[2] Beijing 105, [7] Guangsha 91: This game is newsworthy for two reasons. Firstly, the Guangsha Lions have been swept, meaning that Wilson Chandler’s old CBA team is done for the season. Although Guangsha has allowed Chandler to skip the playoffs and return home, they haven’t yet freed him completely. Chandler is yet to receive his letter of clearance to play in the NBA, but now that Guangsha’s season is over it should happen immediately. Secondly, 35-year-old Stephon Marbury threw down a two-handed dunk.
Not bad… looks like it was fairly effortless. I can’t even remember the last time I saw Starbury dunk. Probably back when he was a New Jersey Net. Anyway, the dunk accounted for two of Marbury’s 24 points. Randolph Morris scored a game-high 31 to go along with his 11 boards, and Rodney White led Guangsha with 30. Peter John Ramos had just 8 points.
[6] Shanghai 101, [3] Shanxi 99: For the third game in a row, the Shanghai Sharks got out to an early lead… and for the third game in a row, they blew that lead. However, they were able to make a comeback of their own and avoid elimination thanks in large part to a lucky bounce and some timely freethrows. With just six seconds to play, Marcus Landry drove to the basket and got fouled. The game was tied at the time, but he made both. Marcus Williams, who scored a game-high 36, proceeded to make a drive of his own, but he missed a bunny at the buzzer.
Williams’ miss wasn’t the only bounce that went in favor of Shanghai. Meng Lingyuan hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 2:30 to go that actually bounced off the top of the backboard before going in.
If I made it seem as if Shanghai didn’t earn this win, that’s not how I meant it. For the first time in the series it can be argued that Mike Harris outplayed Charles Gaines, and that’s a huge reason why the Sharks were finally able to come away with a W. Shanghai always has the lead until Gaines enters the game and begins putting in work, and although it was lookin’ like this is how it would go down once again, Harris had some big buckets during the comeback. He was able to out-score Gaines 22-20, and while Gaines beat him 17-12 in the rebound column, Shanghai won the battle of the boards. Shanxi now leads the series 2-1.
[4] Xinjiang 121, [5] Dongguan 115: After dropping game one, Xinjiang now leads this series 2-1. For the second game in a row new import Ike Diogu went large… but in this particular contest, man, I don’t even have words to describe how dominant Diogu was… especially in the first half. Everywhere you looked, there was Diogu, doing something–blocking a shot, shooting a three, scoring a layup, grabbing a board… he did it all. After scoring 17 in the first quarter, he finished the game with 42. He also grabbed 12 rebounds and knocked down 4 of 7 three-pointers. At different junctures I was tempted to dub him the Zach Randolph, Shaquille O’Neal, and Dirk Nowitzki of China. That’s how amazingly ridiculous he was.
Josh Akognon led Dongguan with 42 points of his own, which is funny, because his performance didn’t jump out at me like Diogu’s did. Maybe that’s just because I was trying to watch two games at once and I happened to catch almost all of Ike’s buckets.
[1] Guangdong 137, [8] Fujian 106: Not surprisingly, Guangdong has completed a sweep of the Fujian Sturgeons, who played without Anthony Roberson again. Aaron Brooks went for 31/7/7 as he hit 6 of 11 three-balls. James Singleton had 21 points and 14 boards.
