I’m pretty sure the media had field day reporting about the Singapore’s Slingers’ first loss at home to the KL Dragons with a tonne of ’sizzling’ title wordplay. There’s so much one can do with the word Dragons and anything related to burning, fire, etc. Here’s my continuation after my previous post on how Singapore Slingers and fans got owned on their own soil. But first, much thanks to Nic and Daphne for organising and scoring us fantastic passes.
If the Dragons’ performance on Sunday is any indication of how their style of play is going to be like for the rest of their ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) campaign, the other teams better watch out. With strong inside presence and a tonne of scoring options, I reckon their current 4th position in the ABL ladder would slowly climb to top seed. Yes the Dragons are hungry and they could be a force to be reckoned with.
With a full squad and the return of point guard Wei Long after his chicken pox saga (welcome back dude), the number one Singapore Slingers have absolutely no reason why they should lose sunday’s game – especially at home and to a team that seem to be heading towards the wooden spoon award. But I guess in the case of yesterday’s game, complacency could possibly be an issue as the home team were caught with their guard down totalling 16 turnovers and a shooting average of under 50%.
Len and I have always discussed about a key element missing in the Slingers squad – big inside presence. KL’s #30 Jamal Brown who was once a Slinger is the kind of guy we believed the team needed, and ironically made his ex-team pay dearly for defaulting him before the Dragons picked him up. Together with a supporting cast of big men including #3 Chris Danial Kuete Lonichi and #33 Chee Lee Wei (mad hops dude!!), the Slingers had to work doubly hard getting inside.
Slingers’ imports #31 Kyle Jeffers and #33 Michael LeBlanc were held to just 12 and 13 points respectively, together with low shooting percentages. Despite Jeffers’ double-double efforts with 16 rebounds, the home team still found difficulty getting points in the paint. However, local boy #10 Hong Wei Jian stepped up to the plate and finished with a season-high 18 points and 4 rebounds, perhaps the first in Slingers’ history did a local outscore their imports (I can’t verify that, hope someone can). #11 Michael Wong (sorry, unable to take any photos of you) also contributed with 10 points, making 50% of his shots and Philippine sensation #19 Al Vergara had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Left: Wei Jian takes it to the rim | Right: Challenges his ex-teammate in the paint
Left: LeBlanc had to fire from the outside | Right: Al fights to the rim
At the other end the Dragons roughed it out with the Slingers as Kuete and #10 Rudy Lingganay put up 20 and 21 points. Rudy whom I believe hailed from the Philippines was totally sick with his inside scoring. How he managed to get inside in the presence of big defense, I’ll never know. Together with Kuete they both contributed from beyond the arc with six treys. Brown too had a double double with 14 points and 11 rebounds (oh, he got three blocks too). Most importantly, his intimidating presence and iron curtain defence played a huge role in preventing inside points, something that statistics will never show.
Left: Kuete takes it to the hole | Right: Brown with a block in his name while Kuete jumps in a bid to swat
Left: Brown can’t get it? No problem, Kuete is on his way up for a block | Right: Brown contributes from the baseline
On a lighter note, I can’t help but wonder why I didn’t take as many photos as I would have for other games. I think might have spent a majority of the time ball watching than shooting (hey, it was an intense game and we needed numbers), something I should shake off for future games. I’m pretty sure I missed plenty of good shots.
The Slingers will take a two-week break before hosting the Thailand Tigers on 7 Dec at the Indoor Stadium. Currently placed last, the Tigers have the same record as the KL Dragons before they met the home team on Sunday. Will the Slingers put their guard down again and repeat another defeat by a statistically weaker team, or will they find some time for self reflection and redeem themselves with a win? There is only one way to find out. Tickets are available at Sistic. Of course KL Dragons fans are more than welcome to visit. But this time, cheer for us yah? 
Goooooo Slingers!!
More photos in my Flickr album here.
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