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SBL: Beer to take on the Dinos in the SBL championship

The highly anticipated Super Basketball League championship series between the Yulon Dinos and defending champions Taiwan Beer will get underway at the Taipei County Sports Complex this evening, where the tip-off for the all-important first game is scheduled for 7pm.

Advancing into the finals for the third straight season is a Beer Crew that blew away the dmedia Numen in a best-of-five, semi-final round last week, while the Dinos needed four games to top Pure Youth Construction by a 3-1 margin in their semi-final.

Leading the way for the Dinos will be forward Chen “Airman” Hsin-an, who won the scoring title during the regular season with a 22.3 point-per-game average. Chen will be joined by fellow big man Tseng Wen-ding, who has been a formidable force inside the paint over the past five seasons with his great footwork and solid low-post game.

In the Dinos backcourt, the task of directing the half-court offense will fall on the shoulders of veteran point guard Chen Chih-chung, who will have to prove his tremendous vision against a Taiwan Beer defense that can play a tough, in-your-face, style at any point during the game.

For the Beer Crew, the pressure to repeat last year’s victory will undoubtedly play a part in this series, since anything short of another win would disappoint their fans, who will arrive wearing a T-shirt that has the Chinese characters for “attitude” written on it to show their support for arguably the most popular team in the country.

The fans have good reason to have high expectations for the Beer since the defending champs have acquired the services of US-trained center Wu Dai-hao and Yang Jing-min to an already potent lineup featuring last season’s Most Valuable Player, Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh.

Wu spent a season with a Division I team in the NCAA prior to his return to Taiwan two years ago. Yang is a former Bank of Taiwan all-star forward who can score from the perimeters with consistency and pop up effectively inside with strong moves to the basket.

In the Taiwan Beer backcourt, the men in their familiar green uniforms will also have Yen “the Wizard” Hsing-shu on their side to orchestrate a half-court set that has moved on from a one-dimensional format that centered on the Beast to a multi-faceted game that has at least three scoring threats on the court at any given time. Yen also runs the Taiwan Beer transition game very well and has a great field of vision that earned him a chance to play professionally in China last season.

Regardless of all the pre-game hype, it will be an interesting series for both squads as the favored Beer Crew will need to take advantage of their strength in depth by keeping up a fast-pace style in order to wear down the Dinos.
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