Sichuan's Haddadi tried to block Cotton's layup in the game.

Regular season MVP Yi Jianlian and Ike Diogu combined for 47 points as Guangdong held off Liaoning for a 97-96 win in Game 3 of the best-of-five semifinals of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Wednesday.

Yi, who saw his fourth straight MVP trophy this Monday, finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. Guangdong also got 21 points and four rebounds from Diogu from the bench.

Liaoning was led by Lester Hudson with 34 points, helped by Ronald Randolph with 20 points and also got 17 points from Guo Ailun and 12 points from Li Xiaoxu.

Liaoning who leads by 2-1, will visit Guangdong for Game 4 on Friday.

In the other semifinal, imports Hamed Haddadi, Mike Harris and Justin Dentmon combined for 88 points to help visiting Sichuan beat Xinjiang 115-104 for the third straight win and made into the CBA finals for the first time.

Sichuan got game-high 36 points and four rebounds from Dentmon. Haddadi scored 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds.

Four Xinjiang players had double-digit points as Andray Blatche scored team-high 33 points off the bench, Bryce Cotton made 18 points, Yu Changdong and Li Gen got 16 points apiece.

Sichuan will wait for the winners between Liaoning and Guangdong in the CBA finals.

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