Guangdong Hongyuan held back the last-minute surge-up of Shanghai Sharks to take the first game of the semi-finals by 110-106 Sunday in the playoffs of the Chinese Basketball Association league (CBA).

Xinjiang Guanghui won the other semi-final matchup by beating Zhejiang Guangsha 96-79 at home.

The defending champions Guangdong led 88-72 in the third quarter and extended it to 94-74 in the fourth quarter when they looked quite safe for an easy victory.

The visiting team began their final charge in the following game as they closed it on 106-104 with 20 seconds to go.

Smush Parker, who had 40 points, buried the next four free-throws to snap the last hope of Shanghai as Guangdong took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

John Lucas III led six Shanghai players in double-digit numbers by 21 points, but they lost ground on the board by 56-36.

Xinjiang were looking forward to a re-match against Guangdong in the finals as they had little challenge on Sunday's game.

They took the lead at the end of the first quarter and stayed ahead by 10-plus points for most of the following game.

Guangsha cut short the gap in the fourth quarter but never really threatened Xinjiang's lead.

Xu Guochong had 29 points, Charles Gaines had 26 points and 11 rebounds while Menk Bateer adding 22 points for Xinjiang.

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