Saigon Heat falls to more experienced Singapore Slingers - Jan 27, 2012 (by Huy Ngo)
The drummers banged away, the cheerleaders shimmied to the beats and a near-capacity crowd at Tan Binh Sports and Culture Center kept the Saigon Heat pumped all the way to a near-upset over the Singapore Slingers Wednesday night in Vietnam.
The game was the first home opener for international pro basketball history in Vietnam, and proved to be a very entertaining affair. Paced by former Denver Nugget Julius Hodge (201-G-83, agency: I.D.S. Law, college: N [read more]
The drummers banged away, the cheerleaders shimmied to the beats and a near-capacity crowd at Tan Binh Sports and Culture Center kept the Saigon Heat pumped all the way to a near-upset over the Singapore Slingers Wednesday night in Vietnam. The game was the first home opener for international pro basketball history in Vietnam, and proved to be a very entertaining affair. Paced by former Denver Nugget Julius Hodge (201-G-83, agency: I.D.S. Law, college: N.Carolina St.) 18 points and nine rebounds, the Heat put up a spirited game before falling 60-55 to the more experience Slingers. Saigon's own Trieu Han Minh set the tone by scoring the first basket on home soil, and that lead would remain with the home side for the majority of the game as Saigon led at the half 27-21. But a combination of some missed shots down the stretch and fatigue owing to a short bench got the better of the Heat. Jonathan Jones notched 17 points and pulled down 15 boards for Saigon, while Singapore's Donald Little led all scorers with 22 points, including a thunderous dunk that nearly brought down the backboard. 'We made some mental mistakes,' conceded Heat coach Robert Newson. 'We kept them to 21 points. We just have to knock down shots.' Newson allowed that it was an improvement on the Heat's season opener in Bangkok against the Chang Thailand Slammers, a more lopsided 78-58 contest. The team seemed to feed off the enthusiastic crowd, taking in the historic home opener during Vietnam's Tet holidays. 'There really were a lot of people, especially during Tet,' Newson said. 'It was a really good atmosphere.' Hodge concurred, despite getting a hand to the eye in the dying minutes and seeing his team's lead slip away. But he refused to offer fatigue as an excuse, despite four starters playing the entire game. 'We're professionals, we have to play through that,' Hodge said. ' (But) I hope that we showed we play with a lot of heart and a lot of guts when we represent Vietnam. Saigon resident Tien Nguyen, who sat behind the Saigon bench, was excited to be one of the first fans to see pro basketball up close in Vietnam. 'I believe professional games will raise the level of the game here,' he said, adding it's becoming more and more popular with young players every day in this country. The Heat's next game is this Saturday in Kuala Lumpur against the Westport Dragons.
Julius Hodge to lead in Saigon Heat first home game at ABL - Jan 23, 2012 (by Eurobasket News )
Former NBA player for the Denver Nuggets, Julius Hodge (201-G-83, agency: I.D.S. Law, college: N.Carolina St.) top scored for Saigon Heat in their debut match at ABL against Thailand Slammers with 37 points and 15 rebounds. However, he could not take The Heat to the victory against the defending champions Thailand Slammers where the team lost 58-78.
The Heat are heading to their second game at the league which is their first home game against Singapore Slingers [read more]
Former NBA player for the Denver Nuggets, Julius Hodge (201-G-83, agency: I.D.S. Law, college: N.Carolina St.) top scored for Saigon Heat in their debut match at ABL against Thailand Slammers with 37 points and 15 rebounds. However, he could not take The Heat to the victory against the defending champions Thailand Slammers where the team lost 58-78. The Heat are heading to their second game at the league which is their first home game against Singapore Slingers. The Singaporeans delivered a dramatic bounce-back win when defeating Thailand Slammers by 74-63 after falling behind by 14 points in the first two half. Therefore, playing against Singapore Slingers will be tough for The Heat who are still yet to come together as a group. Julius Hodge, whilst an excellent player has to involve his teammates more if the Heat are to be successful. It is fair to assume that the Slingers will try to force Julius to shoot more from the outside as he is much more dangerous closer to the basket. No doubt that Julius will again lead The Heats attack but he needs to deliver the ball more before getting a chance to get to the hoop. Besides, The Heat need to improve their defense and limit their personal fouls which led to many penalties in the previous match against The Slammers. Keeping Julius in his scoring momentum and improving the teamwork will be The Heats priorities in their game plan. The Heat have been working tirelessly to improve their offensive chemistry ahead of this home game and the long road trip coming up at the weekend. The hope is that they can click in front of the home fans. No matter what it takes, The Heat will desperately try to protect home court and show the league that they are in it to compete for a play-off position!
ASEAN League round 1 best performance: Brian Williams - Jan 17, 2012 (by Eurobasket News )
American center Brian Williams (208-C-87, agency: VVG Sports) put on an extraordinary performance in the last round for top-ranked KL Dragons, receiving a Eurobasket.com Player of the Week award for round 1.
The 24-year old player had a double-double of 26 points and 23 rebounds, while his team beat Petron Blaze (#6, 0-1), the league's bottom-ranked team in overtime 83-77. It allowed KL Dragons to take over top position in the ASEAN League [read more]
American center Brian Williams (208-C-87, agency: VVG Sports) put on an extraordinary performance in the last round for top-ranked KL Dragons, receiving a Eurobasket.com Player of the Week award for round 1. The 24-year old player had a double-double of 26 points and 23 rebounds, while his team beat Petron Blaze (#6, 0-1), the league's bottom-ranked team in overtime 83-77. It allowed KL Dragons to take over top position in the ASEAN League . But it's just the very beginning of the season and KL Dragons won just one (their first) game. It's too early to say anything as the standings can be changed completely after next round. Williams turned to be KL Dragons' top player in his first season with the team. Former University of Tennessee star has very solid stats this year. Williams is in league's top in points (3rd best: 26.0ppg), rebounds (2nd best: 23.0rpg), assists (8th best: 3.0apg) and averages impressive 56.3% FGP.
The second best player in last round's games was 32-year old American Nakiea Miller (204-C-79) of league's second-best Philip.Patriots. Miller had a very good evening with a double-double of 24 points and 18 rebounds. Of course he lead Philip.Patriots to another comfortable win outscoring Bangkok C. (0-1) 86-58. His team has extremely good start of the season. They won their first game. However the season is at the beginning, so everything can happen. They still may lose their high position in the standings. Miller is one of the most experienced players at Philip.Patriots and has a reputation of one of team's most reliable players. He belongs to the best scorers in the league with 24.0ppg (#4). He also registered 18.0 boards per game.
Third on the list of top players last round was U.S. Virgin Isl. guard Julius Hodge (201-G-83, agency: I.D.S. Law) of Saigon H. (#7). Hodge got into 30-points club by scoring 37 points in the last round. He went also for fifteen rebounds . Despite Hodge's great performance Saigon H. lost 58-78 to Thailand S. (#4, 1-0). But his team cannot count on just a single shooter as he also needs help of the other teammates. Saigon H. can only dream about fighting for top spots in the league. They have awful season losing so far all 1 games. Too bad for Hodge he does not play for a better team. But maybe if he did, his season stats would not be that high. The season just started for Hodge as he played only first game. But it already looks like he can be team's leader.
Other top performing players last week: 4. Louis Graham (205-F/C-84) of Singapore S. - 23 points and 23 rebounds 5. Steve Thomas (204-C/F-81) of Satria Muda - 20 points and 14 rebounds 6. Kenneth Walker (206-F/C-80) of Thailand S. - 15 points, 14 rebounds and 2 assists 7. Tiras Wade (200-F-81) of KL Dragons - 28 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists 8. Mario Wuysang (176-PG-79) of Satria Muda - 23 points and 4 rebounds 9. DeAndre Thomas (203-C-86) of Thailand S. - 21 points and 10 rebounds 10. Ardy Larong (190-G/F-80) of Philip.Patriots - 8 points, 2 rebounds and 6 assists
The Player of the week is chosen based on efficiency calculation, but also including game result, importance of the game, if played recorded double-double/triple-double, etc. The efficiency formula is a combination of various formulas used by different basketball organizations/leagues. We got involved many basketball scouts and journalists to assure it's accuracy. The formula: 1.5*PTS + 3* (REB+AST+ST+BL-TO) - 2*BSAG - 4*PF + 3*PFRV + 4* (2FGPM+3FGPM) + 1.5*FTM - 3* (2FGPA-2FGPM) - 3* (3FGPA-3FGPM) - (FTA-FTM)
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