SHENYANG, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Liaoning lost all of their previous CBA Finals, and now they just need one more victory to reach the highest podium of CBA for the first time in the team's 23-year history in the league.
The CBA powerhouse beat Zhejiang Guangsha 104-100 on Friday, getting a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven CBA Finals series for the 2017-2018 season. "I'm especially calm right now," said Liaoning head coach Guo Shiqiang after the game. He coached the team to three CBA Finals, in which they lost to Guangdong, Beijing and Sichuan respectively.
"The biggest progress for our team today is that we are mature now, so the whole team is quite calm," Guo said.
The regular season champion Guangsha had home-court advantage in this series, but they lost both of their home-court games before the loss on Friday.
"Our team isn't focused enough in the first half," said Guangsha head coach Li Chunjiang.
Liaoning had an almost-perfect first quarter, burying five of their first six attempts beyond the arc to take a 28-6 lead. Li Chunjiang called a time-out and the visitors replied a 10-0 run to get back into the game.
"We didn't do very well in the first quarter in Game 2, and our guy played really really good to start Game 3 tonight," said Guo.
The second quarter saw an energetic Guangsha. Courtney Fortson hit straight baskets to help the Zhejiang team cut the deficit to ten points. Liaoning shooters found back their rhythm in the later half of the second period. Lester Hudson knocked down 14 points in this quarter to extend the advantage to more than 20 points again. Liaoning led 63-43 thanks to Hudson's buzzer-beater three-pointer by the half-time whistle.
"It was a great team win for us, especially for our defense," said Hudson.
Guangsha made their first five shots at the beginning of the second half, but Liaoning shooters stayed hot outside the three-point range, keeping the deficit around 20 points. Guangsha strengthened their defensive line, trimming the gap to 13 points by the end of the third quarter.
Guangsha moved within 10 points after Fortson's three-pointer, and closed to three points with two minutes left in the final quarter. Liaoning All-Star guard Guo Ailun stepped up to take over the game, making two straight lay-ups to widen the lead to seven points. Guangsha kept scoring in the final seconds, but their effort wasn't enough to change the result
"I won't think too much about Game 4," said Guo. "as long as we do what we should do, we will get the result we want."
Liaoning converted 14 of their 34 three-points shots into points, while Guangsha only shot 29.2 percent beyond the arc.
Hudson and Guo Ailun each contributed 26 points for Liaoning. Han Dejun took home 17 points and 14 rebounds.
CBA regular season MVP Fortson scored game-best 46 points, which was also the highest score so far in this series. Hu Jinqiu added 18 points.
Game 4 will take place in Shenyang on Sunday.
