It takes two to tango, and Kai Sotto's recent B.League surge has been possible in part with his great synergy with spitfire point guard Yuki Kawamura.
Something is cooking over in Yokohama with the budding tandem of Kai Sotto and reigning B.League MVP Yuki Kawamura.
Over the past month or so, Kai Sotto is having probably the finest stretch of his pro basketball career with the Yokohama B-Corsairs, logging four double-doubles in his last five games, including a career-high 26 points against the Chiba Jets.
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During that span, Kaiju averaged 20.4 points, 10.2 , and an ultra-efficient 74 FG% as the B-Corsairs went a decent 3-2 slate.
Furthermore, the Gilas Pilipinas big man showed he can be relied upon in the clutch moments too, scoring eight points in the fourth and connecting on a go-ahead hook shot with 1:09 left to beat Thirdy Ravena and San-en NeoPhoenix last March 6.
During that game, Kawamura also drained the dagger three-pointer to put the NeoPhoenix to rest en route to a big win.
As Sotto continues to sizzle, many fans pointed out that the solid play of Kai can be connected to his synergy with Kawamura, leading to a strong point guard-center dynamic.
Kawamura, who is currently the league's second leading scorer (22.3) behind the Shimane Susanoo Magic's Perrin Buford, saw his point production drop during Kai's big five-game stretch, averaging just 13.4 points.
In exchange though, the Japanese superstar tallied twin-digit assists in four of those five games, averaging 9.4 dimes per game.
18 of Yuki's 47 assists in the last five games were to Kai, and it's his best stretch of racking up dimes this season since he set the all-time B1 record of 20 back in early January.
Kawamura may be getting more traction now, especially with Filipino fans as he continues to work well with Sotto.
However, Yuki is already a budding international star, as evidenced from the previous FIBA World Cup where he helped lead the Akatsuki Japan to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Of course, he's also the B.League's reigning Rookie-MVP and at just 22-year-old, the safe bet to carry on as the face of Japan basketball for years to come.
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Kai and Yuki have only played 17 games together so far, but their dynamic seems to be clicking. It should be interesting to find out how much more can Sotto improve now that he has an ace guard alongside him with Kawamura.