Defending champions Guangdong Hongyuan thumped derby rivals Dongguan Marco polo with an incredible scoring of 146-88 in the semifinal of 2010-2011 Chinese Basketball Association league (CBA) here on Sunday night, making them one step closer to retain the title.
This would certainly recall Guangdong's glorious memory but open Dongguan's old wounds. The 58-point difference lists second in all CBA playoff games, coincidentally following Guangdong's 59- point advantage win over Dongguan in the 2008-2009 CBA playoffs.
Zhou Peng, Zhu Fangyu and Marcus Haislip combined 69 for Guangdong to deliver a crushing blow to their opponents.
After a 4-4 draw in the beginning of the first quarter, Dongguan never had a single chance to pull even. Their defense was sporadic, allowing Guangdong to score 19 straight points during one stretch in just five minutes, which contributed to Guangdong's 32-points leading in the first half.
Dongguan had only trimmed the deficit through a 5-0 run early in the second half, but their endeavor was quickly depleted in Guangdong's even stronger attacking wave. Leading by 37 points into the fourth, Guangdong refused to show any mercy to their season long derby adversary, they widened their advantage to 58 points, making a huge psychological blow to their opposition.
"The most favorable for us to complete such a victory is it will provide us a psychological advantage in the coming games," said Zhu Fangyu, who had just went off an injury-riddled regular season, scoring 22 in this game.
