Beijing, 4 January (H.S.): Guangdong Southern Tigers point guard Xu Jie and Shanghai Sharks power forward Kenneth Lofton were named the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) League’s Players of the Month on Friday.
Despite injuries and an incomplete roster for the Guangdong team, Xu helped his team with an average of 19.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 7.9 assists and 1.9 steals in 39 minutes per game in 14 games in December 2024. He averaged 3.2 shots from 3-point range during this period.
Lofton won the honor for the foreign player category with impressive stats of 23.7 points, 12.8 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.3 blocks in 31 minutes per game. He notched eight double-doubles and two triple-doubles in 12 games.
Inspired by Lofton’s all-round performance, Shanghai, which once sat at the bottom of the 20-team CBA standings after losing 10 of its opening 11 games, is riding an 11-game winning streak until the 24th round, and its 11-1 record in December was the best in the league.
Just on Friday, Zhejiang Lions guard Sun Minghui was named the CBA Defensive Player of the Month. In the second edition of the monthly award for games between the 11th and 24th rounds, Sun averaged a league-best 2.6 steals with a steal percentage of 4.7%, ranking fourth in the league. Winning 10 of the 11 games played by the Suns last month, Zhejiang currently sits on top with a 21-4 record.
Hindusthan Samachar
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