Entering this season, the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix and Ryukyu Golden Kings had combined to win six of 10 bj-league championships, with each franchise grabbing the title three times.
Bragging rights are always at stake when they show up on the same court. And both are in the mix again this spring to capture the crown in the circuit's final season before the launch of the B. League in the fall.
Their fierce rivalry closed one chapter on Sunday in Hamamatsu, where the Phoenix ended the Golden Kings' franchise-record 16-game winning streak with an 84-77 bounce-back victory in the teams' final bj-league regular-season showdown.