The last time San Miguel Alab Pilipinas battled the Chong Son Kung Fu Basketball Club, it was an instant classic. With both teams targeting the top two spot, their rematch should be just as good or even better as the action shifts to China.
After losing three straight games, Kung Fu has rebounded with two straight wins this week against teams that have beaten them this season in Mono Vampire and Hong Kong Eastern. They’re hoping to continue their revenge week with a victory over Alab.
The key matchup in this ball game is between Anthony Tucker and Justin Brownlee, the engines that make both their teams run. The two are right up there in the list of possible World Import MVP candidates as they’ve been averaging very similar numbers (Tucker: 22.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 8.0 apg, 45 FG%, Brownlee: 22.7 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 6.5 apg, 44 FG%).
As Alab has no natural center in their rotation, Justin Howard has to be dominant in this game. He’s bringing a lot of momentum after finishing with 22 points and 20 rebounds in their rematch against the defending champions.
As always, Kung Fu will still need the contributions from Caelan Tiongson and Mikh McKinney but the scoring of Luo Yongxuan has been a welcome development for them in the past games.
For Alab, Renaldo Balkman needs to shoot better from the field. He finished with 33 points and 19 rebounds in their shocking one-point loss to the Westports Malaysia Dragons. What hurts is that Balkman missed 18 shots in the game. If he made one more basket, then their winning streak would still be alive today.
