Yang Yu-ming's uncanny style of play, which rallied the ETTV Antelopes to a pair of come-from-behind victories over Taiwan Beer and the Dacin Tigers last week, has earned the Antelopes captain the Super Basketball League's Player of the Week honor.
The fourth-year sharp shooter for the Antelopes shot a combined 9-for-14 from behind the three-point line in the Antelopes' two wins, including five threes in the third quarter alone, in Sunday's contest against the beer crew, to extend the Antelopes' winning streak to four straight. His 21.5 points per game were also team highs over the two-game span.
"Having not received it [Player of the Week] once in the entire season last year, it's quite a nice change for me," Yang said after learning of his selection for the weekly honor.
"I thought Jin-chang [Hsin] should have gotten it instead of me," Yang added, referring to fellow forward Hsin's great two-game run, which placed Hsin at No. 4 in the voting.
Yang and Hsin will get a chance to see how good they really are this week, with tonight's uphill battle against the top-ranked Videoland Hunters and tomorrow's showdown against the defending champs, the Yulon Dinos, before Sunday's rematch against Taiwan Beer.
To keep pace with the Hunters, the Antelopes must contain US forward Jonathan Sanders, who leads the league in rebounding with 15.1 per game and is second in scoring with 23.8 points per game.
The last time these two squads met, the Antelopes lost not only the game, but also their top defender Delvin Thomas, who suffered a knee injury that took him out of the lineup for nearly three weeks.
Tomorrow's game versus the Dinos will undoubtedly be a physical match since both teams will look to establish an inside game with Thomas in the leading role for the Antelopes and big man Tseng Wen-ding doing the same for the Dinos.
It will take a monstrous game by Yang from the perimeter to draw the Dinos defenders away from the paint and give Thomas some room to maneuver.
Sunday's rematch against Taiwan Beer may favor the beer crew slightly, simply because Taiwan Beer will be playing with a one-day rest, while the Antelopes will be playing their third game in as many days.
Tonight's Action
In addition to the Antelopes' game against the Hunters at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium, the Dacin Tigers will face Taiwan Beer in a highly anticipated game at 8:30pm as the two most popular squads in the league go head-to-head for the second time this season.
The last time these two teams met, Taiwan Beer ran away with a 92-89 win by holding the Tigers to 16 fourth-quarter points in a dramatic comeback win.
Netting only 13 points and six boards, well below his league-best scoring average of 27.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game (second-best in the league), Dacin great Tien Lei did not have a particularly good game the last time these two teams met. This is bad news for the beer crew, because it is unlikely that they can hold the three-time league MVP to two bad games in a row.
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