Last Night in the D-League; For Shame, Luke Nevill

Hi ho everyone, Scott's on his way to beautiful downtown Boise (or wherever the arena/his hotel is), so the recaps come courtesy of me today.  Reggie Williams was back to form, Latavious Williams started, Springfield won their second game of the season and I climbed up this rock.  Yes, really.  Let's get to it.

Albuquerque Thunderbirds 109, Utah Flash 103 (Box Score)

• Albuquerque won this game through balanced scoring, with six players in double figures, and by making 41 percent of their threes.  Shout outs to Antoine Agudio (24 points), Carlos Powell (21 points on 13 shots, six assists, five rebounds) and Kurt Looby (10 points and a game-high eight rebounds in a little over 29 minutes; I can't remember the last time he had more points than boards, and I also don't feel like looking it up).
• Luke Nevill is still at least a year away from playing in the NBA, and I can say that with confidence because he was out-rebounded by Kevin Pittsnogle, 5-4.  Seriously, how does that happen?  Is Nevill sick?
• I know we make a lot of Pittsnogle jokes around here (or just say that we hate him), but he does come up with the good game occasionally, and he can be a tough matchup given that he makes his opponent leave the post to guard him.  It just seems like that only happens twice a month.  Last night was one of those times, as Pittsnogle scored 16 points on eight shots and made two of his three three-pointers.  I still hate that he's so terrible inside the arc, though (2-5 last night, and come on, you're 6-10).
• Carlos Wheeler is quietly having a really solid year for Utah.  Sure, he'll occasionally put up a 3-11 shooting night, but most of the time he's been playing like he did in this game, when he had 26 points on 13 shots and seven rebounds.  His field goal percentage is up this year, as are his free throw percentage and per-game rebounding and assist averages.  And his three-point percentage, but he shouldn't be taking those anyway.  He's 31 years old, so the NBA's probably not in his future, but it's nice to see him doing so well.

Tulsa 66ers 126, Sioux Falls Skyforce 110 (Box Score)

• Quite a talent pipeline they have down in Oklahoma (or if you live where I do, up there).  BJ Mullens?  Out.  DeVon Hardin?  Out.  Steven Hill?  Out.  DJ White?  In.  Zabian Dowdell?  In.  Deron Washington?  In.  I liked White a lot when I saw him play last year, and against Sioux Falls he made seven of his 10 field goals and grabbed 10 boards.  Not a bad piece of work.  Dowdell, who spent some time on Phoenix's Summer League team, finished with 14 points and 10 assists.  Washington actually made more than half his shots for just the third time this season (4-7).
  
• Of course, White's not much of a defensive master, nor has his athleticism caught up to his recovery (I'm assuming he had some athleticism to begin with that's been sapped by injuries, but maybe he didn't), and Keith Brumbaugh scored 30 points starting in the middle in place of Greg Stiemsma.  He made four of six three-pointers, which I know White was never able to defend all that well.
• Now this is the Reggie Williams I'm familiar with.  31 points on 15 shots, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals, the first three of those being team highs.  If he keeps this up in the Showcase, I have to imagine that he'll get some kind of offer.
  
• I know I hyped up the fact that Latavious Williams started this game, but he didn't do much other than foul out in 23 minutes.  His fouls have picked up the last few games, and one of last night's was a flagrant.  Half of them came against either Brumbaugh or Raymond Sykes, which tells me Williams needs to work on his post defense

Springfield Armor 87, Erie BayHawks 75 (Box Score)

• Mike Gansey either still hasn't joined the team or has but isn't ready to suit up yet, and the BayHawks really, really could've used him.  The team scored just nine points in the fourth quarter, and pretty much everyone was culpable, too.  Blown layups, missed jumpers, turnovers; ugly, ugly play.
• Cliff Clinkscales certainly has racked up the assists since joining Erie, and he had eight more last night, but man that guy has been a scoring non-entity the past week.  Zero points for him on 0-4 shooting last night, which follows games of four and zero points.  His backup Cedric Jackson had 18 points, but considering that the team got just two points from the rest of the bench, Clinkscales needed to put something on the board.
• As for the Armor, congratulations to them on getting the second win.  Morris Almond had 27 points on 15 shots, JamesOn Curry collected 10 assists, Dante Milligan had 11 rebounds off the bench and Major Wingate made up for poor field goal shooting by getting to the free throw line and finishing with a respectable seven points and six boards.  Not much else to say.