The New Taipei Kings last night defeated New Taipei CTBC DEA 96-90 to face the Taoyuan Taiwan Beer Leopards in the best-of-five first-round of Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) playoffs.
The Kings had on Tuesday kept their playoff hopes alive with a 102-86 win, forcing a decisive game in their TPBL play-in series.
In the Tuesday game, Joseph Lin led the Kings with 23 points, seven rebounds and nine assists without committing a turnover as the defending champions leveled the best-of-three series.
Photo: TPBL via CNA
“It’s win or go home, and we had no other choice. We had to fight with all our heart and honestly do it for A.D.,” Lin said after the game, referring to teammate Austin Daye, who plans to retire after the season.
Under league rules, the top three teams from the regular season advance directly to the playoffs, while the fourth-placed team holds a one-game advantage in a best-of-three play-in series against the fifth-placed team.
Lin, who made four three-pointers, on Tuesday scored 18 of his points in the second half, including 11 in the fourth quarter. His highlight came with 1 minute and 34 seconds remaining, when he hit a floater near midcourt with his right hand, his weaker side.
The Kings led 47-45 at halftime, but fell behind by five points late in the third quarter. They responded with a 19-5 run over the next five minutes and maintained control the rest of the way.
Jalen Harris added 23 points for the Kings, while DEA guard Hsieh Ya-hsuan scored a game-high 28 points and made five three-pointers.
The Kings shot 48.6 percent from a three-point range, making 17 shots, while the DEA went nine of 42 from beyond the arc.
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