Shandong ranks 2nd with 15th straight win

BEIJING - Shandong Gold has secured the second seed for Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league playoffs after handing Dongguan Marco Polo a road crush 117-94 for their 15-game winning streak on Wednesday.

Pooh Jeter contributed a game-high 34 points. Jackson Vroman and Zaid Abbass helped with 21 and 14 points respectively.

Shandong stormed to a 11-0 run after the game began. The hosts still didn't find their rhythm while Shandong continued to pull away the game, building a 32-19 lead after the first quarter.

Dongguan once cut the deficit down within four points thanks to Gu Quan's three consecutive 3-pointers and only trailed by nine points into halftime.

However, Jeter shone for Shandong by scoring 18 points in the final period, including 12 in a row, to extend the margin beyond 20 points and finally seal the victory.

Defending champions Beijing Ducks guaranteed the third spot in regular season through a 99-90 victory over Fujian SBS helped by Stephon Marbury's versatile performance. The starter of CBA All-star North Team pocketed 25 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Beijing trailed by 22-33 after the first 12 minutes, while they bounced back in the second to trail by just two points.

Marbury dominated the third period with 12 points and two assists, lifting Beijing to come back as they built a 79-73 lead and never fell down later.

Fujian's promising center Wang Zhelin had a big double-double of 22 points and 24 rebounds, while that could not stop his team from suffering second straight loss.

On Tuesday, in his last home match, Tracy Mcgrady offered home fans a "gift" by finishing with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, his first CBA triple-double performance, while only to see Qingdao Doublestars edged by Zhejiang Chouzhou 114-113 to give the latter a critical win on their road to playoffs.

Elsewhere, Guangdong Hongyuan were set to rank top in regular season with a 110-76 crush over Tianjin Ronggang. Yi Jianlian scored 28 points and eight rebounds to lead four other teammates having double-figure points.

In other matches, Liaoning Hengye beat Foshan Long Lions 128-122, Zhejiang Guangsha edged Shanxi Zhongyu 122-121, Bayi Fubang downed Jilin Northeast Tigers 102-88 and Xinjiang Guanghui defeated Jiangsu Dragons 112-102.