New Taipei Kings star Jeremy Lin and Daron Russell, a new addition to the New Taipei CTBC DEA, have been named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Players of the Month for March, the league announced yesterday.
The league awards two players every month, one for Taiwanese (called “non-imports”) and the other for foreign nationals (“imports”).
The former NBA star averaged 23.8 points and 5.3 assists over four games to earn the non-imports honor for the second time in the league’s inaugural season. He helped the Kings stay atop the seven-team TPBL with a 4-1 record last month.
Photo: CNA
Lin, a Taiwanese-American, qualifies as a non-import as he obtained a Taiwanese passport in 2020.
He on March 23 scored 36 points, including seven three-pointers, in the Kings’ 108-97 victory over the Taoyuan Leopards. On March 30, he scored 12 points in the fourth quarter to help the Kings outlast the DEA 100-98.
Lin received 15 first-place votes out of 24 from the media and won fans’ support with 1,920 votes — nearly 1,000 more than Leopards point guard Gao Jin-wei, who received 969.
Now 36, the former NBA combo guard first claimed the award in November last year, but the spotlight shifted to Gao in December and again in the first two months of this year.
Russell, who made his DEA debut on Feb. 28, averaged 28.3 points, seven assists, five rebounds and 2.8 steals over four games last month. He scored more than 35 points in two of them.
The DEA went 5-2 during the month, winning all four games in which Russell played.
The American point guard tallied 37 points in the DEA’s 116-106 win over the Leopards on March 2, then scored 40 points on the Taipei Taishin Mars on March 9.
His 21-point fourth quarter on March 2 broke the previous single-quarter scoring record of 16.
Russell emerged the winner of the monthly award for foreign players with an overall 33.6 percent of support, followed by Kings center Jason Washburn, who had 31.4 percent.
As of yesterday, the Kings led the league with a 20-6 record, while the DEA were in fourth place at 14-14.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Anastasia Potapova on Wednesday turned tennis heartbreak into history by becoming the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final with her thrilling 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova at the Madrid Open, as Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei exited in the women’s doubles quarter-finals. The Russian-born Austrian, who lost in qualifying last week, has capitalized on her unexpected main draw entry and stunned former world No. 1 Pliskova in a roller-coaster clash despite squandering three match points. Potapova’s run has included impressive victories over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and world No. 2 Elena Rybakina. Asked if she had thought
RSS