Ball Don’t Lie
The league by the numbers:
League cumulative percentages, Week Two:
Three pointers: 21/104 = 20.2% (Week One: 39/110 = 35.5%)
FG: 125/406 = 30.8% (Week One: 121/384 = 31.5%)
FT: 46/84 = 54.8% (Week One: 34/72 = 47.2%)
Week Two, March 15, 2014
G1: Right off: Game Ball to Bradley Schutzer. Hustle, ball movement, clutch finishes, 3 dimes and no dirt. Chief swatted 2. Nice quickness match ups in the backcourt with Messrs. Estralla, Uchendu, Lee and Lai. Ranjith doing his Rodman rebounding thang: 17! He goes and gets it! Two good teams that will have plenty of success this year. (The Pickers need to uptempo!) By the way, checked the record books (dating back to the summer of 2008), and the 77 points by the Shaman last week was the 2nd highest point total in the past 16 seasons, topped only by the 79 by Die Mannschaft in the Summer PFL 2010.
Game One / Mystic River Shaman (2-0) 46 – Cherry Street Pickers (1-1) 36
(Players missing: MRS: Peter Wright; CP: Chansaly Ker, Mike Nowlan)
G2: Steven Friedman hit 3 of 6 three pointers but if you watched him Saturday, you knew he was not happy with his passing decisions and execution. He’ll bounce back. The Runners shot 20.7% and won the game. Heaven help us. David Po shot like doo-doo but, as always, stayed in the smiley face column with 3 assists to 2 TOs. Cameron LaHart made a couple of shots but will someone please loan him a few bucks and sign him up for the NTL Shooting Clinic that will be on Monday nights at this same gym? He and many others just need some reps at putting the ball in the basket; it starts with balance and footwork and you build it up to the release and follow through. Rollers and Runners both look like contenders.
Game Two /Winter Hill Runners (1-1) 35 – Ten Hills Rollers (0-2) 28
(Players not there to help their teams this week: WHR: Kirsten Rene, Nikolaus Skogsberg, Lou Wang; THR: Chip, Charlie, Stephen Marks)
G3: Eastie Riders finished the game thinking, “good thing Paul Curran showed up”! Scored 11 points including 2 of their last three hoops. He goes to the hoop and finishes his baseline drives. Riders were stingy with the ball giving it up only 4 times. (Can’t get Roxy to cough it up. Girl knows how to play.) Pickles missed Papa Duane – down hard with the torn patella – but Evan “The Pope” Pepe and Tom Hamel did well to pick up the slack. David Duane will get a pre-game phone call pep talk from his dad next week and regain his form of last season. Don’t you worry.
Game Three / Eastie Riders (1-1) 36 – Powderhouse Pickles (0-2) 35
(Absent players: ER: Selim Gurel; PP: Todd Johnston, Chris Perrotti, Rob Whelan )
G4: Bouncers took one look at the 6 Shoots’ I.Ds at the door and kept the pressure of a transition game up the 40 minutes and raced to 66 points. The 18-and-unders (Mitch, Ryan, Tyler) were “alright!”: 26 points between them. The Shoots? As Adam Pritchard put it after the game: Jamal Halawa has been a role player in many movies but this was his chance to take a leading role (scorers absent for the Shoots). His performance was brilliant (28 points on 12 for 19 shooting) but, unfortunately, the movie stunk.
See you Saturday!
Game Four / Brickbottom Bouncers (2-0) 66 – Spring Hill Shoots (1-1) 35
(Absent but not forgotten: BB: all present and running; SHS: Mark Keck, Erik Morales, Jim Vlahakis)
