THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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2010 Summer AAA (NYC) |
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Playoff Preview, Keys and Coconut Water |
It’s that time again, playoffs baby!!!! And this summer, we’ll be doing something a little different with our playoff setup. We’re ditching the loser’s bracket due to our short season, and will be going with 3 game series for the entire playoffs. So be ready to play double headers boys (and old men aka Arif Ansari & Andre Liu aka Tri-State War Dog, oldest team in the league.) With the double headers, teams should be stacking up on Coconut Water (it’s the fountain of youth, just ask Kash. He credits his resurgence in ball lately to coconut water). Before we get into goodness that is coconut water, here’s how the seeding looks for the playoffs.  1. Tri-State War Dog (6-0) 2. Moneyball (3-3) 3. BK Hustlas (3-3) 4. Bad Boys (2-4) 5. Good News Bears (1-5) 1.Tri-State War Dog ended the season undefeated and look strong heading into the playoffs. They finally have all their guys ready to go and the bye week will give the old guys tons of rest. With Chris Kwan heating up towards the end of the season, expect a three-headed guard attack with Kwan spotting up for 3’s, Vegas leaking out ahead and Miah playing in-between. Andre and Felix will be guides once again, hoping to win another AAA championship, while Nazar Kahn and Arif Ansari will be patrolling the paint, banging down low fighting for boards and put backs. 2.Moneyball is in an odd situation. They were 2-1 (only loss to War Dog) and looked strong even with the departure of Ray Huang but then the injury bug hit them and hit them hard. Sol Choe and John Lee, two key pieces, missed multiple games in losses. It got so bad they had to steal Nazar Kahn for their final regular season game against War Dog. They may be the 2 seed but they’ll need to bring the best out of the guys on their current roster and hope Lee and Choe can play injured. It’s the playoffs baby! 3.BK Hustlas have probably made the most progression from the start of the season to the end. Championship teams always have a good story to share and if BK wins this thing, it’ll be a story about how they got better as a team and gelled like championship teams should, it’s what makes it worth that much more. Lewis Leung is a legit threat from end to end, while Phivan Quach has turned into a man hell-bent on getting to the rack. Their size inside with Ilye and Phu Tran, make them a formidable defensive team. Expect their matchup against Moneyball to be a great series, like those old Knicks-Heat series in the 90’s. 4.Bad Boys lost their final regular season to BK but can still make a run if they can get the basics down. They have two solid pieces in guard Tai James and big Albert Chen. If they can get those guys working well, they’ll give any team fits. They also have guys who can make shots on their team, but their problem all season has been recognizing the mismatches and turnovers. Too many TO’s lead to unattempted shots, and for Bad Boys, that’s not a good recipe. They’ll face the Good News Bears, who gave them a good game last time out. Here’s to hoping they can rally and show the league their Bad Boy moniker isn’t just an attempt at scaring teams before games start. 5.Good News Bears finally got some Good News with a win last week but they need guys to show up to this playoff series tomorrow. If they try to win with 5 guys in a 3 game series, they won’t be able to move after. Bears should be confident with their top guys playing well. Sung Im hit that big 3 last week, Victor Suh is playing extremely well, Rich Lee (when he’s at the games) is one of the best shooters in the league, and Eric Rhee’s solid play all season, can lead to a series upset against Bad Boys but they need guys to show up. We’ll have to see what tomorrow at 12:30pm brings through the Julia Richman gym doors for the Bears. Round 1 (4vs 5) Keys: Bad Boys (4) vs Good News Bears (5) – Bad Boys need to limit their TO’s, get Albert Chen more touches and control the boards. For Good News Bears, they need the 3-point shot to fall. When they’re hitting from outside, they’re a tough out, but if those shots don’t fall, it’s going to be a long series. Key Players – Eric Rhee for GNB. He’s going to be handling most of the PG duties, and will have to guide his team. He’s got a good shot and makes great decisions, it’s time to step it up to another level. Evan Leong for Bad Boys. The man can shoot, we’ve witnessed it but he’s in a funk and if he can get out of it for this series, it’ll go a long way to solidifying the BB team. By the way, for those of you wondering what Coconut Water, it is a much better alternative than drinking Gatorade. It’s a natural hydrator, and won’t cramp you up unlike Gatorade, which just makes you need more water. We’ve heard about Coconut water through the grapevine but it wasn’t until Andre Liu convinced us in a weekend tournament in NJ, where his team made a deep run with Coconut by their side. Since then the news of Coconut Water has spread to tournaments in Chicago, Toronto, Dallas and soon to be, Las Vegas, where Andre is taking a team to compete for a DL National Championship. Here’s some reading material for you non-believers.: Coconut Water Is Nature’s Gatorade With the Coconut Water, We Actually Have a Mix of Electrolytes – ABC News Drink up fellas! |