The Liaoning Flying Leopards crushed the Zhejiang Lions 100-82 in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) Finals on Tuesday, sweeping the best-of-seven series 4-0 to claim its second title in the franchise's history.
Zhao Jiwei of Liaoning was named FMVP, becoming the first-ever Chinese player to come off the bench and win the honor in CBA history. The 26-year-old guard averaged 14.3 points, 7.8 assists, 2.3 rebounds and two steals in the series.
Liaoning successfully replicated the Finals of the 2017-18 season, where they also overwhelmed Zhejiang 4-0 to win their first CBA championship.
"I want to salute our players for their great performance throughout the season and congratulate to them on winning the championship," said Liaoning head coach Yang Ming.
Having lost three consecutive games in the Finals, Zhejiang seemed shell-shocked in Game 4 as they could hardly keep the pace with Liaoning's fierce attack led by Zhao, who notched a game-high 20 points and dished out eight assists.
The aggression from Liaoning set the tone and turned the game into a quick blowout as they led 64-35 at halftime and maintained a big lead until the final period.
"This (winning the title) is the goal from the beginning of the year. We put the work in and it all worked out. We came together as a group through adversity and hard times and we got the job done," said Eric Moreland who contributed 12 points and ten rebounds for the victory.
Regular-season title holder Liaoning was predicted by many fans as a shoo-in for the title before the Finals, as their opponents were troubled by injuries. CBA regular season MVP, Zhejiang's star center Hu Jinqiu, was absent with a ruptured spleen, and his teammate Zhao Yanhao was also ruled out with concussion.
"We deserve to win the championship because judging from the whole season, I believe we are the best team. I'm glad to see that all of our players have improved," Yang said.
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