Roundup: Marbury rescues CBA defending champions in desperate circumstances

Three of the top four teams in the regular season entered the semifinals of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league playoffs on Friday while the only exception was Xinjiang due to the defending champions' efforts inspired by Stephon Marbury.

The former NBA star lifted Beijing over Xinjiang 117-99 in Urumqi, which made the best-of-five series by 1-2 and brought the fourth game between the two sides to Beijing.

Going great or going home? Marbury chose to be great. The key player got a match-high 37 points, while Randolph Morris contributed 28 points. Sun Yue snatched a 10th pair today, and even Zhai Xiaochuan who was in fever had 12 points.

Beijing nailed their first five shots in the first quarter, and the defending champions' determination ever had enlarged their advantages to 14 points. But Andray Blatche lead the home team to narrow the gap to five points before the second quarter.

Marbury played with assertiveness and displayed a good driving ability that set up layups and three-pointers attempts. He snatched six points constitutively before the half, helped Beijing lead seven points at the end of the second period.

Beijing brought 10 points' advantage to the fourth quarter, and role players didn't miss their first three 3-point-shots. Xinjiang's inside players fouled too much to contribute to their team in stalemate, so the suspense was terminated five minutes before the end.

Sichuan defeated Guangsha 123-113 at home and entered the last four with a clean sheet in the season's playoffs.

Guangdong got an easy victory over Shandong 125-105 at the same time, and they will face against Liaoning in the semifinals series.

As the regular champions this season, Liaoning beat Zhejiang 127-111 and eliminated their opponents by three wins in a row, too. Enditem