Was coach Guo Shiqiang's departure the right decision for the Liaoning Flying Leopards? It's still too early to make any conclusion, but at least the team did well in the first game after Guo's resignation. On Monday evening, Liaoning walked over the Qingdao Eagles 109-81.

Liaoning's Guo Ailun exploded from the beginning to 4-4, dropping 13 points, three rebounds, and two assists in the first quarter. His sharp penetration plus tonight's hot hands from the 3-point line made Qingdao's defenders desperate. Han Dejun got 20 points and 10 rebounds. His defensive existence made every attempt to go against the rim very difficult for Qingdao.

What should make Liaoning fans happier than the remarkable performance of the team's two franchise players was the fluency of the team's offense in general. Twenty-one assists did not tell you how good the players were in ball movement and pace control. In the second half, the team even completed several times of Golden-State-Warriors give-and-go plays in offense.

Thanks to Monday's victory, Liaoning moved up to No. 6 on the ranking table. Their record was the same as the No. 5 Zhejiang Golden Bulls and only one game behind No. 4 Zhejiang Lions and No. 3 Beijing Royal Fighters.

Five threes in Q4 bring Zhejiang victory

The Zhejiang Golden Bulls managed to keep their lead against the Guangzhou Loong Lions, despite a stormy counter-attack in the second half, defeating their opponents 111-107 and claiming their third win in a row.

Guangzhou have been stealing the spotlight since the CBA games resumed. They were able to beat heavyweights like the Liaoning Flying Leopards and the Zhejiang Lions, but also lost to teams to less strong teams like the Shanghai Sharks.

They brought such inconsistency into Monday's game as well. Guangzhou's carelessness with the ball led to eight steals by Zhejiang, giving the opponents too many opportunities to launch fast breaks for easy points. In just four minutes, Zhejiang hurt Guangzhou with a 15-2 and led by 12 points (54-42) in the first half.

However, the situation changed in the third quarter. Despite the big lead in their hands, Zhejiang's players seemed to have forgotten how to attack in front of Guangzhou's zone defense. Guangzhou took the chance to narrow the score difference down to two points with 33-23 in Q3. Tian Yuheng went 6-7 to get 15 points in this quarter.

Wu Qian, Zhu Hangxu and Cheng Shuaipeng saved Zhejiang by raining 3-pointers in the last quarter. In the end, Lai Junhao made two free throws, sealing the win for Zhejiang.

Shandong Heroes achieve second win since restart

The Shandong Heroes finally pocketed their second win since season restart as the team beat the Sichuan Blue Whales 95-77 in Dongguan.

Tao Hanlin created 15 free throws and made 11 of them to score team-high 23 points for Shandong, Li Jingyu, and Zhu Rongzhen together contributed 32 points off the bench. Shandong, from the beginning, paid special attention to Sichuan's ace Li Yuanyu. Such a strategy worked well as Li got zero points but three fouls in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Sichuan only scored 10 points.

Since then, Sichuan had never been able to launch qualified counterattacks and had to watch Shandong extend their lead in a slow but steady way. When score difference surpassed 20 in the fourth quarter, the game became a forgone conclusion.

In another game on Monday, the Guangdong Southern Tigers beat the Tianjin Pioneers 126-98, continuing their winning streak since the restart.