CBA: Guangdong Southern Tigers retain title to end Covid-19 season

The Guangdong Southern Tigers defeated the Liaoning Flying Leopards to win the Chinese Basketball Association play-off finals in Qingdao on Saturday night and bring an end to the coronavirus-disrupted season.

Guangdong, who were reigning champions after sweeping the Xinjiang Flying Tigers 4-0 in last year’s finals, won this year’s abridged best of three finals with a 123-115 win in the decider in front of a handful of fans.

Victory secured a 10th CBA championship for the team, who also set a regular season winning streak record of 29 on their way to being regular season champions. They were handed the trophy by CBA chairman Yao Ming.

Liaoning had beaten the favourites in game two to leave the series finely balanced and the first quarter lived up to that billing, with neither team able to establish dominance.

The lead was never more than seven points and as the buzzer went it was the Flying Leopards who went off the court three points to the good, winning 29-26.

OJ Mayo had already contributed 10 points for Liaoning by then and it was the former Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and Milwaukee Bucks player that they kept turning to. Mayo would finish with 34 points from 42 minutes on court.

He was matched basket for basket by Guangdong’s Sonny Weems, who would top score with 39 and hit a buzzer beater at the half to ensure the champions took the lead into the interval, 54-47. Weems was later named finals MVP. He averaged 34.7 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game in the finals.

Liaoning’s Guo Ailun scored 10 of his 26 points in the third quarter to keep the challengers, who finished third in the regular season, in the game.

Yi Jianlian, who had missed the first two games of the semi-finals against Jeremy Lin’s Beijing Ducks with knee trouble played only 21 minutes before leaving the court in the third quarter with an injury, reported to be a ruptured Achilles tendon. The veteran centre, who won his sixth CBA ring, scored 14 points on the night.

Guangdong took their lead to double digits in the final quarter, a gap of 13 points at one stage, but Mayo and his Liaoning teammates kept at it and the lead was just four points with two minutes to go.

The champions held their nerve. Zhao Rui, at the foul line with 23 seconds on the clock and a six-point lead, sank his two points to see out victory earning praise from Guangdong coach Du Feng.

“We overcame lots of difficulties in this special and long season, and only those who experienced it can feel how hard it was,” Du said.

The CBA was on pause from its Lunar New Year break in late January because of the coronavirus pandemic. It resumed in June with teams in bubbles in Qingdao and Dongguan. Initially games were played behind closed doors before fans were allowed in for the final regular season games and the play-offs.

“Back To Back!! Greatest Team in @cba.basketball history!! 31 consecutive wins....18-0 to start 2019 season!! So many records we’ve broken together!!” Weems wrote on Instagram.

“We tried our best,” said Liaoning’s Han Dejun, who scored 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

“Congratulations to Guangdong for the championship, and also congratulations to my players for making into the finals. Now we rest for a couple of weeks and will start to prepare for the next season,” Alejandro Martinez, acting head coach of Liaoning, said. The new CBA season is expected to start in late October.