The Flying Elephants vs. Golden Sunshine (Chucky)
Team Member Grades
NK47 (B) – Couldn’t quite get the sharpshooter to come out last night but was a staple in the offense and filled up the zone defense.
Anicito (B-) – Continues to struggle in the offense, commited some early turnovers but used his defense to try to make a statement .
K-Diggs (B) – Hit the boards nicely and committed some timely fouls.
Richy Rich (B) – Couldn’t find his shot last night but was a good facilitator in the offense, moving the ball. Found himself too deep in the zone to get out to shooters.
B-Cyrious (A-) – dominated the glass and cleaned up the boards. Rebounded well but needs to move more within the zone defense.
Buffalo Ant (B+) – his offensive game didn’t show through until the very end but his defense and rebounding really helped.
Robbie Hart (A-) – picked up the Elephants scoring load as usual. As with Ritchie, he wasn’t getting out to the perimeter to defend the shooters.
Tonight would present the Elephants with another challenge. Still finding their identity with new teammate Richy Rich Mahler, the Elephants faced an opponant that resembled a Chucky doll. Those of you who are horror film fans should remember the 1988 classic. The movie about a doll with red hair and freckles who wore overalls and sneakers. When somehow possessed by the devil, the 24inch doll awoke and became this menacing killer. (Note to Kenny, Brian, Noel and Brittany: Would you also consider this movie a masterpiece of horror?? “Hi, Im Chucky want to play?”) Its not that the team was 24inches with ginger hair, but they had a deceptive look to them. They looked corney and dorky. They had a goofy big man, a milky white, blonde headed boy, of the 6, 4 wore glasses, they didn’t look like ball players. However, on the court they were cold blooded killers. Maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but relatively speaking they could be competitve, hell they were in the JCC finals last season, so that has to say something.
Coach K-Diggs wanted to try something new last night within the offense. He instituted himself into the starting lineup and benched Buffalo Ant. This had nothing to do with personal performance, it had more to do with getting Ritchie and Robbie open looks off his menacing screens. To open the game this worked well, and the Elephants took a 16-10 lead. The 3-2 zone that the Elephants played in had its holes. The Golden Girls moved the ball well and the Elephants had a hard time rotating which created open shots that were exploited. When the Golden Child’s made their first sub it was a ghost of Christmas past, Sally Sideburns. One of the original members of the Flying Elephants, Sally Sideburns looked the same and unfortunetley played the same. He was aggressive and out of control but hustled which some could make the case made him an asset.
Throughout the first half the Elephants held a 6-8 point lead all the way through. With two minutes left in the half Robbie Hart subbed and another unlucky bathroom visit by Kenny (note: anytime Kenny goes to the bathroom, peculiar things occur), the Elephants committed turnovers and mishaps that brought the Golden Nuggets even to end the half, 28-28.
The second half was no better for the Elephants. The offense was stagnant and the defense was fatiuging. The game was at a stalemate when the 5 on court decided to go from a 3-2 to a 2-3 zone (another note: we need to have 1 voice on this team or it’s not going to work. There seems to be too many chiefs and not enough native americans (they’re not indians, Columbus didn’t realize that the continenant he landed on was a new world and not India)). The Goldtooth Grenades hit four consecutive three-point shots on the defenders at the top of the key. The Elephants found themselves down by 5 with four minutes to go. B-Cyrious was eating boards and getting put backs like they were going out of style. And Robbie did what he could to keep the Elephants as close as possible. At the 3 minute mark, the Golden Grease Crotchers were holding the ball. An insensed Anicito literally almost tackled one of the kids who looked a Weezer band member in a blind rage. This was his way of saying we need to go to a man defense and not let them hold the ball against us. And that’s what the Elephants had to do, they had no choice with the game winding down.
The Elephants found themselves getting stops and attacking the basket. Robbie Hart got an open look for a three (his foot might have been over the line…but Mike the Worst Ref in the Universe didn’t see it). Another stop by the Elephants and B-Cyrious gets his own miss and lays it in to tie the game. The Elephants foul their big man to put him to the line. He misses the first. Misses the second but oh wait, Mike The Worst Ref in the Universe calls a lane violation on Ritchie. Redo the shot but he misses anyway. 46 seconds left and the Elephants want to hold for the last shot but a double came onto Robbie, he splits it and gets an open lane where he gets fouled. He sinks both free throws. A quick outlet by Golden Goose Squad and the kid Vin gets his only basket to tie the game with 20 seconds left. Once again the Elephants plan for the last shot. Ritchie bringing up the ball, makes a bad pass to Robbie but it hits off his leg and come right back to Ritchie. The clock is rapidly winding down. Robbie cant get, open, Buffalo Ant gets a pass on the wing and sinks his only three of the game to put the Elephants ahead with .5 seconds left. It was a marvelous victory for the Elephants as they go to 2-0 on the season.
No comments:
Post a Comment