Post-season action is set to continue in the Super Basketball League today, with Pure Youth Construction squaring off against the Fubon Braves and Taiwan Beer taking on the Dacin Tigers at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City.
With the top-seeded Builders looking to defend their title for an unprecedented fourth straight time, and the fifth-seeded Braves gaining tremendous momentum by defeating the third-seeded Yulon Luxgens in three straight games, the best-of-seven semi-final series promises to be one of the most exciting in recent years.
“We are playing as well as anyone in the league right now and that makes us that much more dangerous,” Braves big man Earl Barron said after his team clinched the best-of-five series in the first round against the favored Luxgens earlier in the week.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Barron and the other Braves will have their hands full against Ben Metcalf’s four-time defending champs, who are the beneficiaries of an extra week of rest and game preparation because of a first-round bye.
“The pressure to win is definitely on us,” Metcalf was quoted as saying last week.
His side have a 3-2 edge against the Braves in their five regular-season contests, but the rookie skipper also realizes that the Fubon team, winners of their last three straight, are not the same club that his Builders demolished in the regular season.
Metcalf will need a near flawless series from center Darian Townes to counter Barron, who averaged 29.7 points and 21 rebounds in the Braves’ three wins over the Luxgens to attest to his Foreign Player of the Year status.
Other than the matchup between the two big men, the Braves will also need to stay out of foul trouble to reduce their vulnerability in bench depth as the Builders have unequivocally the best bench in the league, going 10 or 11 deep.
Following the match between Pure Youth and the Braves, the Tigers are to take on Taiwan Beer in a battle between the second and third seeds.
While the Brew Crew enjoy a better regular-season record at 20-12, compared with Dacin’s 18-14, the Cats have a 3-2 advantage in their five regular-season contests, with the last meeting ending in a blowout win in their favor.
The Taiwan Beer defense will have their work cut out for them as they must contain the Tigers’ perimeter game by blanketing sharpshooters Lin Guan-lung and Chang Yu-lin, whose long-range threes were too much for the Bankers to handle in the Cats’ two wins in the first round of post-season play.
As for Dacin, the key to success will be holding Taiwan Beer center Patrick O’Bryant to less than 15 points and a dozen rebounds per game and taking care of the ball on the wings so that Liu Cheng is unable to intercept the long passes and turn them into easy, fast-break points.
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