Two basketball matches where the scoring picture sits away from the season averages. In Toyama, a venue split drags scoring down in exactly this setting, home Toyama against road Ibaraki. In Goyang, both defences leak right where the other offence attacks, and the market still carries an old defensive reputation.
Toyama against Ibaraki first. Toyama have made six or fewer threes in all five home games, about 23 percent, while shooting well on the road. Now they face an Ibaraki defence that has held opponents to about 30 percent from three over ten games. Toyama's home games have mostly finished in the 140s to 160s, and Ibaraki's road games have been lower still, with none past the mid-160s.
The matchups point the same way. Toyama score by driving for free throws and forcing turnovers through Angola and Willis, but free throws stop the clock without adding possessions: even their 36-attempt night ended in a modest total. Ibaraki win the glass and grind the half court through Vic Law, which shortens Toyama's possessions. No new absences are reported on either side. Expect a slow, half-court game, so I'm on the low-scoring side here.
Sono against LG flips the picture. Sono live on three-point volume, 33 to 50 attempts a game, and they crash the glass off long misses, but their paint defence is the softest in the league: opponents have made well over 60 percent of their twos in most games. LG run their offence through Marei inside and protect the ball, but this season's LG are not the stingy team of the Cho years. They concede over 86 points a game and let opponents finish well inside.
So each main weapon runs into the other team's weak unit. Marei and LG's twos go straight at Sono's soft interior, and Sono's long-range volume meets a defence that now gives up points. Both teams played on the same day last weekend, so rest is level. No new injuries are reported, and Yoo Ki-sang and Tamayo are already back in LG's recent games. The pace is not frantic, but both offences should score efficiently at their usual level, so I expect a higher-scoring game than the market does.
