@3stars, enough of your nonsense, go read my redhoops comments: i said wei jian should have scored more in the game and stepped up to, so don’t need to put words into my mouth.

This is pro sports, not rah rah school spirit or national pride. The fans pay to be entertained and they are not obligated to cheer. They react to the on-court performances and the atmosphere. During the 2Q and 3Q, when the home team was in a rut…its hard to get enthusiastic. Its called taking the home crowd out of the game. From where I was sitting, the Fans “fought hard” and loudly for the team, despite the small numbers. They reacted to the fighting spirit shown in 4Q.

If I were the Slinger mgt, winning over the home crowd would be more important than winning the league. Of course winning helps gather fans. But good time fans also drop out easily. Building a strong base on support by displaying positive team spirit, strong effort for every game, and good entertaining basketball is the spiritual and financial lifeline for the franchise.

the problem with this match and last match again KL is the same,
Slingers cant keep up with fast pace game (fast passing)

I noticed that there’s something bothering KJ, is he injured his right leg? coz seems that he dragging his right leg on 3rd and 4th Q, AL V still got his knee pain can see when he put some ice on it while he’s in the bench.Coach Arsego should know that they cant penetrate to inside because 35 and 3 are so good undering and rebounds, they should shot from outside more often. i dont know wad to say that the team energy is really low, and 1 more thing………. why Slingers do a Drilling match right infront of the enemy before the game start? anyway good game for both of the team and hope slingers can win the next game. Coz i will be there again to cheer them up^^ GO GO Slingers

Though you did cheer and I did cheer, sorry to say, I won’t give credits to the fans at all. The Singapore Indoor Stadium has one of the worst home crowds because 70% of the fans don’t cheer. It was a library down there in the second and third quarter because fans only started cheering when the Slingers had a hope of coming back.

If the fans did make more noise, we could have won the game.

But still, the offensive strategy by the coach didn’t work out at all. Seriously, no way Desmond Oh should score more points than Jeffers. Why is Jeffers forcing shots past Nwankwo? Shouldn’t there be something like creating a mismatch or something for Jeffers to score? The Slingers’ motion offense ain’t gonna work if there are no shooters on the floor. I’m sure Frank Arsego knows that. Marcus Ng and Desmond Oh on the floor and he is playing the motion offense???

don’t agree with the point guard comments wrt coaching decisions. Based on what I saw, I suspect that Al V was not 100%. thats why the extra mins for WWL. yes the imports are better players than the locals..but I think its time to stop talking up the divisive comments on imports vs locals. By now, it should just be about the team. Al is a key part of the Slinger game in terms of ball handling and half court offense…that is getting increasingly clear and exposed.
Given the bench…I think we are just working with what we have.

No comments on Pathman……he has been used to bossing the local scene due to his relatively bigger size. He needs to up his individual defense if he wants to be a better player at this level. Being out muscled does not have to mean being outplayed individually and then collectively. In most games there will be pluses and minuses in the matchups. If all the matchups are in your favour…..then winning should not be in question.

We did not perform well. Full stop.

Having missed the games in the last month due to work travel, I was surprised (not in a good way) by the energy levels of the Slingers last night. We were always half a step behind in defense, which has been our key strength to date. The Tiger’s 2 big men both played the full 40 mins….but there was no clear energy advantage for us in the matchups throughout the game.

We did not move the ball well in offense, especially when Al V. was not in the game, and he seemed to have less than his usual mins. Too many of our offensive possessions were based on taking on the Tigers in one on one moves, which allowed them to collapse and help put pressure on the shots. Although we still outscored the tigers in 1Q, as the game went on, and with some defensive adjustments from the Tigers, the stats caught up with us.

This lack of Slinger team offense, help out defense for the Tigers, plus our lost of the usual half step of space made us take many forced shots, which missed, and this in turn affected our confidence when we had more wide open looks later in the game.

Sorry Coach Arsego…..but as far as this spectator is concerned..the 2 -3 zone did not work for us. We gave up open looks from the top of the key, which the Tigers converted…and when we rushed out to pressure the shot, the ball moved well to find the open man. Our “free safety” in the middle of the zone did not give us the required rebounding advantage. Of course, when we did get those defensive rebounds, we rushed and turned over too many of those transitional possessions. IMHO, we still look much better in our usual extended pressure defense.

On the positive side, we showed a lot of guts in the 4Q fight back. This spectator has always been a big fan of fighting spirit and what I saw was heartening and will keep me buying tickets.

BTW, if the Slingers are reading this post……I hope you are well aware that the fans fought hard for you last night from the stands. The numbers may not be big…..but they screamed and shouted and wanted to will you across the finish line. The fans are starting to “show you the LUV”…..and I hope that the organization sees and appreciates this.

Let’s have a better game when we match them up again next week.

P.S.

Finally…I do not normally single out individuals in a team game, but credit to MLB who carried the team in scoring, when he and everyone else…looked a little tired.

I am a little curious to know if there was a good reason for the lower than normal energy levels.

Another instance of this was with wong wei long. He couldn’t even get the ball past the half court – it was turnover aftr turnover and still Arsego sticks with him when Vergera is available on the bench. On the other side the Tiger imports played the whole game and they seem to be older than our imports.

When the locals play like crap, can’t he just give the imports extended minutes. Seriously, it was like a schoolboy game at one stage – the locals were so bad it wasn’t even funny.

I think they should just go and sign the 5th import, cause right now they look like a crap team. If they lose another one now, they need to shake up the team or let the coach go. It has become too casual, there is no urgency in any of the players and on top of that the coach makes boneheaded substitutions.

As usual, LeBlanc, Al Vergera and Jeffers did well in this game but it is the costly misses by Marcus Ng and then Desmond Oh that cost the team dearly. It was amazing to note that the Slingers were overly engrossed in making 3 point shots when they had difficulty in making 2 points one and the worst sort of fraustration came with Marcus Ng, Wong Wei Long and Desmond Oh.

Marcus Ng – In the starting 5, the Doctor-to-be could better off be in the clinic than on the court as he only managed to get on the scoreboard in the 4th Quarter – not forgetting his failed 3 pointer attempt right at the death. If he does not want to improve on his shots, I would rather see Hong Wei Jian start and just have Marcus on as a cameo for the team.

Wong Wei Long – Losing possesion in his own half, at least 5 turnovers conceded and wasteful in his foray up front, Wei Long was one of the reason why the Tigers were so far ahead of us in the 2nd Quarter. He must always remember that he is no Al Vergera and that teamwork prevails when individual skills are lacking. His inability to read the game also caused the Slingers dear as for the 2nd home game in a row, he made passes that were totally out of reach to his team mates. Maybe he was overawed with the atmosphere in the stadium and sucuumb to the pressure?

Desmond Oh – What’s the point of getting nine when he could have got double digits at the minimum? Missing free throws as freely as Ikeena, Desmond was given many chances bring the team closer to the Tigers, but instead, allowed himself to be fouled. Knowing his ability in free throws, missed a good 4 free throws. Did I mention the countless lay-ups that he missed – at least 3 clear ones – which could have getr us another 4-6 points. He is one of the weakest link in the team and continue to show why.

Although the Slingers got some saving grace with their performance in the final quarter, there is no excuses for their meek performance in the 2nd Quarter where they convert less than 10 points in the entire 10 minutes – not even a point in a minute. Coupled with some very boring half-time performance, it seemed that fans who parted away with their Monday night to turn up for this game ended up leaving the stadium more blue than ever.

The full court press tactic was used with minimal effect and when our opponent is at least half a head taller than our boys, the last thing the Slingers could do was to allowed the Tigers to have players unmarked. The Slingers were killed off with their 3 pointers. Till 17 December when we face the same opponents, let’s hope that we would walk out of the Singapore Indoor Stadium the victors – a feeling that Slingers’ fan had not felt for a long time.