Singapore Slingers vs San Miguel Beermen

Previously when San Miguel Beermen came to the indoor stadium, they had to pit against a fellow PBA team. This time round Slingers had a chance to meet them in the final 4th match of the Singapore Challenge Series before Asean Basketball league starts.


Having lost the previous 2 outings, this was a crucial game to the local fans especially the critics whom I invited for the last match and today's match. Well the comments were many especially on who can improve and many are still wondering where are Darren "Doc" Ng and Eric Sandrin. Well, the fan favorites have gone on to join Adelaide 36ers and Samsung Thunders respectively in Australian and Korean local leagues. And though we have weaknesses for this season's team, there is potential for growth and we appreciate all constructive criticisms.



There are quite a couple of things to cover in this entry and I would shorten my writeup on the game and will list out a few constructive points at the end of the blog entry and hopefully the Singapore Slingers can improve on them. But overall, we won this game by a mere 6 point, and it was a hard-fought win. Caused by a lacklustre first half coupled with a hot shooting Beermen, the Slingers were down 15 points in the 3rd quarter 35-50 with 4 minutes remaining. It was a bleak outlook as I start to converge towards the Cheerleaders thinking that would have made better content instead! Yet our Slinger boys never gave up and valiantly increase defensive pressure causing turnovers for the Beermen and made them look helplessly "drunk"(sorry for the intended pun :P).

Things looking bleak with a depressed bench

#5 Wei Long scoring on a fast break

Pathman scoring from free throw line, he was hot tonight with courageous defense!!

As we turned on the heat in the 4th, the boys had a 20-5 run to even things at 55 points each by the third minute into the final quarter. And guess who led the charge? Marcus scoreless in the first half, scored 7 points; and Pathman whom I believe is having his career high as a Slingers, had 12 points of his 13 at this point in time. The scores then toggled closely with the locals starting to contribute, Michael and Weilong had treys while Desmond and Wei Jian contribute a pair each. Until the final 3 minutes where LeBlanc took over with shots and strong moves to the basket, and Jeffers helped with many rebounds - everyone started to chip in and press deep into the defense holding Beermen to just 3 points while scoring 10 to finish the game 71-65. Effectively we scored 2 points for every point San Miguel scored since the 3rd quarter slump!

#9 Michael LeBlanc taking over scoring 16 points for the night

Bench getting ecstatic from another great defensive play.

This game was exciting till the final minute when Beermen fans can sense the desperation in their team. The win was well-deserving and from the look of our boys' smiles especially the locals, Jason with his fist thumping and myself repressing the yell - somehow I think we felt a certain sense of pride in our very own Singaporeans. Job well done guys, go SLINGERS!

Cheers all around for a great win

Ok, comments and constructive criticisms:
1) Fitness of some players can be observed to be weak - Jeffers was panting in the 2nd quarter; defense was a little sluggish - need to keep up the pressure as seen from this game as compared to the last. Last season's team was physically fit, with a lot more dunks and our strength was in the 2nd half where a lot more fast breaks led to quick scores.

2) We do not have a big strong centre. As I mentioned in the last post, without #33 Jamal Brown, we are more open inside and we get less rebounds from poor positioning. The trick to this is the need to increase speed inwards to trap the centre opponents coming in but need to run out if passed out for an open trey. So again fitness and speed must be there.

#34 Pennisi taking a walk for an easy layup down the middle

Pathman taking an open shot and nailing it!

3) Local boys need to be more daring during offense - Kudos on the defense, the locals are doing very well. Michael Wong and Pathman are showing their legacy as old Slingers with obvious confidence to take the necessary shots. Tonight, Desmond had many open opportunities, he did not take it. Missing does not matter as long as it is a well taken shot. Coach has to stress on this and all locals have to shoot more during practise sessions. Wei Long did well though he missed quite a few, he still dare to take open ones and nailed a good 3-pointer. They need to build up the confidence.

An effective screen freeing up #7 Hontivero to shoot, topping all scores at 18 points.

4) Hands always on your opponents, take note of the screens and rolls which Beermen executed brilliantly tonight, forcing our boys to slam quite often into a "wall". Call out and make necessary switches during the screens. And because we are smaller sized, try not to double team.

#8 Marcus over dribbling into the centre and losing it with another turnover

5) Marcus Ng needs to work on his dribbling and ball handling. Too many turnovers. And it is preferred that Wei Long, Vergara or Michael holds the ball and feed into a cutting Marcus to drive instead. Avoid the centre, he tends to lose the ball there.

So 5 recommendations for the Slingers and a couple more interesting items.

Firstly, I learnt today that Beermen has a legend player called #17 Racela who is also our #1 Al Vergara's idol. And guess what Al went to do against this old legend? (apparently he is 39 years old!) Yes, Vergara fast break and took against his idol for a pull up bank-shot to score against Racela! To score against your idol is like me scoring on Jordan! Hahah only in my dreams!


Next item is a first for a Slingers game, besides the usual Kiss-cam which the fans love. We have some fan proposing today right at courtside!!! This is always the dream for any sports fan just like the other proposal I witness during my New York Mets game. Congrats to the couple and wishing them a blessed journey henceforth and many more anniversaries here!



For more higher resolution pictures of today's match- please find them here.

Update - got the wrong schedule for ABL, it is against Brunei and not KL this sunday
Please join us for the next Sunday game on 11 Oct 2009 which is an Asean Basketball League match between Slingers and Brunei Barracudas! Heard there are some American Imports there! Expect some dunks! Ticket details here.