After losing their first game of the season, the Singapore Slingers are now the second hottest team in the league behind the league-leading Formosa Dreamers as they have won their last three games.
The last victory was the most impressive as they took care of business at home against the Macau Black Bears, who caused the Slingers a lot of trouble last season.
John Fields may have stumbled out of the gate in his stint with Singapore but he’s proving that the Slingers were right in choosing him. Against Macau, he battled with another impressive ABL rookie in Ryan Watkins and came out with the better numbers and, more importantly, the victory.
Fields finished with 32 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists on 15 of 18 shooting from the field in an all-around impressive game. The big man also had two steals and a block while not committing a single turnover in 40 minutes of action.
While Singapore’s big man led them to a 98-88 victory against the Black Bears, the even better news was the support that Fields got from the rest of his team as all the other members of their starting unit all scored in double digits. Xavier Alexander had 16 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists while Jerran Young came up with 12 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in 20 foul-plagued minutes.
Also shining in that game were locals Delvin Goh and Ng Hanbin. The big man picked up a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds while the sweet-shooting Ng had 11 points on 3 of 9 shooting from the three-point range while also picking up nine boards.
Now the Slingers will be welcoming the Wolf Warriors who still do not have a single win in their maiden ABL year but have looked better in their past few games.
The Slingers’ defense will have to figure out a way to slow down Cai Chen who has been the most consistent local scorer in the league thus far with an average of 19.5 points per game while also grabbing 8.7 rebounds. The burly- 6-foot-9 power forward as been stretching their opponents’ defense with his 41% shooting from the three-point range.
Singapore also needs to pay attention to guard Eric Tisby who replaced Mario Wuysang as their main guard. He norms 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.7 assists while shooting 47% from three.
After this contest, the Slingers will be having a long break before going up against Hong Kong Eastern at home on December 21 and closing out the year on the road against San Miguel Alab Pilipinas on December 23.
