The Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix have a rookie head coach in Ryuji Kawai, but a veteran nucleus of players that captured consecutive championships in 2009-10 and 2010-11 under Kazuo Nakamura, the bj-league's elder statesman.
The Phoenix excelled again this season, with Kawai capably guiding the club to a 37-15 record. The Eastern Conference-leading club earned a bye into the conference semifinals and will take on the visiting Niigata Albirex BB this weekend for the right to advance to the Final Four.
(The East's other conference semifinal series — Yokohama B-Corsairs vs. Akita Northern Happinets, Nakamura's current club — got under way on Thursday evening.)