Photo: Hoop in Westport, MA. (Sept 2002)
Week Eleven, February 8, 2014
G1: At one point during the first half, I turned to Adam and said, “this is a great PFL game”. I loved how Adelaide pressured the ball, bodied up in the post, swarmed and double teamed. I was equally impressed with how The Breakers handled the ball and moved it when they needed to. A36 made a great run in the last two minutes and almost pulled it out. Michael Peerless is really finding his niche. It was just too bad for them that Chris Ryan chose to have his best all-around game in a couple of seasons. (Kudos, too, to JJ and David Kelleher – great finish on a drive – for their hustle plays, moving to open spots and zero turnovers in 51 minutes between them. Awesome. Not sure NZB would have won without them.)
Game One /New Zealand Breakers (5-5; 1-0) 40 – Adelaide 36ers (4-6; 0-1) 36
(Absent players: for NZB: Mike Brown, Lou Wang and Dan Ziminski; for A36: Alan Tam)
G2: Chip Allen hit his first career 3 pointer at the buzzer to send the game into OT, but it wasn’t enough, no carryover, as Wollongong pulled away in the extra session. The Hawks hawked and hounded the Crocs into shooting 20.8% including zero 2 point FG in the first half! Lucas Bilbro was clutch from the charity stripe (4-4). Marty “Pogo” Bitner had 3 more blocks to go along with his double-double. Tough “D” carried the Hawks into the semi-finals next week. Another great game.
Game Two /Wollongong Hawks (4-6; 1-0) 37 – Townsville Crocodiles (7-3; 0-1) 34
(Out and about: Hawks: Cameron LaHart, Josh Kratka, Nat Rink; Crocs: Greg Herr, Megan Ladd))
G3: Down by double figures much of the second half, the Tigers had a chance to tie it at games end. Not to be. Another top seed falls. Credit those Carruthers and big Mike Earley (who bodied and banged with Evan “The Pope” Pepe) and the offensive efficiency of Gordon Vidaver (2 for 3) for the win. 23 turnovers versus 7 turnovers and they still won the game! That’s what happens when you hit your shots.
Game Three /Cairns Taipans (4-6; 1-0) 43 – Melbourne Tigers (7-3;0-1) 41
(Players missing: CT: Jordan Carroll, Jeff “Slinger” Smith; Tigers: Ryan Allison)
G4: #s 1, 2, and 3 beaten by #s 8, 7 and 6. Welcome to the PFL playoffs. Some of the #1 Kings have been on teams that were seeded last and gone on to win PFL championships, so they now know how the Perth Wildcats feel. Perth, on the west coast of Australia, is about as “down under” as you get. And this team played pretty far down under the rest of the league most of the season. But they’ve been patient, and stayed positive, and riding the 10/16 shooting of Mark Pinchook, stand to play another day. They moved the ball and trusted one another to the tune of 13 assists versus 9 turnovers. Once again, a bad shooting day took down a top seed. “Star Power” Knauer was an awesome 13/16 from the FT line. Know what I like about the Kings? Gracious in defeat. A nice team that’s had a great season.
Game Four /Perth Wildcats (1-9; 1-0) 41 – Sydney Kings (8-2; 0-1) 36
(“CTs out: Bill and Tyler Carruthers)
Player submitted comment: “Why should you show up for the 8:30 game on Saturday? It is the loser’s bracket, yes, but there is more at stake. While neither team wants to play in the 8:30 game on the 22nd, both teams are looking to improve on their Week 11 games, and both teams want to show that something from Week 9, when they last met, was no fluke.
In Week 9, the Kings put up 56 points against the 36ers, who held opponents (after the first week) to no more than 45 points. Was that a fluke, or was it Tim Knauer and David Duane and Keith Reitman all being offensive dynamos?
In Week 9, the 36ers spotted the Kings a 13 point lead with 13:53 to go, went on a 17-5 run over the next 8 minutes to get within 1 point, but could not take the lead. Three times this season, the 36ers have fallen behind by double digits in the second half, and have then come within one shot of the lead, but have lost the game anyway. Can they get their press going this time?
It’s easy to see that Tim Knauer and David Duane for Sydney, and Andy Lee and Barry Lai from Adelaide, are shooting and scoring the most. But what else do you need to know? For starters, we have the team with the fewest turnovers committed (Sydney, with 111) against the team with the most turnovers forced (Adelaide, with 165).
The Kings lead the league in scoring, and have four players scoring 9.0 or more points a game (thanks to Keith Reitman and Josh Pepin). They have five players with 10 or more steals and a sixth with 9 or them. hey lead the league in assists by moving the ball as a team. They have four players with 13 or more assists; three of them have more assists than turnovers (and the fourth has only one more turnover than assist). The Kings lead the league in 3-point percentage; seven Kings have hit three-point shots this season, and the only two who haven’t have the range from out there.
The 36ers claimed to be the best 4-6 team in the league entering the playoffs, but they were the only 4-6 team to lose their first playoff game. Now they are definitely the best 4-7 team in the league (456 points scored, 462 given up). Their strengths include: more steals than any team in the league (six players with 10 or more steals); five players with 9 or more assists (the four point guards–Ed Tam, Brad Schutzer, Andy Lee, and Barry Lai; but also power forward JR Morris); and stealth MVP candidate Michael V. Peerless (sadly, V is not his real middle initial). He has cracked the PRL leaderboard with 19 steals, and his stat lines make him the Laurent Rivard of the PFL (64 shots, 51 of those being 3-pointers). What, you say, Laurent Rivard is taking over 90% of his shots from long range this year? Patience, I say: in his sophomore season, Rivard shot only 76% of his shots from 3-point range, so give Mike Peerless some time.”