Members of the voting press earlier this week picked Tien Lei of the Dacin Tigers as the Super Basketball League's Most Valuable Player of the Month by an overwhelming margin.
The team icon for the title-contending Tigers won 11 of the 15 first-place votes to outpace runner-up Tseng Wen-ding of the Yulon Dinos by a 58-to-12 margin in one of the most lopsided votes ever in league history.
In the nine games Tien played in last month, the third-year "Mr. Do-it-all" netted an impressive double-double average of 28.9 points and 11.3 rebounds to go along with his 2.4 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.3 blocked shots per contest, making him by far the most feared individual among his opponents. His unusual success was the main reason that the Tigers enjoyed a league-best 8-1 record over the same period to grow from a middle-of-the-pack team into a title contender.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SBL
"The honor should really go to the entire team, without whose support I would not be able to do what I did," a modest Tien said at the award ceremony in Taipei earlier this week.
One noticeable difference for Tien this season, compared with the past two, is his more aggressive style of play, especially inside the paint for the Tigers.
Such added desire to forcefully take the ball to the hoop is what fans had not seen in the past, despite Tien's back-to-back selections to the league's Most Valuable Player honor over the past two seasons.
Player of the Week
Tien was not the only player with an incredible run recently, as the Bank of Taiwan's Lin "Killer Bee" Chuin-fong Lei was named the league's Player of the Week for his outstanding play in guiding the bankers to a perfect 3-0 mark last week.
"I guess all that hard work I put in over the past three years has finally paid off," Lin said, referring to his first ever selection to the weekly honor.
Playing nearly 35 minutes per game in the bankers' three wins -- not counting the league-designated 20-0 win over YMY for YMY's controversial walk-out on Feb. 24 -- last week, the third-year forward averaged 27 points and five boards for the bankers, including a career-high 34-point night in a come-from-behind victory over Taiwan Beer last Sunday.
Next up for Lin and the financial wizards are the Tigers in a highly anticipated match tonight that will either end the bankers' current three-game winning streak or the Tigers' four-game undefeated run.
The Tigers are the slight favorites in this game, because the bankers have not been as consistent as Coach Wei Cheng-ming would like them to be, and against a tough team like the Tigers, the bankers may not be able to handle the pressure associated with the big game.
Bank of Taiwan's three-game week continues with tomorrow's contest against the ETTV Antelopes before Sunday's matinee affair versus the Videoland Hunters.
It will be a great test for the bankers this weekend, not only in terms of hoop action, but more importantly in terms of their physical stamina in playing three games in as many days.
Tonight's other game will feature the battle between the Antelopes and the Hunters, two teams that are presently at critical junctures of their season, with the Hunters fighting for the fourth and final playoff spot, and the Antelopes trailing them by a game in the latest standings.
The Antelopes may have a slight advantage in this game simply because the Hunters have lost three straight and have seemingly been unable to put together four quarters of fundamentally sound basketball in over two weeks.
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