August 17th marked the official start of the Australian Basketball preseason games, with the Shanghai Sharks invited to participate. In their first game, they were defeated 88-101 by the Illawarra Hawks.
This game saw a commendable performance from the Shanghai team. The trial foreign player, Dai Si, also performed excellently, helping the team keep up with the score. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold on in the final quarter and were overwhelmed by the opponent’s offensive push, which widened the gap and made the game lose its suspense. Although they lost the game, Shanghai still gained something, showing significant improvement compared to the practice match held the day before (where they suffered a 53-point defeat).
In addition to Dai Si scoring 22 points, several domestic players of the Shanghai Sharks also had good performances, with four players scoring in double digits. Liu Zheng scored 17 points, Li Tianrong 15 points, Dai Hao 12 points and 6 rebounds, while Wang Zhelin contributed 10 points and 4 rebounds. As the team captain, Wang Zhelin also performed an impressive two-handed dunk during the game. Unfortunately, he fouled out early, unable to continue playing and help the team, only managing less than 20 minutes on the court.