From the warmups, I could see that Darren "Doc" Ng will clearly not be coming back as his younger brother Marcus Ng dons his #8 jersey. And from the likes of it, he was not a shooter like his older brother(as I heard in the Captain's Lounge during half time from a Malaysian auntie talking on her mobile rather loudly: "...yeah lar ok...but Marcus not like Darren, cannot shoot 3 pointers!"), but I have to say he is rather a boyish looking chap. Also noticed our Singaporean boys trying very hard to dunk. Haha who say yellow asian boys can't dunk?
Kyle Jeffers looked good, able to dunk well and I see good rebounding positions but I did not see Michael LeBlanc whom I was excited to see in action since he did scored 27 points on us the last time when he was on the Malaysia side.
Looking on to our opponents that night, I saw them warming up akin to the New Zealand All Blacks performing a haka (Māori traditional dance), they did their own Filipino rendition of a run dance routine instead of a shooting practise. So for a moment there, I thought tonight would be a tough night. A closely knit team always strike fear before the game.
The game started without much fanfare, and I was glad Coach Frank was with his usual antics and playing style. His strategy that night was good, making great switches necessary to prevent Tigers from becoming a threat, with great set plays. But I was left wondering why he chose Marcus to handle the ball more often than #1 Vergara who was clearly on top of his game today, topping all scores at 20 points and hardly having any turnovers. While Marcus was clearly observed to be nervous, he made a couple of turnovers with badly decided layups, ball handling. But then again, it might be attributed to the tight defence from #55 Cabagnot and #1 Ross from the Tigers who were giving our ball handlers Vergara, Marcus and Michael Wong a hard time. But I do hope Marcus warms to the team, as perhaps I feel that is what Coach Frank was trying to do that night, to allow Marcus to get more playing time.
Tigers look strong from the start taking a 5-0 start with Michael showing signs of perhaps rusty ball handling and several bad shots by the locals. But as the night wears on, Michael warmed up with quick shooting through the night with a high FG % giving us a credible 10 points. This is a rare sight from previous seasons as Michael clearly belonged there and I wish he had played more minutes. Another strong performance from our new local favorite Hong Wei Jian who added a dozen points from dazzling layups. So from Jeffers stats, he was suppose to average 14.5 ppg, which he delivered with 14 points for the night. He was getting the rebounds with help from Pathman and Steven Khoo. We ended the quarter strong 26-20.
Jeffers with a block.
The key performance tonight was the grit I saw in the team - DEFENSE. The intensity and passion displayed was commendable. Everyone was doing their part, roughing up the Tigers whenever they got the ball. Hands are on the opponents, with very tight matchups. The only person who was tough to mark was Tiger's hot shot #81 Mark Macapagal. He was almost unstoppable, making buzzer beater and 3s fall like raindrops, allowing the Tigers to stay close 62-64 by the end of 3rd quarter.
Here is the 3rd quarter buzzer beater shot release with five-tenths of a second left.
After a quick trey from our Al Vergara, Mark went to equalise our shot with another of his own, clearly jumping high above our Slingers.
Another strong Tiger player with rebounds and inside plays through the night was Tauvala #88. But he was getting a better end of tauntings from the sideline going "Pork Chops" all night! And this from our fav Slingers fan! Haha
With great rebounds and defense from everyone with consistent rotation from Coach Frank, our locals was getting minutes and points with almost all locals scoring and even Pathman contributing 9 points! This added up to be a strong all rounded performance from the Slingers winning 93-85. I hope this shuts the critics on Singapore Slingers being laden with more foreign talent than locals. Because clearly from tonight, I see that our locals wanted to win and do us proud. I was shouting Wei Jian! Go Michael! Great defense Desmond! Get that rebound Pathman! From the sidelines, quite often forgetting to capture a great shot, cheering them on.
Though I wished Eric was back with more dunks, this was clearly the way to go into opening the season with a great win over the Tigers as we seemed more superior defensively tonight. One observation though especially against a faster shooting team, we will have difficulty extending further out as our local boys will have a height disadvantage from a taller shooter as seen from #81 Mark's shooting. So Coach Frank might want to work on a quicker, tighter defense strategy.
I leave the Slingers with this great basketball quote.
"If you want team play, you must stress defense. Defense makes players unselfish." - John Brady
Go Slingers! Make us proud. For the fans, join us this coming 23 Sept (Wed). We'll be up against SMART Philippines National Team which will be a tougher match up.
More pictures can be found here.
