Saigon Heat lost to the Slingers at Game 1 ABL PLayoffs: More than a half and 3 points

For Saigon Heat fans watching the match against Singapore Slingers in the ABL Playoffs 2023, perhaps they will be obsessed with 3-pointers from the opponent's very strange pitchers, especially the two names CJ Gettys and Larry Liew.

Bigman CJ Gettys, which averaged only 0.35 3-pointers per game in 14 Regular Season games, totaled 4-15 3PT. Larry Liew is also not better when he only has 5-27 3PT all season, which includes 4 "cold hands" matches with a total of 0-13 3PT.

But by the match against Saigon Heat last night, Gettys and Liew had thrown in 7 3-pointers with a success rate of nearly 54%. It only took one game for the duo to nearly equal the number of successful long throws they had over the entire Regular Season (7 vs. 9).

It was also Gettys and Liew who brought back 4 important 3-pointers for the Slingers in the final round, contributing to engulfing Saigon Heat when bringing the gap to 12 points when the time was just over 1 minute.

In terms of stats and the probability of a successful finish, coach Matt Van Pelt's teachers and students have the right to think about sacrificing the outer ring to give priority to the inner defense, where the Slingers are extremely dangerous with many quality bigmans.

But that has come at the expense of a sizable space for Singapore's pitchers. It was the explosion of the two "gunners" mentioned above that made Heat somewhat confused.

"Some of the players on the Slingers side shone beyond our pre-match expectations," Evan Gilyard said in a post-match interview.

“Some shots that we think have a low success rate but have converted into points, in my opinion that is what has stopped Saigon Heat from responding.”

“Singapore is a strong opponent because they have so many different attack options. The difficulty was that we understood what they were going to do, but still couldn't stop it. They love to play close to the basket, sometimes having 3 bigman on the court at the same time.

Outside, the Slingers always have pitchers waiting, receiving the ball from the bigman inside and not afraid to throw away. That's their strength and we need to solve this problem to win the next two games," coach Matt Van Pelt said.

However, this is not the only problem that Saigon Heat faces. In addition to having difficulty in defense, "Mr 30" continued to face two familiar difficult problems that they encountered in the Regular Season, which are rebounds and shots.

Game 1 saw the Heat continue to lose at catching the ball on the board, especially in the aspect of offensive rebounds. Unlike the last time they met at stage 4 of the Regular Season, coach Matt Van Pelt's army lost in rebounds compared to the opponent.

“The Slingers know that their advantage is good bodybuilding, so they compete very fiercely, especially in the offensive rebound. Saigon Heat players need to have equal or even higher energy at this stage,” Van Pelt told reporters.

Another point is that the effort in finishing "Mr 30" gradually disappeared in the last round, right at the most important time.

There was a time when the players on the field made the stands explode, especially Khoa Tran's 3-pointer and two dunks from Hassan Thomas and Jeremy Combs.

But the Heat lost the advantage by finishing close to the basket that missed quite a lot in the 4th half, plus the long throw efforts of Jairus Holder and Evan Gilyard were unsuccessful, the Singapore Slingers took full advantage and brought back the 11-0 score series. .

“In general, I think the problem lies in the offensive rebound and the defense of the whole team. They played well and benefited from a lot of difficult throws, but we need to play even more closely and play harder,” added PG Evan Gilyard.

Now cornered, Saigon Heat will be forced to improve and win Game 2. This match will take place at 20:00 on Wednesday, March 8 at Nguyen Du Gymnasium.