Guangdong Hongyuan team away against Beijing Beikong team Xinhua News Agency
CBA Championship Supreme Ding Picture/Visual China
Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Hao Haoyu
From October 2023 to April 2024, after nearly half a year and 52 rounds of long events, the 2023-2024 CBA regular season has finally come to an end. The 12 teams that came out on top to advance to the playoffs will challenge for the top honor of the championship. The top four teams of Liaoning, Xinjiang, Zhejiang and Guangdong will directly advance to the quarterfinals, while the fifth to twelfth ranked teams of Guangsha, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Beijing Enterprises, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanxi will compete according to their rankings to determine the remaining four quarter-finals spots. As soon as the regular season is over, the battle for the title has begun.
There are no "super teams" in the league
One of the obvious characteristics of this season's CBA regular season is that there is no "super team" with a superior record. Liaoning topped the regular season with a 43-9 record, and no team in the CBA's history had lost more than nine games in a season, reflecting the fierce competition in the regular season this season.
Behind Liaoning, Xinjiang and Zhejiang both have 41-11 records, while fourth-placed Guangdong have a 37-15 record. The teams in second to fourth place have lost more than 10 games each, which is rare in previous seasons. The top four teams also have their own wins and losses in each other's hands, and none of the teams have a unique momentum. Judging from the overall process of this season, the top four in the regular season plus the fifth-ranked Guangsha team together constitute the first group to compete for the championship, and these five teams do not have too obvious differences in strength, and they compete very fiercely with each other.
Liaoning team Zhao Jiwei Xinhua News Agency
In the past five seasons, Guangdong and Liaoning have won all the championships, and Liaoning, as the defending champion, is at the top of the regular season this season, so it is naturally looked down upon by the outside world. However, it should be pointed out that in the absence of Guo Allen and foreign aid Fogg's declining state, the current Liaoning team is no longer as dominant as it has been in the past two seasons. Guangdong team did not perform well in the first half of the season, but in the third stage of a wave of 12 consecutive wins proved their strength, in this season of strength gap is not obvious, Guangdong team has a chance to win the championship, but where to go depends on the play.
Xinjiang team Abdul Salamu Xinhua News Agency
The Xinjiang team is ambitious this season, introducing Zhao Rui, Jones and other fierce generals before the season, and recruiting Li Yanzhe, Crick and other powerful players during the season, and the determination to win the championship is unprecedented. However, the Xinjiang team led by coach Qiu Biao is relatively inexperienced, and Zhao Rui's long-term injury has also greatly affected their backcourt strength. Zhejiang Shuangxiong also has a chance to hit the top, Zhejiang team has matured after several seasons of growth, while Guangsha team has a starting line that the whole league envies, but the bench lineup lacks depth.
The five teams in the championship group all have the strength to challenge for the championship, but none of them showed a super-level performance in the regular season, which makes the title of this season suspenseful. As things stand, the team that can keep its players as healthy as possible in the heat of the playoffs has a better chance of having the last laugh.
The four rounds of play-offs are full of highlights
On April 10, this season's CBA League playoffs will officially begin, and the eight teams ranked fifth through twelfth will play in the playoff playoffs, which are the first round of the playoffs. Judging from the matchups, except for the Guangsha team and the Shanxi team, which have a relatively large gap in strength, the other three groups of duels are quite interesting and suspenseful.
The Guangsha team and the Shanxi team met in the first round of the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, and last season, the Guangsha team achieved a sweep and easily advanced. This season, Shanxi caught the last train of the playoffs at the last minute, while Guangsha dropped to fifth place after the main guard Sun Minghui missed the final rounds. From the perspective of the strength of the lineup, the Guangsha team is obviously above the Shanxi team, and it is not difficult for the former to pass the test.
Sixth-ranked Shanghai will play the "Beijing-Shanghai Battle" against 11th-ranked Beijing, both teams have shown a trend of starting low and going high this season, especially since Beijing team only got a playoff ticket at the end of the regular season. The two teams have met twice this season, each winning on their home turf. Both teams have key players to watch, with Shanghai's Wang Zhelin who has been controversial over the past year but still has a strong fight on the inside, and Beijing's Zeng Fanbo who is extremely talented but yet to fully materialize. The Beijing team performed well in the closing stages, and the Shanghai team was at the top of the table and had a home advantage, but they were not sure to win.
The 10th-ranked Guangzhou team will take on the 7th-ranked Qingdao team. There has been a lot of talk about whether Qingdao center Yang Hansen should be in the NBA draft, and he will be tested by Guangzhou in his first CBA playoffs. After experiencing the departure of the main center Li Yanzhe, the Guangzhou team still broke into the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, which is enough to see the tenacity of this team and the coaching level of coach Guo Shiqiang. The two teams have met four times this season, with two wins each, with Guangzhou beating Shandong last season to reach the quarter-finals in history, and will now be looking to equal their all-time best against another Shandong side. If they can reach the quarterfinals, Guangzhou will face Xinjiang in the quarter-finals.
The Shenzhen team, which lost in the final round, is ranked eighth and will have a direct dialogue with the ninth-ranked Beijing Control team. In the regular season, the Shenzhen team completed the double kill against the Beijing Control team. Shenzhen have the upper hand in terms of strength, but their performance this season has been relatively bumpy and has been tested by serious injuries to their main players, so they must be up for 12 points in this series. If the Shenzhen team can pass the Beijing Control team, it will face the Liaoning team in the quarterfinals.
Guangdong team Zhou Qi Xinhua News Agency
Guangdong team will experience the "devil's schedule"
The 11th league champion Guangdong team has undoubtedly had a season full of twists and turns. The team had a mediocre performance in the first stage, and even experienced consecutive defeats in the second stage, and had to cut the meritorious foreign player Marshon Brooks. Zhao Rui's departure, Zhou Qi's injury, and the replacement of foreign aid have all added a bit of bumps to the Guangdong team's journey this season. Guangdong coach Du Feng also said after the regular season that it was not easy to achieve the fourth place in the regular season with such a relatively young lineup.
In the third stage, the gradually polished Guangdong team won a wave of 12 consecutive victories, but lost to the Tianjin team in the last round when Zhou Qi was resting, showing an excellent competitive state. Now the three foreign players of the Guangdong team have performed well, Weems makes people see what he looked like when he was at his peak, Waters' tandem, scoring ability and Bale's defensive and adaptation ability can give the team enough help. Under the leadership of three foreign aides and key players such as Zhou Qi, Hu Mingxuan, and Xu Jie, this Guangdong team has now given fans the confidence to impact the championship.
Judging from the current situation, the Guangdong team has the hope of attacking the championship, but they will face a severe test of the schedule. Guangdong team and Liaoning team, Guangsha team two strong teams in the same top half of the region, Guangsha team is likely to beat Shanxi team in the first round of the playoffs, and Guangdong team in the quarterfinals. Last season, Guangdong were eliminated by Guangsha in the quarter-finals, and in the meeting between the two teams this season, Guangdong did not take much advantage. If Sun Minghui can recover before the quarterfinals, Guangdong will inevitably face a tough battle in this series.
If the Guangdong team passes smoothly, it is likely to face the Liaoning team in the semifinals. The Guangdong-Liaoning hegemony has been the main theme of the CBA league in the past five seasons, and the Liaoning team has been the dominant side in the past three seasons. In this season, Guangdong has only won one game against Liaoning in the third stage. From the perspective of comprehensive strength, the Liaoning team is still a slightly superior side. If the Guangdong team can cross the Liaoning team to enter the finals, there are two strong teams in the second half of the Zhejiang team and the Xinjiang team. But in other words, if the Guangdong team can really stand out from such competition, then the gold content of this championship will be very high.
According to the schedule, this season's CBA finals will start on May 15, and the final suspense about this season will be revealed in more than a month.
This year's CBA playoffs format
The first round of 12 into 8 will be held from April 10 to April 16, with 3 games and 2 wins;
The second round of 8 into 4 will be played from April 18 to April 29, with 5 games and 3 wins;
The semi-finals will be played from May 1 to May 12, with a best-of-5 system;
The Grand Final will be played from May 15 to May 31, with a best-of-seven system, and if the semi-finals are completed before May 9, then the Grand Final will start on May 12 three days earlier and end on May 28 at the latest.
Editor: Zheng Jianlong