Lee Hsueh-lin of the Yulon Dinos was this week selected by members of the press as the Super Basketball League's Most Valuable Player (MVP) of last month for his outstanding play in leading his team to a 5-1 record.
The soft-spoken, fourth-year point guard beat out teammates Tseng Wen-ding and Chen "Airman" Hsin-an for the coveted monthly honor by a sizable margin, earning more than half half of the first-place votes. Lee turned in six solid performances that included 6.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game last month.
A standout was Lee's exceptional performance in the 84-65 win over the Videoland Hunters on Feb. 3 that propelled the Dinos to the top spot in the standings. In that game, Lee racked up eight points, 10 rebounds and nine assists -- just two points and an assist shy of a triple-double.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SBL
"I am actually a bit shocked [to have won MVP of the month] since both Wen-ding and Hsin-an contributed as much, if not more than I did during the month of February," Lee said at the award ceremony in Taipei.
"Guys like me who usually don't receive the kind of attention that a big center or power forward would seldom get recognized for what we do," Lee added.
His 6.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game were a vast improvement from an already decent 4.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game in January.
Lee was not the only player to impress recently, as the Dacin Tigers' Chang Chih-fong was named Player of the Week for his performance in guiding the Tigers to a perfect 2-0 record last week.
The hard-working fourth-year guard, known more for his solid defense than his scoring prowess, netted 71 points -- including 18 three-pointers over a two-game span -- to lead a team that now has two legitimate clutch scorers (the other one being three-time league MVP Tien Lei who is enjoying another fine season statistically with more than 27.4 points per game to lead the league).
"The teams that we played against last week did not put the same kind of pressure on me that a first-tier club like the Dinos or Taiwan Beer would," Chang said of his record-setting performance against the Azio Eagles last Friday.
In that game, Chang scored seven three-pointers in one quarter and 13 total, topping the previous highs of five and 11 respectively.
Chang's terrific 43-point burst helped the Tigers overcome a double-digit deficit, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss to the last-placed team in the league.
Next up for Chang and the Tigers are the Hunters in a highly anticipated match between two of the league's top offenses tonight. The Hunters have won three games in a row, while the Tigers have gone one better.
The Tigers are slight favorites in this game because the Hunters have not been as consistent as coach Liu Chih-wei would like.
Tonight's other game is between the ETTV Antelopes and the Dinos, two teams that are desperate to rebound from disappointing losses.
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