Week Six, December 10, 2011 Game One / Fort Wayne Pistons (5-1) 40 – St Louis Hawks (5-1) 25 I kind of like these Pistons! They move the ball! Britt Harter and Jim Wyman – “bigs” as they say – 8 assists and … Continue reading
Week Five, December 3, 2011
Game One / Kansas City Kings (2-3) 43 – New York Nets (0-5) 38
Squandered. That’s what the Nets did with their 16-6 1st half lead and their opportunity to do what every other team in PFL has done this season: win a game. Looking at the schedule the Nets must see humps, and be thinking “we gotta get over one.” (Did Justin McCarthy and Matthew Eng drive home together? Anyone see what court they stopped at to practice their FTs?) The Kings had Ché Silva dishing and Sandy Kendall reversing and Marty Bitner loading up the stat sheet with blocks and steals, too. Are the Kings thinking “what size crown”?
Box Score Game One
Game Two / St Louis Hawks (5-0) 42 – Syracuse Nationals (4-1) 42
Deep into the heart of the second half, a gust of wind blew through the gym. Spectators looked at each other. Apocalypse? Now? No, it was Super Hawk Jamal Halawa soaring into the gym a bit late and with his team down 33-26 (inching back from a 28-16 halftime deficit)! Jamal’s been reading the papers. He knows deficit reducing is the thing to do. He didn’t score, it must be noted, but his team rallied after he breezed in. The Jamal effect. Alex “Slam the” Doerr denied the previously undefeated Nationals many opportunities with stellar defense and even a classic drop step hoop. Adam Gilmore rebounded like he was Adam Rushmore. Nnamdi Nwachucku contended with Carruthers nicely. (Someone who looks a lot like me was overheard saying “game winner” when Mr. Natural hit a 3 to put his team up 42-39 with 1:01 to go. 5 points by the Hawks later, that same guy said “oops.”)
Game Three / Philadelphia Warriors (4-1) 47– Minneapolis Lakers (2-3) 28
Chris “Farewell Tour” McIntyre has been heard to give many helpful coaching instructions to his teammates during time-outs, during the course of the season. How about suggesting at least 5 of the them get to the game on-time? It’s a good group, lots of pieces; shame to see them not compete. The Warrior (Razorback) Sloan, however, got there early and got there often: 17 points, assisting 3 times, 2 thefts. Larry Bavis is, like, almost a double-double and almost a triple-double every time he walks in the gym. Chip Allen 3 assists!? He talking up Wole and Erica?
Game Four / Rochester Royals (2-3) 38 – Buffalo Braves (1-4) 32
Shonak Patel and David Po played a combined 47 minutes and the Royals (their team) still won. They are the kind of players that do the little things, the sort of stuff that coaches and teams need: move the ball, get deflections and rebounds, play pressure defense, run the floor, spread the defense out with good spacing. The “Chief” Brave scored 2 hoops! Nice, but what’s with their shot distribution? Eamon Weinheimer has embraced his role as distributor. Awesome. Sometimes the best way to score or get out of a shooting slump (or bad shooting game) is to let the game come to you. Screen, shapeup, cut, move, next thing you know the ball and you and the hoop are friends again.
Classic PFL Game Five contest: OT baby. Classic, too, for missed FTs, some at knees-shaking moments. Rotation and follow-through, please. The Pistons were firing: Jim “Why Not” Wyman was a beast. Jeff Smith has been unconscious ever since he came to PFL. And Scott Lieber blocked 2 shots. The Steamrollers shot 28.8% from the field and were 12-26 from the line. Rotation and follow-through. Ivan Pina avoided earning the nickname that everyone named Ivan wants to avoid by grabbing 12 rebounds. TERRI-FIC!
Game Five / Fort Wayne Pistons (4-1) 48 – Providence Steamrollers (1-4) 43 (OT)
Coach, ref, raconteur Adam Pritchard wrote a “Harvard Men’s Basketball Teaches a Lesson” piece that I’ve posted on the NTL Tips & Tales page. It’s a good call.
*The photo in the “header” is one I took from my car (driving a 100 mph) when we were in Portland, OR doing a Never Too Late Basketball Weekend Camp there in the spring of 2007. Week Four, November 19, 2011 Game … Continue reading
Week Three, November 12, 2011 (all recaps culled from box scores only) Game One / Syracuse Nationals (3-0) 56 – Providence Steamrollers (0-3) 48 (OT) OT? Good for The Rollers! Too bad they squandered that 11 point 2nd half lead though. And missed … Continue reading
Week Two, November 5, 2011
Game One / Minneapolis Lakers (1-1) 51 – Kansas City Kings (0-2) 49 (OT)
The story for this game is told two ways: 13-12-11-10. Balanced scoring for the Lakers and 19-9-5-4 imbalanced scoring for the “new-look” Kings; 2. When I was coaching at Harvard, one year we beat Holy Cross at Holy Cross (when Holy Cross was good) 87-86. Everyone associated with our team acted like we played so great. And we did play well. One stat from that game though: we were 32/33 from the FT line. The next year, we lost to Holy Cross at home, 86-70. Long faces, self-flaggelation. How could we play so badly? The overlooked stat: we were 15/33 on FTs, 17 fewer made FTs from the previous year with the same number of attempts, and instead of winning by one, we lost by 16. Add those 17 FTs and we see the game (and ourselves in the mirror) completely differently. FTs aren’t the measure of how well you play, but make them and win and you can feel like you played well. And feeling good is good enough for me (good enough for me and Bobby McGee). One last point: who practices free throws before PFL games? Check it out. Compare their FT% with the players who don’t. One other last point: I wish there was someone on the Lakers named Freddie. (Which Lakers weren’t there – besides Freddie? #12 Jon Goldsmith and #17 Josh Pepin: All Kings present.)
Game Two / Buffalo Braves (1-1) 53 – New York Nets (0-2) 52
The Nets are .8 plus .4 secs away from being 2-0. But they aren’t, they’re 0-2. We still like them and we like their chances. They share the ball while remaining aggressive. The veterans (Duanes, et al) seem energized by the rookies (Mat, Matt and Justin), while the rookies exhibit appropriate reverence for their teammates. A recipe for success. The Braves meanwhile are wild, cuddly and wild some more. Free thinkers, free shooters. The ball is going up and maybe the ball is going in. It’s like they talk to it at game’s start, tell it what they want it to do. Another recipe that has a team cooking. (Nice shot .4 secs on the clock, Robert Peek! Did you even, um, um, sneak a peek at the clock?) (Bravely not in attendance: #9 Marcia Whitehead; No-no Nets: #32 Dave Stewart, #60 Rev. Robert Hill)
Game Three / St Louis Hawks (2-0) 52 – Providence Steamrollers (0-2) 31
The Hawks are good. Soaringly good. Predatorily, but nice about it, good. They got inside, they got outside. They got full-court, they got the slow game. They got talons, I mean talent. They can pick you up and pick you apart. Gonna take some thinking and some playing to beat this bunch. Good game, Alex Doerr! Providence lacks a go-to scorer, as evidenced by no one scoring more than 6 points. Can they score from their defense? That would be a good idea. Can they score from second chance points? Another good one! Can they hold teams under 35% FG shooting? They’d better. Can they limit the offensive rebounds of the opposition? These are the sort of things that all teams that are trying to win must do (if the doing isn’t easy). (All Hawks there, feathers preened. All Rollers rolled.)
Game Four / Syracuse Nationals (2-0) 41 – Fort Wayne Pistons (1-1) 35
The Pistons had cylinders rebuilt, added and subtracted a spark plug or two, got an oil change and they still got lubed. Takes time to get the engine broken in. Contested game until the last ten seconds. Jimmy Wyman had a cold, and played even colder. Give him a hug, warm him up. But he’s good and they’re good and they are already being touted as the team most likely to have a good time this season. As will the Nationals being led as they are by the Natural himself. An intruiging team, partly because they have a boatload of players who are just now getting seriously better: “Timmer” Fredette #15, Dave “Hollywood” Hartung #6, and “Holy” Toly Chea #24.” (Nationals absent #19 Matt Siebler and #11 Marc Davenport; Piston out getting maintenance: #5 Jay Tuli.)
Game Five / Philadelphia Warriors (2-0) 70 – Rochester Royals (1-1) 23
Gross. We all hate it when it’s 5 on 4. Hopefully the PFL Reminders will be going out this week so players can alert each other if they won’t be there and the league office can get recruits to fill in. My one observation: who was the genius, or genuises, who did not feed Larry Bavis a few more shots so he could get the first (though it would have come with an asterisk) triple- double in PFL history?
Week One, October 29, 2011
Game One / Syracuse Nationals (1-0) 39 – New York Nets (0-1) 37
What a game to start the PFL season. 00:00.8 seconds remaining; that’s when the final hoop was scored. One thing: I want to emphatically deny rumors from “sources that wish to remain anonymous” that an email from league offices went out the day before the game to members of the Nets asking if they wanted wholesale trades because, as the unnamed source claimed, the Nets looked to be on-paper the weakest team in the league. Sources went on to quote a member of the Nets “We’re good with our team”. From the looks of this game, I’d guess they are. (Lone National not reporting for duty: Tim Fredette; one Net tangled up elsewhere: Steve Luszcz)
Bird and Dominique (not THAT GAME) Box Score
Game Two / Fort Wayne Pistons (1-0) 57 – Buffalo Braves (0-1) 42
The Fort Wayne Pistons looked more like a combination of the ’88 Pistons and the ’88 Lakers. That is to say, lock down defense and a “Showtime Offense”. It’s time to invoke another pro team: the ’27 Yankees, as in, “breakup the Yankees”! Sorry, Pistons, but your roster is about to look a lot different next week. (Who knows? Maybe better.) But didn’t Mara Schanfield enjoy the time she had lining up those threes? (All Pistons lined up; Braves missing Garrett Bernstein, Josh Kratka)
Game Three / Rochester Royals (1-0) 40 – Kansas City Kings (0-1) 26
“When We Were Kings” will be the slogan for a soon to be departed quartet of Kings. They looked good, but theyll look better on the aforementioned Pistons. Meanwhile, Tim Knauer looked like a regal Royal poised for an MVP run. (lone absent Royal: Jean Millette; all Kings at the festivities)
Bird 53 pt game Box Score (no 3 pters!)
Game Four / Philadelphia Warriors (1-0) 40 – Providence Steamrollers (0-1) 34
With #45 Chris Ryan playing like Jumpin’ Joe Fulks, the Warriors, sans all-time PG Dan Ziminski, made the Steamrollers look like cement mixers. Providence could have made some more FTs (anything under 67% is embarrassing, isn’t it?) and they could have gone to #18 Shawn Fitzpatrick more in the post (we didn’t even see one jump hook and he’s got the sweetest jump hook in PFL history!). Word has it that the we-got-Steamrolled squad is hoping for a re-match in the playoffs. (Warriors not at the ambush: Chris Roehl, Dan Ziminski; all Steamrollers rolled)
Bird’s First triple-double Box Score
Game Five / St. Louis Hawks (1-0) 55 – Minneapolis Lakers (0-1) 37
Lest observers think the Hawks are a one-man show (that man being 21 pt, 10 reb newcomer Nnamdi Nwachukwu) be aware that they handed out 15 assists on 21 baskets, made all 8 FTs, and shared the minutes like fresh carrion, as well. For the Lakers, I liked how Chizzy posted up. Brings to mind the ol’ Minn. Laker himself: George Mikan. (Missing Hawk: Ed Wolf; Absent Lakers: Chris Cassel, Chris McIntyre, Josh Pepin, Raemin Wang – 2 former MVPs in that group)
