*

Titan front page: Guangdong CBA champs, Rockets-Lakers series, Barcelona's win

Monday, 4th May 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

*
The Southern Tigers (Guangdong) beat the Flying Tigers (Xinjiang) 106-95, wrapping up the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) championship, four games to one. The featured photo is Zhu Fangyu (朱芳雨), the 26-year-old forward who was named CBA Finals MVP for the third time. His 28-point performance Sunday helped dig Guangdong out of a 19-point hole wo win the game by 11. Guangdong is New Jersey Nets forward Yi Jianlian's former team, and has won five out of the last six championships. It is led by Zhu and former NBA point guard Smush Parker. The starting five is rounded out by American Jason Dixon, (who, as far as we can tell, is the foreigner who has played the most seasons in the CBA), and 2008 Olympians Du Feng and Wang Shipeng.

The story at the right of the page (科比+湖人:强敌, or Kobe + Lakers, Formidable Opponents）is about the playoff series between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers. Inside, nine pages are dedicated to coverage of the series, which starts Monday night in Los Angeles (Tuesday morning in China). It's the first time that Yao's Rockets have advanced past the first round of the playoffs. If you didn't know already, Kobe Bryant has more fans in China than he has in Los Angeles, and Yao Ming is, well, Chinese, so the conference semifinals should be as widely watched here the NBA Finals will be.

The story at the bottom of today's front page comes from European soccer, specifically Barcelona's 6-2 upset of Real Madrid.

Titan Sports is China's leading sports newspaper, putting out issues every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is published jointly by Hunan Art and Culture Publishing House and Titan Publishing House (Danwei).

Tags: Barcelona, CBA, football, Kobe Bryant, Lakers, NBA, Real Madrid, Rockets, soccer, Titan front page, Yao Ming