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.

After trailing the entire first half of the game, the KL Dragons rally to defeat Satria Muda BritAma 85 – 72.

The Dragons came out flat at the start of the game and struggled both on offense and defense. Satria Muda BritAma controlled the tempo of the game for much of the first half. They were able to score on Dragons’ defenders with dribble penetration, as well as high pick and rolls that created wide open 3 point shots. However, the Dragons scrapped back and managed to end the first half only down by 3 points, with the score standing at 53 – 50.

After sleep walking through the game’s first 2 periods, Dragons’ player, Nakiea Miller, finally decided to come alive. By game’s end, he recorded a double-double with 31 points and almost as many rebounds, 28 boards. Alex Hartman, the Dragons' leading scorer, who usually averages 20 + points a game had a more subtle contribution toward the Dragons’ win with 14 points. But the slack was picked up by the guard play of Guganeswaran Batumalai, who scored 12 points, and Rudy Lingganay, who scored 11 points.

The key to the Dragons’ turn-around was defense. Any good coach will tell you that defense leads to offense. Once the Dragons started stepping up the defensive pressure on Satria Muda BritAma, it lead to easy fast break points on the other end of the court. By the mid-point of the 4th period the Dragons were cruising their way to a decisive victory.

The Dragons will need to carry the lesson of defense first into their next game, when they face-off against the AirAsia Philippine Patriots, the #1 team in the league, on November 28, 2010 at MABA Stadium.