Marbury leads Ducks to kick-off win after receiving ring

Newly-crowned CBA champion players Stephon Marbury (front left) and Chen Lei (front right) of Beijing Ducks show off their trophy during a ceremony awarding the champion team of the 2011-2012 season before the kick-off game of the new season in Beijing November 25, 2012. Marbury scored 16 points to give the defending champion a 94-78 win over Shanghai Sharks, whose newly-NBA import Gilbert Arenas played only six minutes due to a hamstring injury. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas got injured in his debut in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league as Stephon Marbury had 16 points to lead defending champion Beijing Ducks beat Shanghai Sharks 94-78 here on Saturday night.

After hitting the first 3-pointer in his CBA career, Arenas left the game with 5:40 remaining in the first quarter because of a groin strain, and Daniel Mauro Panaggio, the coach of Shanghai, said that the defeat was not duo to Arenas' injury.

"He is on the watch list right now, the next step will depend on the doctors' diagnosis. When he left the floor, we were already in a big deficit," said Panaggio.

Marbury, who received the CBA championship ring before the match, got a plenty of support from his teammates. Randolph Morris led Beijing with 23 points, Ji Zhe and Zhai Xiaochuan bagged 19 points and 13 points respectively.

"This is just the first match, we still have a long way to go. We came out like the champion and played hard, but we are still getting in the foul trouble during the game," said Min Lulei.

Beijing dominated the first quarter with solid defence and unstoppable 3-pointers. Ji had 3 blocks during the opening period and Wang Xiaohui hit a pair of 3s to give Beijing a 29-13 lead in the first quarter.

Morris scored 13 points to help Beijing lead as many as 22 points in the second quarter, and Shanghai only showed a little resistance by the former Charlotte Bobcats' player D.J. White, who had a team-high 24 points and 17 rebounds.

With the Chinese badminton superstar Lin Dan sitting on the sideline, Beijing never gave Shanghai an opportunity to come back in the second half.