ASIA - The stakes get higher as the seasons in leagues over Asia advances to their next respective stages. Teams can reap the benefit of their wins from the regular season, but miss a step here and the season could come to an abrupt ending. As the playoffs are heating up, let’s check in on the action in Asian leagues!

Information updated as of April 7, 2019.

Big Time Double-Doubles in Iraq

The Iraqi Basketball Super League continue the Final 4 with a marquee matchup between Naft Baghdad and Al Shorta, who are both undefeated in this stage. The teams had split the series in the regular season with the score relatively close, which made the final score of 79-51 in favor of Naft quite a shocker. Ali Ismael continues his run as the team’s top scorer, piling in 26 points in 5-11 shooting from downtown and 12 rebounds.

In the other matchup, Al Karkh picked up their first win of the Final 4 stage by riding a big performance from the young star Ihab Al-Zuhairi. The 20-year-old delivered one of his biggest games of the season with 27 points and 16 boards, displaying signs of a bright future for Iraq basketball.

SBL Wrap Up

The Chinese-Taipei Super Basketball League (SBL) teams all completed their 36^th game of the regular season, signaling the start of the playoffs in this upcoming week.

The Fubon Braves (24-12) emerged as the top team in the standings by clinching their 10^th straight victory, coupled with back-to-back losses by Taiwan Beer. Both teams get a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

 

The Yulon Luxgen Dinos got two important wins in the final week to finish at 4^th place in the standings. Floor general Lin Wei Han has led the Dinos throughout the entire season and continued to do so in the last two games by becoming the 5^th local ever in SBL history to record a triple-double (12 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) against Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor on April 2. He nearly outdid himself 5 days later, finishing just short (9 points, 9 rebounds, 14 assists) of the league’s first ever back-to-back triple-double.

 

The Dinos will play Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor in the quarter-finals starting April 13, while former FIBA Asia Champions Cup participants Pauian Archiland and Dacin Tigers face off in the other series.

Alfa Lebanese Basketball League Final Four is 75 percent complete

The defending champions Homentemen had no trouble sweeping Hoops Men Club in three games, joining Champville and Riyadi in the semi-finals set. The legendary Asian duo of Fadi El-Khatib (27.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 6.7 assists per game) and Hamed Haddadi (15.7 points, 14.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.7 blocks per game) helped Champville demolish Atlas, while newcomer Justin Brownlee (20.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists) has been the force for Riyadi.

The only series that remain undecided is between Moutahed and Beirut where Beirut holds a 2-1 advantage. Ali Haidar (Beirut) has been shouldering the load so far with averages of 19.7 points and 8.0 rebounds in the first three games, but needs another big game and another big one to advance on to the next round.

 

2017 PBA Draft Class stepping up

The PBA Philippine Cup playoffs are underway and Phoenix Fuelmasters wasted no time in showing that their top-seed finish was no fluke by trampling the Alaska Aces 91-76 to advance on to the semi-finals.

Rookie of the Year, Jason Perkins, shined brightly in particular by dropping a career-high 31 points in the franchise’s first ever playoff win.

 

"We're serious in what we're trying to achieve. We're here to win it," Perkins told the PBA.

Perkins might have to go through Rain or Shine Elasto Painters to win it, as the second seeded team also advanced to the semis on a strong performance by Rey Nambatac. The diminutive guard was selected 3 picks behind Perkins at 7^th to Rain or Shine and in this playoff game, he came off the bench for 14 points on 4 triples to go with 5 rebounds and 2 assists in a win over NorthPort Batang Pier.

 

The top pick of the 2017 draft, Christian Standhardinger, also claimed a win over Talk ‘N Text Katropa in the quarter-finals for the San Miguel Beermen with 5 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Teammate and national team star Terrence Romeo also played well with 15 points off the bench for the Beermen in his first meeting against his former club in the playoffs. The defending Philippine Cup champions are now one win away from a sixth straight semi-finals appearance.

 

Iranian Superleague goes as expected

There were no upsets in the first game of the Iranian Superleague quarter-finals with all higher seeds taking the win. Petrochimi demolished Niroo Zamini, 103-49, for the largest margin of victory in the round led by Sajjad Mashayekhi who recorded 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists and missed only one shot the entire game.

FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2019 WABA Qualifier champions Chemidor also got a big win over Pegah Iran, 77-50, with Mohammed Jamshidi pouring in the points as usual. The national team star put up 30 points on 10-16 shooting and made all of his 10 free throw attempts.

 

Comeback for the Ages in Shenzhen

The Liaoning Flying Leopards and Guangdong Southern Tigers had already advanced to the semi-finals and could rest as they watched to see who would advance in the remaining quarter-final series.

The Xinjiang Flying Tigers were finally able to knock out last season’s finalist, Zhejiang Guangsha Golden Lions, by closing out the series 3-1. Abudushalamu Abudurexiti continues his strong performance with averages of 25.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in the series. With Guangsha dropping out of the playoffs, it is also likely that franchise legend and Chinese-Taipei star Lin Chih-Chieh will not be returning to the team or the CBA next season. This prompted an emotional send-off for “The Beast” who recently reached the 5,000-point mark earlier in February.

 

In the other series between the Shenzhen Leopards and the Beijing Ducks, history was being made.

The Ducks had gone out on a comfortable 2-game lead to start the series and was looking to seal the deal coming home to Cadilac Arena aka Wukesong Culture & Sports Center. Shenzhen had other plans and returned to the form of a team that finished 4^th place in the regular season to win the last 3 games and become the first team ever in CBA history to win a series after losing the first two games. It was an all-around team effort that fuelled the historic comeback as the Leopards shot a blistering 46.9 percent from downtown in their comeback run.

Shen Zijie continues to be a problem off the bench with 13.3 points and 9.3 rebounds in only 24.3 minutes of action on average.

The Leopards will now advance to face mighty Guangdong, whereas it will be an airborne felines fight between the Xinjiang Flying Tigers and the Liaoning Flying Leopards on the other end.

Ulsan, Incheon leads semi-finals series in KBL

The top two seeded teams in the KBL have yet to show any signs of rust after a quarter-finals bye.

The Changwon LG Sakers limped their way to the semis after a 5-game series against Busan KT Supersonic and the awaiting Incheon ET Elephants did not show any mercy. Changwon have trailed for most of the past 8 quarters that have been played, leaving Incheon to win both games at home by an average margin of 19.5 points. Elephants’ star guard Park Chan Hee hasn’t been lighting up the scoreboard, but his 8.5 assist average over both contest spells how important he has been to the team’s success.

(Park Chan Hee, Incheon ET Elephants)

League leaders, Ulsan Hyundai Mobis, were also able to collect the two first wins at home against Jeonju KCC Egis even if the victories were a bit harder to close out. 4^th seeded Jeonju never allowed Ulsan to breakaway into a double-digit lead only until the final minutes of both games. Ulsan has done a great job of stopping Jeonju’s star and league MVP, Lee Junghyun, who has been limited to only 8-29 shooting in the first two games.

It’s not all over for Jeonju, however, as they were able to win Game 3 of the series leading from start to finish. The key for Jeonju was slowing down Ra Guna in their win who despite his usual big numbers of 19 points and 14 rebounds, shot only 37.5 percent from the floor compared to 55.6 percent in the previous two contests.

(Ra Guna, Ulsan Hyundai Mobis)

Ulsan and Incheon are only one game away from finals appearances, but they will need to earn it in the upcoming games against the hungry Jeonju and Changwon squads.

Last two tickets to B.League Championship

The Kawasaki Brave Thunder and the Ryuukyuu Golden Kings claimed two more tickets to the B.League championship this past week, leaving only two more spots for the remaining teams. It will be a frantic race for the No.2 slot in the Western Division between the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins (30-25) and Kyoto Hannaryz (29-16) and the remaining wildcard spot which will also involved SeaHorses Mikawa (28-27), Toyamo Grouses (28-27), and the Sunrockers Shibuya (27-28). With only 5 games left in the season, it’s going to be an entertaining race which will filter out 2 from 5 teams.

Among those teams, the Toyama Grouses, SeaHorses Mikawa, and Kyoto Harraryz took the biggest hits this past weekend by suffering back-to-back losses.

 

The Nagoya Diamond Dolphins, on the other hand, got a huge boost for the playoff hopes by extending their win streak to 4 including a crucial victory over the Golden Kings on Wednesday. Their undefeated week was capped off with an 87-86 win over Osaka Evessa, which needed a 9-0 run in the final minute and a last second shot by Justin Barrel. The Diamond Dolphins have been steered by the stellar player of Shuto Ando with 14.6 points on 41.7 percent shooting from downtown this season and he’s stepped up a bit more during this 4-game stretch by putting up 16.5 points on a blistering 50.0 percent shooting from long range.

In other news, Alvark Tokyo (41-14) are already dangerous with a sharpshooter like Daiki Tanaka but they could already have their hands on the best shooter in the world in CUE3.

 

CUE3’s eligibility and mechanical movements certainly raises questions, but there’s no denying how deadly that sweet that shooting stroke is.

FIBA