three-point shooting percentage is among the bottom three in the league, and the high number of three-point attempts is a weakness of the team. It's better to try scoring from inside where they have a better chance of success. Also, Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team often experiences power outages during games recently. Although Qiu Biao can quickly make up for it with timely adjustments, if they face Shanxi Men's Basketball Team and experience such long power outages with a fast-paced transition, Shanxi Team has the ability to open up a huge point difference in just a few minutes.
Third: Although it's an away game, Qiu Biao has plenty of rotation options.
In the last game against Fujian, Gaili did not play, Chris also got some rest time, and Tao Hanlin didn't play for too long due to fouls, so they have sufficient energy to face this game. If Qiu Biao can do better in rotations, it is believed that they can compete with Shanxi Men's Basketball Team.
Firstly, Shandong Men's Basketball Team's advantage lies in steals and pressure from the guard line. Any opponent will become frustrated when facing Shandong Men's Basketball Team, and Shanxi Men's Basketball Team's guard line is no exception. Foreign players like Yu Dehao and Xie Zhijie can be marked, and with the strong mobility of Gao Shiyan, Chen Peidong, etc., there should be no problem in defending against Shanxi Men's Basketball Team's outside rotation. Secondly, Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team's inside line can compete with Shanxi Men's Basketball Team. With Kuma's height advantage, Tao Hanlin's experience, Guo Kai's mobility, Chris' inside scoring ability, plus Zhang Xu, Sun Tonglin, etc., who are capable of playing positions four and five.
The reason why this game is highly anticipated is that both teams are the strongest performing dark horses this season. Shanxi Men's Basketball Team has a higher quality as a dark horse, not only winning many games by big scores but also winning multiple games against strong teams. The dark horse quality of Shandong Men's Basketball Team comes more from the team's resilience and team spirit, with every victory being fought for until the last moment. However, lacking victories against strong teams as a reference, Shanxi Men's Basketball Team is at a greater advantage in this game. But Shandong High-Speed Men's Basketball Team is definitely not a pushover and is fully capable of defeating Shanxi Men's Basketball Team.