The Chinese Basketball Association's (CBA) Wednesday fixture saw two teams from Beijing battling it out and in the end it was Beijing Ducks that edged past the Beikong Royal Fighters 87-79.

Former Beijing Ducks superstars Stephon Marbury and Sun Yue, made their way back to Wukesong, looking to pace the Beikong Royal Fighters to a road victory in the new season's first capital clash. However, their hopes were shattered as "Linsanity" powered the Ducks to the last laugh.

With their stadium sold out for this showdown, the Ducks fed off the crowd's energy to maintain control for most of the night, and regained the edge every time the Royal Fighters battled back. The intense battle went down to the wire and Ducks kept the momentum going until the end to notch up their first victory in this year's Beijing derby. 

Beijing Ducks Guard and star NBA recruit Jeremy Lin said,  "I hope it's exciting, I hope it's a lot of fun, I'm just starting to get a taste of it. I don't understand the depths of the rivalry and the history of it all just yet, but two teams that are gonna put it all out on the floor every night, so it was a fun game."

While speaking on his side's morale-boosting victory against their city rivals, Yannis Christopoulos remarked,  "I think our guys deserve a lot of credit about their attitude and the way they played the game tonight. I think it's the win of course, and I think offensively we shared the ball, and we executed well when we needed to." 

After his side's disappointing defeat Royal Fighters coach Marbury said, "This is the type of energy, as I said in the press conference, this is the type of energy that you want to have for basketball. CBA is hot right now and for a game like this to be seen, people can witness it and watch it in Beijing and all around the country, it's great for the league." 

Marbury led Beijing to three CBA titles in four years, from 2012 through 2015, with Sun joining him in the backcourt for the squad's second and third championship runs. And now that the American is in his first season coaching Beikong, with his one-time Chinese running mate providing veteran experience, after sitting out the last two winters, they're staring at multiple opportunities to try getting over, against their old franchise. 

Recent results show the standings don't matter when these two teams face each other, but the energy level is that much higher for this match-up, due to both coming in knotted for third place with 5-1 records, before an 87-79 win lifts the Ducks to a share of second, while the Royal Fighters slip to joint fifth, but they'll have a chance to flip the script on their court, in six days' time. 

Elsewhere, Guangzhou Long Lions won against Shenzhen Aviators with an emphatic 116- 88 scoreline in a Guangdong province derby. Guangzhou came in on a four game losing streak, but with Zheng Zhun pouring in nine three pointers, they were able to end that slide. Zheng kept dialing in from long distance and went on to score a joint game high 33 points. This was Guangzhou's first victory in five games.