John Fields of Thăng Long Warriors (white shirt) dunk in front Dragons' players. Photo courtesy of VBA

ĐÀ NẴNG — The Đà Nẵng Dragons continued to disappoint fans when they could not win against the Thăng Long Warriors in Đà Nẵng on Tuesday  for the Vietnam Professional Basketball Tournament VBA 2023.

The home team lost to the Warriors with a score of 73-94. This is their seventh consecutive loss since the start of the tournament.

Before the game, the Dragons upgraded their frontline by replacing Yevgen Sakhniuk with Jairus Holder.

However, the result of the match went against them with the Warriors taking the lead from the start. 

Without a big man like Yevgen Sakhniuk in the restricted area the Warriors had the opportunity to control the game thanks to John Fields' rebounds throughout.

The Warriors easily led 16-7 in the first five minutes of the match. But thanks to the excellence of William Trần, the Dragons quickly shortened the gap to one point game (25-26) before the first quarter ended.

In the second quarter, the Warriors players attacked aggressively and the duo John Fields and Sameen Swint continuously scored.

Once again Fields showed his strength, dominating the restricted area and did not giving the Dragons a chance to rebound.

The Warriors increased their lead to 11 points (38-49) before the break.

Dragons' head coach,Todd Purves had to use a double-team strategy against John Fields to contain his attack power in the third quarter. However, this created more open space for the other Warriors to score. 

In turn, Hoàng Thế Hiển, Justin Young and the young Phạm Nhật Thái Quang scored to help the Warriors quickly blow out the score (48-72).

Accepting defeat, from the middle of the last half, coach Todd Purves withdrew Jermaine Marrow and Jairus Holder and gave some more of the younger players an opportunity to play.

In the end, Thăng Long Warriors won 94-73.

With 28 points, 15 rebounds, John Fields once again received Man of the Match. The brilliance of John Fields helped the Warriors to consolidate their fourth position in the standing table. VNS