The Guangzhou Loong Lions beat the Shandong Heroes 89-80 on their home court, booking the first ticket to the second round, while the Jiangsu Dragons edged the Shanghai Sharks 97-90 to tie 1-1 in the best-of-three first round of the 2022-23 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) playoffs on Tuesday.

Shandong led the first quarter 23-19, but lost their scoring rhythm in the second quarter, as they did in the last game. With a 15-0 burst, Guangzhou entered the second half at 50-37 and kept the advantage until the last whistle.

Both Cui Yongxi and Chen Yingjun had good plays in both sides of the court for Guangzhou, while Shandong found no solution due to their low field goal percentage.

Guangzhou became the first team to make it to the second round as five of their players scored double digits, led by Chen with 26. Ben Mclemore got 18 points for Shandong.

In the other game, Shanghai missed key player Wang Zhelin. Due to home court advantage and Williams' outside shots, Jiangsu led the first quarter 24-20. However, Shanghai turned the tables and led the score 50-46 in the first half.

Then Antonio Blakeney dominated the rest of the game and helped Jiangsu keep a 10-point lead in the last minutes of the game to tie the series. Their decisive game will be played in Shanghai on Friday.

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