Changwon LG, a professional basketball team that came from behind to win with a dramatic buzzer beater, is troubled by ace Yang Hong-seok’s poor scoring. It seems necessary to reduce the burden of defense on Suwon kt Paris Bath and focus on offense.
LG will have its fourth match against KT in the 2023-24 pro basketball semifinal playoff (three wins out of five) held at KT Arena in Suwon on Tuesday. If LG wins, it will confirm its advance to the next round. According to the KBL history, chances are 90.5 percent (19 out of 21) of the two wins and one loss to advance to the championship game.
However, LG cannot guarantee consecutive wins. In the third game on Tuesday, Yoon Won-sang hit a three-point shot at the same time as the closing buzzer, to win 76-73 but was lagging behind in competition for firepower throughout the 40th minute. Until the end of the fourth quarter, Asem Maray, the “rebound king,” struggled with 25 points and 23 rebounds, but the rest of the players showed disappointing performance. Only Yoon Won-sang (11 points) and Justin Gutang (10 points), who started the game from the bench, scored double-digit points.
Notably, Yang Hong-seok, who ranks second in scoring (12.9 points on average) within his team during the regular season, was sluggish with five points. Yang Hong-seok, who exclusively played defense against Bath, committed three fouls at 6:43 into the first quarter before being replaced by Jung Hee-jae, and took rest for the entire next quarter. He was deployed with 5 minutes left in the third quarter, but faltered due to the chance to shoot. LG’s main offensive tactics of Yang Hong-seok and Maray also failed to display their 2-2 attack. He broke through without a defender in a close game when the team was trailing by two points two minutes before the game ended, but failed to score due to an ambiguous layup. However, Maray took a breather as he caught the ball and finished the game.
On this day, Yang Hong-seok threw four two-point shots and made only one out of three, staying at 28.6% of the field goal success rate. Ahead of the second game on the 18th, LG manager Cho Sang-hyun said, “I nagged a lot to Yang Hong-seok. We need to focus on both offense and defense,” adding, “We need a player who is good in every game. We need Yang Hong-seok’s role,” but Yang Hong-seok averaged 5.3 points and LG only 72.3 points in three games. Coach Cho calls Yang Hong-seok in a frustrating voice every operation time and calls for quick movement.
Yang Hong-seok, who predicted his stellar performance against his former team KT for seven years until last season, seems to be struggling to deal with Bath. On the other hand, KT is saving physical strength of its main scorers Bath and Hur Hoon by utilizing Michael Eric, Jung Sung-woo and Han Hee-won. LG’s field commander Lee Jae-do, who gave up 21 points in the first game, was also tied to nine points in the third game as Jung Sung-woo blocked him.
LG also needs tricks. “As it is the first season since I transferred, I have strong motivation to do well. I am experiencing a temporary slump due to psychological reasons,” basketball commentator Lee Kyu-sup told the Seoul Shimbun. “As Maray is not the type to score many points, Yang’s scoring is important. If he attacks according to his rhythm in an opportunity situation, he will be able to find the average.”
BY: 온라인카지노