Leaders Guangsha kept their position after tasting their 13th straight victory, a nail-biting 116-113 win over Zhejiang in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Sunday.
Xinjiang are second after crushing Jilin 122-96.
Guangsha's Jeremy Pargo finished with a game-high 33 points, and dished out 12 assists. Teammates Lin Chih-Chieh and Eli Holman helped with 29 and 17 respectively.
After both sides tied at 59 into the locker room, Guangsha had a strong performance in the third quarter to lead 37-23. Zhejiang's Willie Warren was fouled out with four minutes remaining, hurting the team's offensive power.
Guangsha still possessed a double-digit advantage midway through the last quarter, which was narrowed to three points following a 10-0 run by Zhejiang.
Pargo's floater put Guangsha 114-108 ahead with 34.8 seconds to go, but Charles Gaines cut the deficit to three with a three-point shot. However, their efforts were wasted after Nikkhah Bahrami missed a three-pointer that could have tied the game.
Bahrami, Gaines and Warren combined for 84 points, but no domestic player in the Zhejiang team had double-figure points.
Xinjiang, who gave away the leaders' position to Guangsha after losing to Liaoning in the last round, came back strongly in the game against Jilin.
Jilin heated up quicker to build a 10-5 lead, but Xinjiang controlled the remainder of the first quarter, thanks to Li Gen and Andray Blatche. Xinjiang led 29-23 as the first quarter ran out.
Zhou Qi and Andrew Goudelock built a double-figure margin for Xinjiang early in the second period. They led by 23 points into last 12 minutes and continued to widen the gap, helped by Li Gen and Goudelock's consecutive three-pointers.
Goudelock had a team-high 25 points, added by Zhou Qi's 23 and Blatche's 21. Josh Akognon scored a game-high 36 points and four steals for Jilin.
Liaoning missed their point-guard starter Guo Ailun, who suffered a bad cut on the face after being hit by a water bottle hurled from spectators' stands in Friday's game, but they still managed to beat Aolong 113-96, partly thanks to Lester Hudson's 30 points and five assists.
In other matches, Jiangsu upset Qingdao 123-114, Shandong beat Shanghai 112-96, Shanxi lost to Guangdong 110-84, Sichuan eased past Bayi 110-93, Tianjin lost to Beijing 97-82, Tongxi defeated Fujian 104-98, and Foshan lost to Shenzhen 126-118.
