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.
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