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Subscribe to our NewsletterTwo weeks have now been completed in the Summer League and the teams seem pretty balanced. There is currently one undefeated team (Greatest Show on Courts) though that comes with an asterisk as one of their wins came against a team playing with just four players. On the other end of the standings is the lone winless team (The Pipe Layers) who could just as easily be sitting at 2-0, were it not for bad execution in the final minutes of each of their first two games. And in between those two teams are 6 teams sitting at 1-1. So let's see how we got to this point and at the end of this recap I will atttempt to come up with power rankings for the 8 teams. But before we get to the recaps, you will all remember that in the opening week last season I introduced us all to the Sporfie app and assured everyone that no refs were injured in the filming of these games followed by this clip of ref Dave Siegel:
Well unbeknownst to me, Dave is apparently contractually required to fall at least once per season, just further justifying the raises for the officials. But what makes this one even more impressive is that before the game, he and Dave Laub coordinated this simultaneous fall (future touring act called "The Falling Famous Daves")
The Silent Killers 64 - The Pipe Layers 55: Both of these teams came into this game having lost their first game and both were desperate to put those games behind them to avoid the dreaded 0-2 start. The Silent Killers stormed out to a quick 8-2 lead with 5 of those points coming from team captain Siri Carpien. However, Adam Hynes and his Pipe Layers answered with a 14-4 run of their own taking a 16-12 lead midway through the half. This is pretty much how this game went for most of the game before The Silent Killers eventually pulled away late in the game. The Silent Killers took a 6 point lead into the half, eventually stretching that lead to 10 but The Pipe Layers again answered and cut the lead to just 2 points with 11 minutes remaining. The Pipe Layers were led by their big three of Orlando Jean-Charles (22 points, 7 rebs, 4 assists and 3 steals), Siri Carpien (16 pts/7 rebs) and Jason Pompeo (15 points/11 rebs). Any time The Silent Killers needed a big basket, Orlando seemed to come up with a play whether it was driving past defenders for a layup or getting into the lane and pulling up for a midrange jumper. From the 11 minute mark to 5 minutes remaining in the game, the two teams traded off baskets with The Silent Killers maintaining their 3 point lead (54-51) with just under 5 minutes to play. That is when Rory Schulman was hit by an inadvertent Adam Hynes elbow leading to a long delay as Rory had a gash above his eye which required 8 stitches. Last year's winner of the Blue Tent Award was definitely not overselling this injury. After a 10 minute delay, the game resumed with The Silent Killers determined to get the vicTORY for RORY and that is exactly what they did, quickly extending their 3 point lead to 9. It is possible the long delay threw them off their game, but for the second straight week, The Pipe Layers looked very disjointed in the final 4 minutes, again costing them a possible win. Ben Carr led his team with 20 points, followed by Adam Hynes (12 points/11 rebs) and Andrew Merel (11 points and 8 rebounds). Looking at the stat sheet, there were two stats that really stood out in determining the outcome of this game: (1) The Pipe Layers were 0-8 from 3-point range and (2) the free throw disparity was the real difference with The Silent Killers hitting 15/22 fts while The Pipe Layers were just 3/4 from the charity stripe. It doesn't get any easier this week for The Pipe Layers as they take on the 2-0 Greatest Show on Courts.
The Silent Killers vs The Pipe Layers Highlights
Splash 67 - 99 Problems (But a Swish Ain't One) 61: Splash was missing Brandon Wendel for this game but was happy to welcome their top 2 picks, Phil Romero and Shamar Mason, into the fold. 99 Problems was at full strength. The big question for Splash coming into the season was whether they would have enough height to compete with some of the bigger teams. I'm still not sure we know the answer to this question but the one thing that was obvious from watching this team is that their speed, athleticism and youth are going to give teams problems. And if captain Jon Ackerman continues to average 10.5 rebounds per game, then size might not matter. Splash was firing on all cylinders for the first 15 minutes of the game leading to an early 26-14 first half lead. Shamar told reporters before the game that he expected to be rusty, having not played basketball since the Peak League ended back in March. Well if that is what rusty looks like then sign me up. Whether it was playmaking and finding his teammates for easy baskets, defending one of the toughest guys to guard in the JCC league in Jorge Mangui or getting buckets of his own, Shamar's full arsenal was on display in this contest. Shamar led Splash in scoring with 21 points but he got a lot of help from the trio of Jon Ackerman (16 poitns/10 rebs), Phil Romero (15 points/14 rebs) and Adam Driansky (10 points). While Splash dominated the first 15 minutes, 99 Problems flipped the script for the final 9 minutes of the first half, closing the half out on a 21-7 run and taking a 35-33 lead into the half. Team captain Bryan Minasian dominated the first half, scoring 14 of his 15 points and keeeping many possessions alive for his teammates with his work on the glass (13 rebounds). Bryan even hit a 3-pointer followed up with his best Flex Huberman impersonation.
Jason Lorenzo contributed 10 of his team high 18 points in the first half, showing off his inside/outside combination of scoring skills. Splash opened the second half much like they started the game, taking a 45-38 lead with 13:00 remaining. What happened over the next 5 minutes of game action will be retold to generations of Auyeungs. And fortunately for Rick he will have the video to prove it (knowing Rick and his advanced computer skills, I can only imagine the kinds of reels he's already put togther of this Rickdiculous scoring explosion)
Rick scored his team's next 13 points, including 3 straight threes. Then when a defender finally came out to challenge Rick, he blew right by him for an easy layup. He topped it off with a midrange turnaround jumper in the lane. Fortunately for Splash, Ackerman and Shamar answered with three pointers of their own during this run to keep the game close. With 5:00 remianing, the game was all squared up at 54 apiece but in the closing minutes it was too much of the Shamar/Ackerman combination that powered Splash to the 6-point victory. Amazingly, the threesome of Jorge Mangui, Mike Gerstein and Steve Shelton were held to just 11 total points on 4/29 combined shooting (not something I anticipate happening often). Both teams moved to 1-1 in the standings.
Splash vs 99 Problems (But a Swish Ain't One) Highlights
Greatest Show on Courts 72 - Bagels & Blox 63: This was the marquee matchup of the week with both teams coming in having won their opening games. Greatest Show captain Matt Ceccarelli was in the lab all week trying to come up with the best defensive strategy to try and contain Jamal Berry (coming off his monster 40-point opener). The strategy was to mix up the defensive strategies to keep Bagels & Blox guessing and feeling uncomfortable. Early on, the two teams were trading baskets, with neither team building a lead larger than 6 points in the first 10 minutes. Bagels & Blox got big contributions from Jake Lillie (3 threes) and Jon Kanarek (2 threes) in the first half which was definitely needed with Jamal being held to 9 first half points. Mike "Neighbor AKA Flex" Huberman went off in the first half for Greatest Show, scoring 18 of his 24 points on a combination of deep threes and fast break baskets (and there was at least one flex after a made basket). Neighbor seems to have found his happy place on this roster and if he continues playing the way he has in the first two games, this team is going to be really tough to beat. Greatest Show closed the first half stong and went into halftime with a 40-32 lead. Matt Ceccarelli scored 22 points on a very efficient 7/11 shooitng from the field. The big story of this game was the turnovers committed by Bagels & Blox. It was a combination of excellent defense and sloppy passing that made it really tough for Bagels & Blox to ever really get into a groove offensively. I lost count of how many turnovers they actually had but it definitely topped 20, inspiring a new team logo:
Team turnover (Apple) - in case it wasn't obvious
In the second half, Matt Birnbach was the one hitting three-pointers for Bagels & Blox, to help keep them in the game. When it comes to defending Jamal, the best you can hope for is to contain him and make him really work for his points. Jamal added 15 points in the second half, en route to 24 for the game (to go along with 10 rebounds and 4 steals), but he had to work hard for everything he got. Jake finished with 14 points, Birnbach added 9 and Kanarek contributed 8 points. For Greatest Show, Eric Sass had a very strong all around game scoring 8 points to go with 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Will Howarth, who Matt hid in a closet under his stairs leading up to the draft, continues to be the steal of the draft coming late in the 5th round (8 points/7 rebs/3 steals). And I feel like my captain, Jason Narod, would be very upset if I didn't point out that Justin Dank had a more difficult time offensively when facing a team with 5 defenders, though his impact was still felt defensively (5 steals) and he did attempt 11 FTs.
Greatest Show on Courts vs Bagels & Blox Highlights
JCC You in the Finals 42 - Team Psycho 32: Yes you are reading that score correctly and yes this game did set offensive basketball back a century (the game above was 40-32 at half). Team Psycho was playing without their big man in the middle, Dan Amsellem. And this was not the ideal week to be missing a center with Damien Jackson and Jim Korm making their season debuts for JCC You in the Finals, though they were again playing without Steve Bachman and Alex Stone. Team Psycho got out to a quick 8-0 lead thanks in large part to 2 three-pointers by Drew Mandelbaum. JCC You failed to score a basket for the first 6 minutes of the game. However, from that point on they went on a 25-5 run, to close the half with a 25-13 lead. It didn't take long for the big man duo to build cemistry with each other. Without Dan clogging up the middle, Team Psycho was forced to play zone and Damien showed off his prowess as a passer, consistently finding Jim in the gaps in the zone. After the two hooked up several times for beautiful assists and layups, team captain Jason Narod had a big smile on his face for having drafted these two bigs (even if Jason was 0-12 from deep at that point in the season). Team Psycho managed to cut the lead to just 3 points (32-29) with 12:07 remaining in the game. However, they would fail to score a single point for the next 10 minutes and only scored 3 points total over the final 12:07. Team Psycho made just 11/60 shots in the game (18.3%). JCC You wasn't much better, only converting 29% from the field but it was enough to get the job done. Colin Neff led the way for Team Psycho with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Drew Mandelbaum and TJ Farrell each scored 6 points in the losing effort. For JCC You, Damien led the way with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Jim Korn added 12 points of his own to go with 7 rebounds and Ed Seiden added a doule-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Jason Stern continues to make an impact on the boards (second in the league in offensive rebounds) as well as playing lockdown defense.
JCC You in the Finals vs Team Psycho Highlights
Lai-up Lines:
I am testing out a new segment this week in honor of Eric Lai (and hopefully this doesn't get me removed from the IHM waitlist). Eric has a tendency to miss open layups from time to time so we are going to call this segment Lai-up lines and it's basically a blooper reel of missed layups. Enjoy
Who better to start off with than Eric Lai himself?
Justin Dank maybe should've gone with the right hand
Mitt Birnbach with the not so pretty finger roll
No flex after this play by Mike Huberman in an otherwise great game (ruining the great Hogwarts pass)
Stats Leaders:
Points: Jamal Berry 32 ppg
Mike Huberman 21.5 ppg
Shamar Mason 21 ppg
Rebounds: Eric Sass 14 rpg
Phil Romero 14 rpg
Bryan Minasian 13 rpg
Dan Amsellem 13 rpg
Assists: (Total)
Jordan Perlmutter 11
Mike Huberman 10
Justin Dank/Eric Sass 9
Steals (Total)
Jamal Berry 8
Justin Dank/Andrew Merel 7
Three-point FG Made:
Ed Seiden 8
Jason Lorenzo/Mike Huberman 6
Power Rankings through 2 weeks
Well I attempted to come up with power rankings but it still feels too early to make any real judgments aside from the top team
1) Greatest Show on Courts - The lone undefeated team, this team features a unique combination of size (Eric Sass/Matt Ceccarelli/Will Howarth), quickness (Justin Dank/Mike Huberman) and has a ton of firepower on both ends of the floor. Captain Matt Ceccarelli is the early favorite for GM of the year
2-8) TBD next week
Good luck to all this coming week
