Shanxi 102, Xinjiang 80: The Shanxi Brave Dragons certainly lived up to their monicker in this one. The presence of former NBA All-Star Kenyon Martin didn’t intimidate them at all as they got out to an early 14-6 lead and never looked back. Martin appeared to be off to a strong start when he scored the game’s first basket, but from that point on he struggled mightily. Shanxi, on the other hand, got hot early and never cooled off. They shot 36 for 64 overall, and a blazing-hot 7-13 from three-point land. It should also be noted that Shanxi took their early lead with their star import Charles Gaines on the bench. Gaines and former Spur Marcus Williams didn’t even enter the game until the second period, and at that point Shanxi began to build their huge advantage. Xinjiang allowed a lot of open jumpers, sent Shanxi to the stripe 32 times, and just generally played pretty bad.
Kenyon Martin ended up finishing with 16/9 on 6-14 from the floor. He wasn’t really moving without the ball like he does in the NBA, where he constantly partols the boards and looks for dunk opportunities. He was out on the perimeter far too much. He wasn’t much of a presence on defense either. Kenyon usually wasn’t gaurding him, but he and Mengke Bateer allowed Shanxi big man Charles Gaines to score 24 points and grab 14 boards. Gaines did a nice job of creating contact and getting to the line 11 times.
Despite the fact that Xinjiang lost Quincy Douby to injury during the preseason, this is a surprising defeat. The Flying Tigers lost one game all of last season and are expected to contend for the title this year. This was only their first of 32 games, so I’m not judging them yet… but they looked discombobulated today.
Shandong 98, Shanghai 95: Shandong improves to 2-0 with this overtime victory. They had to withstand a massive 39-point, 18-rebound explosion by former Houston Rocket Mike Harris, but they held on. Former Bobcat Alan Anderson went off for 32 points and 15 boards, and Othello Hunter battled the beastly Mike Harris valiantly with 19 points and 13 boards of his own.
Guangdong 105, Jiangsu 90: Yi Jianlian put up 30/17/4 as Guangdong rolled to another easy victory, and Aaron Brooks hasn’t even started playing yet. This team is looking as dominant as expected. Jiangsu got 14 points and 11 boards from Dan Gadzuric
Guangsha 111, Qindago 94: Wilson Chandler followed up his ridiculous debut with another solid line of 28 points and 12 boards. It wasn’t the line of the game, though. Lester Hudson went off for 37 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. He also led the game in shot attempts with 30. Lester’s really firing ‘em up there… launched 28 last game. Wilson Chandler is the only Nugget import who’s team remains undefeated, despite the fact that he doesn’t really have any NBA-caliber help (former Celtic/Cav Dwayne Jones is on the roster, but he’s not doing a damn thing).
Bayi 111, Fujian 106: Wang Zhizhi and another Chinese fella’ by the name of Wang Lei led Bayi with 19 a piece. Will McDonald dropped 32 and grabbed 16 boards for Fujian. I just realized they’ve also got Anthony Roberson… he had 22 in this one.
Tianjin 117, Jilin 114: David Harrison was ballin’ this morning! He scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds… although if “fault” means turnovers, which I’m pretty damn sure it does, then he had 10 of them. Cartier Martin, who scored 37 in his debut, tallied another 36 (on 6-7 from deep) for Jilin. He had 9 “faults” himself, though. I’m going to have to get confirmation on whether or not those are turnovers.
Beijing 102, Liaoning 101: Stephon Marbury is having a fine season thus far. Starbury dropped 30 points and led Beijing with 11 rebounds. Interesting. He got some solid help from Randolph Morris, who recorded 24/9. Morris out-assisted Marbury (2-1), and Marbury out-rebounded Morris. Gotta love the CBA! Josh Powell and Rodney Carney had 24 and 17 respectively for Liaoning.
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garry moore