Zhejiang 113, Bayi 91: This game was close for a little while… basically until JR Smith decided to impersonate a flamethrower and knock down 11 of 15 threes on his way to 52–count ‘em–FIFTY TWO points! JR’s 52 are the new season-high for the CBA, topping Lester Hudson’s 50 from earlier in the year. Oh, he also threw in 22 boards, 4 assists, and 7 steals for good measure. I’ll just let the video do the rest of the talking here…
Beijing 99, Xinjiang 97: Beijing remains undefeated, but barely. In their second close call in the last couple of games, Stephon Marbury and company built up a 20-point lead only to let it slip away later on. Before I continue, let me just say that up until the exciting finish, this game was rather painful to watch. First of all, the officiating was very tight. The players clearly wanted to play a physical game, but the refs wouldn’t allow it at all. There seemed to be a foul called on every single possession. Also, I hope every Beijing game I watch from here on out is on the damn road, because the background music NEVER stops playing… not even for a second. The game’s going on and they’re playing an Avril Lavigne instrumental… it’s awful. Not only that, they played the same snippets of five or six songs over and over and over again. Aside from Avril, that Beyonce “uh oh uh oh” one was a favorite. Just terrible.
Anyway, the game was close early. Randolph Morris hit a tough jumper in the mug of Mengke Bateer to make it a four-point game as the first-quarter buzzer sounded. It was in the second quarter that Beijing began to pull ahead as Xinjiang went scoreless for the first few minutes. Beijing got another buzzer beater, this time a contested three-pointer, to finish the half, which put them up 57-39.
In the third quarter, Stephon Marbury nailed a few threes and the lead ballooned to 20+. Xinjiang made a little run that got the deficit down to 12, but Beijing immediately called timeout and responded with a 7-0 run of their own. What Xinjiang did right in the second half was play all their good players at the same time. In the first half they always had Patty Mills on the bench when Kenyon Martin was in the game, and vice versa. I thought that was a pretty stupid strategy because Kenyon needs somebody out there who can make some plays for him, and the only guy on the team that’s capable is Mills. Anyway, I figured it was too little too late after that 7-0 run by Beijing. Apparently Beijing thought so too, because they pulled Stephon Marbury pretty early in the fourth. All of a sudden I take a look at the scoreboard and it’s a nine-point game with 6:50 to go. Honestly, I’m not really even sure how it happened.
At this point Patty Mills would start to take over. He scored a whole bunch of buckets right in a row to put Xinjiang within a basket at the 2:30 mark, and then he finally put them over the hump with a cold-blooded three pointer just moments later. They’d end up back down one with about 30 seconds to play, though, and then they turned the ball over. Still, they had an excellent shot at tying the game as Beijing failed capitalize at the line (one of two). Patty Mills took the ball into the paint for a tough layup, but just missed. Had Kenyon Martin not mistimed his attempt at a tip in, this thing was headed to OT. Patty’s miss hung on the front of the rim for what seemed like forever, and Martin had a perfect opponrtunity to slam it home… he just jumped to early.
Mills finished with the game’s high of 32 points. Kenyon Martin had a quiet 22 points and 11 boards, and Mengke Bateer had 16… assists? I dunno, that’s what the box says. I did observe that he was passing the ball well, but I wouldn’t have guessed that he had 16 assists. Stephon Marbury had 18 points and 8 dimes for Beijing, and Randolph Morris scored 22.
Foshan 111, Liaoning 108: Apparently displeased with Gerald Green, Foshan decided to release him yesterday and sign former NBA player Marcus Haislip as his replacement. It doesn’t appear that Haislip played today (don’t quote me on that, these box scores can be hard to read at times), but Foshan picked up their second victory of the season anyway. A former LA Laker draftee by the name of Marcus Douthit led the way with 37 points and 13 boards. Liaoning got 29 from Rodney Carney and 21/8 from Josh “Approximately Assorted” Powell.
Guangdong 98, Shandong 93: Shandong has now dropped three in a row after starting the season with three straight victories. Guangdong was at risk of falling to .500 (doesn’t seem so bad, but keep in mind that Guangdong has been the Lakers of this league for quite some time), but they escaped with a W thanks to 27 points from Zhu Fangyu, who was nearly as hot as JR Smith with his six for seven downtown sniping. James Singleton was solid with 16/11, and Aaron Brooks had 13/8/6. Shandong’s Othello Hunter continues to do numbers; 22/12 for him.
Fujian 108, Tianjin 101: Fujian got 34 from Will McDonald and 20 more from Anthony Roberson to take the W in this cellar-dwelling match up. These two teams are now tied somewhere in the bottom half of the standings with records of 2-4.
Shanxi 112, Jiangsu 95: Charles Gaines beasted his way to 36 points and 15 boards to put Shanxi back at .500. They’ve only played four games, though, due to a bye and a cancellation. Jiangsu got 25/13 from Dan Gadzuric, but Mardy Collins doesn’t appear to have been there to help him out. I’m not sure if he’s hurt, got waived, or what happened. I’ll try to figure that out before the next set of games.
UPDATE: Mardy Collins is being replaced by Marcus Williams (the one from UConn). Thanks to NiuBball.com for the information.
Dongguan 118, Qindago 109: Is 30 points on 16 three-point tries a reasonable return? I don’t think so, Lester Hudson. That’s not to mention the fact that he really only got 18 points out of his 16 threes… his other 12 came on additional two-point attempts or at the freethrow line. Hudson made Dongguan’s relentless gunner Josh Akognon and his 6-12 three-point shooting look shy. Akognon fished with 34 and the W, Dongguan’s second of the season.
Shanghai 85, Jilin 67: Break up the Shanghai Sharks, they’ve won two in a row! After three consecutive losses to begin the season, Mike Harris has his Sharks on the winning track… he posted another beastly line of 28 points and 22 boards. Cartier Martin was only able to muster 16 for Jilin.
Click to make ‘em big…
