By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
Defending Korean Basketball League (KBL) champion KCC Egis have started to slip, as predicted by many, since the loss of center Ha Seung-jin.
Ha was injured on all-star weekend, during the game between the rookies and sophomores, and since then, the Egis have been on a slide, losing most recently 82-60 to the Ulsan Mobis, Sunday.
"Since we lost Ha, we've struggled to find our way on offense, as well as on defense," Egis guard Jun Tae-poong said after the loss.
The Egis had been a nightmare to defend with Ha and either newly-acquired Terrence Leather or Ivan Johnson on the floor. Teams were forced to double-team or send help defense whenever any of those players had the ball.
That created plenty of space on the floor for the other players, like Jun Tae-poong, to maneuver, giving Egis coach Hur Jae plenty of options.
On defense, 2.21-meter Ha is a formidable force down low. Because he rarely required help in the paint, the Jeonju-based team was strong in defending the perimeter as well. Without Ha, however, the team can't as effectively defend the 3-point line because the import players require some help near the rim. In their last two games, the Egis have allowed 12 and 10 3-pointers, which followed a stretch beginning on Jan. 1 that saw them allow double-digit 3-pointers only once.
"We felt that the Egis were not able to put as much pressure on us as when Ha is on the court," said Mobis guard Yang Dong-geun. "Today, we only had to worry about help defense for Leather or Johnson. So it was much easier.
"Jun was really good on the pick-and-roll because of his good passing ability, but in this game, I tried to defend the outside, while ignoring the inside because we were good enough to defend them alone."
With 11 games left, and just four at home, the schedule will be difficult for the Egis. With their defeat on Sunday, the Egis now share second place with the KT SonicBoom and trail first place Ulsan by 1.5 games.