Like in previous posts, I won’t be going into a lot of detail. I’ll use mostly images and then just add captions to each one that will, hopefully, capture the essence of the latest developments in Asian hoops.
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| Asian hoops revved up anew this past week! |
Here are the highlights of this past week in Asian basketball:
- Projected 2015 NBA lottery draft pick Emmauel Mudiay has reportedly been released by the Guangdong Southern Tigers. Nobody knows where he’s headed, especially since it looks like he’s not academically eligible to play in the US NCAA.
- Over in the KBL, the biggest news is the return of Asia’s best sniper, Cho Sung-Min. With him back, the Busan KT Sonic Boom have flourished, winning their last two games and moving up to fifth place.
- In the NBL, the Aisin Seahorses continued to march unscathed in the West even as the Hitachi Sunrockers remained dominant in the East.
- The Taiwanese Super Basketball League also revved up, with defending champion Pure Youth tying previously undefeated Yulon Luxgen in first place.
- Meanwile, Azad University had a big week in the the Iranian Superleague, dropping erstwhile top teams Mahram Tehran and Petrochimi Bandar Immam to tie their victims on top of the league table.
- Over in Kazakhstan, cellar-dweller BC Almaty Legion notched back-to-back wins against struggling BC Caspiy Aktau to move up in the standings before the long holiday break.
2014-2015 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA):
- Images from Osports.cn.
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| The Xinjiang Flying Tigers' Andray Blatche dropped 33 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists, and 7 steals, but they still lost to the Jilin Northeast Tigers, 110-109. |
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| Former high school phenom Emmanuel Mudiay, who's projected to be a high lottery pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, is set to be released by the Guangdong Southern Tigers. |
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| Jeremy Tyler's 17 points and 15 boards propelled the Shanxi Brave Dragons past the Shandong Lions. |
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| Lin Chih-Chieh celebrates after hitting the winning shot in the Guangsha Lions' big 111-108 victory over the Xinjiang Flying Tigers this past Sunday. |
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| Things got testy when Miroslav Raduljica faced off with Metta World Peace. Shandong beat Sichuan in that game, 94-86. |
2014-2015 Korean Basketball League (KBL):
- Images from Jumpball.co.kr.
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| Cho Sung-Min's great return to top-tier action has propelled the Busan KT Sonic Boom to two straight wins. Cho has averaged 20 points and 3 triples so far while also shooting 67% from beyond the arc. |
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| Jang Jae-Seok dropped 10 points as the Goyang Orions beat the Jeonju KCC Egis, 92-63. This was the Orions' only win this past week as they lost to the Anyang KGC and Seoul SK Knights. |
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| Jeong Hye-Geun pops the cap on a jumper as the Incheon ET Land Elephants beat the the Anyang KGC, 64-54. |
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| Moon Tae-Young has done well of late for Ulsan Mobis Phoebus, winning five of their last six matches. |
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| Park Chan-Hee's 11 markers helped push Anyang KGC past the Goyang Orions earlier this week. |
2014-2015 Japanese National Basketball League (NBL):
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| Daiki Tanaka's 16 points helped the Toyota Alvark narrowly defeat the Tsukuba Robots, 70-68, earlier this week. (image from the NBL-Japan) |
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| Garlon Green slams one home, but the Kumammoto Volters were still beaten by the Hyogo Storks, 73-76, last week. Kumamoto remains winless after a dozengames. (image from Kumamoto) |
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| Kosuke Kanamaru is an early leader in the MVP race as the Aisin Seahorses continue unbeaten after back-to-back wins over the Hiroshia Dragonflies this past week. |
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| Levanga Hokkaido continued to struggle, losing back-to-back to the Toyota Alvark this past week to fall to 4-14. Japanese shooting legend Takehiko Orimo averaged 9.5 points and 1.5 threes per game in those defeats. (image from NBL-Japan) |
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| Yuta Tabuse coasts to the hoop as the Link Tochigi Brex dominated the Hitachi Sunrockers this past week. Tochigi won back-to-back, 88-76 and 77-57. (image from Hitachi) |
2014-2015 Taiwanese Super Basketball League (SBL):
- Images from SBL/Yahoo! Taiwan.
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| Chen Tse-Wei dropped 10 points as defending champion Pure Youth beat Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor (KKL) this past week to move up to 5-1. |
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| Chou Po-Chen has been playing quite well for Yulon Luxgen, hitting 55.1% of his FGs and 44.4% of his threes. Yulon is currently sitting third in the standings. |
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| The Dacin Tigers have started really slow so far, losing their first five games before finally recording a win over Yulon Luxgen last night, 80-69. |
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| Lin Wei-Han of KKL scored 10 markers, but his club still fell to Taiwan Mobile, 87-81. KKL is sitting at the bottom of the table with only 1 win against 5 losses. |
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| Patrick O'Bryant flies high as Taiwan Beer beat Yulon two nights ago. Taiwan Beer needed that big win as they lost two games earlier in the week to Taiwan Mobile and Pure Youth. |
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| Oh, hello, random Taiwanese basketball fan. |
2014-2015 Iranian Superleague:
- Images from Ashkan Mehriar/Nasim Online.
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| Former national team playmaker Aren Davoudi helped Azad University upend the league leaders this week. Azad beat BOTH Mahram Tehran and Petrochimi Bandar Immam to move up to a tie for first place. |
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| Former NT sniper Javad Davari slips as Azad won a close one over Mahram Tehran. Davari recorded 9 points in the big win. |
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| New senior NT point guard Sajjad Mashayekhi tries to outrun Rasoul Mozaffari. Mashayekhi tallied 7 points in 17 minutes off the bench. |
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| Iranian superstar Samad Nikkhah Bahrami attacks Javad Davari's defense. Bahrami's team, Petrochimi Bandar Immam, surprisingly got waylaid by Azad University, 83-66. |
2014-2015 Kazakhstan Basketball League Division 1:
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| Maxim Voyeykov of BC Almaty Legion turns the corner against BC Caspiy Aktau. Voyeykov helped his club win back-to-back this week and improve their standing. |
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| Nika Ramishvili maneuvers to try and free up his teammate, Zhanysh Erns Uulu. BC Caspiy Aktau lost both its games this week, 63-49 and 77-73. |
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| Vadim Scherbak tries to go strong against BC Almaty Legion's defense. Scherbak scored 15 points in their 73-77 loss. |
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| Kyrygyztani Zhanysh Erns Uulu goes up against BC Almaty Legion. He has been doing well this season, averaging mre than 16 points per game and shooting 48.9% from the field. |
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2 Comment
How would you compare the quality of play in these professional leagues to our own?
BalasI would say that, generally, the level of play is the same as the PBA, with a few exceptions. The level of play in China and Iran are probably a little higher, especially since China has NBA-level imports and Iran has some of the best "local" players in the continent. The competition in Kazakhstan, Qatar, and Taiwan might be a little lower than the PBA's but as for the rest, it's pretty much the same.
Balas