By REYNALD MAGALLON
New Taipei Kings may have come out still unscathed in its first road game in the Philippines but that is not to say that the Taiwanese didn’t have a hard time against the host team Meralco.
For one, former NBA star and Kings main man Jeremy Lin noted how physical the Filipinos are defensively during the contest that only saw the visiting team pull away in the second half behind the former New York Knicks guard’s timely triples.
Typifying that physical defense was Cliff Hodge who Lin took notice of after being at the receiving end of the Bolts forward’s defense and a couple of hard fouls.
“They play physical. Cliff Hodge is a great example. (He’s) playing the four-man position, 6-foot-4 but I can see why he plays very physical. He is smart, he does his job really, really well and he makes everything difficult for you,” said Lin.
“He just plays hard and I think that’s the best type of basketball you want to play,” added the Taiwanese star who still had his way with 23 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in the New Taipei’s 89-77 win over Meralco.
Kings forward Hayden Blankley echoed the same sentiments Lin had although he was not entirely surprised with the physicality of the Filipinos especially having played already in the PBA as part of the guest team Bay Area Dragons.
“The players play very physical and that’s one of the things that the Filipino pride themselves on and the crowd is just into it all game and whether they support one team or both teams they are just high energy just a fun atmosphere playing,” said Blankley.
“I was really excited to play this game returning to the Philippines. I miss the Philippines.”
