CBA 2005-06

=Changes to league=

* A new league committee (中国男子篮球职业联赛委员会) oversees the league, with broader representation.
* The name of the league in Chinese is no longer the "Jia A" league (男子篮球甲A联赛) but the "professional league" (中国男子篮球职业联赛).
* The league expanded to 15 teams, with Dongguan New Century (东莞新世纪) joining the South Division. It was originally intended that Beijing Aoshen Olympians would rejoin the league in the North Division, but this did not happen.
* The playoffs were expanded. The quarter-finals (interdivisional) expanded to best-of-five instead of best-of-three, the semi-finals remain best-of-five, and the finals will expand to best-of-seven instead of best-of-five. Unlike the previous season, however, there is no intra-divisional non-eliminatory playoff round preceding the quarter finals.

The 2005–2006 regular season began on November 20 2005 and ended on March 15 2006, with a total of 308 matches played. The eight South Division teams played 42 games each and the seven North Division teams played 40 games each.

The playoffs began March 22 2006 and ended on April 19 2006, with 30 playoff matches. It ended on April 19, 2006 with the Guangdong Southern Tigers defeating the Bayi Rockets in Game 5 of the finals, making it Guangdong's 3rd championship win in 4 years.

The all-star game was played on March 18 2006 in Shanghai, after the end of the regular season and before the beginning of the playoffs: the South Division defeated the North Division 93-90. Also, all-star games were played against the KBL, on January 22 2006 in Korea and January 24 2006 in Jiyuan, Henan, China. Korea won the first game 96-86; China won the second game 104-85.

Regular Season

North Division

emi-finals

The semi-finals were a best-of-five series.

The higher-ranking team was the home team for the first match and the fourth and fifth matches (if necessary); the lower-ranking team was the home team for the second and third matches.

The semi-finals featured three out of the same four teams as the previous year, with the exception being Beijing in place of Yunnan.

Finals

For the first time, the finals were a best-of-seven series.

In this best-of-seven series, the higher-ranking team plays the first two games at home, the next two away, the fifth (if necessary) at home, the sixth (if necessary) away, and the seventh and final game (if necessary) at home.

References

* [http://sports.sohu.com/20050430/n225404939.shtml] (in Chinese; note some things planned in April 2005 have since changed)
* [http://news.sports.cn/basketball/cba/guanfang/2005-10-13/692567.html] (schedule; in Chinese)

ee also

Chinese Basketball Association