WNBA Games in China ?

NBA Commissioner David Stern is always pushing product. There's a new arena being built in Shanghai called the Mercedes-Benz Arena, according to the Los Angeles Times. NBA International President Heidi Ueberroth says:

Preseason NBA games and other basketball events such as WNBA games will be held at the Mercedes center, Ueberroth said. "This is absolutely an NBA-level arena."

My question: can the WNBA afford the cost of transport, or will those games be played during the WNBA regular season?

Liaoning are WCBA Champions

Liaoning, the team that knocked out Jennifer Lacy's former team Beijing out of the WCBA playoffs has been crowned the WCBA champions with a 79-64 victory. The loser was Bayi Telecom.

This still leaves unanswered the question of whether Jennifer Lacy will attend the WCBA All-Star Game, which is scheduled for February 15th in Beijing. I believe that on January 26th the Chinese Basketball Association invalidated the lineups and removed Lacy from the starting position. I don't see her on any current All-Star list.

It's a shame that her fans in Beijing didn't get to see her one more time. Maybe she'll be back next year.

News from China

Bayi Telecom whips Jiangsu 103-74 in the deciding game of their three game semifinal series. Looks like it's going to be Tangela Smith (Liaoning) vs. Sui Feifei (Bayi Telecom) in the five-game finals.

WCBA Semifinals 2/2008 - Liaoning 79, Beijing 67

Jennifer Lacy introducing Jia Guang to WNBA-style play.

After losing the first game of the semifinals, Beijing needed a win to have a chance at being the first WCBA champion that wasn't either Bayi Telecom or Liaoning. They traveled to Liaoning for a must-win game, but fell 79-67. It was Beijing's second loss in a best-of-three series, and Beijing is officially eliminated from contention. Liaoning goes to the finals for the fourth straight year.

I managed to get Google Translate to give me a translated box score here. Your mileage may vary. If that link doesn't work, try this one.

So what happened? Beijing was missing leading scorer Zhang Wei because they leased her from Liaoning at the beginning of the season - obviously, she wasn't going to be allowed to play against a team that held her contract. Beijing managed to lead Liaoning 24-22 at the end of the first quarter, but in the second, Beijing was just held to 11 points and Liaoning took a 41-35 lead into the break.

Beijing fought back in the third quarter to cut the lead down to three points, 58-55 at the end of three quarters. Beijing would manage to close the gap to just one point, 62-61, with five minutes left, but Beijing would be outscored 17-6 in those final five minutes.

In terms of shooting, this was a premiere game from both sides. Liaoning shot 50 percent and Beijing shot 41 percent, but both teams shot over 50 percent from inside the 3-point arc. Both teams hit about 25 percent of their three pointers, but Beijing made 26 attempts to Liaoning's 11 (it only resulted in three extra hits for Beijing).

Beijing picked up more offensive rebounds, winning that battle almost by a 2-1 margin. Turnovers were even. What crushed Beijing was sending Liaoning to the line 26 times - and Liaoning hit 22 of their free throws, scoring at an 84 percent margin. Excellent shooting at the free throw lilne has sent Liaoning to the finals once again, where they will meet either Bayi Telecom or Jiangsu. (Bayi Telecom won their game, evening the Bayi Telecom/Jiangsu series at 1-1. The rubber game of the match is tomorrow.)

"Yang half with" - whoever she is - led Liaoning with 20 points. Tangela Smith scored 19 points and had seven rebounds, shooting 7-for-10 from the field. Ma Zengyu would also score 18 points for Liaoning.

As for Beijing, it was hoped that Zhang Fan would be a big force for the visitors, but she suffered an injury and only played seven minutes, scoring only six points. Zhang Lin would score 23 points and eight rebounds to lead all Beijing players. The only other player to score in double digits was "周宏华" with 12 points. Ten players would score points for Beijing, but Jennifer Lacy would only score five points in 32 minutes of play. Lacy also scored six rebounds and had four assists. For some mysterious reason, Lacy did not start.

(* * *)

So Jennifer Lacy's season is over, and she's theoretically free to return to the United States. However, through an act of ballot box stuffing, Lacy got enough votes to be named the starting center for the North All-Star Team of the WCBA. The WCBA plans on playing an All-Star Game on February 15th - if they can find someone who will host it.

Was today's game Jennifer Lacy's last game in China? Or will there be another?

Jennifer Lacy - Chinese All Star?

According to the linked article, Jennifer Lacy was just named the starting center of the North Team for the WCBA All-Star Game.

Guess Jennifer won't be coming home until after February 15th. Supposedly, there was some ballot-stuffing by Beijing fans - Yolanda Griffith of Henan ended up sixth or seventh. (Hands up - which one is better?) I enjoy the following commentary:

This shows that Internet voting is sometimes mischievous. However, Yolanda people do not attach importance to this, she is already the two Olympic champions, have been WNBA championship WCBA All-Star selection can not, can only say that the way this selection is very ridiculous.

Unfortunately, the WCBA faces a lot of problems of the WNBA: "WCBA All-Star Game to develop in February 15, 2009 held, but the venue has not yet been determined. It is understood that the Chinese Basketball Association wanted to get organized to give them 300,000 yuan to the contractor the race, but women's influence is limited, so far nobody wants to take over."

WCBA Semifinals 1/2008 - Liaoning 81, Beijing 74

Liaoning needed to win two of three games against Beijing to go to the finals, but would have to travel to Beijing for the first game. They overcame that first obstacle by winning 81-74 on the road. Beijing will now have to win on Saturday and on Sunday in order to advance to the WCBA finals - one loss and Beijing is done for the season.

The translated boxscore is here.

Beijing had two problems. First, Beijing's main scorer Zhang Wei wasn't allowed to play - because she was leased (like a soccer player) at the beginning of the year from the Liaoning team. Second, Beijing was dominated in the paint due to Tangela Smith having a massive game. Beijing was able to keep up, behind 20-18 after the first quarter and 36-33 at haltime. Liaoning then turned on the full court press and Beijing began to fade away. They were down by eight (59-51) at the end of three quarters and never got an offensive rhythm.

Liaoning outshot Beijing 58 percent to 43 percent, but Liaoning took fewer shots - part of the disparity comes from Beijing's 5-for-18 performance at the boards. Liaoning only got four offensive rebounds compared to Beijing's 11 offensive rebounds. Furthermore, Liaoning turned the ball over more. Unfortunately for Beijing, they sent Liaoning to the free throw line 20 times and Liaoning hit 16 shots.

Zhang Fan led all Beijing players with 25 points, six assists and five rebounds. Sun Yu scored 12 points and 18 rebounds for Beijing. Two other players would score in double digits for Beijing, including Jennifer Lacy, who scored 10 points but only had two rebounds for Beijing.

Leading Liaoning - and dominating the game - was Tangela Smith with 27 points and 13 rebounds. She shot 12-for-15 in the game. Ma Zengyu scored 19 points in the game, and "Yang half with" scored 13 points and four rebounds.

WCBA Quarterfinals 2/2008 - Beijing 65, Guangdong 55

Who's that American girl in the front row?

You only need to win two of three in the opening round of the WCBA Quarterfinals to move on, and with their win over Guangdong, Beijing will advance to the WCBA Semifinals.

All of the higher ranked teams won the second and deciding game of their first round series. The semifinals start Wednesday and are a best-of-three affair. Beijing will end up playing either Bayi Telecom or Liaoning in the semifinals, and the first game will be played in Beijing.

It looks like Google Translate and WCBA have declared peace. The translated boxscore is here.

Guangdong took the lead they needed early on, and led after the first quarter 19-15. After that, Beijing's talent came to the top. They led 34-31 at halftime and held Guangdong to just 11 third quarter points. Guangdong would get to within three points in the final two minutes, 55-52, but Beijing would score 10 points in the final two minutes to close the game.

Beijing had the shooting edge, hitting 44 percent of its attempted field goals compared to 41 percent for Guangdong. Guangdong hit more field goals from 3-point range, but Beijing took more shots.

Beijing had the edge in offensive rebounding and in visits to the free throw line. The critical problem was Chasity Melvin who scored seven points and 10 rebounds in 39 minutes (she's listed under "Richard Nesti") but made six turnovers and only shot 28 percent.

For Beijing, Zhang Fan led with 21 points and seven rebounds as well as three block shots. Seven other players scored for Beijing including Jennifer Lacy, who started for Beijing and scored seven points (but committed four fouls) in 30 minutes of play.

Song Xiayun led all Guangdong scorers with 17 points. Wei Wei would also score nine points and six rebounds for Guangdong.

Funny, for a quarterfinal match, you think there would pictures all over in a country as large as China. Oh well. I got a picture from a lone Chinese blogger, so thank you! The larger version is here, and in high resolution, Jennifer Lacy looks really nice.

WCBA Quarterfinals 1/2008 - Beijing 87, Guangdong 60

If you're going to win a championship, you have to be able to go to your opponent's home site and knock them out. Beijing, the third place finisher in the Women's Chinese Basketball Association, managed to do just that by going to #6 Guangdong and beating them 87-60 on the road.

The series is a best-of-three series. Beijing hopes to move on to the semifinals on Saturday when Guangdong visits Beijing.

The untranslated boxscore is here. The WCBA is having a massive case of fail when it comes to having their boxscores translated by Google.

Both teams played as evenly as one can imagine in the first half of the game, with the score tied up 37-37 at halftime. From the third quarter on, however, it was all Beijing, when Beijing held the home team to a grand total of seven third-quarter points. At the end of three quarters it was 65-44, and the rout was on.

Beijing outshot the home team 56 percent to 39 percent. What killed Guangdong? Well, she who lives by the 3-point shot dies by the 3-point shot. Guangdong went 1-for-12 from behind the 3-point arc.

Guangdong was better at the offensive boards and outrebounded Beijing 30-28. Both teams were about even in turnovers. Beijing would send Guangdong to the free throw line 19 times, so Beijing really needed to shoot better than Guangdong. Compare Beijing's 12-for-22 behind the 3-point arc vs. Guangdong's 1-for-12 and you have the secret of Beijing's success right there.

"Huang Hung DIPY" led all players with 15 points and 5 rebounds for Guangdong. The only other player to finish in double digits for Guangdong was Zhu Lin with 10 points. Ding Park would lead Guangdong in rebounds with nine points and six rebounds.

Five players would score in double digits for Beijing. "Zhang" (which one?) led all Beijing scorers with 20 points and seven assists. "Fan" scored 14 points and three rebounds and Sun Yu also scored 14 poiints and three rebounds. "周宏华" was the lead rebounder with 11 points and 7 rebounds.

What about Jennifer Lacy? It wasn't her best game - seven points in 18 minutes on 2-for-6 shooting with a couple of free throws. She did get five rebounds, though.

Elsewhere in WCBA quarterfinals action, Bayi Telecom beat Liaoyang 89-72, Jiangsu beat Henan 84-82 and Liaoning beat Hayao 94-84. All of those games were first games of a three-game series.

What's Going On?

Answer: nothing. Not a single solitary thing. I just watched the greatest comeback in Tennessee history today in their amazing win against Rutgers. And tomorrow, I'll be going to watch Georgia Tech play Tulane. Other than that: bupkus.

However, I found out who has probably replaced Ann Strother at Jiangsu in China. The name? Adrian Williams-Strong.

WCBA 22/2008 - Beijing 91, Hayao 56

As usual, Translate Google and the WCBA website are sniping at each other, so I don't have a box score. What is clear is that Beijing (15-7) had no trouble with visiting Hayao (12-10) to win 91-56.

Furthermore, Jiangsu lost to Guangdong 100-95. (That's what happens when you get rid of Ann Strother!) This breaks the tie for third place and gives Beijing sole possession of third place.

Unfortunately, no boxscore. Furthermore, there's a suspicious #17 in the Beijing boxscore, and I thought Jennifer Lacy's number was #16! Hopefully, they've not sent her home, too!

Assuming that

1. The standings list is accurate, and
2. Tied teams are listed in order of final finish,

here should be the WCBA 2008-09 playoffs. The first round is a best-of-three series.

#1 Liaoning (17-5) vs. #8 Liaoyang (11-11)
#2 Bayi Telecom (17-5) vs. #7 Hayao (12-10)
#3 Beijing (15-7) vs. #6 Guangdong (12-10)
#4 Jiangsu (14-8) vs. #5 Henan (13-9)

The playoffs start next week. As soon as I can find more about the boxscore - and Jennifer Lacy - I'll write it up.

WCBA 21/2008 - Beijing 77, Shanghai 74

Beijing (14-7) needed just one more win this year to clinch at least a fourth-place regular season finish and a guaranteed home advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Shanghai (4-17) was hoping that they wouldn't finish dead last in the league. Zhejiang lost 89-48 to Liaoning, so both sides get their wish as Beijing wins 77-74 on the road to clinch their spot.

Beijing's last game is December 30th against Hayao (12-9) at home. If they win and Jiangsu (14-7) loses to Guangdong (11-10) on the road, then Beijing would slip into third place to finish the season.

The translated (for now) boxscore is here.

You have to give this game to Beijing - they really wanted it. Beijing came out ice cold and was held to only nine points at the end of the first quarter, down 22-9. However, Beijing immediately began to close the gap and hold Shanghai to 11 second-quarter points. At halftime, Shanghai could only take a 34-33 lead into the break. Shanghai began to tighten their defense, and managed to hit the final three shots of the third quarter to lead 57-53 after three quarters.

Jennifer Lacy, however, provided "frequently in Shanghai manufacturing team insider threats" and the Beijing team took the lead in the last four minutes. In the end, Shanghai was forced to foul and hope for the best, but they let it slip away.

Shanghai had a great shooting game, hitting 52 percent of their shots and 56 percent of their inside shots. Unfortunately for Shanghai, Beijing hit 54 percent of their total shots and 60 percent of their inside shots. Both teams rebounded fairly evenly, and had the same number of turnovers. Shanghai, however, would send Beijing to the free throw line 21 times and Beijing would go 19-for-21, the real key to Beijing's victory.

Feng Yi scored 22 points and had six assists for Beijing. The pair of untranslatable characters known as "焦岚" scored 17 points and four rebounds, and Zeng Meiling scored 11 points for Shanghai.

There were three breakout players for Beijing - Zhang Lin scored 26 points and eight rebounds and Zhang Fan had 15 points and also picked up eight rebounds. Jennifer Lacy would score 19 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the field and hitting all seven of her free throw attempts.

WCBA 20/2008 - Beijing 76, Zhejiang 68

Since there are only 12 teams in the WCBA, the season ends with each team playing 22 games - one home and away against each of its opponents. Zhejiang (2-18) had been mathematically eliminated weeks ago, but they were hoping to sneak by visiting Beijing (13-7). Despite a slow start, Zhejiang appears to have at least kept it interesting before falling to Beijing 76-68.

The win secures a playoff spot for Beijing, as the worst Beijing can finish is at 13-9, which would be them tied for sixth. However, with Jiangsu also at 13-7 and Henan right behind at 12-8, Beijing really needs to win its following two games to secure a fourth place finish and home field advantage in the first round.

I don't have a translated boxscore yet - I just have the original boxscore, which crashes when I try to throw it into Google translate. So I'll just finish this whenever I get a translatable boxscore. I can tell you that Jennifer Lacy led her team in scoring.

More (hopefully) later....

More News on Ann Strother

Someone close to Ann Strother sent me some more information about Ann Strother's sudden disappearance from the Jiangsu team in the WCBA.

What happened was that the center of the Jiangsu team was injured. This left Jiangsu in a pickle, as they had no good backup center and they wanted to make a play for the WCBA championship. They could get a new center from the United States by the name of "Williams" (the characters used to describe her name are the common ones used to transliterate "Williams") but the problem was that Jiangsu could only have one "foreign aid" player.

So it was a tough choice - bring in the new center and give up Ann Strother, or keep Ann Strother and effectively challenge for the WCBA championship without a good #5.

They made the tough choice. Williams showed up, and Ann Strother was sent home, taking home some good memories and making some new friends.

I hope that something opens up for Ann Strother in the rest of the off season if she wants it. It looks like Ann will have an unexpected Christmas present. See you next year, Ann!

WCBA 19/2008 - Beijing 73, Liaoning 71

As anyone who follows Chinese women's basketball knows, there are only two brides - Bayi Telecom and Liaoning - and a bunch of bridesmaids. Whenever one of these two teams falls, it's probably cause for celebration/fear in some quarters of Chinese basketball. Liaonang (15-4) was the #1 team in China going into this game, and they are still #1, but Beijing (12-7) squeaked by with a 73-71 victory at home.

The win keeps Beijing in fourth place, giving it a home field playoff advantage with three games to go in the regular season. In a 12 team league, there are still 10 teams contending for eight playoff spots. One more win in the next three games will mathematically clinch a playoff spot of some sort for Beijing.

The translated box score is here.

Looking at the quarter-by-quarter score, it appears to be a tight game all the way. The game was tied 36-36 at halftime. Beijing led by two after three quarters (57-55), but Liaoning had not thrown in the towel yet.

With 40 seconds to go in the fourth, Liaoning had recovered the lead and led 70-67. A referee's call - "it seems that the ball was touched round opponent after the referee awarded (Beijing)" - led Liaoning players and their coach to protest and risk a technical.

Beijing scored on their next possession to make the score 70-69, coming within one of Liaoning. With 20 seconds left, Zhou Honghua of Beijing stole the ball and ran the fast break for an easy basket to put Beijing up 71-70. Both sides swapped free throws, and with four seconds left, Jia Guang of Liaoning missed the final bucket that would have sent the game into overtime.

Liaonang had a better scoring percentage than the home team, 53 percent to 43 percent. So where did Beijing find space in the box score to come back? The answer is in the other three "keys to victory". In a game with few rebounds, Beijing got most of the offensive rebounds, leading by a 12-8 margin. Liaoning turned the ball over 19 times to Beijing's 13. Furthermore, both teams were sent to the free throw line equally often, but Beijing was 12 for 16 from the line - Liaoning was 8 for 15.

Who led Beijing? Jennifer Lacy, and she did it in a big way. She scored 20 points and took 20 shots (14 FG, 6 FT) to do it. She picked up eight rebounds to lead both teams. Three other players scored in double figures for Beijing, including Zhang Fan with 17 points and Zhang Lin with 14 points.

For Liaoning, Ji Xiao would lead the visitors with 16 points and four rebounds - no other Liaoning player would have more than four rebounds. Zhang Dan scored 12 points and four rebounds and Chen Xiaoli added 11 points. Tangela Smith, the "foreign aid" player for Liaoning who is also the center for the Phoenix Mercury, scored 10 poitns and four rebounds in only 17 minutes of play.

This was a big win for Beijing. Just remember Jennifer, "one win and you're in!"

WCBA 19/2008 - Jiangsu 100, Shangdong 79 - Goodbye, Ann

Jiangsu (13-6) beat Shangdong (7-12) by a score of 100-79. It was a nice road win for Jiangsu, and the boxscore can be found here.

However, this is the third straight game without Ann Strother for Jiangsu. "Williams" has replaced her in the boxscore.

This translated article implies that Ann Strother has been dismissed from the team. The impression I'm getting is that it was "just business", that Jiangsu wanted someone stronger to take them into the playoffs as there are only three games left in the regular season.

I hope Strother had a good time in China. I'll no longer be reporting on Jiangsu in the team reports and will focus on Jennifer Lacy in Beijing.

WCBA 18/2008 - Liaoyang 65, Beijing 62

This is one of those games that you'd be embarassed to lose. Imagine that you show up to play a team - let's call it "Liaoyang" (8-10) - that only dresses six players. Furthermore, only four of their players actually score in the game. Whereas you - let's call you "Beijing" (11-7) - are able to play nine players to their six. And you're the better team. And yet, you lose, on the road, by three points.

The translated boxscore is here. (I wonder if it's an Internet Explorer thing - the box score translated first time automatically in Firefox.)

The quarter-by-quarter score indicates a back and forth game. After one quarter, Liaoyang is up 13-11 but they only lead by a point at halftime, 29-28. Liaoyang manages to extend the lead to five points after three quarters (40-35) and manages to keep the visitors at arm's length.

How did they do it? Liaoyang outshot Beijing 46 percent to 37 percent, but that's not the whole story. Beijing tried twenty-four 3-point shots and only hit seven of them. Zhou Honghua went 1-for-5 from behind the arc. Zhang Fan went 2-for-9. Jennifer Lacy did a little better, going 2-for-3.

Beijing won the battle of offensive rebounding - 10 of their 27 rebounds were off the offensive glass. Each team had similar turnovers. Unfortunately, Beijing sent Liaoyang to the line 16 times and Liaoyang hit 15 of their shots.

Why was Beijing trying to win this game strictly on the basis of the three pointer when they could have simply muscled the starting six out of the game? We may never know.

Of the six Liaoyang players, two didn't score. The other four, not surprisingly, scored in double figures. Zhang Lan Han scored 23 points. Liu Dan scored 19 and the mysterious "Song Peacekeeping Force" scored 13. Zhao Shuang came close to a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Zhang Fan scored 19 points and six rebounds for Beijing. Zhang Wei scored 14 points but also fouled out of the game. Jennifer Lacy might have had the second best game for Beijing, scoring 10 points and six rebounds in a losing effort.

Will we know the mysterious secret of the Liaoyang-Beijing game? Probably not.

WCBA 18/2008 - Bayi Telecom 92, Jiangsu 82 - Where is Ann Strother?

Now that I seem to have whipped this awful sickness - well, I haven't whipped it but I'm feeling much better - I just need to whip the WCBA website in shape and catch up on those two TBBL games that were played on Sunday.

As for the WCBA, it appears that Bayi Telecom (13-5) has just beaten Jiangsu (12-6) at Jiangsu by a score of 92-82 on the road.

The untranslated box score is here. The problem is that when you try to translate the boxscore into English using Google Translate, Google Translate throws up its hands and says, "we can't find this page".

I hope that the case is that the WCBA has become so popular that the webpage is getting many more hits than expected, leading to the inevitable crashes. Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case.

I won't be writing up the boxscore for that reason, and for another reason: it seems that Ann Strother has been replaced by "Williams" yet again. I don't know what on earth has happened to Ann Strother - she wore #16 for Jiangsu and "Williams" wears #17. Both players are listed on Jiangsu's roster, which is very strange, since teams can only have one "foreign aid" player.

If Strother doesn't show up for the game this Saturday, my only conclusion will be that she's left the team, and I'll stop following Jiangsu.

If Google Translate/the WCBA website can get their collective acts together, I'll report the Liaoyang/Beijing game. I know Jennifer Lacy played in that one.

WCBA 17/2008 - Beijing 100, Shangdong 62

The WCBA site is still out. I don't know if the WCBA website is undergoing a major redesign - game results can be found at the CBA page - or if the site's gone down before more people have clicked it, or if it's just falling apart from lack of use. What I do know is that Jennifer Lacy's team, Beijing (11-6), managed to beat visiting Shangdong (7-10) by a score of 100-62.

The boxscore is here.

I don't have a play-by-play, but I wouldn't be surprised if Beijing was never behind during the game. They won every single quarter and took a 43-32 lead into halftime. Shangdong was outscored 57-30 in the second half.

With such a huge point gap, you'd think that Beijing simply outshot Shangdong - and you'd be right. Beijing hit 58 percent of their shots compared to 40 percent by Shangdong. Shangdong was held to only 20 rebounds, and only made 7 of 14 free throws.

Zhang Lin of Beijing led the team with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Jennifer Lacy scored 20 points on 16 shots and made four rebounds - and she did it in only 21 minutes of play. Li Shu scored 12 points, and Zhou Honghua scored nine points and nine rebounds.

For Shangdong, Sun Weiying led with 30 points and five rebounds. The only other player to score in double digits for Shangdong was "Si Secretary" with 10 points.

It doesn't look like Jennifer Lacy is in danger of losing her job. Although, if Ann Strother was removed from Jiangsu, I'd tell Jennifer to keep a suitcase packed, just in case.

WCBA 16/2008 - Beijing 84, Jiangsu 79

With only seven more games left in the WCBA regular season, Jiangsu (11-5) hoped to use Beijing (10-6) as an appetizer before heading on Saturday to take on league-leading Liaoning. Instead, Jennifer Lacy's team pulled the welcome mat out from under the visitors' feet, winning 84-79 at home to remain in fourth place.

The translated boxscore is here.

Looking at the quarter to quarter boxscore, it seems like a fairly even game at first - the score was tied after 10 minutes and Beijing took an 45-41 lead into halftime. Beijing came out strong in the third quarter holding Jiangsu to 15 total points, and Jiangsu's rally in the fourth just wasn't enough to come back and win.

Part of the problem, undoubtedly, was that Jiangsu only had seven players earn any minutes. Sometimes, I wonder what's going on. Are Chinese coaches loathe to substitute, or are there unreported injuries?

Beijing won the shooting battle, 44 percent to 41 percent over Jiangsu, and also hit nine 3-point shots. However, Jiangsu killed Beijing in offensive rebounding, 24-14. They made more turnovers than Beijing, but were better at the free throw line - 76 percent vs. 64 percent. It's hard to find a key to the game that gives Beijing the win; I guess you had to be there.

Three of the four "Zhangs" on the Beijing team helped lead the team to victory. Zhang Lin had 19 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Zhang Wei scored 27 points and Zhang Fan scored 18. Zhou Honghua scored 13 points, six rebounds, and six assists.

It would not be a good day for Jennifer Lacy. She shot 2-for-6 and was 1-for-4 from the free throw stripe. She also committed four fouls.

With only seven players playing, four of Jiangsu's players were in double-digits. Xu Song scored 28 points and seven rebounds, and Chen Xiaojia scored 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Wang Xiao-Li would score 10 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double. Ann Strother would score 14 points and four rebounds for Jiangsu.

Only six more games to go in the WCBA regular season....

WCBA 15/2008 - Jiangsu 126, Hayao 73

It was definitely a great day for Jiangsu (11-4). Not only were they able to crush visiting Hayao (7-8) by a score of 126-73 at home, but Bayi Telecom would end up losing to Liaoning on its home court by a score of 78-75. Bayi Telecom's loss gives Jiangsu sole possession of second place in the WNBA, only two games behind Liaoning.

The boxscore is here.

What do you write about a team that won each of its first three quarters by an average score of 16.6 points? Jiangsu led by 18 points at the end of the first quarter and crossed the half-century mark before the end of halftime, taking a 65-34 lead into the break. When Hayao could only put together 13 third quarter points, I don't think the outcome of the game would be in doubt by anyone.

Jiangsu shot 65 percent for the game. I don't know if that was because Jiangsu was shooting so well or because Hayao didn't put up a struggle (they only shot 41 percent). Add to that 21 turnovers by Hayao and this game was a foregone conclusion and a joy for the home fans.

It was time for the Jiansgu coaching staff to share the wealth. No player played more than 30 minutes on Jiangsu. Chen Xiaoja scored 24 points and nine rebounds to lead Jiangsu. Ann Strother scored 18 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes of play. Xu Song would score 16 points and five rebounds, and Bian Lan would add 13 points.

Leading for Hayao was Tan Xiaofei who scored all of her 16 points in just 13 minutes of play. Miao Lijie scored 13 points for Hayao and Liu Jiacen scored 10 points and five rebounds. Hu Rui Jiao would lead Hayao with rebounds with seven.

I wonder what the audience will look like if I get pictures. This is one of those games to which you go home early to beat the traffic.