Recaps 02/12

Friday 04th of July 2008

Week 2 Recap

By Bill Wongton

Sorry for the late recap on week 2 but I’ve been quite busy over the past week. It was the NBA All-Star weekend and I had VIP passes to all the hottest parties and festivities that were going on. Dressed in my best looking polyester suit, I hit Bourbon Street with my media pass and camera hoping to catch a glimpse of the many celebrities and athletes that were in town for the game. I hit the jackpot with the first party I attended, music stars such as Cher, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, and Yanni were there as well as top notch celebrities like Gary Coleman, Bob Saget, and Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone funniest movie ever). Needless to say, I was able to obtain many photo opportunities with these A-listers and even got to chat basketball with Warrior legends Tom Tolbert and Uwe Blab.

I left that party star-struck and was expecting the next party to be twice as good since I had heard quite a bit of hype about it. I think some guy named Puffy Dad was throwing it so I assume that any guy named after a type of jacket can probably throw a good party. I entered the venue that boomed with some horrendous sounding bass music and people who sang too quickly for me to understand a word they were saying. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very successful party as I did not see any celebrities at this party. I did meet one guy named 50 cent…50 cent! Come on now, what kind of name is that and why do you only want to be valued at 50 cents? If I were him, I would want to be named Billion Dollars or something along those lines. At first I thought it was a joke, so I introduced myself as Dollar Bill which didn’t seem to amuse him or his posse. So I quickly left that party and headed back to the hotel but not before I met the celebrity of all celebrities, Leonard Nimoy. After doing the Vulcan greeting, I promptly quoted every line that he ever spoke from Star Trek and made him try the Vulcan death grip on me. I don’t remember much after that…

So that’s a small glimpse into the NBA All-Star weekend and I’ll report next time on the games and skills competition itself and how I donned on my Bruce Lee outfit to do the celebrity dunk contest on the 5-foot rims with my specialty the “720 Panda Express”.

On to the week 2 recaps…

Blue vs. Green

This was truly either a defensive battle between the 2 teams similar to a Pistons vs. Spurs game or an offensively challenged game like Memphis vs. Knicks. There were definitely guys not shy on shooting the ball at both ends, Colin Portus from green hoisting up 11 shots and Andrew Liu doing to the same. True shooter’s mentality, as they say, you miss every shot that you don’t take. But some of the stats were fairly anemic with team blue shooting 0/10 from 3 and team green shooting 0/8 from the FT line. The fans who came to see this game should have gotten a refund at the end of the game or at least a chalupa.

In the end, blue had one clear advantage over green and that advantage was Greg “99.9% minutes played” Wong. Greg recorded a double-double with 19 pts (70% shooting) and 11 rebs. Throw in 3 steals and 2 blocks for a nice all-around game. Green wasn’t able to counter his production as Neil Wong once again lead them with 10 pts, 7 rebs, and 3 assists.

Red vs. White

This was a great matchup between 2 teams that each had a combo of superstars. Alan Lin and Anthony Pineda were the Dwight Howard/Rashard Lewis against the Erik Chan Colman Chung were the Baron Davis/Monta Ellis. The ultimate battle between speed vs. height. I was only able to witness the 1st half but it was a back and forth game the whole way with Anthony hitting buckets and Erik driving the lane for easy layups.

Looking at the stats, how wonder Alan only got 5 shots the whole game. White must have done a good job double-teaming him and forcing the other players to step up and make shots. Anthony did his best to keep them in the game as he led Red with a double-double 15 pts, 10 rebs and Ron Artest-like 4 stls. White was lead by Erik Chan with 16 pts, 5 rebs, and 3 stls. Colman had 10 pts, 6 rebs, and 5 stls but shot a 3/12 from the field. I’m almost going to award him the “It’s Only A Friendship League. Let other people shoot” award from the 3-time defending winner Greg.

Black vs. Yellow

Black was looking to rebound from a tough loss last week to White while Yellow didn’t have team captain Ryan Susanto playing. But this didn’t stop Yellow from keeping the game close throughout the contest. No team held a lead of more than 5-6 points and it finally came down the last shot with 4 seconds left. Black had the ball with 4 seconds left, Jon Kwok inbounded the ball and first looked for Norm Siu off a double screen but he was attracting a double team which left Sherman Lee open for a 15 foot jumpshot from near the corner. It rimmed just short and a follow-up attempt by Norm also fell short leaving team black 0-2 for the season.

Yellow was lead by Dane Horn with 13 pts, Jeff Chan 11 pts, 5 rebs, 4 stls, and Josh Tobin with 10 pts, 5 rebs. Clint Kirk also had a Rodman-esque game with 0 pts and 10 rebs. Black was led once again by the combo of Sherman 17pts and Norm with 9 pts and 6 rebs.

Player of the Week
Erik Chan 16 pts (5/7 FGs, 6/6 FTs), 5 rebs, 2 assists, 3 steals

Power Rankings
1. White 2-0: Undefeated season a possibility
2. Yellow 2-0: Winning without Ryan. We Believe!
3. Red 1-1: White slowed down the Alan express
4. Blue 1-1: Are Greg’s shoulders big enough to carry this team?
5. Black 0-2: Played better but hasn’t put together a complete game yet
6. Green 0-2: Veteran team still in search of chemistry