At the Chinese Basketball Association, the visiting Liaoning Flying Leopards beat Guangzhou Loong Lions 98-97 to hand the home side their sixth defeat in a row on Thursday.

Sun Xingliang set up Tyshaun Crawford to cut Guangzhou's deficit to four, before Wang Lanqin lost the ball and Crawford found Davion Warren, who drove in to put Guangzhou ahead by three. In a tight fourth quarter, Li Xiangbo's big dunk made it 74-71 Guangzhou. William Douglas dished to Li for a corner three to help Guangzhou lead by six. Dez Wells drilled a three, en route to his game-high 31 points.

Crawford missed a shot, but Jiao Boqiao got the rebound for a lay-up. Guangzhou regained the lead by one, but two free throws from Han Dejun gave the three-time defending champions Liaoning a win.

Elsewhere, the Guangsha Lions beat the Sichuan Blue Wales 108 – 83. Sun Minghui knocked down a three to give Guangsha the lead by nine in the second quarter against Sichuan, before Barry Brown found Zhu Junlong, whose lay-up extended Guangsha's lead by double digits. Brown drained a triple, and went on to score the game-high 23 points. Finally, Guangsha won 108-83, with six players scoring double digits.

In other action, the Nanjing Monkey Kings defeated the Jilin Northeast Tigers 106-85, with Nanjing's Li Wei scoring a game-high 28 points.