Summer Session 08' - Game #4

Why So Serious?

That's what I should be asking my teammates during our huge performance last night against our overwhelmed opponent. I'm not one to usually engage in trash talking back and forth because to be honest when you are the best team in the league it can only benefit the other team and give them a slight edge mentally. However, last night was a little different simply because they were being utterly disrespectful. I cannot fault them though, they were a team made up of mostly younger guys who brought out about a dozen fans to watch them play not including the 3 person coaching staffon the bench. One of them was spotted holding a dry erase board which they used to draw up plays? I mean, they came into last night 1-3 with their only win against a team who is currently winless, and it took them 3 overtimes to get it done in that game. It always amazes me to hear guys on a team barking at us when they are trailing by double digits only 5 minutes into the game.

So yeah, we were missing A.H. for the third time in four games which is a mystery itself. Typically he will miss a few games here and there but he hasn't exactly been around much this season for whatever reason. I do not care how well we played , we always miss him and his top notch skills when he is not present. Then a kind of funny moment fot D.T. who sauntered into the gym as we were collecting our stuff to leave AFTER the game. With a confused look on his face he had thought our game was an hour later than it obviously was. So a wasted trip in the car for D.T. which sucks for him.

Without arguably our best two players, you would think that this game might be closer than the score I had predicted in this space a week ago. That was until we decided to come out and shoot like 75% from behind the three point line! Give it up to G.C. for finally showing everyone that he can indeed light it up as he poured in something like 8 triples during the game. After his 3rd or 4th in a row one might think that the coaching staff of the other team would make the necessary adjustments to control him a little better, yeah not so much. Combine his effort with another strong game by myself (making it hard to go ahead and have the surgery so quickly, the last 3 games I am 8-12 from behind the arc) and we were off to the races early. M.D. did what he does best and thats get out for layups and get to the free throw line. Allegedly he was practicing his shooting before the game at some local park, hopefully he works on those free throws because I think he was somewhere in the realm of 2-7 with an air ball. He usually is pretty solid from the line so Im not sure what is the issue there. That might be the only down spot for the entire night though as we cruised to a 76-33 victory. I had wanted to hold them to under 30 but what can you do? We probably left a good 15 points out on the court so despite lighting it up we kind of went into cruise control mode down the stretch and missed some easy shots. J.P. was strong inside again grabbing close to 6 or 7 rebounds and our new center "James" did well contributing a few inside buckets for us. I still think he is trying too hard, and needs to take a downer before the game. That guy doesn;t stop talking from the minute he arrives to the minute he leaves. It hurts him on the court because he needs to relax and then maybe he won;t have rebounds slip through his hands. J.D. and B.A. did what they always do and thats fill up the stat sheet across the board. Overall a dominating performance over a team that clearly was not ready for the onslaught.

Kind of makes you appreciate the effort without our two stars to play the way we did. Hopefully, we continue that because we have three difficult games on the horizon against the best our league has to offer. "Team Rock" bounced back from last week and defeated a "Dynasty" team that is looking more and more average as the weeks go by. Granted, they were without a couple key players, they just don't score enough points for some reason. "Team Rock " is now 4-1 and they will be looking to pull off the upset against us next week. Everyone wants a piece of us, we are the best team so it is understandable, but I know that we should beat them.

It will be close enough that we get a little worried but in the end we should get it done so my prediction is this : Clip Joint 61 Team Rock 53