ABL: Brunei Barracudas Recap and Round 3 Preview

JC

October 23, 2009

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - While we are either suffering from the heartbreak loss to the KL Dragons at home ground last weekend or with the ABL hype still fresh on our minds, let me put this into your perspective. In the three games that the Barracudas have played, we witnessed 3 different performances:

• Game 1: The Barracudas were playing their first game. The players went into the entered the ABL not knowing what to expect and were feeling relatively nervous. Started the game committing turnovers thus dishing out easy baskets to the opponents. However, the Barracudas managed to gel in the 2^nd quarter and even took the lead at one stage after a 3 point basket from Benjamin ‘Boy’ Lim. After halftime, the Slingers exploited the Barracudas defense and capitalised on the foul trouble experienced by Francis ‘Kiko’ Adriano and Mike Pilgrim with pin point accurate shooting.
• Game 2: The Barracudas were disappointed after their first loss to the Slingers and were hungry for their first ABL win. They never looked back from tip off to the final whistle. They tamed the misfiring Dragons with excellent performances from Adriano (his driving game in 2^nd half), Lonnie Jones (his dominating paint and defensive display) and Mike Pilgrim (who showed glimpse of his true capabilities).
• Game 3: Both teams were neck to neck in this game but after playing 3 games in a week including all the travels, the Barracudas looked fatigued. Our imports were LJ and MP were limited to 4 and 12 points respectively and the Dragons’ defense were able to cut off LJ’s impact on the game. Points have to go to Leo Avenido for his hungry and battling performance and Don Camaso for contribution on both ends with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

If we were to slay the Slingers at the Brunei Indoor Stadium this Saturday, there’re a few points to ponder upon:

• We need Lonnie Jones to step up his game. Low posting to draw double or even triple teams and dishing it out to shooters in the likes of Don Camaso, Adriano and Esmond Tan for open shots.
• The Barracudas over dependence on Mike Pilgrim is becoming more vivid. Yes, we need a go to guy, franchise player but we do not want to end up being like the Cleveland Cavaliers in terms of their over dependence on Lebron James and that is why the added Shaq ‘the Force’ into their squad for the 2009-10 NBA season. In another view, the Lakers wouldn’t have won the 2008-09 NBA Championship if Kobe did not have Gasol and Odom for support.
• The Barracudas have been basically playing with 6 players. The 5 imports and our national cager, Esmond Tan. No doubt, there’re reasons why coach Bong are not fielding the other local players as he feels that they’re not quite ready in level wise the Barracudas would not win the ABL playing only 6 players. The reasons why the Barracudas lost to KL Dragons was because fatigue and Coach Goh from KL was rotating his bench well.

Therefore Brunei, let’s brace ourselves for another thrilling encounter with the Slingers at Brunei Indoor Stadium with tip off at 8 pm and this round, let us invite the Slingers into the cold waters of Brunei where the Barracudas will shout victorious.