Recap of 3/8 Games

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Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Dynasty vs. Desert Eagles Game one featured the winless but gutsy Deagles team facing a red-hot Dynasty led by Tim and Sejdo. Deagles suited up only 5 players and were missing their primary scorer in Zeeshan but put in another very respectable effort. The lack of depth was too much though as most any player trying to guard Tim ended up in quick foul trouble to the point where Tim began playing the game half speed. The game did see a 20+ point gap but Desert Eagles faught back late to cut the game close to 10 points. Another huge game for Tim (stats pending) MKA-NY vs. Basketballers The second game at flushing was a cricial one for MKA as they faced a Basketballer team coming off their first loss in 5 games looking to get back on the winning track. For MKA it was a chance to draw even with a Hitmen team (ready to face the HUMANS immediately after this game) for the 4th spot in the West. As the game started neither team was lighting it up from the outside and thus the battle insued inside with Varun banging for 14 first half points and Kashif battling for 12 first half points on the inside. It was a close game at that point with MKA holding on to a 4 point lead. As the 2nd half started, Ballers crumbled a bit. They gave up a few easy baskets, got upest about some calls and it lead to a technical foul which netted MKA a 10 point cusion. Ballers as usual were not to be denied as they found fire in the hands of Nabeel, who along with the other guards Sajeel and Suleman rained 3s to cut the gap and eventually take the lead. In the final minutes Ballers executed very well while MKA, lacking depth, seemed to run a bit out of gas. Omair Siddiqui did suffer a pretty serious injury and we wish him a speedy recovery. Hitmen vs. HUMANS Game 3 pitted a Hitmen team looking to put a gap between them and MKA but they had to face the #1 team in the league to do so. From start to finish Hitmen were game and brought an absolute playoff style atmosphere. Triggy again led the way distrubuting the ball and also exploiting being given the chance to shoot from the outside by having a huge first half with Muneeb doing his part to keep pace. The Hitmen held onto a 38-36 lead going into half time. In the second half it was more of Triggy and Muneeb but HUMANS also slowed it down to exploit the size mismatches inside and that prevented Hitmen from capturing all of the momentum which was certainly swinging in their favor. The game remained very tight going into the final minutes and despite missed free throws from the Hitmen side, the HUMANS were also not scoring which gave Hitmen multiple chances to ice the game. On two close calls the Hitmen committed crucial turnovers instead of securing the ball including the second one with 11 seconds to go and them up by 1. The HUMANS got one final shot. Karman drove to the basket putting up a shot in traffic which seemed to roll around for 3 minutes on the rim but came off leading to a putback attempt by Fahad which again rolled around for seemingly another minute but came off and then another tip by Mahdi which again seemed to sit on the back iorn for 3 minutes until it finally rolled in. That had to be the longest 8 seconds of the season for both teams but HUMANS got the final roll to escape with a win. Titans vs. Panthers The capper at Jamaica featured a Titans teams suiting up only 5 guys against the usual depth of Panthers. Titans however were not taking this game lightly and gcame out strong. Despite Tom Job not being on fire in the first half (much to do with the trouble Jasjit's lenght gave him) his teamates stepped up around him including timely 3s by Jason and a big game on the boards from Matt. Panthers had their standard Ditar to Jasjit combo in full effect yet again and got a solid all around effort from Jagdeep who was close to a tripple double. The game was very competitive going into the 2nd half and Tom Job began to drop a few more threes to keep pace but in the end the Titans simply didn't have the legs to make their jumpers or run with Jasjit up and down the court who dropped yet another 40 point game. Panthers lock up the #1 seed and are primed to face the HUMANS in matchup weekend in the 1 vs 1 game. Ravens vs Strong Island Ravens came in to this game losers of their last game vs SWAT. Strong Island was coming off a huge win against the Titans last week. This game showed what Strong Island has become. Strong Island started the game with only 5 players. The Ravens had a full and deep squad and were led by Ajesh who was setting up his teammates for a season high 11 assists. Strong Island had Richard Reyes in foul trouble but no one to sub in for him. The Ravens were now up by as much as 13 points, when Shaun Ramani entered the game with 12 minutes to go in the 2nd half. Shaun's heroics weren't enough as his 7 points and 3 steals in just 12 minutes could have been the difference if he had arrived earlier. Strong Island once the SABL's most feared team now is looking like an appetizing potential first round match up for many of the top teams. The Ravens seemed to put it together too little too late, as yesterdays Ravens potentially looked like a first round nightmare for another team as they went on to beat Strong Island by 20+ points. Assassins vs SWAT First time these teams met up the Assassins looked like they were turning their season around. They took a SWAT team that looked overrated and an Assassins team that looked as if it would have a punchers chance each night. The Assassins were coming off of a game against the Panthers when they showed a lot of heart and fire. So with the rematch against SWAT the Assassins reverted to old form and arrived late to the game. SWAT started out with a 11-1 lead. The Assassins with only 4 players then found themselves down 16-9. So had the Assassins actually arrived on time they would have been up. With some key time outs by both teams it allowed the Assassins to suit up their 5th player with just 1 minute left. By the end of the first half the Assassins had most of their players. But it was too little too late as SWAT went to town. Stanley down load, Arif shooting threes, and Tarek on the give and go's. This looked like a tune up for the playoffs for SWAT as they were over passing at times, where each player touched the ball not once but maybe even twice on each possession. Some late threes by Quame and Vince allowed the Assassins to get pumped up, but the entire game they were playing more for clock stoppage then the actual game. Another game at Flushing was a 20+ point differential.

 

East vs. West Match-ups

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Tuesday, 10 March 2009

The last two regular season weeks of the season are upon us with plenty of playoff seeding implications. First up is "East vs. West" which pits the corresponding seeds of each division against their counterparts on the other side. As a perk to the seed with the better record (or that holds the tie-breaker between the two teams) they will get to choose their preferred time slot starting with the highest seed, the HUMANS. The league will contact each captain in order to determine the schedule. Breakdown: HUMANS* (#1 West - 14-2) vs. Panthers (#1 East - 11-5) @ 3:00 PM Basketballers* (#2 West - 10-6) vs. SWAT (#2 East - 10-6) @ 8:30 PM Dynasty* (#3 West - 10-6) vs. Titans (#3 East - 9-7) @ 10:30 PM Hit-Men* (#4 West - 8-8) vs. Strong Island (#4 East - 8-8) @ 1:30 PM MKA-NY* (#5 West - 7-9) vs. Ravens (#5 East - 6-10) @ 7:00 PM Desert Eagles (#6 West - 0-16) vs. *Assassins (#6 East - 3-13) @ 12:00 PM *denotes tie-break holder or higher seed

 

Recap of 3/1 Games

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Tuesday, 03 March 2009

Titans v Strong Island It was a battle of two short-handed teams as each only had 6 players suited. The Titans' Thomas Job showed why he's the best shooter in the league as he had a 50+ point performance. However, Strong Island with its balance attack (all 6 scored in double figures and 3 players with double-doubles including a 20-20 game by Richie Reyes) propelled SI to an early double-digit lead and the victory. Dynasty v MKA-NY This was a close game in the first half with Dynasty running up and down the court and MKA countering with solid ball movement and a fierce outside attack in the half court. The two man punch of Dynasty in Tim and Sedjo combine for 77 of the teams 96 points. Tim Crane alone dropped 43 points and 29 rebounds! Sejdo also had a tremendous performance with 34 points and 14 rebounds. MKA's Farhan Ahmad knocked down 7 three-pointers in defeat. HUMANS v Basketballers HUMANS held the Basketballers to just 19 first half points and maintained a 7-10 point lead for most of the 2nd half until late in the game when Basketballers went on one of their patented runs. It was a one possession game in the last couple of possessions with HUMANS holding on to a 55-52 win. Sajeel exploded for 21 points and 3 steals. Muneeb scored 19 points and grabbed 14 boards. SWAT v Ravens This was a do or die game for the Ravens in keeping their playoff hopes alive, and they came out swinging. After SWAT took an early 10-point lead with an effective press, the Ravens settled in and made SWAT pay with a barrage of 3's led in the first half by Tom John. Ravens managed to scratch out a 5-point lead in the 1st half before SWAT closed the gap by half-time. In the 2nd half, SWAT tightened up their "D" and managed to keep the Ravens shooters in check on their way to a 13-point lead. SWAT's front court did a tremendous job of battling the beefy Ravens front line with Tarek dropping 20 points and 16 rebounds . Sijo and Steven provided lots of energy off the bench. 83-68, SWAT. Panthers v Assassins The result was almost a foregone conclusion. Panthers started and played most of the game with a mix of their first and second teams. Both sides had fun up and down the court but the short-handed Assassins, missing Quane and Tim Ahmed, were no match for the depth of the Panthers. Stats not yet available, but rest assured, it was a blow out. Hitmen v Desert Eagles Yet again the Deagles came out strong, this time against the offensive minded Hitmen, even taking a 25-15 lead midway through the first half. That's when Triggy decided his team wasn't going to be that team and brought his team back almost single-handily. The game stayed relatively close from that point on with the 3-point shooting of Zeeshan, Harvey, Hani and Walid keeping Deagles within striking distance. Triggy and Maz were not to be denied though, pulling out the game comfortably towards the end.

 

Weekend Preview

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Friday, 27 February 2009

The first game of this week is a between Titans(9-5, 2 seed) and Strong Island(7-7, 4 seed). This will be the first true meeting between the team as the Titans forfieted to SI early in the season. Titans played SWAT last week but they had to forfiet in the 2nd half due to lack of players. It seems the titans problems aren't on offense but having enough bodies at the game. Titans boast 2 of the top 3 scorers in Thomas Job and Lejoe, with Thomas being a deadly shooter and Lejoe being the slasher and playmaker. Strong Island got a HUGE win last week to end a 7 game losing streak. Strong Island showed that they can hang with and beat a title contender as they beat the Panthers last week. Will that win propel a playoff run? Something to watch for in this game is the various matchups all over the court. The big men of titans (darius and rex) will have to contend with skilled bigmen Simran and Neil. Shaun who has missed a huge chunck of the season is now back and playing like a stud. Who will Shaun be guarding, Lejoe or Thomas Job? If Shuan can slow/shut down one of those players Strong Island has a great chance to win this game. The next game is between Dynasty(8-6, 3 seed) and MKA (7-7, 4/5 seed). Dynasty is coming off a great win againist the powerhouse Humans team who jumped out to a 20+ pt lead early in the 1st half. After taking a timeout to regain their composure they were able to cut the lead to 7. In the second half their defense stepped up and Sedjo and Angel were able to do most of the scoring. The Humans held Tim the beast Crane to only 10 pts and 11 boards, but he did make his presense of the defensive end by having 6 blocks. This is a good sign for Dynasty as they were able to roll with the punches and deliver the knockout blow to the best team in the league. Its also encouraging that they won without Tim having a monster game and there defense showed improvement as well. MKA made a mid season pick up of Rahul which is making big dividends for them as they are 5-2 with him. MKA was playing well in the beginning of the year but was flailing midseason but have picked up their game as of late. MKA is a smart team that plays 2gether. They have an array of shooters lead by Farhan and Rahul. Once they get hot, they are hard to stop. If they continue to play their solid defense and hit their shots, they are a very dangerous team. MKA need to keep the momentum on their side as they are fighting for their playoff lives with the Hitmen whom they beat a couple of weeks ago. The next game is between the HUMANS (12-2, 1 seed) and the defending champ Basketballers (9-5, 2 seed). These teams played the first week of the season with the HUMANS coming out on top. The HUMANS are coming off a disappointing loss to Dynasty last week. It was really a tale of two halves for them. They came out blazing by scoring 36 points in about 10 minutes, but they cooled off but still had a 7 point lead going into the half. In the second half the HUMANS were taking bad shots, and had some bad turnovers which lead to various fast breaks for Dynasty. Also the HUMANS vaunted defense seemed to have holes in it, especially in the second half, which has to be a concern. The HUMANS and Ballers have a history so there will be plenty of excitement and energy in this matchup. The Ballers just continue to roll on as they have had huge wins as well as close ones, just showing the league that you can never count them out. They are just winners, able to make the plays when they have to have them. They played a very exciting game againist a desperate Hitmen last week and pulled out a close win. This will be a BIG test for both teams. The Ballers have what the HUMANS want, and the Ballers wanna prove that as defending champs they are the team to beat, not the HUMANS. This is a very interesting matchup for many reasons. The ballers have smaller guards, who are super quick while the HUMANS guards are much bigger and physically imposing. Also the HUMANS will have to contend with Varun whom the Ballers picked up midseason. The question is, if Varun gets in foul trouble like he did last game, who will guard the paint againist all the bigmen of the HUMANS? This game is definitely a must see. The last day game is between Ravens(5-9, 5 seed) and ite SWAT(8-6, 3 seed). The ravens who are a couple of games behind Strong Island kept their playoff hopes alive by beating the assassins last week. The ravens need to continue to play good defense as well as play good half court offense for them to win this game. In this matchup againist SWAT, they have the big bodies to contend with SWAT inside. If the ravens can't handle SWAT's press and the deficeit gets larger, the ravens are in trouble as they have shown an inability to come back from large deficeits. SWAT needs to continue to get their full roster on the court so they can develope chemistry with eachother. This is the time that SWAT needs to start to make a run so they can make some noise in the playoffs. The 1st night game is between the Panthers (9-5, 1 seed) and Assassins (3-11, 6 seed). The Panthers are coming off a tough loss againist Strong Island last week. This seems like the type of game where they can work on some things that need some fine tuning as i don't really see how the game should be within 10 points. The Panthers still struggle againist the top tier teams as they have problems executing under pressure in those situations. The assassins were riding a 2 game winning streak, which was stopped as they lost to the ravens last week. The assassins now are just playing for pride and experience at this point, but expect them to still play hard. The 2nd night game is between Hitmen(7-7, 4/5 seed) and Desert Eagles(0-14, 6 seed). Hitmen who started off as the 2 seed in the conference at 7-4 but have lost 3 straight games. They lost 2 heartbreaking games to dynasty and ballers which has got to be emotionally draining for this team. Lead by Maaz and Triggey they never give up and always seem to battle until the very end. The lack of a quailty bigmen as well as depth is proving to be too much for Hitmen to overcome. This is a MUST WIN for Hitmen who play the Humans next week. Hitmen's boat is sinking fast, can Triggey and Maaz lead the team to the playoffs? Desert Eagles have played hard every game this season, but their lack of chemistry is really hurting them. They have been close of various occasions to winning, but it seems like they get in their own way sometimes. This COULD be a trap game as the Desert Eagles are due for a win, and Hitmen may be emotionally drained from the past 2 weeks.

 

2/22/09 Recap

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Monday, 23 February 2009

MKA v Desert Eagles The first game of the day was an important one for MKA as with a win in this game and Hitmen matched up against a hot Basketballers team, MKA had a chance to move into the last playoff spot in the West. Desert Eagles came with a bit more depth than in weeks past (welcoming back PJ Bains from his paternal leave aka "my wife won't me out." ) as they look to play the role of spoiler down the stretch. The game however was as expected. It started out close with Walid creating some good opportunties for his teamates near the basket and MKA draining jump shots on the other end. Midway through the first half though, MKA began to pull away with solid play on both ends and never looked back. Rahul and Farhan non-Hani Ahmad provided the usual three point barrage combinging for 11 three pointers. Maybe not coincidentally, Khurram utilizing his hot shooters had yet again a double digit assist total dropping 11 dimes to go along with his 11 points. Khashif also chipped in 11 points to round out 4 guys in double digits. HUMANS v Dynasty The red-hot Dynasty coming off a great game against the Basketballers 2 weeks ago and their record setting 120 point performance last week, faced the season's overall hottest team, the HUMANS who were winners of their last 10. It ended up being a battle of inconsistency vs consistency and not surprisingly the latter of the two won. The HUMANS came out blazing as Muneeb and Mohammed abused the Dynasty man-to-man defense and Mahdi had one of the best defensive halfs of the season getting 4 monstrous blocks on anyone coming down the lane within the first several minutes of the game. This helped HUMANS build a 20 point lead half way through the first half. Dynasty however stayed poised, made some key defensive adjustments, and capitalized as Muneeb and Mohammed took a rest and continued to attack Mahdi to get him into foul trouble. They slowly chipped away into the lead ending the half down 48-41 but snatched all the momentum away. As the trio of Tim "the tall man" Crane, Sejdo, and Angel kept at it in the second half, no one from the HUMANS provided a counter punch as they only scored 24 points in the second half while the balanced attack of Dynasty dropped another 41 points in the second frame. Great job by the HUMANS holding a red-hot Tim Crane to a relatively low 10 points and 11 rebounds but Sejdo and Angel lit it up for a combined 51 points. Muneeb contributed 29 in a losing effort. Basketballers vs Hitmen Hitmen, coming off a classic SABL performance against Dynasty, were looking to hold on to their playoff position. MKA-NY had won their matchup earlier in the day against Desert Eagles, and a loss against the Ballers would drop them in to the fifth spot in the Western conference. The game started off extremely Baller-sided, as they jumped out to a 16 point advantage lead by Sajeel and his three point shooting. Towards the end of the first half, Hitmen played very tough defense and closed out on the three-point line, preventing the Ballers from scoring for a span of 7 minutes where they remained at the 44 point mark until half-time. The second half was extremely close, as both teams exchanged basket after basket. Hitmen, lead by Triggy, and the sharp shooting of Harpreet, kept the game tied as they survived several scoring surges from the Ballers. Hitmen stayed within striking distance the whole way but failed to capitalize on it in the final seconds on several possessions with a chance to tie including a Paul Ravens 3 point attempt during which he was fouled by Usman sent to the line with a chance to tie the game but converted only 1 of 3. In the end, it came down to the Ballers defensive execution which prevented Maaz or Triggy from hitting the tying basket to send it to overtime. Ravens vs Assassins Game started off very sloppy with deflections, turnovers, and forced shots. Ravens eventually settled in with Joe V. back running point and took a commanding lead with good passes and movement without the ball. Assassins didn't seem to get the memo that this was a 5 on 5 basketball game as they constantly went 1 vs. 5 unsuccessfully. It didn't help of course that Ravens were physically far superior in cleaning up the boards and had plenty of depth on the bench. This loss combined with the Strong Island win puts the Assassins 4 games behind them for the last playoff spot and there are only 4 games left to play. With Strong Island holding the point differential tie-breaker, the Assassins are mathematically eliminated from the playoff picture. Titans vs SWAT This highly anticipated rematch ended via a forfeit in favor of SWAT as Titans did not have enough players to continue midway through the second half. Until that point it was a close game as expected with SWAT holding a slight lead. Panthers vs Strong Island This was the game that Ravens and Assassins were looking forward to more than anyone else. You had Strong Island team reeling from injuries coming off a loss to the last team in their division, now having to face the #1 team in the East, the red-hot Panthers who were winners of their last 4. Strong Island already missing Mark Pollard who is done for the season, was also short Simran Lamba who had been playing very well since his return from injury. They did however have Richard Reyes back to face a Panthers team close to full strength. Both teams played solid throughout with no long scoring drought either way but early on the surprise player was Karan the Klown Chawla stepping in huge in Lamba's absence grabbing offensive rebound after rebound. Richard Reyes also made his presence felt dropping another double/double with 11 points and 11 boards. Panthers played very ball in the half court and the fast break with Jasjit as usual finishing with 2 points after nearly every pass given to him around the basket. The difference in their offense was several crucial missed layups. Ditar got to the basket at will but was just slightly off all night once near the rim. He did however contribute 10 assists. The Panther bigs also missed a few gimme layups on putback attempts. The star of the night however was Shaun of SI who dropped another 20+ point game to go along with his 3 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals. He also contributed a great defensive stand causing the Panthers guard to lose the ball for a backcourt violation during a one possession game within the last minute. With seconds to go and the game already iced, a Strong Island player decided to shoot a 3 just before the buzzer and made the shot. Captain Neil immediately walked over to apologize to the scorer's table, refs, and most importantly all of the Panthers. The player who hit the shot quickly followed suit as well. On a night where SABL has seen better times in terms of poor sportsmanship, the night ended on a "Strong" note (pun intended) thanks to the heady thinking of captain Neil Ramani.