Beijing 102, Zhejiang 93: Stephon Marbury’s season-high 45 points were part of a triple-double (12 rebounds, 10 assists) that led the Beijing Ducks to a much-needed victory over a strong Zhejiang team. Despite JR Smith’s 39 points and 9 boards, Beijing was able to come back from down five at the start of the fourth. This speaks volumes about Marbury’s performance as JR Smith is the league’s premier scorer and tends to dominate tight games down the stretch. Zhejiang had a big edge on the offensive glass, but they gave up two key offensive rebounds on one possession in the final two minutes. This allowed Beijing to kill a lot of time before extending their lead to two possessions. Smith’s 39 came on 14-25 while Starbury scored his 45 on 15-29. Josh Boone contributed 26/17 for Zhejiang while his counterpart, Randolph Morris, put up 20/15 for Beijing.
Fujian 110, Foshan 100: Twelve plus from five different players, including 22 from Marcus Haislip, wasn’t enough to earn Foshan a rare victory over an ever-solid Fujian squad. Anthony Roberson’s game-high 36 came on great shooting from the outside (5-8 from three) and flawless freethrowing (11-11). Will McDonald and Zaid Abbas combined for 21 boards.
Shanxi 110, Qindago 96: Lester Hudson’s 45 on 10-24 from three-point land weren’t enough to get Qindago over the hump. I find this hard to believe, but according to the box score on Sina Sports Marcus Williams has posted another game of 30+ on perfect shooting from the field. Marcus made all 11 of his shots on his way to a team-high 37. Charles Gaines posted 32/11. Lester Hudson’s 24 three-pointers were the second most he’s launched this season (took 27 on December 9th, also a loss). He took 35 shots total and made 16 of them. Hudson’s 24 three-point tries were over twice as many as the entire Shanxi team took.
Shandong 104, Xinjiang 98: Thirty-two points from Alan Anderson and another 22 (and 10 boards) from Othello Hunter resulted in Shandong’s first win in four games. As for the Flying Tigers, they drop under .500 at 11-12 and will have to battle to simply qualify for the playoffs. Keep in mind that this is a team that began the season as favorites to win the title. Quincy Douby’s injury and Kenyon Martin’s failure did them in.
Tianjin 110, Bayi 98: Tianjin was less bad in this match up of cellar dwellers. Tianjin’s half of the box score doesn’t seem to add up so I’m going to refrain from including any statistics.
Guangdong 100, Guangsha 97: Wilson Chandler went 1-10 from distance and Guangsha only lost by three. I guess this is good and bad. The good news is that they almost beat the team that’s far and away the best in the league even though Wilson Chandler was awful, and the bad news is that Wilson Chandler has been awful every round for what seems like weeks now. Peter John Ramos’s 24/12/5 led Guangsha in all of those categories, and even though he’s continued to produce it hasn’t translated into wins lately. Guangsha needs Wilson Chandler to stop shooting so many outside shots if they want to make a run at the championship. Aaron Brooks led Guangdong with 26. Wang Shipeng, who I believe is one of the better Chinese players, went for 24.
Jilin 99, Liaoning 91: Cartier Martin’s 38 came up big for Jilin in this impressive victory over a 5th-ranked Liaoning team. Rodney Carney and Josh Powell both had really rough games while Jilin got contributions from a variety of players.
Shanghai 110, Dongguan 97: Dongguan will drop to third place after this loss to the Sharks. Mike Harris notched 38 points and 12 boards while Marcus Landry added 24. Dongguan could’ve been all alone in second place with a win and a Beijing loss, but surprisingly, neither happened.
There are no CBA games scheduled between now and the 29th of January. According to NiuBball.com it’s the “Spring Festival Break.” I guess they have it every year. I’ll use it to catch up on my sleep!
