He got off to a slow start in the 1st quarter and was overwhelmed by rebounds, so he was on the back foot for the first loss of the season.
The Chiba Jets lost the first match of Section 2 against Alvark Tokyo 66-78 in enemy territory. In this match, when he started 12-26 late in the first quarter, Chiba’s flow came several times along the way, but there were scenes where the 3-point shot was disliked by the ring, so he could not close. The game progressed from beginning to end at the pace of A Tokyo, and suffered the first loss of the season.
Chiba J’s commander John Patrick explains the cause of the loss as follows. “The first quarter was the worst. I was fighting from the second quarter, but at first I lost my concentration, probably because of the packed gymnasium like this. I collapsed at the pick and roll. I had maybe eight layups, allowed four or five 3-point shots from 1-1s, and had a dazzling rebound.”
As the head coach says, Chiba J was 9-15 in offensive rebounds and 28-49 in total rebounds. And Yuki Togashi, the team’s ace, continued, “I was beaten in terms of rebounding and physicality.”
Chiba J this season is aiming for a style that emphasizes speed and momentum under Patrick. If the defense that applies intense pressure from the front with this member is good, it will be a big threat, but if the cover does not go well due to lack of cooperation, there will be more opportunities for easy shots under the goal. It’s still early in the season and it can’t be helped, but in this match the negative side of aggressive defense was noticeable.
“As a new head coach, there are still many things that I still need to understand. Instead of defending with one person, we will defend with five people.Among them, there were a lot of mistakes in the defensive position today, so I want to make sure to correct them.”
“There was a scene where the ball stopped and it was just a one-on-one match, so there are quite a few things to fix.”
As Togashi says, Chiba J is currently in a period of maturity through repeated trial and error in order to improve the performance of the style that Head Coach Patrick is aiming for.
A feature of the offense this season is that it is positionless. In this game, the players are expected to play a wider range of plays, such as using the small lineup of Christopher Smith and Vic Law in the three guards of Togashi, Fumio Nishimura and Shuta Hara.
Togashi also analyzes that the five players could not attack due to lack of cooperation. “Even in practice, I don’t really care about position.In that respect, there are scenes where I play two guards and three guards.Up until now, I should have just learned the movements of the point guard position to some extent. For example, Sato (Takuma) sometimes plays number 4, so everyone needs to understand more.There was a scene today where the ball stopped and it was just a one-on-one match, so there are quite a few things to fix.”
It’s only natural that a long-running team will take time to get it right when they get a new commander and install new things. As Togashi said, now is the time to be patient. However, in order to win the East Division, which is full of powerhouses, it is necessary to accumulate victories among them. In order to avoid losing the same card in a row, Togashi’s explosive power should be used to grasp the flow of the match.