CBA Recap, December 9th: Beijing Remains Unbeaten Despite Smith’s 43

Beijing 101, Zhejiang 98: Both JR Smith and his Zhejiang squad came into this game about as hot as it gets.  Smith?  He’s scored 98 points in his last two outings.  The team?  They’ve won five in a row.  Despite 43 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists from JR, their win streak came to an end on their own floor at the hands of the undefeated (9-0) Beijing Ducks. 

Zhejiang got off to a poor start.  By the time JR Smith got his early reast they already trailed 20-12, and the score was 32-18 by the end of the first.  They’d close to within two, though, by the time halftime rolled around.  JR got it going a bit with three consecutive jumpers, but Stephon Marbury did come up with a few answers.  He helped Beijing build the lead back to five at the break.

Zhejiang PG Cao Fei, who is a pretty good player that tends to wear bright pink shoes, knocked down a cold-blooded triple to tie the game at 55 early in the third.  They never got completely over the hump, though, and fell back by double digits once again.  JR did finish the period with an awesome ankle breaker and buzzer-beating jumper to make it 80-72…

Zhejiang remained within striking distance.  They trailed by 10 with three minutes to go, and when Stephon Marbury committed a loose-ball foul trying to deny JR Smith the ball at the 35 second mark it was just a two-point game.  JR stepped to the line to potentially tie the game, but missed the first shot.  This made it 99-98 with the ball in Beijing’s hands.  Randolph Morris, who scored 30, came up HUGE with a jumper at the shot clock buzzer. 

Cao Fei caught the inbound for Zhejiang and took it to the top of the key, but missed a pull-up three.  Josh Boone boarded his miss and got the ball to a wide open JR Smith.  Let me emphasize WIDE OPEN–he couldn’t have asked for a better look… but he missed, the final buzzer sounded, and the game was over.

Stephon Marbury struggled with his outside shot but had a lot of success driving to the rack.  He finished with 30 points, matching Randolph Morris for team-high honors.  Josh Boone finished with 19 points and 16 rebounds.  Yet another impressive game from JR Smith, but another impressive victory for the Ducks!

Foshan 98, Fujian 95: Foshan picks up their third win of the season after a couple of consecutive losses.  Anthony Roberson and Will McDonald combined for 58 of Fujian’s points… some dude who’s name won’t freaking translate correctly led Foshan with 29.  Here’s his profile.

Shanxi 131, Qindago 123: This is a basketball game I would like to have seen.  Not only were 254 points scored in regulation, but four players scored 30+ and combined for a total of 148.  Lester Hudson led the way with 58 on what has to be an intergalactic-record 27 three-point attempts.  He made 12 of those and 21 of 41 shots overall.  This is Lester’s second performance of 50+ this season… his PPG is now upwards of 37, but Qindago’s win total is still 2.  Charles Gaines led Shanxi with 32 points and 11 boards, and Marcus Williams had 30 of his own.

Dongguan 107, Shanghai 99: Dongguan wins for a 5th time in a row after starting the season 0-4.  Their competition has been awful of late, but this is still a solid streak.  Shavlik Randolph was the game’s leading scorer and rebounder with 32/17. 

Bayi 109, Tianjin 107: Donnell Harvey scored a game-high 30 for Tianjin, but it wasn’t enough.  De Lehei led Bayi with 23.  It appears that the finish was interesting, but not having seen any highlights I’ll be unable to elaborate.

Guangdong 118, Guangsha 107: Wilson Chandler’s 36/16 and Peter John Ramos’s 28/16 were the game’s finest lines, but Guangdong got better production from their entire team and won this one by 11.  Aaron Brooks had 20/6/6, James Singleton had 15/5, and four other Guangdong players also scored in double figures.

Liaoning 106, Jilin 87: Josh Powell had a double-double (18/10) and Rodney Carney led the game in scoring (24 points) for Liaoning.  Jilin’s Cartier Martin struggled mightily, scoring just 16 points on 20 shots.

Xinjiang 92, Shandong 77: Shandong still hasn’t won since starting their season 3-0.  Kenyon Martin was more productive than usual with 19 points and 14 boards.  Mengke Bateer positioned himself at the top of the key and picked Shandong’s defense apart by hitting cutters for layups… he finished with 7 assists.  Patty Mills had 16/4/5.  Shandong’s Alan Anderson took just 9 shots in 30 minutes.  To give you some perspective, that’s like Lester Hudson shooting less than 25 times: unheard of.