Coming off a win against the Westports Malaysia Dragons, the Singapore Slingers continue their road tour as they take on the Saigon Heat at the CIS Arena.
The Heat have been tough to beat at home where they hold an 8-3 win-loss tally. However, they have been on a slump as of late as they’ve lost their last three games. They were gunning for a top two spot but the sudden slowdown has them outside the top four at an even 12-12.
Singapore, meanwhile, is holding on to the third spot with their 14-9 win-loss tally and they will have home-court advantage in the quarterfinals as long as they score two wins in their last three games against the Heat,Macau Black Bears, and Mono Vampire.
The Slingers are gunning for a season sweep of the Heat but their first three wins were by no means comfortable as none of the first three games were decided by an average of 5.3 points only.
Xavier Alexander made history in their last game as he became only the second player in ABL history to score 2,000 points alongside his former teammate Justin Howard.
It was not pretty at the start for the Slingers against the Dragons but a big third quarter where they scored 31 points to turn the game on its head.
Alexander had 25 points and 13 rebounds in the game while while Jerran Young chipped in 23 points. John Fields was able to go back to his double-double ways with 17 points and 13 rebounds in the game.
The best sign for the Slingers was the scoring punch provided by Larry Liew who had 12 points off the bench on 4 of 5 shooting from the three-point range. It has been a while since a local has heated up offensively for Singapore so it was a welcome sight for Slinger fans.
On defense, it’s all about slowing down Trevon Hughes. He’s is the machine that keeps the Heat going and having a defender stay in front of him at all times will be crucial for Singapore. They’ll also have to worry about Saigon’s able big guys in Kyle Barone and DeAngelo Hamilton.
One of those two bigs might have no natural matchup among the imports of Singapore but head coach Neo Beng Siang surely has a plan to try and overcome Saigon’s size advantage.
