Tucker helps T-Birds end Toros home win streak

[biba]

Tucker helps T-Birds end Toros home win streak

01/12/08 - NBA Development League (D-League) Austin Toros

http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3579763


AUSTIN, TX - The Albuquerque Thunderbirds held off a late surge by the Austin Toros in the fourth quarter to hold onto the 123-117 victory on Saturday night at the Austin Convention Center.

The Toros were unable to overcome an 18-point deficit and saw their franchise record 11 game home winning streak come to an end.

The Toros had no answer the entire night for newly assigned Phoenix Suns forward Alando Tucker, who scored a team-high 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Tucker was red hot in the first half, scoring 20 of his points before halftime on 8-of-12 shooting.

Albuquerque used a 14-0 run to begin the third quarter and pushed the lead 78-60 following a pair of free throws by Alando Tucker with 9:16 remaining in the quarter.

Austin would get the lead down one point twice early into the fourth quarter but could not get any closer to the Thunderbirds, who improved their record to 7-8 on the season.

With the loss to Albuquerque, Austin fell to 13-5 and had their six game winning streak snapped.

Keith Langford scored a season-high 36 points along with six rebounds and three assists.

San Antonio Spurs assignee Ian Mahinmi was plagued with foul trouble throughout the game and was held to four points and five rebounds.

Cheyne Gadson added 22 points and nine assists and Justin Reed pitched in a season-high 13 points.

The Thunderbirds finished the game with five players scoring in double figures including 19 points from Daniel Horton and Kevin Pittsnogle. Josh Gross added 12 and Ali Berdiel had 11 points along with four rebounds.


Austin Toros
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-A 3GM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS
Keith Langford 43:40 12-17 3-4 9-10 1 5 6 3 5 1 3 0 36
Cheyne Gadson 32:11 8-9 1-1 5-5 0 2 2 9 3 0 1 0 22
Ian Mahinmi 16:03 1-2 0-0 2-2 2 3 5 0 5 0 2 1 4
Marcus Williams 28:06 2-8 1-4 0-0 1 4 5 2 1 2 2 0 5
Kris Lang 16:15 2-5 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 4 0 3 0 4
DerMarr Johnson 28:59 2-10 1-6 5-5 0 3 3 1 4 5 1 0 10
Justin Bowen 21:29 6-8 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 1 1 0 2 0 12
Justin Reed 21:06 5-13 0-0 3-3 1 4 5 0 5 0 1 0 13
Carldell Johnson 16:21 0-2 0-1 5-7 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 5
Anthony Fuqua 15:50 3-4 0-0 0-0 2 1 3 1 4 0 2 2 6
Eric Dawson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 240 41-78 6-16 29-32 8 26 34 19 32 8 17 3 117
52.6% 37.5% 90.6% Team Rebs: 6 Total TO: 17

Albuquerque Thunderbirds
REBOUNDS
PLAYER POS MIN FGM-A 3GM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS
Ali Berdiel 23:08 3-7 1-2 4-5 0 4 4 2 4 1 1 0 11
Abdul Mills 21:50 2-2 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 4 4 2 0 0 6
Darvin Ham 36:45 3-6 0-0 1-6 0 1 1 1 3 0 3 1 7
Alando Tucker 38:26 12-22 1-2 8-9 5 5 10 2 3 0 3 0 33
Cory Underwood 15:53 2-4 0-0 4-5 1 2 3 1 3 0 0 0 8
Josh Gross 32:12 4-10 1-3 3-3 0 5 5 0 2 0 1 1 12
Daniel Horton 28:26 4-6 2-3 9-9 0 1 1 10 3 1 3 0 19
Kevin Pittsnogle 26:14 5-9 3-6 6-6 1 7 8 0 2 1 3 0 19
Ramon Dyer 17:06 3-7 0-1 2-4 2 4 6 0 2 1 0 1 8
Serge Angounou 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Elijah Ingram 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Ejike Ugboaja 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DJ Strawberry 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 240 38-73 8-17 39-49 9 29 38 20 26 6 14 3 123
52.1% 47.1% 79.6% Team Rebs: 7 Total TO: 16

[Bruno]

Boxscore (http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20080112/ABQAUS/boxscore.html)

:depressed Bad game for Mahinmi.

By looking at the boxscore it seems that the whole Toros frontcourt wasn't really good in this game. It's kinda surprising.
Pittsnogle with the payback.
Next is the showcase. :hungry:

[tomcat]

Tucker was having his way in the first half with Williams. I think this is the reason for Williams' early exit to the bench (along with the ill-advised shots). Tucker had 20 at the break. Williams should have gone overseas and that would have definitely toughened him up.

Second half the duo of Bowen and Langford guarded Tucker much better. Once Tucker began guarding Langford he slowed a bit due to having to play defense also.

Langford was Langford as we have come to expect. His play of the night had to be the facial slam dunk that was chest2chest with Darvin Ham. It brought the house down! I have come to appreciate his rebounding ability as a guard----dude can get up. He shot the 3 ball well going 3/4 and had several 3 point plays in the clutch.

Johnson was a big disappointment. He was virtually invisible in the game unless he was at the freethrow line. He won't make it back to the league like this. He seems as if he should be picked "just because" and its not going to happen.

Reed by far had his best game with the Toros but sometimes takes bad shots at the absolute wrong time.

Justin Bowen played a lot of 4 and 5 when we went small and did a nice job. He knows where to be and when to be there. He and Langford connected on quite a few drive and dish plays. He seems to get more physical than Reed surprisingly since Reed has the body.

Gadson was good (better than Squeaky). He is racking up the assists as he should with Ian, Langford, Johnson and Williams to dish to. He scored early and then didn't score until 4 straight layups in the final minute when the TBirds did not want to foul giving him clear lanes to the basket.

Squeaky took ill advised shots that landed him on the pine early. Players need to know their role.

Ian and Lang did not play enough to get going. The refs were too whistle happy in the beginning. Totally took our big men out of the game. Had Ian been able to play I think we win due to roughly 16 pts from him and a big man presence in the middle on defense. TBirds had lots of layups and dunks.

BTW, Pittsnogle gave us the business with 19 pts. He seemed to love it while doing it!

[boutons_]

Ian got 2 fouls in first 2 minutes, sat
When he got in 2nd, fouled, sat
came back in 3rd, first play, 4th foul, sat

Nothing to add to what Ian can do, but the fouls were really stupid. Couldn't say without replay if the fouls on Lang and Ian were good calls, but it surely took them out of the game.

I didn't know Lang at all, he's pretty beefy and mobile for a big, had some pretty good low block moves.

Toros coach got ejected. Does that happen much in DL games?

[TDMVPDPOY]

where is washington on the scoresheet?

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

where is washington on the scoresheet?
In Turkey.

[biba]

In Turkey.

In Greece.

"1/5/08
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope your year is filled with peace and happiness. I am excited to announce that I have officially signed a contract with Aris Thessaloniki, an A1 Men's Team in Greece. They are an amazing team currently ranked at #3 in points behind Panathinakos and Olympiacos. I look forward to meeting and playing with their talented players and coaches. It will be an good opportunity for me to make an impact..."

[ChumpDumper]

I usually don't complain about the refs, but they were really quite bad last night even though our big men still should have done a better job adjusting. Coach Snyder got himself thrown out so he wouldn't have to watch any more of it.

I only have a few observations to add to tomcat's recap.

- Langford put the team on his back in the second half, where I'm pretty sure he scored over 20 of his points. He also shut down Tucker for almost the entire third quarter. The Toros blew their chance to take the lead when they went away from Langford late. DerMarr was the worst culprit in this regard. He thought he saw some mismatches and kept chucking. As good as his shot selection was last game, it was horrible this game.

- Cheyne had one of his more complete games and found a good balance between scoring and passing. My only gripe is he should have frozen out DerMarr once he turned into a ballhog. Why keep passing to a chucker who is getting one point per shot when Langford was racking up over two pps? It might have been a good idea to just switch Langford to the point and just watch him go like earlier in the season.

- Pittsnogle? Kevin, if you had played like this just once for the Toros, you wouldn't have been beat out by Anthony Fuqua and a guy who has played a total of 30 minutes this season. Keep it up.

[Bruno]

The thing I'm looking for is a McDonald article about Toros and Mahinmi next week during the showcase. Right now, we don't even know what Spurs think about Mahinmi since they send him to Austin.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

showcase?

[ChumpDumper]

showcase?NBA TV Presents D-League Showcase Presented By adidas

NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2008 – NBA TV will spotlight the dreams and aspirations of more than 150 NBA hopefuls when the network presents the 2008 D-League Showcase from Monday, Jan. 14 through Thursday, Jan. 17. One of the most popular events on the D-League calendar, the Showcase, which will feature all 14 teams, has become the annual meeting place for NBA general managers, scouts and player personnel directors, who are looking for players who can bolster their roster. NBA TV will televise all 14 games when the D-League assembles for the 2008 Showcase at Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho.

NBA TV and D-League.com will once again take a comprehensive and innovative approach to the event by delivering special features, including video profiles, scouting reports and player interviews, and introducing new technologies and production methods for possible use during future NBA telecasts. NBA TV and D-League.com’s event coverage will include:

- Live Webcasts of all Showcase games
- All-Access looks into team locker rooms prior to the game and at halftime
- Enhanced microphones on select players to capture the sounds of the event
- Daily Blogs from D-League President Dan Reed

Los Angeles Lakers legend and two-time NBA champion Norm Nixon will team with former 12-year NBA star and current Utah Jazz studio analyst Thurl Bailey to evaluate the talent. Rick Kamla and Andre Aldridge will co-host NBA TV’s coverage and handle play-by-play duties, in addition to delivering interviews with NBA player personnel executives and general managers in attendance.

NBA teams have called up 68 D-League players 101 times since the league was founded in 2001. Among the D-League stars expected to catch the attention of NBA TV’s cameras are Taurean Green of the Idaho Stampede (Portland Trail Blazers); JamesOn Curry of the Iowa Energy (Chicago Bulls); Yuta Tabuse of the Anaheim Arsenal; and longtime NBA veteran Randy Livingston of the Idaho Stampede.

link and full TV schedule (http://www.nba.com/dleague/news/showcase_080110.html)

The Toros play Sioux Falls Wednesday and LA Thursday, both at noon central live on NBAtv and the internets.

[tomcat]

Sometimes players have a distorted view of their worth ...... :rolleyes Dermarr Johnson.

Heard he blew off Chip England for a "optional" workout saying "....no thanks I'm cool..."

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

NBA TV Presents D-League Showcase Presented By adidas

NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2008 – NBA TV will spotlight the dreams and aspirations of more than 150 NBA hopefuls when the network presents the 2008 D-League Showcase from Monday, Jan. 14 through Thursday, Jan. 17. One of the most popular events on the D-League calendar, the Showcase, which will feature all 14 teams, has become the annual meeting place for NBA general managers, scouts and player personnel directors, who are looking for players who can bolster their roster. NBA TV will televise all 14 games when the D-League assembles for the 2008 Showcase at Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho.

NBA TV and D-League.com will once again take a comprehensive and innovative approach to the event by delivering special features, including video profiles, scouting reports and player interviews, and introducing new technologies and production methods for possible use during future NBA telecasts. NBA TV and D-League.com’s event coverage will include:

- Live Webcasts of all Showcase games
- All-Access looks into team locker rooms prior to the game and at halftime
- Enhanced microphones on select players to capture the sounds of the event
- Daily Blogs from D-League President Dan Reed

Los Angeles Lakers legend and two-time NBA champion Norm Nixon will team with former 12-year NBA star and current Utah Jazz studio analyst Thurl Bailey to evaluate the talent. Rick Kamla and Andre Aldridge will co-host NBA TV’s coverage and handle play-by-play duties, in addition to delivering interviews with NBA player personnel executives and general managers in attendance.

NBA teams have called up 68 D-League players 101 times since the league was founded in 2001. Among the D-League stars expected to catch the attention of NBA TV’s cameras are Taurean Green of the Idaho Stampede (Portland Trail Blazers); JamesOn Curry of the Iowa Energy (Chicago Bulls); Yuta Tabuse of the Anaheim Arsenal; and longtime NBA veteran Randy Livingston of the Idaho Stampede.

link and full TV schedule (http://www.nba.com/dleague/news/showcase_080110.html)

The Toros play Sioux Falls Wednesday and LA Thursday, both at noon central live on NBAtv and the internets.
Oh, thanks. :tu