BASKETBALL/Tucker returns with match winning performance as Pilots down Steelers

Taipei, Dec. 20 (CNA) James Anthony Tucker Jr. guided the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots to an 81-71 home win against Kaohsiung 17LIVE Steelers Tuesday after being benched last Sunday.

The American point guard put up 16 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists and six steals in nearly 33 minutes to help the Pilots secure their first win after playing three games in four days.

The 60 field goal percentage was also Tucker's season-high with the Taoyuan team.

"Three games in four days, it could easily have gone the other way, but hats off to our teammates and coaching staff for making sure that that didn't happen," said the 34-year-old veteran, who expressed pride at the Pilots' "high-level intensity."

The victory was just the third Pilots win this season, but it is expected to offer a rebuttal to rumors and discussions about how Tucker might undermine the chemistry of the team.

A video showing Pilots players talking during a timeout has been widely viewed online after the team's 98-81 loss to the Hsinchu Lioneers on Dec. 10.

In it, Tucker told his teammates to pass the ball twice, to which shooting guard Justin Lu (盧峻翔) said in Chinese: "You didn't pass the ball yourself." Tucker obviously did not understand what Lu said.

Tucker went two for eight from deep with a 40 percent field goal percentage while he dished out only three dimes in the game.

Asked to address Lu's response in a pre-game interview with the P.LEAGUE+ (PLG), Tucker on Dec. 16 said he felt surprised because he was not talking to Lu specifically, but he did not mind that because it was "a pretty normal huddle for a team that takes a timeout because another team was on the run."

The Pilots lost the game against the Formosa Dreamers by 15 points that day, before Taoyuan took down New Taipei Kings the next day and snapped their seven-game winning streak, in which Tucker was benched.

At the postgame interview, a reporter cited Pilots big man Jason Washburn's remark that the team played selflessly and asked Pilots head coach Iurgi Caminos to talk about how the team established its teamwork without Tucker, but Caminos refused to answer, saying he would only answer for questions that respected all the team's players.

The Pilots were 1-4 in the past five games with Tucker before Sunday, during which Tucker recorded only a 31.6 field goal percentage, including 20 percent from the three-point line.

The stats made Tucker vulnerable to criticism from outside, but he successfully dispelled the doubts Tuesday with a team-high 28 plus/minus value and by making six of his 10 shots en route to his most efficient outing with the Pilots.

The fact that he dished a dime to Lu for a trey could represent an end to the behind the scenes rumors.

Meanwhile, the Steelers suffered their seventh consecutive loss and currently prop up the league with a 1-8 record.

The Steelers missed all 15 three-point shots in the first three quarters, and the 8-29 third quarter score left the team with a 25 point deficit that was too huge to bridge despite a 27-12 run in the last 12 minutes.

That slump looks likely to continue as they square off against the Dreamers in Taichung on Friday. The Dreamers are currently placed second with a 6-1 record.

The PLG's longest losing streak was set by the Pilots in the 2022-23 season from March 4-April 8, during which they lost nine games in a row.