Needing one more win to repeat as champions of Japanese basketball, the Ryukyu Golden Kings must sweep the Hiroshima Dragonflies and avoid letting them back into the best-of-three B-League finals, forward Allen Durham said Saturday.
The Okinawa-based Golden Kings were in control from the outset of a 74-62 victory over the Dragonflies in the series opener at Yokohama Arena, but they cannot afford to give a talented Hiroshima side a lifeline in Game 2 on Sunday, according to the play-making big man.
"We're on a mission and that mission is not over until we're holding the trophy," he said. "We're going to come out and try finish it tomorrow."
The American power forward, who tallied a game-high eight assists and 12 points, said the Golden Kings will continue their defensive-minded approach in the second game.
"Just being physical on their guards and making it really difficult for them to get into their offense," he said.
Ryukyu made their first finals appearance two years ago, getting swept by Utsunomiya Brex, before lifting the trophy last year with a sweep of the Chiba Jets.
While other players have come and gone in that time, the 35-year-old Durham has been a constant of a Golden Kings outfit now firing on all cylinders after a slow start to the 2023-24 season.
"The personnel have changed but it's been the same mentality," he said. "We've been here before, we've been in big games. Anything can happen. We've just got to control ourselves. Never get too high, never get too low."
Having reached the finals with respective 2-1 wins over Alvark Tokyo and the Jets, the Golden Kings must also wrap up the current series as quickly as possible to avoid letting fatigue become a factor, according to Durham.
"(It's) very important. I'm tired," he said, laughing. "The first and second rounds went to Game 3, so that's a lot of basketball, on top of 60 (regular season) games."
