Jiangsu 102, Shanxi 100: Marcus Williams of UConn missed a key freethrow with just seconds to go, but Marcus Williams of the D-League failed to convert on a running three-point attempt at the buzzer. Marcus Williams formerly of the Austin Toros/San Antonio Spurs scored 28 points for Shanxi, and the way he’s been shooting the ball lately I thought for sure his last-second prayer would be answered. According to the box score, Williams went 8-11 in this game, but that doesn’t really make sense. It says he made his only two attempts from downtown, but what about the one at the buzzer? I thought he missed more than three shots early on in the game, too. I specifically recall two of his jumpers being deflected. Anyway, Jiangsu came into this round as the worst team in the league, but now they’ve picked up two Ws in a row. They should’ve won this one more easily… they nearly let Shanxi come back from a 52-36 halftime hole. Jackson Vroman had 18/15/6 for the winning squad. Marcus “laptops” Williams scored 13.
Bayi 105, Zhejiang 101: JR Smith led Zhejiang in points, rebounds, and assists with 34/8/8, but that wasn’t enough to top Wang Zhizhi (27 points) and the Bayi Rockets, who snapped a nine-game losing streak. Zhejiang finally listened to me and started JR, but maybe they shouldn’t have. Smith got off to a slow start and failed to get his team a comfortable lead. They hadn’t yet trailed by more than a few points, but once he was forced to sit down they fell behind by double figures rather quickly. Once again Zhejiang would have to try to make a comeback, but they came up short for the second game in a row. Bayi allowed this one to become more interesting than it should’ve… with about 10 seconds left, they failed to secure the rebound on a missed freethrow by Zhejiang. JR Smith knocked down a three, making it a three-point game. Wang Zhizhi proceeded to miss the first of two freethrows, but made the second to ice the contest.
Late in the third quarter, JR Smith’s girlfriend appeared to get involved in some sort of altercation with other people in the crowd. Some fans spilled out onto the court during a stoppage, but I didn’t catch what started it. I’ll try to get more info on that. UPDATE: Looks like it was JR’s sister who got into a fight, but his girlfriend was there too.
Beijing 101, Xinjiang 100: Xinjiang’s disaster of a season continues while the Beijing Ducks escape with a much needed one-point victory. After starting the season with 13 consecutive wins, Beijing had lost 7 of 8. Gani Lawal, who’s been putting up massive statistics for the Flying Tigers, had just 6 points and 7 boards while Randolph Morris went for 23 and 5. Starbury led Beijing in scoring with 25.
Dongguan 103, Qindago 93: Qindago’s Lester Hudson comtinues to reign as king of hilarious shooting statistics. Lester has taken 42 threes in his last three games, but has made just 7. That’s about 16% on 14 attempts per game. When your number of nightly attempts nearly matches your percentage… it might be time to stop shooting. Dongguan got 28 from Josh Akognon, who often shoots like crap himself. He went just 3-13 from range.
Tianjin 114, Fujian 111: What’s with all the sh!tty teams winning this morning? Tianjin came in 16th of 17, but eked out this victory thanks to a 16/10 effort from David Harrison. Fujian got 33 from Anthony Roberson. As a team, they out-rebounded Tianjin 53-30. How the hell do you get 23 offensive rebounds and make the same amount of shots as the other team? That right there is an indication of the inability to fall out of Noah’s Ark and hit water.
Guangdong 102, Shandong 92: Another well-rounded effort from Guangdong included 17 points from Aaron Brooks and 21/9 from James Singleton. Othello Hunter had a double-double for Shandong (18/11), but they were out-shot and out-rebounded. Guangdong remains in first place, has moved way ahead of the pack, and is the only top team that’s really rolling as of right now.
Jilin 95, Shanghai 82: Cartier Martin’s 37 points are the most he’s scored since Christmas and they helped Jilin pick up a win over the streaking Sharks. Shanghai had won seven in a row before this defeat, but they’ll remain in 6th place because Fujian lost too. New import Marcus Landry had just 12 points and 8 boards. They’re going to need more from him.
Liaoning 116, Foshan 101: The goofy-looking Liaoning big man that I’ve talked about in the past had 30 points and 20 boards, and the unidentified white man from Foshan scored a game-high 35.
Hopefully I’ll be able to add a video or two later this afternoon. Check back.
