For the third time in four weeks, Yulon Dinos forward Chen "Airman" Hsin-an was Player of the Week in the Super Basketball League with another outstanding showing to help the Dinos win all three of their games last week.
The premier all-purpose player in the league produced late-game surges that helped the top-ranked Dinos hold off the Dacin Tigers and the dmedia Numen in a pair of close wins to remain unbeaten with a perfect 10-0 record.
"His contribution to the team is more than the points he scores," Dinos head coach Lee Yun-kuan said of Chen, who averages 22.7 points a game. "Hsin-an really makes those around him up their game a notch."
Chen's 12-point fourth quarter prevented the rallying Tigers from erasing an 11-point deficit with less than eight minutes to play on Sunday and his game-high 27 points in Friday's narrow win over the Numen kept the Dinos' perfect record intact as they head into this week's play two wins shy of the league record for consecutive wins.
The Dinos will need every bit of offense that Chen can provide as they take on Pure Youth Constructions tomorrow before Sunday's showdown against Taiwan Beer.
While the game against the builders may not pose any serious concerns for the league-leaders with Pure Youth losing four of their past five and struggling to gain consistency on offense, the battle against a revenge-bound beer crew should raise the level of alertness. Nothing would please skipper Yen Jia-hua of Taiwan Beer more than a big win over the Dinos to end their winning streak.
The game against Taiwan Beer will likely be a physical one as the brewers lost center Wu Dai-hao to a neck injury the last time these two teams met. Several unpleasant exchanges, both on and off the court, have resulted between the two teams since.
TONIGHT'S GAMES
This week's play begins with the contest between Taiwan Beer and the Bank of Taiwan at the Kaohsiung County Sports Complex at 6pm, with the brewers looking to feast off the winless bankers in an expected easy win before the dmedia Numen take on the Dacin Tigers at 8pm.
This is the first time that the league has scheduled a weekend of play in the greater Kaohsiung area, where local hoop fans will have an opportunity to meet their favorite stars face-to-face.
A sellout crowd is expected for the primetime showdown between the Numen and the Tigers since the outcome of this game will determine whether the Tigers will claim sole possession of the second-place spot in the standings (with a win) or drop down to fourth spot (with a loss), in which case the Numen would ascend to No. 3.
Dmedia will find out what they are really made of in this game as a fourth-straight defeat would knock them out of the first tier of contenders for the first time this season.
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