Tues, 4on4.
This team is called "Nellie Ballers". We're a small team, technically built to run. Gary Stevenson (he's on all 3 teams) is our point, we have a v deadeye shooter "Mike", Xorbie and his brother (Joel/Dan) both of whom are largely midrange shooters who are competent defensively, me, and Eyedea. (He's our lone big, very solid defensive rebounder, has range, is a great asset for 4on4)
Quote:
Nellie Ballers 59 Warrior Country 79
Warrior Country already geared up for Cleary Club
Warrior Country jumped out to an early 17-8 lead and never looked back as they dispatched of the Nellie Ballers in week 1. With Pacheco handing over the captaincy reigns to Mike I wasn’t sure how this team would fare. They’re used to their captain only showing up for the playoffs, and then just shouting from encouragement from the sidelines. How would they handle a captain that not only has to play, but they need to lean heavily on?
Not too badly, as it turns out. Here were some random quotes heard from the Balcony last night.
“I’ve never seen him (Greer) so aggressive in a game before”
“Yea but, um, who are the other bigs out there?”
“Greer’s a p^$$%!”
“I (name redacted) will hold Worden under 20 points next week.”
Can you Guess which one was me?!?
Anyway, like I said, never looked back after the early lead. Coubs (or do I have to call him Snipes this season? http://www.thebostonjam.com/) made sure to get his 3 points and 3 boards out of the way early in this one. Anything on top of that is straight Gravy. He might have missed 4 free throws last night, but at least he didn’t air-ball any. Nice work big fella.
I was excited to see WC’s newest addition and Mark didn’t fail to impress. Unlike Matt's new showtime ‘hit’ I’ll actually be intrigued as to how Mark fits in with WC as the season goes on. Hell with Mike handing out 10 dimes and flirting with a TDub, Kid Flash took a back seat on this team for once. Ignore the 25 points, he’s going to get that. It took only one game, but already his ‘don’t miss a free throw in 2011’ goal is gone. Sure he can blame the one miss on a ‘head injury’ but it’s not like he was bleeding!
Now some observers have questioned how a team that went 0-9 in the B2 5v5 would fare in the B2 East this season, but I’m confident they’ll be just fine. Rob Eckstut knows what to expect at this point. At least, I think he does. Moving this team, in particular, to Wall Ball Arena was a great move.
The shorter court means less time between possessions and less ground for Mike and Alex have to cover between hoisting threes. This team seemed to want to get out and run on the break and that will mean good things in the league. Spauld is a constant double-double threat, and he might be enough for them in the low post to challenge for a playoff spot. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll have to battle hard, and it still might not be enough, but I’m saying there is a chance!! I guess it all comes down to how hard their schedule is. You could pin a hard (or easy) one on me, but I randomize them every season.
The team we faced had a beast manning the 4. He was ~6'5 and athletic; Noah is 6'3 or so and decently strong, but was outmatched. When Noah checked out I defended the big for a little bit, and luckily he didn't post up at all, so I actually did fine. He scored almost completely in semi-transition, since they lobbed to him over us/his finishing skills were impeccable. (And he was a good FT shooter) He single handedly crushed us.
The 2nd min or so they got a steal in transition, the big dude went to the rack, I was there to meet him and he caught me with his right elbow in the ear. It hurt a lot and I thought my head was bleeding - went to the bathroom to check out my head etc. I had taken advil before the game since my ankle wasn't 100%, and that helped null the pain.
I had a real shaky game and frankly everyone except Gary Stevenson and ~Noah played poorly. Mike is the definition of hot and cold. He has some games where he absolutely sinks us and other games where he carries us. Very high variance player.
I emailed this to my team...
About the specific game...
-I actually felt we played OK. I think they simply were a better team and they outplayed us. We are not going to be able to stop the big guy, who got to the rim at will, and we more or less forced the other guys to shoot jumpers. They had 1 shooter who hurt us, and we should have done a better job on him, but the other guys made their shots when they needed to.
-As far as the boxscore, the 2 things that stuck out to me are this:
1. Turnovers. We didn't force any. For all of our fouling (I'm not sure the final numbers, but I think I finished with 4; Joel and Dan 4 each maybe as well?) we got 2 steals all game. IF we want to score in transition, we have to harass/play the passing lanes better. On the offensive end, we turned it over 13 times. That was more then half the margin - when we were going in the half court, we forced some passes and just weren't moving/no motion. This was bad.
2. 3s. Mike noted we got a lot of shots people normally hit - I wouldn't say "normally" hit, but at least hit a little more often. As a team we shot 24%, and they didn't exactly play suffocating defense. Further, it's a shorter 3pt line, so our % should go up. Last season we hit on just over 30%. The good news is half our shots were from beyond the arc, which should be a strength. Had we hit even ~slightly above, that's the other half of the gap.
Not much more to say. For a team without a ton of size, we actually outrebounded them. I don't think rebounding will be an issue. Later all!
My personal line was 3/11/2. Was 0-1 on 3s and 1-4 on FTs. When I went to the line it was all when I got fouled by the big guy, and basically he fouled VERY hard. Didn't feel good. I also got blocked by the big guy several times. These are the types of games where I'm going to struggle; a dominant big patrolling the paint drastically lowers my finishing around the rim%. I do put some fouls on them, but it's a trade off.
I wish my team didn't settle for so many jumpers, as we routinely get out free-throwed, even when you factor out fouling at the end of games.
On the season: 0-2