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"Why can't we stop the Look Inside offense?" shouts Bobby Sparks. "I don't know. But if Miami Cleo picked this offense, and we picked Outside defense, then we don't have a chance to win this one. It is our weakness. And it's all our losses," said John Walton. "Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Are you watching this game?" Asked Bobby Sparks. "I don't think so."

"I'm happy we won, but don't start getting the big head. From here on out, every game is a playoff game for us. We cannot afford to slip. You guys understand that? Yes we won, but I'm not happy. Fine, we had 3 guys grab double figures in rebounds, BUT THEY STILL OUTREBOUNDED US!!! WE TURNED THE BALL OVER TOO MUCH!!! THEY MATCHED US IN STEALS AND HAD MORE BLOCKS!!! THAT'S DESIRE!!! THEY HAD THAT "WANT TO"!!! WHEN ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO SHOW ME THAT WANT TO?!?" Pio Reina was enraged with his basketball team's performance. "That is not championship basketball. Not going to get it done. Not going to get us to the finals. Not going to get us to the congerence finals. Hell, it won't get us out of the first round. You know better; now do better."

"On the bright side," Pio continued, "welcome back Kyle. Nice to have you visit, Mr. Kamp. Please do stay for a while and make yourself at home. Now I have a question. I'm going to leave this locker room and let you all think about it. My starters don't have to answer this but the bench does; I got a different question for you guys. Hey Bench, you DO know the ball goes IN THE BASKET... right? And starters, spefiically the bigs, you DO know how to score points, right? WE put the ball in the hole, THEN WE STOP THE OTHER TEAM FROM DOING THE SAME!!! THIS IS HOW YOU PLAY BASKETBALL AND WIN!!! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

Walking out of the locker room, Pio looks back at the team. "Nice win. Do better."

Pio Reina grabs his phone to charge it when it goes off in his hands. He opens the incomin text message.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. We're shooting. Hope you know if we make any by the time you wake up. And nice speech after the game yesterday. You rattled a couple of people, and they needed it."

Pio's last coherent thought as he drifts of to sleep is "I hope we wreck the depth chart..."

Day 16 (Saturday 31 December 2022) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Lion Rebels 90 - Carolina Rebels 105
BOBBBSBURGS 46 - Philly Dribble 120
Linndale 87 - 209’s MostWanted 77
San Dominica Warriors 103 - BKDogs 71
The Ashkickers 128 - Sweaty Socks 38
The Beer Bellys 114 - The Philadelphia Spartans 102
Miami Cleo 102 - Hustlas 92
Motor City Waddupdoe 42 - Żubr Białystok 97

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 128 : The Ashkickers
Rebounds : 64 : Philly Dribble
Assists : 39 : Philly Dribble
Steals : 14 : The Ashkickers
Block Shots : 11 : Żubr Białystok

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 30 : K. Knowles (Linndale)
Rebounds : 20 : C. Riggins (Żubr Białystok), S. Klin (Hustlas)
Assists : 12 : D. Santana (Miami Cleo)
Steals : 5 : M. Maurin (Miami Cleo)
Block Shots : 4 : C. Riggins (Żubr Białystok)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : D. Santana (Miami Cleo) (14 Points, 7 Rebounds, 12 Assists, 4 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29
Shooting Guard : L. Baião (San Dominica Warriors) (28 Points, 10 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 36
Small Forward : Y. Georgoulis (The Beer Bellys) (28 Points, 6 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 30
Power Forward : L. Talbot (Philly Dribble) (21 Points, 8 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 1 Steals, 3 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Center : S. Asulin (The Philadelphia Spartans) (18 Points, 11 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 34

MVP of the evening
L. Baião (San Dominica Warriors) (28 Points, 10 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 36

The bad performance of the evening
L. Adams (Sweaty Socks) (6 Points, 1 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots)J. Medina (Motor City Waddupdoe) (5 Points, 6 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -7

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), H. Espinosa (Carolina Rebels) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : A. Bueno (Sweaty Socks), L. Arevalo (Carolina Rebels), I. Gamón (Motor City Waddupdoe) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Locus (Miami Cleo) : 53 Minutes

The shooter : K. Knowles (Linndale), B. Coenen (Linndale), L. Baião (San Dominica Warriors), Y. Georgoulis (The Beer Bellys) : 4 Three points

The best performer : M. San Miguel (The Ashkickers), C. Riggins (Żubr Białystok) : Rating : 17.5

The worst performer : J. Moore (BOBBBSBURGS), J. Billingsley (BOBBBSBURGS) : Rating : 2.0

"I'm relatively new here, but I'm the most experinced guy here. Most of you guys don't have a clue what we're in for. You'd better listen up. We're fighting for a playoff spot, we're fighting for seeding, and we do not have the luxury of an easy schedule."

Ubaldo Pestana hadn't said much since he arrived, but it was clear he was respected in the locker room and his teammates were taking note of his words.

"I hear the talk. I'm putting a stop to it right now. We've got 6 games left. We hold a 2 game lead on 209's Most Wanted. We have 2 trap games we can neither afford to overlook our opponent or lose. We have 3 games that are essentially playoff games. We cannot afford to lose. We have 1 game that's a scrimmage,---"

"BOBBBSBURGS!!!", screamed the team in unison, briefly interrupting Pestana.

He continued, "and if we take care of business that scrimmage will come right before what might be the most important game of the year. You frontcourt guys are very green. My advice is listen to those of us that have been there and gotten some hard won experience. That's me, Antti, and Kyle. Don't sleep on Bobbie, Paul and Daniil either; they don't have the experience we have but they have more than the lot of you and we will be chirping in their ears too. I wasn't brught in to be here long term and I know that. This is what I'm here for. This is my playoff now. This is your playoff now. You can be good, or you can be great. If you don't want to be great, get out of my locker room. This could be my last shot, and I'm not about to have a snot nosed, brain dead punk mess this up for me."

No one left the room.

"Even you guys who don't play much, you're more important now than ever. Bring it. Give us everything you got in practive and scrimmages. Your job is threefold: Get better, make US better, and be ready. If someone gets hurt, you're up AND THERE ARE NO EXCUSES. DO YOUR JOB TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES. COACHES INCLUDED. You guys do that, I promise you we'll sort the rest out."

"Coach, Coach Reina, that's all I have to say. You can come inside now, I know you're outside the door."

Walking in to the locker room, Pio remarks, "Coach, I guess you're in charge now. I feel like I'm supposed to suit up!"

Coach barks out, "ALL RIGHT, WHO'S READY TO WORK?"

"NO DAYS OFF" reply the players in unison.

"Okay, I like what I saw in the game against Beer Belly's," said Bobby Sparks.
"I know. Sucks that we didn't win it, but the game wasn't for us to win, it was to check out our lineups with the look inside offense and the 2-3 defense. It delivered, just not in crunch time. We've never been good at implementing the two together. I should have kept the lineups the way they were instead of tweaking them," said Coach Boone.

"Yes, well, we are in the playoffs. I like the third seed. We just have to keep that. I don't care how the rest of the season play out. Just keep the third seed, see how we do against the Ashkickers, and get our guys ready for the postseason," said Bobby Sparks.

"That is the plan. We may go Low Post in the final game, just to see how it goes. But I haven't decided yet. We lost two in a row. We don't want to make it a third," said Coach Boone. "I don't care if you lose, as long as we get that third seed," said Bobby Sparks.

Day 17 (Tuesday 3 January 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Philly Dribble 84 - Lion Rebels 66
209’s MostWanted 133 - BOBBBSBURGS 30
BKDogs 66 - Linndale 97
Carolina Rebels 77 - San Dominica Warriors 126
The Philadelphia Spartans 76 - The Ashkickers 111
Hustlas 83 - The Beer Bellys 94
Żubr Białystok 66 - Miami Cleo 82
Sweaty Socks 54 - Motor City Waddupdoe 139

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 139 : Motor City Waddupdoe
Rebounds : 60 : 209’s MostWanted
Assists : 40 : Motor City Waddupdoe
Steals : 17 : 209’s MostWanted
Block Shots : 13 : 209’s MostWanted

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 39 : K. Knowles (Linndale)
Rebounds : 18 : M. Bowie (Motor City Waddupdoe)
Assists : 9 : Z. Shunyi (209’s MostWanted), M. Smalls (Motor City Waddupdoe)
Steals : 5 : J. Dotson (Sweaty Socks)
Block Shots : 4 : J. Medina (Motor City Waddupdoe), K. Knapp (Motor City Waddupdoe)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : F. Alidori (San Dominica Warriors) (27 Points, 1 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 26
Shooting Guard : L. Baião (San Dominica Warriors) (33 Points, 4 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35
Small Forward : P. Cuellar (209’s MostWanted) (21 Points, 2 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots), K. Knapp (Motor City Waddupdoe) (15 Points, 5 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 1 Steals, 4 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 25
Power Forward : P. Cater (Motor City Waddupdoe) (26 Points, 14 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 39
Center : M. Bowie (Motor City Waddupdoe) (24 Points, 18 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42

MVP of the evening
M. Bowie (Motor City Waddupdoe) (24 Points, 18 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42

The bad performance of the evening
J. Moore (BOBBBSBURGS) (0 Points, 4 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -15

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : J. Dotson (Sweaty Socks) : 8 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : B. George (Carolina Rebels), M. Bowie (Motor City Waddupdoe), N. Williams (Hustlas), M. Navarro (Hustlas), P. Matkowski (BKDogs), G. Blair (BOBBBSBURGS) : 5 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : A. Gallucci (Miami Cleo), J. Dotson (Sweaty Socks), E. Quintana (Carolina Rebels), B. George (Carolina Rebels), R. Sedonio (Lion Rebels), H. Quindós (Żubr Białystok) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : F. Alidori (San Dominica Warriors) : 5 Three points

The best performer : M. San Miguel (The Ashkickers) : Rating : 17.0

The worst performer : J. Moore (BOBBBSBURGS) : Rating : 1.5

Week Nine Power Rankings
Lots of actual work being done for me in real life this week with the start of the new year, so a bit of an abbreviated power rankings this week. Zero movement in the bottom six spots with some minor adjustments from last week in the upper 10 teams. I think I've said this before, but this season's defense is top-notch! Just wish we didn't have some bot teams to contend with to make those matchups a little less lopsided and more competitive.

1. San Dominica Warriors (1)
Holding on to number one improving in both efficiency rankings to hold off #2 and #3 this week as they easily handled BKDogs before bringing the fire to torch Carolina at home. Time to prove their mettle this week with a road game against Philly Dribble followed by hosting 209's MostWanted.

2. Philly Dribble (2)
Staying (just barely) at number two, Phils_Wings is rounding into form with a healthy roster with a bot win followed by a drubbing of my sad sack of a squad. Next up, the aforementioned San Dominica for rights to the top of the Big 8 and then another not quite easy to relax game against Linndale on the road.

3. The Ashkickers (3)
My breaking of my "strickly follow the formula" ways last week proved fruitful as The Ashkickers stick to the top three and sneer at me from their 16-1 record and league leading +527 point differential. A bot matchup for them followed by the dismantling of the Spartans at home leads them into what could be an interesting matchup against Hustlas and then they play host to Żubr Białystok.

4. 209's MostWanted (8)
A big jump up the rankings, leapfrogging last week's other three teams tied for 3rd in my rankings, AlexFromThe209 lost to Linndale by 10 points at home, but then profited from facing BOTTTSBURGS with a 103-point victory, accruing a ridiculous 216 offensive efficiency points and -27 defensive efficiency points. What should be (but won't) an intriguing matchup against my cold-cocked crew happens Saturday before traveling to face San Dominica.

5. Miami Cleo (4)
The second best record in the league lands 5th after a nice victory over Hustlas and a somewhat expected victory against Żubr Białystok. Next up comes a bot matchup and then The Philadelphia Spartans are houseguests which should help them maintain their 2nd best record.

6. The Beer Bellys (6)
Clinging to 6th thanks to a victory over the Spartans followed by a nice tough win against Hustlas at home, the Keg is feeling pretty great with what could be a nice matchup with Żubr Białystok before bot-hosting next week.

7. Hustlas (5)
Dropping back-to-back tough matchups against Miami Cleo and the Bellys leaves their grip on 3rd in the Great 8 slipping - another difficult matchup against The Ashkickers looms before they get to play Motor City on the road for what should be a win. But will they be in 4th place by next week's rankings?

8. Linndale (7)
Two solid victories for Speedtraps' squad over 209's on the road before getting to host BKDogs. Next up, an interesting matchup against Carolina before then greeting Philly Dribble at home.

9. Carolina Rebels (9)
Carolina took care of business against the lousy Lion Rebels before getting thumped by more enthusiasm against the Warriors on the road. Next up, Linndale, for a chance to fight for 3rd in the conference and then a nice bot matchup to finish out the week.

10. Żubr Białystok (10)
Whitestok's group has to win out to finish above .500, but with matchups this week, it might be a lot to ask them to maintain even at the finish. They took it to Motor City on TV at home before then losing on the road to Miami. This week, they invite the Kegerators over before traveling to Tylormade's Ashkickers for what should be an Ashkicking.

11. The Philadelphia Spartans (11)
The Spartans enter into a 3-game losing streak after dropping a 12-point loss to The Beer Bellys and then falling on their faces against The Ashkickers. Next up, hopefully a win against Motor City at home before traveling to Will Smith's Miami.

12. Lion Rebels (12)
Sigh - if it's not an injury to one top player, the next player gets the bug as well. This might be the longest losing streak my group has endured as we've hit 4 losses in a row, with an additional two if you count the ending of the BBM and Cup. Stricken with Kurt Brown's injury, there's not much hope of winning a matchup on the road against 209's, but fortunately they might stem the losses at 5 with a home game against BKDogs. might

13. Motor City Waddupdoe (13)
I feel bad for these last two teams, as there's a significant drop off in efficiency from the previous 12 to these two. Motor City's Paul Cater has been their lone bright spot, but even he is the 43rd ranked player in terms of rating of all players that have played in the league this season with at least 12 games played. No other Motor City player is in the top 50. A loss to Żubr Białystok followed by their best performance of the season against Sweaty Bots at home granted them some reprieve with their 4th win, but it's hard to imagine them beating out whomever ends up 5th in the Big 8 in relegation. Next they travel to Philadelphia to take on the Spartans and then they play host to Hustlas.

14. BKDogs (14)
Losses to San Dominica and Linndale brought them through this week, but there's a twinkle on the horizon in what should be their 3rd win in a bot matchup before then hoping to stave off a struggling Lion Rebels on the road. Will their new group be able to pull out a win to form a winning streak?

15. Sweaty Bots (15)
Stinky Bots.

16. BOTTTSBURGS (16)
There wasn't ever much hope for this group before they went bot, but since then they've been truly TERRIBLE, now averaging 3.8 EFF and 193.1 OPP EFF. I wouldn't eat at this burger joint.

Pushing on to the playoffs (for some of you)!

"Well, you have to give it up to Carolina." Pio Reina says morosely. "They simply beat the crap out of us. We didn't have the firepower. Not gonna use the injury to Knowles as an excuse. Disappointed that we didn't have Mann available; but we knew that coming in and were ok with that. The game was essentially over with the 14-0 run they went on at the end of the first quarter and start of the second. Our bench kept us in the game in the first half, specifically that second quarter. Carolina just kicked our butts. We knew they were better inside. We planned for that as best we could. They took our backcourt, and really everybody out of the game for us offensively. We could not get anything going. Give Carolina all the flowers. Now we have to wonder if we even make the playoffs. We know Philly Dribble is tough, and we had figured that to be a loss. We can't lose another game. San Dominica and Lion Rebels are gonna come out swinging; specifically Lion Rebels. They'd love to give us a loss and cost us a postseason spot. If I were them, I sure as heck would feel that way. Look, we're gonna try and steal a win from Philly Dribble We have to, plus it would mean a heck of a lot to guys in my locker room if we can get that game. I don't think we've ever even come close since we got here. We want to beat them, and now, if we want to get to where we want to go, we have to. This loss hurts. Again, give Carolina all the flowers. That's all I have to say."

Day 18 (Saturday 7 January 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Lion Rebels 72 - 209’s MostWanted 102
BOBBBSBURGS 41 - BKDogs 139
Linndale 57 - Carolina Rebels 75
San Dominica Warriors 65 - Philly Dribble 80
The Ashkickers 110 - Hustlas 100
The Beer Bellys 88 - Żubr Białystok 100
Miami Cleo 140 - Sweaty Socks 48
Motor City Waddupdoe 82 - The Philadelphia Spartans 104

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 140 : Miami Cleo
Rebounds : 68 : Miami Cleo
Assists : 41 : Miami Cleo
Steals : 14 : Miami Cleo
Block Shots : 9 : Miami Cleo, BKDogs

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 28 : G. Gattoni (The Ashkickers)
Rebounds : 20 : S. Klin (Hustlas)
Assists : 10 : M. Maurin (Miami Cleo)
Steals : 4 : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), T. Begley (Carolina Rebels), V. Lošták (BKDogs)
Block Shots : 4 : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), L. Senserrich (Hustlas)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : L. Rojas (The Ashkickers) (24 Points, 7 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 3 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29
Shooting Guard : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo) (22 Points, 9 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Small Forward : M. Maurin (Miami Cleo) (17 Points, 6 Rebounds, 10 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 27
Power Forward : F. Taylor (The Philadelphia Spartans) (17 Points, 15 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Center : G. Sankoh (BKDogs) (17 Points, 17 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37

MVP of the evening
G. Sankoh (BKDogs) (17 Points, 17 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37

The bad performance of the evening
T. Hewitt (BOBBBSBURGS) (4 Points, 2 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -11

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : J. Dotson (Sweaty Socks), T. Hewitt (BOBBBSBURGS) : 7 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : L. Rojas (The Ashkickers), T. Medina (Lion Rebels) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), J. Dotson (Sweaty Socks), M. Redman (Motor City Waddupdoe), S. Hatch (Żubr Białystok) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo), J. Dotson (Sweaty Socks), J. Bégin (San Dominica Warriors) : 4 Three points

The best performer : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo) : Rating : 16.5

The worst performer : J. Moore (BOBBBSBURGS) : Rating : 1.5