THE DREAM LEAGUE
National Basketball Tournaments
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Tigers Red (LA) 63, Minneapolis Lakers 45 |
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Minneapolis Disappoints | |
Tigers Unveil 7-Footer from China
LAS VEGAS, NV -- In the first round of the LVI, the Minneapolis Lakers lost big against the 7-foot Zhao-Xu "Max" Zhang and what was supposed to be the Tigers Youth Club's "B" squad. Little did the Lakers know it would portend a most disappointing weekend, especially with no chance of redemption in Dream League's Asian American National Championship (AANC) on Sunday, since they had already booked flights for midday on Sunday, unbeknownst to them at the time in direct conflict with the AANC. The Lakers were only down 34-24 at the half, but things weren't looking good. Power forward Hank Huang (#3), who had impressive stints at both the 2005 AANC and the 2005 December Gold Rush, started out just 1-for-8. Gold Rush Three-Point Champion James McRoberts (#2) got off only 2-for-3 from downtown. And they were being outrebounded 16-7. It wasn't even Zhang, who had only 1 blocked shot up through halftime, leading the way on the boards. Shawn Shimizu led the Tigers Red with 5 of his eventual 7 rebounds heading into the intermission. The only bright spot for the Lakers was Joe Carlini (#22) with 9 at the half, but he would only score 4 more points the rest of the way. Huang shot a little bit better in the 2nd half, but McRoberts was a cold 1-for-6 to end the night with a mere 9 points. The Tigers Red closed out the Lakers by a comfortable 18 points as Zhang frustrated Carlini and Huang, tallying 4 blocked shots -- Huang ended up with only 3 rebounds. The rest of the team had balanced scoring. Shimizu led the way with 10 points and Erich Chung (#10) dished out 7 assists. The Tigers Red outboarded the Lakers 33-16. How they fared The next day, the Tigers Red missed out on a golden opportunity to outdo their older sibling Tigers Blue. They faced Pacific Coast Real Estate, but came up short by 10 points -- Tigers Blue had lost by 3 to Pac Coast the night before (you can't help but wonder if Zhang should have been playing with Tigers Blue, which had their starting frontline absent). That setup a 3rd Place game against the up-and-coming LA Dragon's Den, which has only two years of experience at LVI's top AA-Gold level. The Tigers couldn't do it, losing 56-47. The Minneapolis Lakers fared worse. After the blowout by Tigers Red, they lost by 25 to a rather depleted Tigers Blue, which was missing their starting power forward and last year's MVP, Nic Echevestre, and center Tae Lee. The curse of the Chicago Dragons' LVI appearances seems to have followed Carlini to the Lakers. Due to the large point differential disparity, they will most likely be forced to move down to AA-Silver. Incidentally, the AA-Silver champion was the Tigers Hoop Squad, which means we could have three teams represented by the Tigers organization in LVI 2007. The disappointing performance by the Lakers, one of the few teams to have beaten Southbay Shootout in tournament play during last year's December Gold Rush in SF, will likely result in a plummet in the rankings, at least for now. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tigers Red (LA) | 34 | 0 | 29 | 0 | - | 63 |
| Minneapolis Lakers | 24 | 0 | 21 | 0 | - | 45 |
Boxscore
| Tigers Red (LA) - 63 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinn, Matt | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Chung, Erich | 3 / 7 [0.429] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9 | |
| Ha, Tan | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 | |
| Hamner, Michael | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |
| Lai, Michael | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| Oshita, Shaun | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |
| Ouye, Casey | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| Shimizu, Shawn | 4 / 8 [0.500] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 10 | |
| Zhang, Zhao-Xu "Max" | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| 23 / 40 [0.575] | 8 / 13 [0.615] | 9 / 14 [0.643] | 33 | 17 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 13 | 63 | ||
| Minneapolis Lakers - 45 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlini, Joe | 4 / 9 [0.444] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 5 / 6 [0.833] | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 13 | |
| Fong, Jack | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Hacknorath, Oulay | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| Huang, Hank | 4 / 15 [0.267] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 10 | |
| Jahnke, Ben | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| McRoberts, James | 3 / 8 [0.375] | 3 / 6 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| Quangvan, Alan | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Simmer, Dan | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| Sitthisay, Will | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 16 / 47 [0.340] | 6 / 18 [0.333] | 7 / 12 [0.583] | 16 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 45 | ||