BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion."
CBA defending champion Guangdong Southern Tigers once again proved former Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich's famous quote true, when they came back from a 13-point deficit going into the last quarter to oust the Beijing Ducks 104-103 in Sunday's quarterfinals, in a duel between the arch-rivals.
Beijing played another defense-oriented game by holding Guangdong to 104 points, far below their average of 119.4 points in the regular season.
Since head coach Yannis Christopoulos returned, the capital side rediscovered their signature defense and team basketball, as six players scored in double figures against Guangdong.
Without Marshon Brooks, who had been sidelined for the rest of the season after rupturing his Achilles tendon, Guangdong clearly felt the impact of losing someone that could spearhead their offense when Sonny Weems was substituted.
As star center Yi Jianlian is still recovering from the injury he sustained in last season's Finals, Guangdong was unable to truly restrain Fan Ziming and Justin Hamilton in their constant attacking of the basket, a big part of the reason for their 13-point lead after three quarters.
However, the reigning champion showed their stoutness as the game ticked into the final 12 minutes. Du Feng, who received the Coach of the Year trophy before the game, used a smaller line-up. Led by Defensive Player of the Year Zhou Peng, their full-court pressure functioned well in erasing a double-digit deficit and building a five-point margin.
When Hamilton was on the bench, Christopoulos showed a bit of conservativeness by sending Jonathan Gibson instead of Jordan McRae into the game. Facing huge pressure from Guangdong's guards, Gibson had a below-par performance, only scoring three points throughout, and Guangdong bounced back strong on the offensive end. Captain Zhou had eight of his 19 points in the fourth quarter and even blocked Hamilton's slam dunk, highlighting Guangdong's determination of accomplishing a comeback.
Playing seven matches for Beijing, with two playoff games included, McRae soon made his contribution off the bench by hitting a three-pointer and converting a three-point play, powering Beijing to the lead. But he missed both free throws with 10.9 seconds remaining. After Weems made a coast-to-coast floater, McRae missed a buzzer-beating three-pointer, sending Guangdong to the CBA semifinals for the 19th straight season.
"You are used to it (the comeback), right? So are we, as we have made it many times," Zhou commented.
People were soon reminiscing over the first game of last season's semifinals when Beijing blew a 19-point fourth-quarter advantage to swallow a bitter overtime loss.
"Don't underestimate our toughness!!" Weems wrote on Chinese twitter-like Sina Weibo.
"We can't put all the blame on the last two free throws. The fact that we lost a big advantage in a short time revealed that we had problems on both offensive and defensive ends," admitted Beijing guard Fang Shuo.
Guangdong squares off against the Shandong Heroes in the best-of-three semifinals to continue their quest for an 11th championship. Enditem
