?Xinjiang, the third placed team of last season, beat Beijing 110-92 in the first round of the 2024-2024 Chinese Basketball Association on Sunday while the defending champion Sichuan smashed Aolong 110-89.

Xinjiang set up a 9-1 lead at the very beginning of the game, as Beijing, led by veteran Stephon Marbury, made several mistakes and suffered from weak defense.

Andray Blatche, a 2.11-meter forward, grabbed 17 points in the second quarter, and helped Xinjiang enlarge the gap to 18 points when the first half ended.

Marbury tried hard to narrow the gap in the third quarter, but Darius Adams, Xinjiang' s newly signed guard, sank four three-pointers and ensured that the difference was more than 15 points.

Xinjiang kept the advantage till the end.

Blatche scored 31 points along with 14 rebounds and six assists, rising star Zhou Qi got 12 points, and Marbury collected 27 points for Beijing.

"Defense is the key of our victory tonight, and our players had better status than Beijing," said Li Qiuping, coach of Xinjiang.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Shanxi upset another Guangdong 109-74, Shandong beat Bayi 102-82, Shenzhen edged Guangzhou 110-106, Qingdao hammered Tianjin 111-97, Jilin downed Jiangsu 101-83, Fujian lost to Guangsha 88-102. Liaoning defeated Tongxi 115-100, Shanghai won over Zhejiang 123-105.