The Nanjing Monkey Kings claimed a valuable comeback victory over the Guangzhou Loong Lions 105-103 in Qingdao of east China's Shandong Province on Thursday. Nanjing's American guard Joseph Young put down 55 points while his teammate He Jingjia buried a 0.9-second game-winning shot, both for the first time since the season restarted.

Young was nothing but dominant in the game as he went 18-30 in field goals, buried five 3-pointers and made all 14 free throws. Though none of his teammates reached 20 in scoring, they made their contributions. For example, Hamed Haddadi did a great job protecting both the paint and rebound for Nanjing with 12 points and 18 rebounds while he also delivered six assists. He Jingjia scored 13 points and made the game-winning shot in the in the end.

Guangzhou's three starters, Marcus Hunter, Chen Yingjun and Guo Kai all claimed 20+points. Cheng Yingjun had 24 points, 10 assists and Guo Kai scored 22 points, 17 rebounds, four assist, four steals, all career highs. Hunter had the chance to reverse the situation for his team but his last shot was denied by Song Jianhua.

This game had the biggest twists so far. Nanjing already established a 15-point lead after the first half but lost it to Guangzhou after a 31-15 run in the third quarter. Guangzhou did not stop there but began Q4 with another 10-0. After Hunter made a jumper, Guangzhou became the team leading by 15 (93-78).

The following seven minutes belonged to Young who started a 14-1 run for Nanjing with a three-point play. When he assisted Qiao Wenhao to make another three, the score was tied 98-98. Young then made another pull-up from downtown before he passed the ball to He Jingjia to put an end to the contest.

Lawson, Wang Zhelin bring Fujian another easy win

The Fujian Sturgeons gave the Shandong Heroes their second straight loss after Ty Lawson and Wang Zhelin together dropped 45 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists. Lawson not only orchestrated Fujian's offense as smoothly as silk, he also delivered six steals, breaking the opponents' offense into uncomfortable pieces.

Shandong was so struggling in offense in this game that Tao Hanlin was the team's only player reaching double-digit points until there were four minutes left in the third quarter. In fact, Shandong only put up qualified resistance in Q2 to narrow the score difference to eight points (52-44). Nonetheless, a 27-16 run in Q3 turned the game into a gone conclusion.

Having lost two of their three games since the restart, Shandong already dropped from No. 4 to No. 9 on the ranking table. The team's head coach Gong Xiaobin admitted at the post-game press conference that lack of qualified orchestrators held them back. Their guards still have too much to learn in pace control and passing choices.

Royal Fighters claim two straight wins

The Beijing Royal Fighters continued to take their second win after the team defeated the Jiangsu Dragons 104-95 thanks to the remarkable performances by Beijing's foreign pair, Arnett Moultrie, who dropped 28 points, 17 rebounds, and Kyle Fogg, who got 21 points, nine assists, seven steals.

Though this was Jiangsu's second loss in a row, their young star Wu Guanxi continued his impressiveness by putting down 24 points and nine rebounds. It was his 10-11 shooting performance that helped Jiangsu fight till the last minutes in the game.

After Thursday's game, the Royal Fighters remain seventh on the ranking table with the same 21-12 record of the sixth Beijing Ducks and the fifth Liaoning Flying Leopards. The Jiangsu Dragons rank 15th, trailing playoff goalkeeper the 12th Fujian Sturgeons by three games.

In the other two games on Thursday, the Xinjiang Flying Tigers achieved a difficult win over the Qingdao Eagles, 95-90. Though both sides saw five of their players reach double-digit points, none of them got 20. Xinjiang's national team center Zhou Qi put down 16 points, 13 rebounds and sank key shots from downtown in the last quarter.

The Shenzhen Aviators beat the Jilin Northeast Tigers 102-94. Shenzhen's Li Muhao and Shen Zijie dominated the paint with 23 points + 13 rebounds, 24 points + 10 rebounds respectively. American guard Sean Hill had Jilin's highest 19 points.