The two Taiwanese basketball teams who make it to the 2023-2024 season final series of the P.League+ would secure an East Asia Super League (EASL) slot next season, the international league said yesterday.
The two teams would join their counterparts from the Korean Basketball League (KBL), Japan’s B.League and the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), said the EASL, which kept its qualification criteria the same for the 2024-2025 season.
Busan KCC Egis and Suwon KT Sonicboom have clinched the two KBL berths as they head into the South Korean finals, the EASL said.
The 2023-2024 P.League+ regular season is drawing to a close, with each team having six to nine games left.
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots (21-12) are 0.5 games ahead of the Formosa Dreamers (21-13), who are in second place, followed by the New Taipei Kings (17-15), the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers (16-15) and three-time defending champions the Taipei Fubon Braves (14-18).
The Kaohsiung 17Live Steelers (9-25), at the bottom of the table, cannot make the playoffs.
Since its establishment in the summer of 2021, the franchise remains the only P.League+ team who have never made it to the playoffs.
With the return of Jeremy Lin, the Kings have won two of their past three games since April 13 after losing four of the previous five.
The Lioneers and the Braves are still struggling with the absence of their respective stars — Oscar Kao and two-time P.League+ final Most Valuable Player Michael Singletary.
The Lioneers on Saturday last week said that Kao would not be able to play for six to eight weeks due to a right-ankle injury he sustained in a game against the Steelers on April 13, while Singletary has a fibula fracture in his right leg from a collision with Dreamers big man Brandon Gilbeck during their game on Jan. 27.
On Jan. 28, the Braves said the injury would sideline Singletary for at least six weeks, but the American small forward has not suited up again since.
In games this weekend, the Lioneers face the Dreamers in Taichung on Saturday, while in New Taipei City, the Braves are to play the Kings.
On Sunday, the Steelers face the Dreamers in Taichung, while the Pilots are to play the Kings in New Taipei City.
The Braves and the Kings represented the P.League+ in the 2023-2024 EASL season, with the Kings finishing fourth last month following two narrow losses to the B.League’s Chiba Jets and the KBL’s Anyang Jung Kwan Jang Red Boosters in the semi-finals and the third-place playoff.
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