BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Yi Jianlian finished with 26 points, leading Guangdong past Beijing 109-96 in the 34th round games of the 2017-18 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Thursday.
The loss ensures the Beijing Ducks are stuck with a three-game losing streak on the road.
Beijing, the former league winner was dying for a win, as it has lost two out of three games on the road trip and dropped to eighth on the standings after losing to Guangzhou on Tuesday. Randolph Morris' refusal to play after Aaron Jackson's injury layoff just added to their predicament.
Against Guangdong, Beijing played aggressively in the first half as Zhai Xiaochuan put up 21 points including five three-pointers, yet the visitors never got to build a big lead and trailed by one point before the interval.
Fang Shuo hit a fade-away shot against Yi Jianlian in the third quarter, which turned out to be the visitors' last highlight. Guangdong had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and closed out the game comfortably.
Xinjiang's victory over Shanxi would be anything but a relief for Beijing. Beating Shanxi 120-108, the defending champion managed to escape from the bottom four of the playoff picture. Guangzhou, the 10th seed within the playoff hunt, lost to Fujian 125-132, which was good news for Shanghai, who trounced Tongxi 118-105 for a record of 18 wins against 16 losses.
Elsewhere, Aolong edged Sichuan 116-113. Shavlik Randolph contributed a season-high 52 points, theoretically helping his team stay in the playoff hunt. Shandong cruised to a 127-103 win over Jiangsu to stand ahead of their opponents in the standings by having one game in hand.
