BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
MOVE over Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. ‘Tis the time for the ABL stars to shine.
The playoffs of the Asean Basketball League (ABL) start today and four teams the Philippine Patriots, KL Dragons, Singapore Slingers and Satria Muda BritAma are all set for ‘war’.
The Big Three the Patriots, Slingers and Satria Muda proved their mettle when they occupied the top three positions of the six-team table at the end of the 15-game regular season.
Favourites, the Patriots, will host the Dragons at the Ynares Sports Arena in Manila while the Slingers and Satria Muda will go head to head at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in the other playoff today.
The Patriots have played down the favourites tag, despite going 8-0 on their home floor in the regular season saying that the Dragons are tough rivals.
The Malaysian side picked up their form in their last four matches of the regular season beating the Patriots 77-59, taming the Slingers 78-71 and slaying Satria Muda 70-67.
Louie Alas, the head coach of the Patriots, told the Manila Bulletin yesterday that they will have to overcome the Dragons’ stubborn defence to keep their perfect home record intact.
“I think that they (the Dragons) are the best defensive team in the league,” said Alas. “We have to play much better basketball than this (their games in the regular season) because in their last four matches the Malaysians played very well thanks to their defence,” added Alas.
In addition, the Filipino head coach pointed out that the Dragons had improved on their shooting making them a deadly team from the outside.
“The Dragons have been relying so much on their outside shots. It’s almost like a Korean style where they drive and kick so our main focus will be on defence. They are no pushovers,” said the 46-year-old coach.
Meanwhile, the Dragons are eyeing the league’s title after their brilliant performance despite being dubbed the underdogs in the playoffs.
The Dragons notched up three crucial victories against the top three teams in their last four games in the league to make the playoffs.
One of the victories was a surprise 77-59 win over the Patriots at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 9.
“We’ve shocked the bigger teams, created upsets and beaten the odds. There is absolutely no reason why we can’t be in the Finals. Our confidence is at an all time high and, now more than ever, our will to win is even stronger,” said Goh Cheng Huat, the Dragons’ head coach, on the KL Dragons official website.
“I believe it’s time we stepped out of the shadow of being the underdogs and be seriously considered as one of the best basketball teams in the region because that’s what we are, or at least should be,” added Goh.
The match-up can’t get better with former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Best Import Gabe Freeman and Jason Dixon going up against the duo of Chris Kuete and Jamal Brown of the Dragons.
The Dragons will be banking on their Filipino trio of Rudy Lingganay, Fhadzmir ‘Toto’ Bandaying and Roel Hugnatan to back up their non-Asean imports while Jaypee Alcaraz and Warren Ybanez will have their hands full on defence to neutralise their compatriots.
The other playoff will be equally exciting with the Slingers and Satria Muda taking their rivalry to another level.
The Slingers hold a 2-1 record against Satria Muda, but the Indonesian side came up on top in their last meeting winning 67-58 at the BritAma Arena on Decr 12.
The main matchup will see the Slingers’ duo of American imports, Kyle Jeffers and Michael LeBlanc, go up against Satria Muda’s ever-versatile duo of Alex Hartman and Nakiea Miller.
LeBlanc is the main player at the offensive end for the Singapore side averaging 19.6 points per game placing him third overall in the league.
Jeffers, meanwhile, is the workhorse of the Slingers with his aggressive defence.
In addition, Slingers’ Filipino point guard, Al Vergara, is at his best finishing the regular season as the league’s assists leader with 3.6 per game and the best three-pointer shooter, shooting 43.5 per cent from beyond the arc.
However, the Slingers would have to step up their defence as Miller is the league’s leading scorer in the regular season with 20.7 per game. He’s a force to reckon with as he is also the league’s top rebounder with 14.9 per game and also leads at the defensive end with 4.1 blocks per game.
His sidekick, Hartman, is second with 19.7 points per game creating an explosive one-two punch at the offensive end for Satria Muda.
Both games will tip off at 4pm.
The top four teams in the six-team Asean Basketball League table advance into the playoffs with the Brunei Barracudas and Thailand Tigers missing out.
The Barracudas fell at the last hurdle after they lost to the Patriots 65-87 in Manila last Sunday. The defeat handed the Dragons the final playoffs berth.
Despite missing the playoffs, the Barracudas can still hold their heads up after finishing their season with a 6-9 win-loss record.The Brunei Times
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