The Guangdong Southern Tigers defeated the Beijing Ducks 88-85 in Game 3 of the CBA playoff semifinals on Saturday, winning the series 2-1. Yi Jianlian dropped 18 points, 14 rebounds, three steals, and two blocks. Ekpe Udoh got a big double-double of 24 points and 21 rebounds.

Guangdong will meet the Liaoning Flying Leopards in the Finals on August 11.

Yi Jianlian, who has missed the first two games because of injury, chose to return in Game 3. Though he was not 100 percent healthy, he had to come back for the last game of the series. In the first quarter, he finished an outstanding move of tricking Ekpe Udoh to leap with a pump fake and then scoring two points with a two-hand dunk.

That's one of the few highlights Yi left in the first two quarters. His time on the court was limited, and he did more passing, screen-setting, and trapping than individual attacks. Yi's distraction of Beijing's defense led to quite a few open shots for his teammates, but most of their shots ended as bricks.

Guangdong increased their pressure on the ball, which made Beijing feel very uncomfortable. All of their starting-five failed to score any point in Q1. Guangdong led 16-13 in this quarter.

Beijing's shooters began to find the target In Q2 and gained the lead via a series of 3-pointers. Meanwhile, Guangdong still could not find a good solution to Jeremy Lin. His penetration foul-drawing ability created a lot of trouble for Guangdong. Moreover, without Yi, Guangdong lost the smoothness in their offense. In response, they began to speed up the game, chasing easy basket via more early offense.

The game ended a tie of 37-37 after the first half.

Yi, in the third quarter, suddenly increased his individual attack. He scored five straight points with a corner triple and a layup in the low post. Furthermore, Guangdong's Zhao Rui, who contributed most of his efforts to defending Lin, took Beijing by surprise with cunning penetration. Guangdong soon regained the lead and expanded it to nine points twice. The team also altered their game when Yi was sitting on the bench. Instead of competing for speed in the offense, Guangdong took full advantage of their small-ball squad's agility and forced many turnovers by Beijing. After Q3, Guangdong led by six points (63-57).

Guangdong continued to control the game in the fourth quarter, but Beijing managed to stay alive thanks to the remarkable 3-pointers by Zhai Xiaochuan and Fang Shuo. In the last five minutes, the pace slowed the down, and the game entered the classic playoff time: Superstar taking over. Yi and Sonny Weems turned on their isolation mode one by one while Beijing bet their game on Lin.

In the last 50 seconds, Guangdong led by four (84-80). Weems' ball was cut while he was driving towards the rim. In Beijing's counter-strike, Fang Shuo made a valuable triple in front of Yi, narrowing the score down to 84-83.

Guangdong passed the ball Weems, Beijing fouled on him. Weems made both free throws. Then Beijing took fast two points instead of betting on a triple. Then it took Guangdong two timeouts to throw the ball into the court. The referee called a 3-point foul on Beijing. Yi made two of the three free throws before Lin missed his last desperate attempt.