The Singapore Slingers are out to make a move against the league leaders as they take on the BTN CLS Knights Indonesia on the road.
The Slingers took a big step forward last week as they swept the Westports Malaysia Dragons in the Straits Cup leading to John Fields being named as the Best Player of the Week. The big man scored 28 points in both games and also averaged 16.5 rebounds in that stretch, which should only bode well for Singapore heading into the final stage of the elimination round.
Currently holding a 12-7 win-loss tally, the Slingers are just a full game behind the Formosa Dreamers who are at 13-6, San Miguel Alab Pilipinas is still an arm’s length away with their 16-3 record but even that is a target that is still possible for Singapore specially because they have an upcoming game this week against the defending champions.
However, before they deal with other challenges down the road, Singapore will have to find a way to score a win on the road against the Knights.
In the first meeting between the two teams in Indonesia, the Knights scored an easy 89-75 victory. The Slinger paid it back in their rematch with a 95-76 victory at the OCBC Arena earlier this month. Now the two teams will duel again to break the tie.
BTN CLS has been very difficult to beat in Surabaya as they are second only to Alab in winning percentage at home at 8-2 while the champions are still undefeated at 11-0. This poses a challenge for the Slingers who have not been very good on the road where they have only won five of their nine games.
Luckily for Singapore, their three imports have been on point in their last couple of games with Fields, Xavier Alexander, and Jerran Young all oozing with confidence heading into this match as they treated the second half of their last game against the Dragons like an All-Star game with all of the highlights.
BTN CLS also prides itself with having three solid imports as well as Maxie Esho leads them in scoring with 24 per game, Daryl Watkins in rebounds with 9.4, and Douglas Herring in assists with also 9.4 per contest.
The key as always will be the defense of Singapore. If they control Wong Wei Long like they did in their last meeting, then they can very well be on their way to closing in on the league leaders.
