Sound defensive display takes some Heat off Dragons’ defeat

PETALING JAYA: Keeping a tight lid on the defensive end.

This was the positive takeaway from the latest defeat suffered by Westports Malaysia Dragons against the Saigon Heat on Sunday night.

Head coach Jamie Pearlman was still pleased with his players’ defensive work even though they fell 65-60 to the Heat in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The Heat have been averaging 83.1 points in their opening six matches, but the Dragons’ marking at the three-point line made it difficult for the Heat to find their offensive game.

They were a letdown only in their offensive game, especially in the first quarter when they only converted 18% of their field goals compared to the Heat’s 40%.

Despite the poor start, the Dragons pushed hard in the final quarter where they even reduced the Heat’s 15-point lead to only one – but it all ended in vain.

American point guard Winston Shepard finished his second match for the Dragons with 22 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four blocks while Nigerian centre Nnanna Egwu put up 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Dragons.

“I’m really proud of the team’s defensive efforts. We’ll always give ourselves a chance to win games if we can hold teams to low scores,” said Pearlman.

“It’s disappointing to lose but it was a game we’ll learn a lot from, which will help us grow as a team.

“Our offence created enough opportunities for us to score. However, we just could not finish off enough plays.”

The Dragons also showed marked improvement since their first match of the season when they were demolished by the Singapore Slingers 47-101 in Singapore two weeks ago.

In their second game on Friday, they came from behind to beat Zhuhai Wolf Warriors 74-73 n Zhuhai, China.