Down to 3

Now that we are only a few days away from yet another challenging weekend of basketball, it is time to look at the opponents who stand in the way of championship #4 in a row.

"Dynasty" is a team that has become somewhat of a friendly rival over the past couple of seasons as a level of respect is shared between the two programs. Originally spotted during the holiday tournament they managed to defeat the Clip Joint and eliminate us from said tourney. I think we all knew at that point that they were a talented group of players who could give us problems each time we faced them. They feature several very good players and I think this session they struggled a lot with injuries to key players as well as having guys miss games for whatever reason. It never seemed liked they had their core group of players from game to game and I think that is the only reason their record was as medicore as it was. Many people probably slept on them as a factor in the championship chase but as I predicted weeks ago, I knew they would be a team that could easily advance if they brought all of their talent to the games.

Make no mistake about it, with a healthy lineup that features not one but two centers taller than 6-5 it will be important that we control the tempo. One of them is coming off a major leg injury and the other just does not have the fitness to continually run up and down the court. "Peja" Mendez as he is affectionately known to us is always their top scoring threat but if he is not clicking on all cylinders they still have a pair of asian guys who hustle after the ball and hit the glass hard on every possession. To me the key will be whether or not they have their power forward who has been known to give us trouble in the past. He is a leaper with scoring ability inside that could make the difference between winning and losing for them.

At the end of the day it will be up to us to control the tempo and to ensure that we rebound well if we want a chance to win the game and advance to the title game.

Waiting in the wings for the winner of the first game is "Awards Limo" winners of the pathetic South division. Winners of 8 straight games they are certainly not to be overlooked. We are familiar with most of their players as we have competed against them in the seasons prior to this one. I think that they are a difficult team in terms of matching up but at the same time they hold an advantage regardless since they only have to play 1 game to take home the championship whereas we would have to play back to back. If we get to the final game against them it will be very important that we play hard nose man to man defense. They have too many outside weapons to play much zone in my opinion. Obviously the game against "Dynasty" will be tough and I hate to make any predictions because I have been so bad at it but here goes.

In a game that will be decided by tempo Clip Joint 59 Dynasty 55 similar to the very first meeting of the season. Then in the championship game I am predicting that Clip Joint defends their title winning 64-53. Lets hope the predictions are true and we come back after the weekend with nothing but positive reports from the game.