Game #3,4 & 5 Results

Game#3.....13 point winners against a team that has no business competing on this level of basketball. It was apparent from the start that we were going to cruise in this one so as usual the lead fluctuated up and down between 10 and 20 the entire game with us giving a few points back near the end when the final outcome had already been determined. Two straight weeks now without J.A., (is he even a part of this team?) Financially I would say an emphatic no of course since nobody rides for free..on partial scholarship yeah that happens all too often but no 100% free rides allowed in this organization. No sign of A.J. either and D.H. apparently has suffered a season ending ankle injury that will require surgery and two months of rehabbing. Good thing we only signed him to a one year deal with a team option for a second. I highly doubt we will see him anytime soon even after the rehab is complete unless he gets himself back into game shape. There really is not a market for an overweight, height challenged point guard who has seen better days but you never know I guess!

Game#4....Unfortunately, I did not witness this game from the sidelines since I had another obligation to tend to but I heard about the game from my teammates. Several key words were tossed around like no bench, being forced to play with only 5 players. One of which tweaked a knee , the other had a tender ankle, foul trouble by J.D. leading to an eventual foul out forcing us to play the final minute or so shorthanded. A buzzer beater that should not have counted, a controversial re-start...blah blah blah...bottom line we lost our first game by 1 point and it never should have gone down like that to begin with. What can you do?

Game #5....highly anticipated match-up against the best team in the league and we blow a 9 point lead with 10 minutes to go and lose our second straight game. I make a brief appearance for 2 minutes in the first half since we were a bit short to start the game. I did make a steal, then missed a three pointer then got pulled from the game. Yeah it happened that quickly for me in my first game action in nearly 6 weeks. When I mean first game action I am also referring to the first action physically of any kind. Other than some light jogging on the treadmill I had done nothing remotely active since the surgery per the good doctor. Needless to say J.A. made an appearance and started off solidly until the second half when he basically fell apart on the defensive end. I guess foul trouble will do that to you, just ask J.D. who for the second straight game was battling his own foul problems again. No A.J. and that left us in quite the quandry. We let this one get away when we should have easily cruised to the win. Now we are in a hole that is probably too deep to get out of. Until next time....

Game #2 Result

You know when you watch a game on television and one team dominates and controls the tempo of the game but for what ever reason they only hold a small lead over their opponent? Yeah, well that would describe this game perfectly I think. The J.A. experiment seems to be over already after appearing in exactly 1 game for Clip Joint. It amazes me how unmotivated people can be or in this case unreliable and untrustworthy someone can be. Regardless, we were certainly more talented than they were from top to bottom yet we could not score enough points to maintain more than a slim margin throughout the game. We built the lead up to 7 but during the final several minutes it became a 1 possession ball game.

I think I had my blood pressure rise above and beyond what a normal human being should endure standing on the sidelines overseeing the action. For the second straight game D.H. was exhausted after limited action, at one point acting like Larry Legend and laying down near the bench on his stomach resting his back, or so he claimed. I just think he came into camp out of shape and overweight and that was causing him to struggle mightily on the court. I even got into it a bit with the referee's and scorekeeper at the same time.

Yeah I have a fiery side to me when "coaching", I use that term loosely in this case because as grown adults and being a part of the team Im not really coaching, more like managing the situations and minutes so that we work our rotation to benefit the team as much as possible. Needless to say I think I was unhappy with the way things were progressing so I took some of that out on the officiating.

The bottom line is there is no way we should have barely escaped the gym with a 1 point victory as we did against such an average team. We play them again later in the season so hopefully we show them we can destroy them when necessary. I look forward to the opportunity and I only can hope the rest of the team feels the same way. Right now I do not see a lot of passion or energy coming from the team and that needs to change if we are going to compete in this league. Sitting at 2-0 is nice especially after we struggled during the regular season last session but still we have a ton of room for improvement. Until next time...

Game #1 Result

A quick recap of the very first game against an opponent that was better suited for the D-League in my opinion because despite being rather frisky in terms of doing everything okay they had no real superstars to compete on this level. With a deep bench (and by that I mean 4 players), we were prime for action. I of course was on the IR or the DNP list with my surgery just having been completed a week prior. Well what can i say other than a great start to season #2....an easy double digit victory with J.A. showing us what all the hype was about.

Granted he was a bit raw and unpolished, he brought new energy and a large presence in the middle of our 2-3 zone that we have not had in many seasons since J.G. I will be honest when i say i do not love his jump shot, but his athleticism makes him a very tough player to handle inside from the free throw line and in. Also back in the fold D.H. showed up with an extra 10-15 pounds since the last time I have seen him which is not a good thing when you are 5-6. I was extremely disappointed with that revelation. A.J. our third off-season acquisition looks to be just like the departed M.D. but maybe a little bit better with the ball in his hands.

Overall, I think we might have something here but it is too early to tell at this point. All I know is we are 1-0 , and a good start to the season is always important. However, I for one am miserable "watching" and not participating in these games. I am at least 5 weeks away from making my debut this season...this is harder than I thought...