Chen "Airman" Hsin-an's fine displays of offensive power, netting 23 points per contest over a three-game stretch last week, earned him this week's Super Basketball League Player of the Week award.
Accounting for nearly one-third of his club's total offense (29 percent) in last week's play, the Yulon Dinos forward emerged from an early-season slump to lead his side back to winning form.
His outstanding contribution is the main reason why the Dinos have won six straight to take the second-place spot in the latest league standings after starting off the year with rare back-to-back losses.
"I wouldn't call it coming out of a slump for me; it's just that the offensive scheme we have been using has called for more shots from me," Chen said of his recent offensive surge while addressing his low points tally earlier this season.
"My deepest gratitude goes to my coaches and teammates for their help and support, without which this honor would not be possible," he said.
"Airman" and his Dinos teammates will have a chance to extend their winning streak to nine straight with three matches scheduled for this week: tonight's contest against the winless Azio Eagles at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium, tomorrow's showdown versus the top-ranked Videoland Hunters, and Sunday's weekend finale against the Dacin Tigers, losers by a single point (94-93) to the Dinos last Friday.
The Dinos are the clear favorites in the game against the Eagles with the birds having had their wings clipped of late with an offense that seemed out of sync on more than one occasion. The Dinos bench should find a lot of playing time in this game as coach Lee Yun-kuan rests his starters for the showdown against the Hunters tomorrow.
While most would agree that the Hunters will have the upper hand in the game against the Dinos tomorrow, the Dinos' have been on a roll which may just be enough to deliver a surprise win.
The Tigers will have revenge on their mind in Sunday's game. Top scorer Tien Lei, who has averaged 27 points per game over the last three games, will likely have a big game if the rest of the Tiger pack can set some solid picks for him to create mismatches on offense.
Tonight's Games
Besides the Dinos-Eagles game scheduled for 6:30pm, Bank of Taiwan take on Taiwan Beer with both squads coming off sub-par performances last week.
The Beer crew had its final chance to force a tie against the Dinos denied in last Sunday's loss by a controversial five-second inbound violation call, while the Bankers also fell victim to the Dinos by ten in a tough loss despite an impressive? fourth-quarter rally.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
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