It's hard for everyone to imagine Hong-fu almost released Mike Elliott two weeks ago, if you saw THE SAME Mike Elliott who averaged 27.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists this week.
Elliott dominated in both games in the week and helped Hong-fu Rams to a four-game winning streak after a 0-4 start. With two games remaining for each team, Hong-fu now has a legitimate chance to squeeze into the playoffs for the first time in team history.
Hong-fu now ties with Hong-kuo at 4-4, trailing only Yulon(6-2) and Luckipar(5-3), but leads fifth place BCC Mars only one game. Dacin, which lost its both games this week, is out of the 4-team playoffs.
Elliott's hot hand showed in the Feb.25 Mars game. He swished his first eight three-point attempts in the first half, finished with 9-12 from three-point range and a game-high 32 points. His 7.5 assist average this week also erased earlier critics from the coaching staff saying he played too selfish.
Elliott's playing style obviously changed a lot compared to his first stint in the CBA. He played with Yulon Dinos back in 97-98 season and also was labeled "too selfish".
Elliott said he matured a lot and began to learn hwo to play under team concept better over the past two years. Before he joined Yulon in 97-98, he was the leading scorer in 1997 KBL(South Korea) season. He said that kind of made him look for scoring first.
Meanwhile, Luckipar has plenty of reasons to smile, and Erik Martin is still their lucky star. With Martin's 23 points and 18 rebounds, Luckipar trounced league-leading Yulon by 31 points and won its fifth straight game. Luckipar now ranked second behind Yulon in the Millennium Series.
Yulon shot only 29.7% from the field in the game, registered both the lowest FG percentage and scoring record(59) in the series.
2/28 HONG-FU RAMS 102-84 DACIN TIGERS
HF- Mike Elliott 23p, 6rb, 7a, 7s ; Shan Wei-fan 26p, 6rb ; Ma Chao-min 12p
DACIN- Von Bennett 28p, 13rb, 6a, 5blk ; Lin Chia-shen 18p ; Chen Jun-jay 16p, 7rb
2/27 LUCKIPAR PANTHERS 90-59 YULON DINOS
LUCKIPAR- Erik Martin 23p, 18rb ; Yang Yu-min 20p ; Chen Chi-chun 13p
YULON- Chen Hsin-an 12p ; Emmett Hall 10p
2/26 HONG-KUO ELEPHANTS 86-83 DACIN TIGERS
HK- Lo Shin-liang 23p ; O-Yang Jin-hen 21p, 4a
DACIN- Von Bennett 27p, 14rb ; Hong Yi-chun 15p
2/25 HONG-FU RAMS 87-86 BCC MARS
HF- Mike Elliott 32p, 7rb, 8a(9-12 3PT) ; Chu CHi-chin 16p, 11rb
MARS- Brian Reese 24p, 9rb, 4a ; Yen Hsin-shu 18p, 5rb, 6a, 8TO
STANDINGS thru February 28
YULON 6-2
LUCKIPAR 5-3
HONG-KUO 4-4
HONG-FU 4-4
BCC MARS 3-5
DACIN 2-6