We got our first win!!! We're only allowed to have one practice per week for one hour, so yesterday was the first time we got everyone on the court together. In fact, one player joined the team yesterday! I put a couple of plays into our offense - one to use against man to man and one to use against the zone defenses. Also, we worked on spotting the open man and getting him the ball quickly. Then, we made sure that each person knew for certain what positions he is supposed to play when he's on the court, depending on who else is on the court with him. But the best thing about practice was the intensity that the guys played with. It made me very confident about today's game. The last thing I said in practice was "Tomorrow, we get our first win of the season. But it's not really about winning or losing, it's about having fun... but winning is REALLY fun!!!" Well, it is.
Game day. A few players show up early and we're working on running the plays that we put in yesterday. Not too hard. It's pregame warm up, not practice. And I don't want us to over exert ourselves right before a game. Everyone seems to be feeling very confident with themselves because last week, though we lost by 15 points, we did much better in the second half than the first and we didn't have an offensive identity yet. Now, we know who we are on offense. We know what we're doing and how to do it.
When the game starts, we jump out to a very quick 10-2 score on the strength of 3 layups and a couple of offensive rebounds, as well as some very inspired defense on the other teams best player, a sweet-shooting, ball handling small forward who can only really go right, but last week scored 10 points in about a minute of game time. We were very worried about him. After the first half, we were up by 17 points. But I reminded the guys what happened last week. The suns had beaten us down in the first half and we shaved 10 points off of their lead in the first 15 minutes of the game. If the refs didn't institute a running clock, we probably could have won the game. We just ran out of time. Plus, one of their players scored 10 points in a minute, so they're capable of coming back. Everyone was happy with themselves, but intense and focused on the task at hand. We ended up winning by about 22 points and, oh yeah, our starting point guard wasn't there due to a prior engagement (Club Soccer in the valley, good luck Daniel).
Then we all went out for pizza where the boys got a chance to mingle as a team, away from a basketball setting and really start to get to know each other. Their parents came too, of course which was even more important, because now we have someone in charge of bringing water for the games and snacks for afterwards.
All in all, it was a good day :). I can't wait till next week.
As always, you'll know more as I do,
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Here we go again
As of Right now, there are currently 9 teams on pace to win 50 games in the NBA's Western Conference. And while in past years, I would use this statistic to talk about the dominance of the West over the East, I simply can't. Because, while the Lakers currently technically have the best record in the league (30-6, compared to the Cavaliers at 29-6), the East currently has three teams - one in each division - on pace to win over 60 games!!! A total of 13 teams are currently on at least a 50 win pace, making this spring's Playoffs look like it already could be better than last years, which was one of the best ever! Let's look at some of the possibilities, come this April, May and June.
As it stands right now, some of the first round match ups we could see might be. The Lakers would be slated to match up with their most constant western conference rival, Utah, while San Antonio would be hosting another wild match up with Phoenix. Portland and New Orleans would meet in a match up of two of the best Rookie-Of-The-Year award recipients this decade (no offense to Elton Brand and Kevin Durant). This would probably be the most exciting series in the West, with two very young teams that rely heavily on their well-rounded guards and adept low-post scoring Power Forwards. In fact, come to think of it, they also both have young Centers who are pretty good defensively, but not quite there offensively and coaches who - well, they both have coaches. Anyway, this would be a fun matchup to watch and every single series could go either way (even LA Vs. Utah if they get Boozer back).
But after the Lakers, the next eight teams are only separated by 2.5 games. That means that if number 2 San Antonio wins three of their next 5 games and number 9 Dallas wins all five of theirs (which wouldn't be much of a surprise seeing how each have had stretches like that this year), they could potentially switch places in the standings. The number 2 team in the west could be out of the playoff picture by the end of next week, so it's way to early to start talking about playoff match ups. But it's still fun :).
In the East, on the other hand, the balance of power isn't so... well, "Balanced." The Three top teams, Boston, Cleavland and Orlando, figure to finish in the top three in some order. I wouldn't be surprised to see Boston, Cleavland or Orlando end up with the top spot. Then there's Detroit and Atlanta, who will be fighting to have home court advantage in their series against each other, but will be playing one of those top three in the second round. After that, you've got 6 teams that are fighting to get into the playoffs with between 16 and 19 wins right now. I wouldn't be surprised to see any three-team combination of those six be wiped out in the first round by the top three. I also suspect that no more than 2 of them will wind up with a winning record. Maybe none of them will win 42 games. Only one thing is for sure. There's very little chance of them winning ANYTHING in the playoffs this year. There are some exceptions. Miami has seen Dwayne Wade go Crazy in the Playoffs before and he's healthy again, so there's no reason why it can't happen again. In particular, against Orlando, if the match up is right. Toronto always has a shooter's chance, as long as their shooters get back to full health. In particular against Cleavland, who has a difficult time guarding early three point shots. And If Indiana is matched up against Boston, they have a good chance. I don't know why. But they seem to play ridiculously well against Boston and LA.
I can't believe this. It's January, and I'm already talking about the Playoffs! Man, I love this game! Oh, wait, that's the old slogan. Whoops.
As it stands right now, some of the first round match ups we could see might be. The Lakers would be slated to match up with their most constant western conference rival, Utah, while San Antonio would be hosting another wild match up with Phoenix. Portland and New Orleans would meet in a match up of two of the best Rookie-Of-The-Year award recipients this decade (no offense to Elton Brand and Kevin Durant). This would probably be the most exciting series in the West, with two very young teams that rely heavily on their well-rounded guards and adept low-post scoring Power Forwards. In fact, come to think of it, they also both have young Centers who are pretty good defensively, but not quite there offensively and coaches who - well, they both have coaches. Anyway, this would be a fun matchup to watch and every single series could go either way (even LA Vs. Utah if they get Boozer back).
But after the Lakers, the next eight teams are only separated by 2.5 games. That means that if number 2 San Antonio wins three of their next 5 games and number 9 Dallas wins all five of theirs (which wouldn't be much of a surprise seeing how each have had stretches like that this year), they could potentially switch places in the standings. The number 2 team in the west could be out of the playoff picture by the end of next week, so it's way to early to start talking about playoff match ups. But it's still fun :).
In the East, on the other hand, the balance of power isn't so... well, "Balanced." The Three top teams, Boston, Cleavland and Orlando, figure to finish in the top three in some order. I wouldn't be surprised to see Boston, Cleavland or Orlando end up with the top spot. Then there's Detroit and Atlanta, who will be fighting to have home court advantage in their series against each other, but will be playing one of those top three in the second round. After that, you've got 6 teams that are fighting to get into the playoffs with between 16 and 19 wins right now. I wouldn't be surprised to see any three-team combination of those six be wiped out in the first round by the top three. I also suspect that no more than 2 of them will wind up with a winning record. Maybe none of them will win 42 games. Only one thing is for sure. There's very little chance of them winning ANYTHING in the playoffs this year. There are some exceptions. Miami has seen Dwayne Wade go Crazy in the Playoffs before and he's healthy again, so there's no reason why it can't happen again. In particular, against Orlando, if the match up is right. Toronto always has a shooter's chance, as long as their shooters get back to full health. In particular against Cleavland, who has a difficult time guarding early three point shots. And If Indiana is matched up against Boston, they have a good chance. I don't know why. But they seem to play ridiculously well against Boston and LA.
I can't believe this. It's January, and I'm already talking about the Playoffs! Man, I love this game! Oh, wait, that's the old slogan. Whoops.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Fantasy Basketball Update # 4: Oblivion.
I'm ranked 1st in one of my leagues, tied for second in another, and all of the others have just gone away completely. I don't know what's going on. Brandon Roy is out, Nate Robinson is out, Zach Randolph, Carlos Boozer... It's really not a good year to be on one of my fantasy teams. It's Just really bad. What I said before about the New York/Golden State trade seems to have been accurate so far. Especially for Al Harrington. Monta Ellis should be back in a couple of weeks, so we'll really get to see the effects of three guards who think a chest pass is a character flaw running the same floor together.
And that doesn't just apply to fantasy ball. Harrington is really doing well for New York, who recently beat Boston on the strength of a Monster game by him. His numbers: 30pts, 7 rbs, 2 asts, 11/23 FG, 5/9 3FG. Those are good numbers for a center who averaged 12 points and got more DNPCDs than Blocks in the first month of the season.
But My teams suck now. Bleh.
And that doesn't just apply to fantasy ball. Harrington is really doing well for New York, who recently beat Boston on the strength of a Monster game by him. His numbers: 30pts, 7 rbs, 2 asts, 11/23 FG, 5/9 3FG. Those are good numbers for a center who averaged 12 points and got more DNPCDs than Blocks in the first month of the season.
But My teams suck now. Bleh.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
MVRC Jazz: 0 - 1
Woo Hoo!!! Alright, I know that the team lost today, but we won the second half :). As you know, I am the head coach for the Mar Vista Recreation Center (Not Utah) Jazz. Yesterday, we had our first practice with five or more people in attendance. Then, today, we had our first game. As you can probably imagine, we didn't do very well. First half score: 12-37. The Kids came back to the bench deflated and dejected, looking to me for guidance and direction. I peered into their glazed-over eyes, glanced up at the scoreboard and winced a little, searching for a muse, some method of conjuring up any ounce of oratory inspiration and encouragement. As the kids panted before me, only one thing went through my mind. So, being the man that I am, I had to be honest with them: "Wow", I gasped... "That was pretty rough." What do you want from me? I'm new to this stuff.
Honestly, we were down by 25 points for two reason: Lack of practice time together, and lack of an experienced coach. So I looked to the 75% of a team we had available and I told them "It looks bad right now, I know. But we're going to do better in the second half." I told them all that this was not the time for us to shrink and hide, but to shine. When you're down by 25, you might as well experiment, right? All the pressure is gone. You know, they say that it's all about having fun, so I told them to just go out there and have fun. And can you believe that they actually bought it?
We instituted a "Don't-Look-At-The-Scoreboard" Rule in the second half, which just made people look at the scoreboard more, and the MVRC Jazz went out and played their hearts out in the second half. My substitution patterns were more succinct and meaningful and the defense was more inspired. The offense still sputtered and looked at times like we hadn't worked on any offense together as 5-man units (we still haven't, actually, but that's beside the point) but the play was inspiring. By games end, we had shaved 10 points off of the "Suns" lead and would have gotten it down further if not for a running clock.
All in all, I'd say it was a successful outing. No one got injured, everyone seemed to have fun, I finally got a really good look at how my players react to each other and in different situations. Also, I found out that I'm putting a couple of players in positions that they don't need to be in. We Still lost by double digits, but we did much better in the second half and once we finally get our full team together (Hopefully this Friday), the Jazz are going to be a force in the MVRC Majors division league.
Next week, win or lose, I'm taking all the kids out for pizza after the game (man I hope we win... I scouted next week's opponent in today's game and they have some really good players). You'll know more as I do.
Until then,
Honestly, we were down by 25 points for two reason: Lack of practice time together, and lack of an experienced coach. So I looked to the 75% of a team we had available and I told them "It looks bad right now, I know. But we're going to do better in the second half." I told them all that this was not the time for us to shrink and hide, but to shine. When you're down by 25, you might as well experiment, right? All the pressure is gone. You know, they say that it's all about having fun, so I told them to just go out there and have fun. And can you believe that they actually bought it?
We instituted a "Don't-Look-At-The-Scoreboard" Rule in the second half, which just made people look at the scoreboard more, and the MVRC Jazz went out and played their hearts out in the second half. My substitution patterns were more succinct and meaningful and the defense was more inspired. The offense still sputtered and looked at times like we hadn't worked on any offense together as 5-man units (we still haven't, actually, but that's beside the point) but the play was inspiring. By games end, we had shaved 10 points off of the "Suns" lead and would have gotten it down further if not for a running clock.
All in all, I'd say it was a successful outing. No one got injured, everyone seemed to have fun, I finally got a really good look at how my players react to each other and in different situations. Also, I found out that I'm putting a couple of players in positions that they don't need to be in. We Still lost by double digits, but we did much better in the second half and once we finally get our full team together (Hopefully this Friday), the Jazz are going to be a force in the MVRC Majors division league.
Next week, win or lose, I'm taking all the kids out for pizza after the game (man I hope we win... I scouted next week's opponent in today's game and they have some really good players). You'll know more as I do.
Until then,
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