game 3: the deficit

saturday afternoon was a home game against BK skjolde stevnsgade from copenhagen. they were a solid team and really well coached. they had scouted us in the falcon game during the season opener and had a good game plan for controlling both endre and myself. we were coming off a big win so we were feeling pretty good about ourselves so perhaps we entered a little too overconfident, of which i had warned them not to be after the game last week. the night before the game i had 3 successive dreams about the game that were all pretty vivid disasters, each in a different way. they woke me up in a sweat each time. the one that i remember clearly was where i knocked out the ref with a punch and got suspended for the whole season and was sent packing. Another involved a severe injury(was knocking on wood like crazy) and the other an explosion(don't ask). either way they all foreshadowed a struggle. i was pretty wary going into the game. unlike any i've prepared for before. i had worked pretty hard during the week so i had felt prepared though. we still had corrie unavailable because his visa has yet to arrive.

the first quarter was pretty tough, we were a little bit sluggish and weren't executing our offense very well because they made quick adjustments. we got a few fast breaks early to compensate for this but we were down by about 8 by the second quarter. this team was on fire all first half, they probably shot about 80% from the field in the first half, everytime we left a guy open off of help defense they knocked it down. they had a quick point guard who was penetrating and finding the openings. endre couldn't get much started inside and i wasn't finishing in the paint. i got called for 3 offensive fouls in the first half. it was tough to swallow because you don't always account for offensive fouls in the ways that they were giving them to me. it was like the golden globes out there, great acting, they were flopping off of any contact by me.... i don't know if their coach told em i was a hyper agressive guy or whatever but i got one on an offensive rebound, one on a regular post spin and the other on a screen. i was flabbergasted. had to sit almost the entire second quarter and watch that lead grow. we ended up down 20 at half, in our gym, with our rims and our fans.... unacceptable. they kept double teaming endre from the weak side as soon as we dribbled and went into his post moves and spins and it turned out to work pretty good for them because our guys struggle to find the open kick-out spots.

the beginning of the third quarter was back and forth for the first little bit, our offense was still sluggish but our defense picked up. i decided to start taking things into my own hands offensively and caught fire, hitting three straight 3's in a 2 minute span: off of screens, drives, pullups. i had the touch. in the back of my head i could hear the announcer from the video game NBA jam saying "he's heating up". problem is when you get on fire you think you can get it back all at once, so ensueing possession, i try to spark the defence too with a swipe and get called for a reach in at midcourt, trying to strip the point guard like demi moore(4th foul). i was like DAMN. stupid mistake... but i know i'm rollin on offense, beckon to be left in(because i have so much experience playing in foul trouble for better for worse). 2 minutes later, shuffling with a guard, i channelled him into a double team as he's driving. where he gets fouled. they call it on me instead of the double teamer in what i can only assume is a mistake. i look down at my arm and it's turning green, my head starts to hurt, my jersey starts to rip, i pull out my drivers license... the name is changed to bruce banner. trying to count to ten in my head and cool off. i look at the ref in his googly dumb eyes, resisting with all my might what the dreamworld had told me was my destiny.... to join the dark side. i raise my hands above my head and start to clap, looking him dead in the eye saying "wow to the zers". if i wasn't in front of kids and families i woulda been kicking chairs like bobby knight and swearing like an old man who just stubbed his toe. but i'm trying to be miceail 2.0: under control version. regardless 3 minutes left in the third quarter and i'm done.

i had cut the lead to ten but it swelled to 18 pt deficit by the fourth. we fought back pretty good and tried to trailblazer them, cutting it to six with 3 minutes left but, as is always the case, we expended so much energy to come back that we didn't have enough to close the final little bit and they extended the lead as we forced shots and passes in the final minutes.

all in all it was a frustrating experience for me. ups and downs. i finished with 12pts, 3-3 from downtown(my jumper is wet now), 5 rb, 2 assists, 5 fouls in about 17 minutes of play. more importantly, a loss in a game that was important to win. i think i was our top scorer, problem was that none of us had a good game offensively, endre had 9pts, ditliev had 8 i think, its tough when no one else is scoring. i felt responsible, i have to be on the floor at the end of games, especially since we don't have corrie available yet. its just hard when you are down so much, you press a little to hard instead of being patient. i'll just have to take it as a costly lesson. here is the game recap from our website, in danish though.

our team page with photos of all the players is updated