| West Pre-Season Recap |
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| Monday, 26 October 2009 | |
 It seems like the Pre-Season worked out well for the teams in the West because you could just see teams working in new players, shaking off the rust/dust, and getting used to playing against other SABL competition (and not to mention getting using to the Refs and submitting the paperwork!). Some teams looked more fine-tuned and ready than others, but what you could immediately notice was that all teams were capable of being very competitive on any given night. There were virtually no blowouts--the likes of which we have all become used to seeing on a regular basis in past seasons.
Strictly Business and MKA-NY started things off in the game of the day. It was back and forth all game with plenty of highlight plays. SB played a sound "team" game while MKA lit it up from 3-point land, led by Rahul. With 5 seconds left and his team down one, Rahul launched a contested 3-pointer that rimmed out. Both teams played a high level of basketball. HUMANS and Titans were up next, but both teams were missing a handful of rotation players. HUMANS were able to take advantage, however, and run the Titans out of the gym on their way to a 15+ point victory. This game certainly felt more like an exhibition than a rematch of last years finals. SWAT played the Red Jaguars in game three and, once again, both teams were missing a few rotation players. It was sloppy at times, but the score was close throughout. Tarek and Zeeshan led the way for SWAT with long-range bombs, while Biju and co. of the Jaguars found ways to exploit SWAT's defense all game long. Jaguars won by 4. The last game at Far Rock didn't turn out how people would have expected it to last year. The new-look Ravens jumped on the scrambling Ballers from tip off and didn't let their foots off the pedal until the buzzer. Ballers did cut the double-digit lead to 6 towards the end, but Ravens were just too much. Ravens showed much better cohesiveness and speed as a team than they did most of last season. Ballers introduced two new talents to their already deep squad in the hopes of getting back to "contender" status. Although Ballers know as well as anyone that talent alone can't win championships. The other "game of the night" had to be Strong Island verse Hit-Men. Strong Island came in with a totally revamped and much deeper bench to go along with the quality starting line-up most of us are used to seeing. Hit-Men too came into the game with a deeper bench than last season and brought back Lamba, Harpreet and a new talented back-court mate to take some of the burden off Triggy's shoulders. The game was back and forth most of the way but Hit-Men managed to hold on with a 4-point victory. The last game of the night was Panthers verse the newcomers, Rukus. Panthers showed up one year older and and one year stronger and with pretty much the same talented roster as last year. Once again they looked really tough to beat. Rukus put up a good battle, however, and kept it pretty close throughout. Rukus is gonna win their share of games this year once they get used to playing with each other. The crazy part is that four of these teams will be on the outside looking in come playoff time, and the four that miss it would probably have been good enough to have make the playoffs in the last few seasons. Wow... |
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