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Local basketball gears up for heated playoff action

After nearly five months of fierce competition in the regular season, the long awaited Super Basketball League post-season has arrived.

It took a BCC Mars victory over the Sina Lions on the last day of the regular season to determine the final seeding.

The Mars edged out the Jeoutai Elephants based on a better record in head-to-head competition.

Round 1 action will begin tonight at the Taipei Sports Education College Arena with the top-seeded Yulon Dinos taking on the fourth-seeded Mars in a best-of-three series.

Game 1 between the second-seeded Lions and the third-seeded Dacin Tigers, also in a best-of-three series, will follow tomorrow night, with each series scheduled for alternating days until April 13.

The winners of the first round will then meet in a best-of-five championship round scheduled to begin on April 15.

The Dinos will attack the middle of the Mars defense, which gave up around 79 points per game during the regular season.

Dinos second-year man Tseng Wen-ding (曾文鼎) is slightly taller and much quicker than any member of the Mars front-court -- a mismatch that the Dinos will look to exploit all game long.

Once the Mars "D" sags in to guard the paint, the perimeter game for the shooting guards should open up and give Chen Chih-chung (陳志忠) open shots.

The Mars will try to out-score their opponents by converting easy buckets on fastbreaks and firing up three-pointers frequently.

Injured passing wizard Yen Hsin-shu (顏行書) needs to have a big game on offense if the Mars want to push the ball up the court.

If Yen is not 100 percent healthy, the burden to put points on the board will fall on big men Lai Guo-hung (賴國弘) and Lee Chi-yi (李啟億) on the low post.

Ending the regular season on a two-game winning streak, the Tigers will have the advantage in their series against the Loins, even though the big cats hold a slightly better regular season record to claim second-seed status.

Tien Lei (田壘) will be a problem for the Lions to guard because the versatile All-Star power forward can do it all; he can play the low post game as well as anyone in the league with a quick first step off the ball, and he can also drain the long "three" by shooting over the smaller Lions guards.

As the leagues top rebounder, averaging 11.6 boards per contest, opponents may try to get him into foul trouble as soon as possible. But this will not be easy because he is often too disciplined to bite on fakes and has great body control, helping him to avoid unnecessary contact.

Another option for the Lions coaching staff is to double-team Tien as much as possible to disrupt his rhythm and timing.
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