Guangdong VS Fujian Preview: CBA Stages Foreign Player Clash as Du Feng Aims for Third Straight Win

On September 22, the CBA pre-season games conclude with a match between Guangdong and Fujian men’s basketball teams.

The Guangdong men’s team, despite missing four national-level players—Hu Mingxuan, Xu Jie, Du Runwang, and Xu Xin—has managed to secure easy victories against Tianjin and Guangzhou thanks to the full participation of their two foreign players. Bezley and Barton have performed exceptionally well, taking up significant portions of the ball handling and tactical roles, helping Guangdong achieve two consecutive wins rather effortlessly.

Facing Fujian in this game, the opponents present a relatively complete lineup bolstered by the presence of two foreign players, Keane and Bailey, along with Chen Linjian who is in fine form. This Fujian team on paper is not far behind Guangdong. For young players like Zhang Wenyi, Zhang Mingchi, and Zhang Hao, demonstrating their individual skills and summer training results during the pre-season could be crucial for gaining more playing time in the new season.

Fujian has recorded one win and one loss in their two pre-season games so far, showing some inconsistency. They narrowly lost to Tianjin by three points but crushed Guangzhou by a margin of 46 points. The core players led by Keane, Bailey, Chen Linjian, and Zou Yang have displayed good shooting form, with several substitutes also stepping up. As one of the few teams fielding a complete roster in the pre-season, Fujian faces Guangdong, who are missing multiple key players. The performance of Fujian’s two foreign players and whether Chen Linjian and Zou Yang can showcase their individual prowess will likely determine the outcome of this game.

Du Feng’s seriousness about the pre-season games hasn’t been as high as expected. Taking the series against Tianjin as an example, even when the score was close, Guangdong chose to play with a single foreign player in the second half, further testing Barton and Bezley’s leadership abilities. A similar strategy might be adopted in this game, which could be Fujian’s best chance in recent seasons to defeat Guangdong in a formal game.

>>”>More predictions for this game can be found here>>>