The evening started off with some major question marks on a night when our fearless leader (Dorfman) was in Canada entertaining clients, and one of our players just returned from Canada after partying all night with clients (name omitted for legal reasons). Schweid pulled out without officially pulling out (thanks for the non-commit commit) and Joe Barile texted a last minute cancellation to Dorfman. At approximately 6:10pm there were six (Braunstein, Goffin, Deutsch, Ron, Neil Cohen, Zornow) people looking at me wondering who the final player was. There were a few nervous moments as people checked blackberries trying to remember whom (and more importantly if) the eighth and final player was. Then through the door walked in Doug Crane and all was right at Allen Stephenson Middle School. The questions soon turned into one of the better runs of the year in a best of 5 series.
Good Guys – Deutsch, Ron, Smitty, Braunstein
Bad Guys – Zornow, Goffin, Crane, Cohen
The series went the distance with the final game going to 11. I think it’s safe to say that the offensive/defensive match-up of Deutsch and Zornow was possibly the best in the history of the game. Both players are relentless on the defensive end and Zornow’s ability to hit the 15-footer consistently throughout the night changed the complexion of the game. I don’t remember a full breakdown of every game so I will provide some clear thoughts and snippets.
Game 1 was the Doug Crane show as he lit up Smitty for five points, despite solid defense (F-you Dorf and Schweid – ask Doug, I played good defense), and Deutsch got used to Zornow’s first step.
Game 2 Crane went cold, Ron hit three jumpers from the corner and Braunstein and Smitty hit the short jumpers off terrific ball movement to provide the only blowout of the evening.
Games 3 and 4 went to 7-7 and were probably the most solid all around games of the night. Everyone seemed to have their wind (other then Neil who was clearly feeling the effects of his travels as he threw up three air balls and scored zero pts.) and the defensive intensity picked up dramatically. Zornow and Deutsch were battling every trip down the court, Smitty and Crane were exchanging baskets after running through multiple picks, Braunstein had the baseline reverse working (quick tangent – game 4 Braunstein driving in almost the same exact spot as his Achilles injury stumbled and almost fell as Doug and I watched in horror waiting for the scream – thankfully it was a stumble and all was well), Goffin was all over the offensive boards and was having trouble with his put backs, and Ron was starting to hit his shots from deep.
It was agreed that the final game of the night would be to 11 and for more then a few possessions we all regretted it. Missed shots, errant passes and a few “my bads” had us all looking at each other and questioning our decision. However, the game quickly picked up in intensity as the Bad Guys jumped out to the lead and Neil hit his first and most important shot of the evening. With the score 9-6 the Good Guys scored two quick baskets and had a stop on the defensive end leaving them with the ball and a chance at a tie. The next sequence of plays is the reason for my writing the blog. A backdoor cut left me with a wide open lay-up that would have tied the game and shifted the momentum fully to the Good Guys - of course it rolled out and led to an easy basket for the Bad Guys. Good Guys scored on the next possession, but were left staring at me as I let Crane get around a pick and score the final bucket of the evening.
All and all a great run that had great match-ups and intensity – great job everyone
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