Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh's exceptional three-point shooting (13-for-27), including his record-setting 10 threes in last Sunday's contest against the Dacin Tigers, earned him this week's Super Basketball League Player of the Week award.
The Taiwan Beer's second-year power forward became the first two-time winner of the coveted weekly distinction this season for his outstanding effort in leading his club to a 2-0 weekend. The victories helped reclaim the fourth place spot in the standings for the beermen, something they had lost during a four-game slide earlier this month.
Lin, the heart-and-soul of the brew masters, averaged 30.5 points and 8.5 rebounds for the week to account for over one-third of the beermen's total offense. But it was his five assists and five steals in Sunday's game versus the Tigers that demonstrated his maturity on the court, making him the complete player that he is striving to become.
PHOTO: COURTESY SBL
Should he continue to improve his ability to find the open man when double-teamed and step up on his defensive efforts, Lin will undoubtedly make a strong case for himself in being the best all-around player in the business.
"The entire team was in a zone all week long last week, that was the best basketball that we had played in a while. Sunday's game against the Tigers was by far my best outing of the year." Lin said.
Lin and his beer mates will have a chance to see how good they really are in their showdown against the league-leading Yulon Dinos tonight.
It will be an uphill battle for the beermen all the way, especially with the addition of Chen Hsin-an to an already-potent lineup that leads the league in total offense (82.9 points per game).
Chen, the Dinos' top scorer from last season, left his team back in last November for a chance to play in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and has returned to his former team now that the ABA season is completed.
Tonight's other game between the ETTV Antelopes and the Bank of Taiwan will also be interesting in that both clubs are 9-12 for the season and have not been able to win consistently. The winner of this match will not only gain a full game in the standings on the loser for the sole possession of the fifth-place spot, but also reduce its gap behind the fourth-place Taiwan Beer by a full game with the beermen's expected loss to the Dinos.
Fresh off their huge one-point, upset win over the Videoland Hunters last Sunday, the bankers may have a slight edge in this game if they can put some pressure against the middle of the Antelopes' defense by attacking big man Wu Dai-hao early.
How well can the bankers shut down the Antelopes' shooting guard Yang Yu-ming, particularly his newfound penetration ability, will determine the outcome of this game.
Tomorrow's confrontation between the Hunters and the Tigers should also draw a full house simply because of the tremendous amount of offense that is expected for the game.
Both squads are coming off heartbreaking losses last week with the Hunters falling victims to the bankers by a point and the Tigers losing in double overtime to Taiwan Beer by a half-dozen, and will try to light up the sky with the long range bombs from the get go.
The Hunters lead the league in total three-pointers with 204 for the season so far, followed by the Tigers' 192, which means both teams will try to outscore the opponents in an all-out three-point shootout.
With the long threes come the long rebounds. Therefore, the club that can establish supremacy off the glass should realize an advantage and perhaps hold the key to victory for this game.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
RSS