The Beijing Ducks managed to tie the CBA playoff semifinals 1-1 after defeating the Guangdong Southern Tigers 90-86 on Thursday night.

Beijing's Jeremy Lin dropped a team-high 25 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. His teammate Ekpe Udoh got 23 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. Sonny Weems scored 28 points, six rebounds and six assists for Guangdong.

Guangdong's franchise player Yi Jianlian sat on G2. Having learned their lesson of poor offensive rebounding performance, Beijing, from the beginning, tussled for every ball. Their center Ekpe Udoh took full advantage of his power and athleticism to score eight points and seven rebounds. Beijing led 5-1 on the offensive glass in the first quarter.

However, Beijing's tactics were held back by their disappointing shooting. Guangdong put up a zone defense in response to Beijing's charge against the paint, leaving a lot of open corner threes for their opponents. Yet, as Beijing continued to miss these shots, Guangdong ended the leading side in both the first and the second quarter.

In order to contain Beijing's rebounding advantage, Guangdong decided to speed up the game from the third quarter. Such change forced Beijing to go back to defense soon, instead of competing for the offensive rebound under the rim. Nonetheless, Guangdong also had to abandon their advantage in experience and tactical implementation to jump into a pure physical contest with their opponents' foreign aid pair – Guangdong only had one foreign aid.

After a chaotic Q3, Beijing began to gain advantage on the court. Lin began to take over Beijing's offense. He was able to break through Guangdong's first defensive line and finish the offense with a middle-range jumper. Meanwhile, he could clearly see the flaws of Guangdong's defense. Beijing only sank five 3-pointers in the whole game, but the two corner ones they made in Q4 became the turning point.

By contrast, the defense on Lin and Udoh already consumed Guangdong badly – their starting point guard Zhao Rui was fouled out – not to mention they invested too much effort in early offense but did not gain much in Q3. As a result, Guangdong could not find the target at all from the 3-point line and only scored 18 points in the last quarter.

On the other side of the court, Beijing's offense grew smoother and smoother in Q4. Lin hit Guangdong's defense where it hurt the most with his perimeter shooting. Beijing managed to score easy points via fast break. As Hu Mingxuan and Zhou Peng both missed from downtown, Guangdong failed to end the series in two games. The two teams will meet again on Saturday.