‘A hot weekend.’

The ‘2022-2023 SKT Adot Professional Basketball’ regular league is heating up as it passes two-thirds of the entire schedule. Last weekend’s series, which was the first time after finishing the ‘New Year’s holiday series’, was a hot preview. Every game was overflowing with hot issues and topics to the extent that it was evaluated as “the hottest weekend of the season” in the basketball world. It was a ‘preview’ enough to gauge how much interest will be added ahead of the 5th round, the last threshold of the regular season.

Last weekend’s biggest ‘hot issue’ was the all-time ‘back-to-back overtime’. Daegu Korea Gas Corporation was at the center of all-time highs. KOGAS fought fiercely with Seoul SK on the 28th in the 3rd overtime, and Anyang KGC on the 29th in the 1st overtime.

It is the 7th time in the history of the Korean Basketball League (KBL) that the weekend series has been played in overtime. This is the first ‘true record’ in 12 years since Seoul Samsung in the 2010-2011 season. The 3rd overtime in the regular league is also the 7th in history.

However, even though KOGAS became the protagonist of a record that will remain in KBL history, it had to bear the painful memories of overtime. Both overtimes were lost. They had only lost once in all of their previous six back-to-back overtime matches. It was all the more painful for KOGAS to miss a game that could have been won because there was controversy over ambiguous decisions in both games in the process of going overtime.

SK, who was the opponent of KOGAS, also suffered from the aftereffects of overtime. SK, which tasted a thrilling victory 118-116 in the third overtime on the 28th, lost 65-79 in an away game against Ulsan Hyundai Mobis the next day. After an extended bloody battle, he moved from Seoul to Ulsan, and had to be excluded from the entry to protect ace Choi Jun-yong, who had just returned from injury.

With this loss, SK’s winning streak stopped at ‘3’, and Hyundai Mobis became a victim of 5 consecutive wins. Moreover, SK is fiercely competing with Hyundai Mobis for the top rankings. Although they kept 4th place (20-15) despite their streak failure, the gap with 3rd place Hyundai Mobis (22-14) widened to 1.5 games. 메이저놀이터

2nd place (22 wins, 13 losses) Changwon LG’s fearsome pursuit was also a major concern of the weekend series. On the 28th, LG was the only one who succeeded in a series of ‘sweeps’ on the weekend, winning 68-63 against leader Anyang KGC and winning 81-80 against Suwon KT on the 29th. In particular, thanks to the head-to-head confrontation with KGC, they narrowed the gap from 3 games to 2 games and began to threaten KGC, which had been running an immovable solo system. Not to be outdone, Hyundai Mobis also did not play a series of weekend matches, but their own war in the ‘upper neighborhood’ became more interesting, such as running 5 consecutive wins and chasing LG with a half-game car.

It also happened last weekend that the joys and sorrows of Wonju DB, which hovered in the lower ranks, and Jeonju KCC, who were in the 6th round, were sharply divided. Even before the Lunar New Year holidays, DB was ranked 9th. After the resignation of head coach Lee Sang-beom, Kim Joo-seong made a fresh start, but it was a time when there was a sense of crisis when the team fell into two consecutive losses after one win. However, after the Lunar New Year holiday series, DB ran 4 consecutive victories until the 28th against KCC, and rose to 7th place (16 wins, 20 losses). On the other hand, KCC fell into a 4-game losing streak, the most of a team in the season, and the difference between DB and half a game, and the 6th place position became unstable.

Last weekend’s series, where the ranking game fluctuated with bloody battles. It is increasingly exciting to see what issues will appear in the series next weekend.