Tien Lei’s valuable performances, which helped salvage a 1-1 record for the Dacin Tigers in a pair of tough matches against worthy opponents last weekend, earned him Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Player of the Week honor for this week.
The three-time league MVP out of National Taiwan Normal University — who netted a season-high 28 points in a loss against the Yulon Luxgens on Saturday before topping that with 37 points in a big win over Kinmen Liquor on Sunday — has finally shaken off some nagging injuries to live up to his potential.
“I am really happy about winning it [the Player of the Week honor] and I hope to build on that,” Tien said after learning of his selection for the weekly award.
FITNESS KEY
His regained fitness will be the key to the Tigers’ quest for their second title now that they have qualified for a berth in postseason play with a league-best 18-6 record.
Tien and the rest of the Tiger pack will have their hands full this weekend with three tough battles, starting with tonight’s match against Taiwan Beer at the Taipei County Gymnasium in Sinjhuang before taking on Pure Youth Construction tomorrow and Sunday’s weekend finale versus the Luxgens.
BIG TEST
It will be a big test for the Tigers since all three of their opponents for the weekend are likely to make it into the four-team postseason with the Builders having won four straight and the Brew Crew taking three of their last four.
Keeping the turnovers down and securing the defensive glass will be crucial for skipper Chiou Da-tsong as his team cannot afford to play sloppily against any of their opponents this weekend or give up any easy put-back baskets.
TONIGHT’S ACTION
In addition to the Tigers’ game against Taiwan Beer at 8pm, Kinmen Liquor will launch into the weekend’s play by taking on Bank of Taiwan at 6pm in what should be a relatively straightforward encounter for the Distillers.
With a chance to play in the postseason on the line, the Distillers will surely try to establish their dominance early with top-scoring US import Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins swarming the basket while fellow forward Cheng “QQ” Ren-wei looks to connect from behind the three-point line with his long-range attack.
Nothing would please Bank of Taiwan head coach Lai Liang-chung more than an upset victory against the Distillers, since the Bankers have not managed a win against Kinmen Liquor in any of their four regular-season games thus far.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later