Marbury leads Beijing into CBA finals

 　　BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Stephon Marbury snatched a game-high 30 points plus nine rebounds¹ and eight assists as Beijing Ducks cruised past Shanxi Zhongyu 3-2 with a 110-98 home victory on Sunday, making it to the CBA finals for the first time.

　　As the final whistle went, Marbury covered his face with both hands, bursting into tears. During his 16-year basketball career, it's the first time for him to get into any finals.

　　The 35-year-old Marbury, who played 13 seasons in the NBA with Minnesota, New Jersey², Phoenix³, New York and Boston, has been regarded as a hero after leading Beijing to the CBA semifinals in style in his first season with the Ducks.

　　Randolph Morris added a double-double - 27 points and 10 rebounds, while Shanxi top scorer Marcus Williams suffered cold hand with 25 points, only 8-of-17 in the field as Beijing usurped⁴ a double-digit lead on 29-13 in the first quarter and never looked back.

　　Charles Gaines led Shanxi with 30 points and 14 rebounds.

　　"I gave all my credit to the players. Tonight they did their best and the game was perfect," said Beijing coach Min Lulei.

　　"Year after year, game after game, we suffered a lot. Tonight our dream came true and we deserved it," he added.

　　It was two strongest ever teams for both Beijing and Shanxi in their franchise⁵ history. Marbury brought Beijing not only a season-long 13-game winning streak⁶, but a brand-new basketball philosophy in both offensive and defensive⁷ ends. He led Beijing with 26.1 points per game, 12th in CBA, and his 6.2 assists ranked fourth of the whole league.

　　Starting guard Li Xuelin's recovery from injury gave Marbury more breathing time. In the semifinals against Shanxi, Marbury smashed 50+ points each for two straight games, becoming the second player to achieve that feat⁸ in the CBA playoffs history, after Bayi "Warlord" Liu Yudong.

　　Morris also did a good job with 23.9 points and 9.3 rebounds for supporting Stephon. Beijing's Zhu Yanxi and Zhai Xiaochuan both showed their talent with the latter averaging 11.3 points and 6.7 rebounds.

　　Shanxi, which enjoyed the heaviest firing power in the league by averaging 110.7 points, has its equivalent to Marbury - Marcus Williams, who averaged a league-third 32.3 points.

　　His teammate, "Paint Beast" Charles Gaines, averaged 29.2 points and 14.3 rebounds. The foreign duo scored almost two thirds of Shanxi's points. Lu Xiaoming, the local assists king, was an integral part of Shanxi's impressive season.

　　Shanxi against Beijing was the most drastic semifinal series in CBA's 17-year history, not only because they were close, but also because of a bad-tempered⁹ fourth game that caused a fan riot.

　　Marbury's collision with Shanxi's Ma Kan during the fourth game triggered an angry outburst of the home crowd, who threw water bottles onto the court, interrupting the play for about 10 minutes.

　　A large group of fans then trapped the Ducks' bus in the parking lot after the game.

　　It took the Beijing team over an hour to leave the stadium as Shanxi fans attacked the vehicle and shouted obscenities. A Shanxi fan named Cao Lei later accused Marbury of hitting him in the head with a bottle and kicking his chin after he fell.

　　Marbury told Beijing Television that he didn't hit anyone and the one who accused him of assault "must have a wild imagination".

　　"I would never kick or punch a fan," said Marbury on China's Twitter-like Weibo. "That's not my character."

　　Chinese basketball fans, mainly from Beijing and Shanxi, split over the incident, posting abusive language against each other on their Weibo accounts or Internet chatrooms.

　　The Chinese Basketball Association on Tuesday fined Shanxi club and its venue¹⁰ 30,000 RMB (about 4,740 U.S.dollars) apiece for "poor organization" of the game.

　　In order to give both teams time to make "internal rectifications", the CBA postponed¹¹ the deciding fifth game from Wednesday to Sunday.

1 rebounds   

反弹球( rebound的名词复数 )； 回弹球； 抢断篮板球； 复兴

参考例句：

• V is the velocity after the gas particle rebounds from the wall. V是粒子从壁上弹开后的速度。
• In the former case, the first body rebounds with practically its original velocity. 在前一种情况下，第一个物体实际上以原来的速度弹回。

2 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

3 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

4 usurped   

篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权

参考例句：

• That magazine usurped copyrighted material. 那杂志盗用了版权为他人所有的素材。
• The expression'social engineering'has been usurped by the Utopianist without a shadow of light. “社会工程”这个词已被乌托邦主义者毫无理由地盗用了。

5 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

6 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

7 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

8 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

9 bad-tempered   

adj.脾气坏的

参考例句：

• He grew more and more bad-tempered as the afternoon wore on.随着下午一点点地过去，他的脾气也越来越坏。
• I know he's often bad-tempered but really,you know,he's got a heart of gold.我知道他经常发脾气，但是，要知道，其实他心肠很好。

10 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

11 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。