Spring 2017: Franchise B League Champs: Mean Machine

Mean Machine rides defense to tite Ben MacDonald Finals MVP
Mean Machine 57 Big Baller Brand 50

Noah 14 points, 2/10 from deep, 4/6 from the line, 4 steals, 1 d board, 1 assist. 

Finals! Sorry about the delay for the writeup. Temporarily lost the scoresheet. I did a massive finals preview, so onto the game.

 One piece of breaking news before the game was that BBB’s Arinella was nursing an injured hamstring. For someone who’s game depends on quickness, this was baaaaaad news. To start out the game, Mean Machine got out to a quick 10-2 lead on the back of a couple of Coburn buckets. He also had a steal and was hounding Jet all over the floor. I thought Jet wasn’t at 100% but he was healthy enough to play and be somewhat effective. Mean Machine looked much better than BBB at this point. I thought a huge reason for this was that MM plays with 4 guys on the floor who are threats to score or make plays for others, while BBB only had 2 in Cawley and Jet since Etheridge came off the bench. I thought this was a big mistake, especially since MM had good defenders in Ben and Coburn to throw at Cawley and Jet.

 After a Noah triple brought the lead to 17-2, things were looking really bad for BBB. They finally brought Etheridge in. Noah guarded him and did a GREAT job. Mike had been fantastic this season but he just wasn’t the same in this one. Noah had the size to not get pushed around on Mike’s hard drives, and when he did get to the rim, he was not converting at his usual rate. With BBB struggling offensively, MM rode a balanced offensive attack to a 33-18 lead. The teams actually played even ball after the 17-2 start.

BBB would make things interesting as they went on a 6-0 run to start the second half and cut the lead to 9. After a few more minutes, MM held the lead 38-31 and it looked like we would have a game. Then, Nate Dogg drilled a three. Cawley matched it with a triple of his own to bring the lead back down to 7. Ben would drive to the cup for a layup extending the lead to 9. Cawley followed this by getting to the line, hitting both free throws, then Etheridge found him the next possession for a bucket, then Jet found Cawley for another basket, and we had a 3 point game after Cawley’s personal 6-0 run.

 Tom Coburn had seen enough. He drove hard to the rim and converted the and-1. After making the free throw, MM was in front 46-40 and time was starting to wind down. Cawley scored again to bring his team back within 4. BBB would start fouling. Nate hit both free throws, and after a BBB miss, Coburn made both free throws as well to make the score 50-42. Etheridge would go to the line next after getting fouled on a drive and convert 1 of 2. Nate made two more free throws to bring the lead back up to 9, 52-43. Jeff Doyle would hit a 3 for BBB to cut it back down to 6, but it never really got any closer as BBB could only muster a couple more baskets despite sending MM to the line a bunch. MM takes down the championship 57-50.

 MVP: Ben MacDonald. He was the best player on the floor in this one. Despite his primary matchup scoring 21, he led the winning team in scoring (18 pts) and dished out a game high 4 assists. His 4 steals also helped shut down the BBB offense.

 Other grades/notes:

 Coburn (A-): Tom did great defensively and had a huge and-1 at a critical time, along with knocking down his free throws. Jet being somewhat hampered by injury takes a tiny bit of luster off though.

 Rubin (B+): Good defensively and didn’t make any mistakes out there.

 Nate (A-): The two triples he hit were huge as offense was at a premium in this one, and he only needed to attempt 4 to do it.

 Noah (B+): 2-10 on threes is not good, but he was great defensively limiting Etheridge and also racking up steals.

Jet (C): Got outplayed by Tom. Have to think the injury affected him.

 Cawley (A-): Did what he could out there scoring the ball and his second half surge made this one into a game. Did well defensively as he guarded Ben and Rubin who both scored below their season average.

 Etheridge (B): Not Mike’s best, but he was dominant on the boards, grabbing more offensive than MM’s entire team. He also was out for all or most of MM’s big run to start the game. He just didn’t have the same touch he normally does.

 Harry (C): Harry’s contributions are often strategic and tonight his team got blasted to start the game and upset in the title game.

 Rossiter (C-): Always amazes me this guy doesn’t grab more rebounds.

Doyle (C+): Did ok in limited playing time but this guy has scored 20 points in a game before. His team needed an offensive spark out of him in this one.

Scores, Box Scores & Write-Ups

Playoff: week 12

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