Play will resume in the Super Basketball League tonight, with Taiwan Beer taking on the Bank of Taiwan and the top-ranked Dacin Tigers facing the Taiwan Mobile Leopards at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City.
With the teams well-rested from a three-week-long Lunar New Year break, the fans in northern Taiwan will be treated to a pair of interesting matchups, as the Bankers look to redeem themselves from a six-point loss in their previous meeting against the Brew Crew, while the Tigers will try to improve to 8-1 with a win over their fellow feline opponents.
Big man John Vaudreuil should have a big day inside the paint against the Brew Crew, because he is too big for Taiwan Beer’s Emmanuel Jones to cover one-on-one and too fast for a slower Ha Hsiao-yuan to defend against, should he take the ball strong to the hoop. With help expected to come from the weak side for Taiwan Beer to contain Vaudreuil, shooters Chuang Hsiao-wen and Hsu Chih-chiang should have some open shots from the perimeter, if the Bankers can move the ball around fast enough to find the open man.
The backcourt play of Chen Shih-nian and Wu Yong-ren will be crucial for Taiwan Beer in this game, since they need to take control of the Taiwan Beer offense and feed the ball to a red-hot Yang Jing-min, who netted 25 points in their previous meeting to lead the Brew Crew past the Bankers.
As for the contest between the Tigers and the Leopards, Player-of-the-Month winner Noel Felix will prove his worth against the newly signed Ryan Wright, whose short-but-impressive resume already includes time spent in Mexico, South America, China and Europe.
Skipper Chiou Da-tsong of the Tigers has been very happy with Felix, despite the fact that Felix has not been dominating as far as his statistics are concerned.
“I’m not worried about [Felix] not having great figures, as long as we can win and win consistently,” Chiou said after his hired gun was named Player of the Month last month.
Felix will also have plenty of help from fellow forward Tien Lei and guard Chang “Mr Hustle” Chih-fong, who had been hampered by injuries prior to the New Year break, as the trio represents the nucleus in a Dacin lineup that has dropped only one game in their last eight.
All eyes will be on the Leopards’ Su Hsiang-yi, who will try to have a big game against his former team. The speedy guard, who played for the Tigers for seven seasons before joining the Leopards last season, has not lived up to his billing and will need to have a big season to keep his place in the Leopards’ starting lineup.
Keeping the turnovers to under a dozen will be critical for the Leopards, with Wright unaccustomed to the Leopard offense against a Dacin team that will surely take full advantage of every mistake the Leopards make.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum on Sunday combined for 27 points as Shaquille O’Neal’s “Team Shaq” cruised to victory in the new-look NBA All-Star game in San Francisco. Curry, playing on his home court at Golden State’s Chase Center, reeled off a string of trademark three-pointers to help his star-studded lineup coast to a 41-25 victory over Charles Barkley’s “Team Chuck.” Boston Celtics star Tatum finished with 15 points after delivering a dominant performance in a starting lineup that also included Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and James Harden. Team Shaq’s preparations for the game had been dealt a blow shortly before tip-off when