Liaoning defeats Guangdong! Yang Ming receives a technical foul, post-game remarks are too ironic, Du Feng's overuse of Xu Jie leads to a wasted opportunity
On December 30th, Beijing time, the CBA Spring Festival Gala match between Liaoning Men's Basketball Team and Guangdong Men's Basketball Team kicked off. Liaoning Men's Basketball Team started with Wang Lianqin, Wells, Ferg, Li Xiaoxu, and Han Dejun; Guangdong Men's Basketball Team started with Xu Jie, Zhang Haojia, Huang Rongqi, Jilunwote, and Morand.
Li Xiaoxu opened the game with a three-pointer, Morand made a rule-breaking shot and scored 3 points in a row, Xu Jie responded with two consecutive three-pointers. At the end of the first quarter, Liaoning's fast break was blocked by Bazley's nailboard cap, Yang Ming angrily reprimanded the interference ball being ignored, and then he roared at the referee on the sidelines and received a technical foul. The first quarter ended with both teams tied at 24-24.
At the end of the second quarter, Liaoning relied on Xuanming Er Lao to continuously grab two offensive rebounds and score twice in secondary attacks, Coach Du called a timeout. After returning, Du Runwang scored 4 points in a row near the free throw line, and the first half of the game ended with Liaoning leading Guangdong 47-43 temporarily.
Commenting on the first half: King Gigi performed poorly on both offense and defense in the first quarter, Guangdong Men's Basketball Team's fast break did not work out, and their free throw performance was too poor. On the other hand, Liaoning still relied on the two small foreign aid to drive the whole team, grabbing good offensive rebounds, which was also the key to the lead.
In the third quarter of the second half: Guangdong's three consecutive attacks were defended by Liaoning's joint defense, and Liaoning took the opportunity to expand the point difference to double digits. After the timeout, Xu Jie and Morand played without the ball, King Gigi held the ball on the free throw line and scored consecutively, Guangdong counterattacked and hit another three-pointer, and the point difference instantly narrowed to 3 points.
In the fourth quarter: Wang Lianqin scored confidently with consecutive breakthroughs and shots, scoring 9 points in a row, Xu Jie and King Gigi used their personal abilities to help the team keep up with the score. In the middle of the quarter, King Gigi's physical fitness declined, and his two consecutive attacks were guarded by Li Xiaoxu, while Li Huyi and Wells scored 8 points in a row in the counterattack, expanding the point difference to 10 points. King Gigi then fouled to reduce the point difference to two possessions. In the decisive moment, Han Dejun passed from the corner, and Fu Hao hit the winning three-pointer.
Finally, the whole game ended with Liaoning Men's Basketball Team defeating Guangdong Men's Basketball Team 95-89. Liaoning won four consecutive victories and rose to fourth place. Guangdong Men's Basketball Team lost and temporarily ranked ninth.
After the game, Yang Ming, the head coach of Liaoning, gave an interview that could be described as "killing the heart," Yang Ming frankly said: I feel moved by every player in Liaoning who fought hard. Before the game, our team had several players absent due to injuries, and Yan Shouqi also had the flu. We barely managed to gather 12 people to play the game, but in each game, there are always players from Liaoning Men's Basketball Team who can stand up and help the team. The support of the fans also gives the team more motivation to compete. The difficult schedule will continue, and we must go step by step to play well in every game.
Indeed, compared to the paper lineup, Guangdong Men's Basketball Team only had Hu Mingxuan unable to play with the support of four foreign aid, while Liaoning Men's Basketball Team only had two foreign aid fighting, and the main players Zhao Jiwei, Zhang Zhenlin, and Yan Shouqi were all unable to play, so Coach Du needs to take responsibility for the loss in this game.
I find it hard to understand why Du Feng didn't give Les even a minute of playing time, because Guangdong Men's Basketball Team did not effectively restrict Wells and Wang Lianqin's scoring throughout the game. The "Wei Feng" combination scored a perfect set of 46 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 steals. They also took control of the game at the end. Moreover, even Li Huyi easily scored 5 points in the fourth quarter, while the several major sweet potatoes on the guard line of Guangdong Men's Basketball Team could do nothing but commit fouls.
To put it bluntly, Du Feng did not fully mobilize the strength of the paper lineup. Les should have played for about 10 minutes, at least he could become Xu Jie's substitute and also help establish a strong barrier for the team's guard line. However, Du Feng insisted on using Xu Jie excessively, and even rushed into the court in the fourth quarter to scold Xu Jie and tell him to do a good job in defense. Xu Jie, who played for 45 minutes, was already exhausted at the end, so his shooting performance dropped. In addition, Coach Du seemed at a loss when dealing with Liaoning's 2-3 joint defense.
Personally, I am disappointed with Coach Du's deployment in this game. First, he did not know how to break through the joint defense. Second, Guangdong Men's Basketball Team had almost no counterattacks. Third, Coach Du not only scolded Xu Jie but also scolded Zhang Haojia and Du Runwang and others. These sweet potatoes originally lacked self-confidence in playing basketball. Under the pressure of boos from the away crowd, they naturally could not perform stably on both offense and defense.