Quickies & Touching Chris Kaman

Let’s get a few NBA related things out of the way, before I dive into the results of our first rec league game, shall we? (I told you it was coming.)

One: Drew Gooden signed a multi-year deal with the Cavs today, and will finally wear that 24k gold headband we’ve all been waiting for.

Two: Amare Stoudemire thinks he’s a mythical sacred firebird. And I thought I was the only one! (Oh, my buddy Kieran’s take on Amare’s possible knee recovery: “Two words: Antonio McDyess”. Wow … that’s a Ctrl+B statement.)

Three: Sam “The Big Smooth” Perkins is back, baby! Oh… wait…

Four: The Bobcats signed sharp-shooting Argentinean forward Walter Herrmann. Here’s to hoping he rides out on Battle (Bob)Cat during player introductions.

Five: “Nate Jones! Who!? Nate Jones!” is finally back on the blogger scene. (And it’s about goddamn time; the guy’s a great writer.)

OK, enough of that; it’s time for some ridiculously unimportant Men’s Division A basketball rec league news. (Whew, that’s a mouthful.)

First, the facts: Our team? Touching Chris Kaman. Our game? 4-4 high-tempo basketball. (We’re undersized.) Our players? TBJ-ite Tas (our 3/4 hustle man), Kieran (our pure scoring 2), Dub (our post presence and defensive specialist), Grish (our PF with a handle), Tony (our spot up shooter), and myself (our point guard). Our history? We played last winter, and lost in double OT in the finals.

So this year we find out we’re running at a new court up near Yonge/Lawrence. (Fantastic news considering last year’s court was basically a cement floor that had large balloons hanging from the rafters that were considered “in-play”.) Anyway, we get to the new court, and soon realize that it’s the Toronto Raptors old practice facility. Yes, just a tad bit nicer. Our games are set-up to run side-to-side — again, it’s 4-on-4 — but before we start, the guys and I make sure to jack up some NBA legit 3-balls on the end nets. (And my God is it ever far! I have a new found respect for that Gilbert bomb in the playoffs.)

The team we played last night ended up being the same team we beat in the semi-finals last year, and the same team who had won the title the year before that. They have two big, back-to-the-basket type players who can also step out and hit the J, a smooth shooting 2-man, a point guard with no left, and two high-intensity scrubs. They rarely look to run — in fact, they asked if we had gotten any slower in the off-season — and when they’re not feeding their big guys down low, they tend to run a lot of off-the-ball screens.

Anyway, the rules are set (offense calls fouls, no over-and-back, points by 1), hands are shaken, and we finally start the game. (Us, minus Dub, who is somewhere lost on a bus.) Quickly realizing we’re even more undersized than normal, they start pounding it inside and rack up the game’s first real lead (4 or 5). Because they respect our speed, Kieran and I answer with mostly jumpers over their sagging defense. Dub finally shows up, we trade baskets for a while, and we go into the half only down 3.

At half we collectively make three coaching decisions: 1) whoever is matched up on one of the scrubs will always leave their man and double down on the post; 2) to raise our intensity and get a lot more pressure on the ball, 3) rebound, leak out, and run, run, run. (Their big guys are already visibly winded.)

Our adjustments seem to work and we come out firing in the second half. Tony finds his missing shot from the first; Kieran is all over the ball; our three bigs are finishing around the net; and I’m still getting any possible look I want. It doesn’t take long for us to get the lead back and then some. (We’re up like, 4 or 5 now.) That’s when things begin to fall apart. The guy with no left on their team catches on fire and nails about 3 or 4 jumpers in a row. It’s tie game, our ball, and about 30 seconds left. I hold for the last shot on the left side.

Now in this situation, with the way they’ve been sagging off me all game, I’m pretty confident I’ll be looking at some type of fadeaway jumper for the game. No. Instead — much to my surprise — I absolutely cross the shit out of my guy, take it to the net, no help out D comes (What!?), and I miss a gimme lay-up at the buzzer. (Yeah, I know, brutal.) Overtime here we come…

…and we lose. Yeah, the abbreviated version: Two minutes of OT, they hit a couple of shots early, we couldn’t get it going till late, and we couldn’t intentionally foul because there’s no free-throws … game. We lose by 1.

Oh well, it was a lot of fun to finally get back out there, and the season’s a long one. We should be fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go work on my left-handed lay-ups. Fuck!

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By J.E. Skeets at 8:26 am on 09.12.2006 — Tags: Rec League Ball, Quickies

Comments

6 Responses to “Quickies & Touching Chris Kaman”

  1. Chris Clarke at 9:40 am on 09.12.2006

    Yonge/Lawrence huh? I’m at Yonge/St. Clair, and I’ve been trying to come up with a joke about making a shot from downtown (well, near downtown) but I just can’t.

    If you need a Paul Shirley who can help you finish beers after the game, I’m your guy.

  2. Scott Carefoot at 10:43 am on 09.12.2006

    I found that pickup game recap strangely compelling - probably because my knees and shoulders are shot so I have no other option besides vicarious enjoyment. Keep on touching Chris Kaman (but wear gloves, for the love of all that is holy).

  3. Jack at 12:42 pm on 09.12.2006

    Sounds like you need Steve Carrell on your team…haha.

    They’ll be calling you the pg with no left now. Tough break.

  4. JONESONTHENBA at 1:53 pm on 09.12.2006

    Thanks for the love Skeets…

  5. Sean at 7:42 pm on 09.12.2006

    That was entertaining

  6. The Basketball Jones » Touching Chris Kaman: Game 2 at 10:20 am on 09.19.2006

    […] For Game 1 results and highlights click here. […]

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