Last Sunday, 28 November 2010, the Westports KL Dragons bested the AirAsia Philippine Patriots at MABA Stadium, K. Lumpur, 96 - 81. The contest proved to be confrontational and emotionally charged. Referees had to constantly get in between players from both sides responding to one another after hard fouls and rough-house tactics. Following a clothesline foul across the face of Nakiea Miller committed by a Patriots' player, one ill-mannered spectator struck a Patriots' player, who was not involved in the infraction, in the head with a plastic container of liquid. Since the incident occurred on the Dragons' home court, the ABL has fined the Dragons' organization USD5,000 for not "safely securing the vicinity". However, I am under the opinion that the buck should not stop there. The fan who threw the bottle should be criminally charged, fined, and banned from all ABL games for a period of no less than 3 years. The league needs to send a strong message to both the culprit and would be copy cats that there is "0" tolerance for such poor and unnecessary behavior.

The hard-knock physical play was ignited by Patriots' frustration, rather than genuine animosity. The Philippine squad fell behind by double digits early in the game, and then stayed between a rock and a hard place for the remainder of the contest. Although there were standout individual efforts, most notably by Little & Wright, the Patriots lacked team continuity. They were grossly outscored by the Dragons in every period, except for the 4th. But by then the damage was already done, and it was just a matter of making the final score look more respectable. The Patriots' zone defense was mostly ineffective, as the Dragons were able to readily exploit mismatch coverages. Consequently, The Patriots turned to man to man defense, but they also got physically reckless and emotionally unbalanced in the process. The hap hazard state of body and mind lead to the Patriots' launching a hack-attack: three point shooter fouled with just 1.6 seconds remaining before half-time; big mistake, picking up fouls on simple inbound plays, 2 technical fouls in the second half; one of which threatened to cause a bench clearing brawl. By the time the Patriots found some composure at game's end the Dragons were well on their way to a convincing victory.

Statistically, the Dragons had a good all around team performance. Guganeswaran Batumalai contributed with 10 assists, Patrick Jan Cabahug's jumper was on fire; he finished the game with 23 points, Nakiea Miller recorded another double-double with 19 rebounds and 24 points and Alex Hartman added to the total with 20 points.

With the win the Dragons move from the 4th to the 3rd position in the league standings; just behind the Patriots. Their next game is 4 December at MABA Stadium against the Brunei Barracudas.