ChumpDumper
12-02-2006, 02:32 AM
The Toros dropped to 0-3 for the season in an exciting OT game with the Anaheim Arsenal 107-105.
Jamar Smith led all scorers with 29 points, and tied for high rebounder with fellow Toro Anthony Fuqua with 11 boards. It was a really good night for Jamar; he switched pretty effortlessly between the two forward slots as matchups and his coach dictated. He was pretty much money from 17 feet in, ending up at 11-25 shooting, three of the misses coming on tip-ins late in the game. Hw was hitting from inside and out, mixing in jumpers and drives very intelligently. He's setting into his tweener role pretty nicely on both sides of the court, and that can only make him more attractive to NBA teams looking for versatility.
This team still doesn't have a playmaker, and the guys playing the point didn't show much in the way of moving into that role. Anaheim looks like they may have picked up on in brand new addition Davin White, who tallied up 14 points, 7 assists and 6 steals in his debut (so new his name wasn't even on his jersey). Still, both teams spent much of the 1st quarter trying to find something that would work offensively, reflected in the paltry 15-14 lead the Arsenal built after 15 minutes.
While the Arsenal came to rely on the playmaking and transition buckets from Davin White, the Toros were again stuck with finding the best one-on-one mismatch and exploiting it. Coach Johnson gets some kudos for getting it right when iso-ing Jamar against slower covers like Tyler Smith, but he didn't seem to press his advantage when he had the chance to. The Arsenal were running some of the biggest lineups one will ever see in a D-League game, and the Toros quickness got their opponents into foul trouble very quickly in the fourth and OT periods. Instead of putting in a fairly standard-sized lineup that would continue to rack up the fouls, Johnson tried to meet size with slightly less size, running Jamar at SF when he could have done more damage at the four. I know Brad "Zoidberg" Buckman is a hometown favorite ana good huslter, but he is being overused in many of these situations, especially since he is foul prone and the Toros don't lose any rebounding if they use the excellent-boarding Kris Clack at the three in their smaller lineup.
Special props go to Anthony Fuqua. He racked up 11 boards (six offensive) in 15 minutes of play against some real dreadnaught big men from Anaheim. This guy was buried in a sea of quality bigs last season and could rarely stay out of foul trouble the few times he played early on. His defense improved alot at the end of the season and he has continued his development this season, providing a nice spark off the bench. Only two fouls tonight.
Arsenal forwards and former Spur camp/summer league invites Jamal Williams and Corsley Edwards put up 17 pts and 3 rebounds, and 17 points, 10 boards and 4 blocks respectively.
Boxscore (http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20061201/ANAAUS/boxscore.html)
PS - D-League halftime entertainment entered a new era when the Toros decided to host a karaoke competition. It was advertised so badly by the folks running it, my girlfriend and I were the only competitors. They had to poll the audience twice to determine a winner but my girl prevailed, leaving our oveall head-to-head record and 2-2. It was awesome singing in front of 1600 people, and we were getting high fives and compliments the rest of the night. Sweet. The courstide tickets for a future game were icing on the cake.
The Toros play Anaheim again 7PM Saturday. Fans who bring a can of food for the holiday food drive can get a free ticket with the purchase of one ticket at regular price.
Jamar Smith led all scorers with 29 points, and tied for high rebounder with fellow Toro Anthony Fuqua with 11 boards. It was a really good night for Jamar; he switched pretty effortlessly between the two forward slots as matchups and his coach dictated. He was pretty much money from 17 feet in, ending up at 11-25 shooting, three of the misses coming on tip-ins late in the game. Hw was hitting from inside and out, mixing in jumpers and drives very intelligently. He's setting into his tweener role pretty nicely on both sides of the court, and that can only make him more attractive to NBA teams looking for versatility.
This team still doesn't have a playmaker, and the guys playing the point didn't show much in the way of moving into that role. Anaheim looks like they may have picked up on in brand new addition Davin White, who tallied up 14 points, 7 assists and 6 steals in his debut (so new his name wasn't even on his jersey). Still, both teams spent much of the 1st quarter trying to find something that would work offensively, reflected in the paltry 15-14 lead the Arsenal built after 15 minutes.
While the Arsenal came to rely on the playmaking and transition buckets from Davin White, the Toros were again stuck with finding the best one-on-one mismatch and exploiting it. Coach Johnson gets some kudos for getting it right when iso-ing Jamar against slower covers like Tyler Smith, but he didn't seem to press his advantage when he had the chance to. The Arsenal were running some of the biggest lineups one will ever see in a D-League game, and the Toros quickness got their opponents into foul trouble very quickly in the fourth and OT periods. Instead of putting in a fairly standard-sized lineup that would continue to rack up the fouls, Johnson tried to meet size with slightly less size, running Jamar at SF when he could have done more damage at the four. I know Brad "Zoidberg" Buckman is a hometown favorite ana good huslter, but he is being overused in many of these situations, especially since he is foul prone and the Toros don't lose any rebounding if they use the excellent-boarding Kris Clack at the three in their smaller lineup.
Special props go to Anthony Fuqua. He racked up 11 boards (six offensive) in 15 minutes of play against some real dreadnaught big men from Anaheim. This guy was buried in a sea of quality bigs last season and could rarely stay out of foul trouble the few times he played early on. His defense improved alot at the end of the season and he has continued his development this season, providing a nice spark off the bench. Only two fouls tonight.
Arsenal forwards and former Spur camp/summer league invites Jamal Williams and Corsley Edwards put up 17 pts and 3 rebounds, and 17 points, 10 boards and 4 blocks respectively.
Boxscore (http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20061201/ANAAUS/boxscore.html)
PS - D-League halftime entertainment entered a new era when the Toros decided to host a karaoke competition. It was advertised so badly by the folks running it, my girlfriend and I were the only competitors. They had to poll the audience twice to determine a winner but my girl prevailed, leaving our oveall head-to-head record and 2-2. It was awesome singing in front of 1600 people, and we were getting high fives and compliments the rest of the night. Sweet. The courstide tickets for a future game were icing on the cake.
The Toros play Anaheim again 7PM Saturday. Fans who bring a can of food for the holiday food drive can get a free ticket with the purchase of one ticket at regular price.