The common wisdom "speed kills" could not be more evident in the Yulon Dinos' series-opening 78-55 blowout victory over the Sina Lions on Thursday night at the Taipei Sports Education Arena.
Head coach Chien Yi-fei's strategy to play at a fast pace for the entire game ultimately wore down the aging Lions and literally ran them off the court from the second quarter on.
PHOTO: PAUL HUANG
Led by their spiritual leader Chen Hsin-an, whose 18 points helped his team grab the critical series-opening win, the young and quick Dinos shook off some early-game bugs in their head and treated the Lions with more energy and pressure than the Lions had seen all year long.
Their well-known full-court press forced the Lions out of their half-court set and limited Lion veteran point man Chou Jung-san to just one lone assist for the game.
What allowed the Dinos to maintain the same level of intensity throughout the entire contest was their well-stocked bench depth that no teams in the league could match. Eight different Dino players saw at least 15 minutes of action, compared to just six Lions.
After a decent first quarter, Lion big men Huang Chuen-hsiung (
"We really won the game with our defense tonight." Chien reflected on the key factors for the victory in the post-game interview.
The Lions managed to take a short-lived 25-18 lead after the first quarter with an unbelievable 10-0 run, but signs of fatigue and mental breakdown began to take its toll as they surrendered the lead and went into halftime with a four-point deficit (36-40).
Then came the devastating third quarter where Dino center Tseng Wen-ding busted loose and dominated the paint for eight of his game-high 20 points to put his team up by 21 points. With the game seemingly decided by that point, neither team was able to generate any offense, ending the game on a low-scoring fourth quarter (the two teams combined for only 20 points).
Shooting guard Luo Hsin-liang's 20 point effort was the lone bright spot for the Lions in the otherwise sloppy game.
"Perhaps playing three postseason games in five day have worn us down more than we would have liked. Especially during the second quarter, our big guys showed very little desire to engage inside the paint. That was our fatal flaw." Lion assistant coach Hu Chung-chuin said after the game.
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