Ahh, a little spice and drama to our boards!
With reference to LA-Darvish's initial post which stirred up a hornets nest (Not a bad thing judging by the activity in here), I do understand where he is coming from in requesting for a more in-depth analysis for our NT matches which is not immediately available from the numbers. The thread then went into a mini-flame war mode, so I will not digress from this point on.
Allow me to attempt an example, which shouldn't reveal too much inside info on our NT because I do not have any inside info in the first place.
On paper and based on the players' salaries, this was always going to be an uphill battle for Korea. This was further complicated by their choice of tactics. Their starting SF is listed as a PF, which means the player is closer to being inside based and yet they chose to play a Run and Gun strategy rather than putting emphasis on going inside. Perhaps to compensate playing a PF in the SF position, they chose to play the 1-3-1 defense in an attempt to shore up their perimeter defense with only 2 outside players on court. Or perhaps, they anticipated Malaysia to turn up raining threes on them. Whichever was the case, Malaysia ended up with the safe Push The Ball/ Man to Man tactics.
With a weakened inside defense, needless to say Malaysia went bananas in their paint. Their star man, 123k Jae-Suk Kim, played at PF but got murdered by his experienced Malaysian counterpart Hairul who only earns half his salary. Malaysia's top performer for the night, Hairul posted a massive 5 blocks, 14 rebounds and 27 points, seeing over half his attempts go through the net. Hairul's backup, Feriza, had an even more incredible performance statistically, shooting an amazing 100% from the field and from the free throw line. Malaysian Center Halim rounded up the triumvirate of inside men by also sinking over half his attempts, registering 22 rebounds and 18 points. From pre-match reports, we do suspect that Jae-Suk Kim's so-so form also contributed to the inside collapse. When your star big man steps towards the cheerleaders when you tell him to 'Get the ball!', you know it isn't going to end well.
Kwu led our outside performers in terms of points, but it was always the inside players who were going to be key whenever that 1-3-1 defense formation is played. Even if he did go 0-7 from the 3 point line, show him some love will ya fellas? With home court and the fans backing behind the team, Malaysia was always expected to come out with the goods.