Quick Hits from Last Night in the D-League

I'm not giving up on doing recaps entirely, but I missed the games last night so I'm just going to give some quick thoughts on what I noticed.  Feel free to add more in the comments.


Dakota Wizards 116, Maine Red Claws 105 (Box Score)

• On a quick glance it might be easy to chalk the outcome up to foul disparities (Dakota shot eight more free throws, Maine had two guys foul out and two more finish with five fouls), but the Wizards also out-rebounded the Red Claws, shot better from outside and turned the ball over less.  A solid all-around effort.
  
• A nice balanced attack for the Wizards as well; eight of the nine guys who played scored in the double digits, including 32 points on 19 shots for David Bell.  A triple-double for Mo Baker and a double-double for Connor Atchley can't hurt, either.

More after the jump.

Iowa Energy 97, Erie BayHawks 94 (Box Score)

• I know that Iowa's offense is built for outside shots, but I'd love to see a lineup of Stinson-Jeffers-Martin-Sims-Barron.  In fact, that needs to happen.
• It likely was done because Erie is down to eight players at the moment, but with John Bryant and Alade Aminu starting together again, Bryant had 18 points and 17 rebounds and Aminu had 18 points on nine shots.  They lost, but I feel like both of those guys play better when they're on the court at the same time.
• Mike Gansey had more three-point attempts than every Iowa player except for Cartier Martin had total field goal attempts.

Sioux Falls Skyforce 116, Idaho Stampede 112 (Box Score)

• They lost the game, but I feel like Idaho is really dangerous again for the first time in awhile instead of just being a solid team.  Joe Dabbert is familiar with Idaho's system after playing for Bob MacKinnon last season and Andre Barrett gives them a real point guard again.  Three of their players had double-doubles, all in points and rebounds (Dabbert, Donell Taylor and Lance Allred), which you don't see very often.
• Geez, Reggie Williams is good.  43 points on 22 shots, six rebounds, four assists.  11 of those points came in the last six and a half minutes of the fourth quarter...I really don't know what to say anymore.
• Idaho now has two players named "Lance," Allred and Hurdle.  Please make a note of it.
• Alexander Johnson missed this game with injury, which coach Tony Fritz apparently wasn't aware of until they announced the lineup over the PA and Johnson wasn't in it.  That seems...odd.

Albuquerque Thunderbirds 108, Rio Grande Valley Vipers 93 (Highlights) (Box Score)

• Antoine Agudio has been playing very well over the last few weeks.  I'm not sure what this means; maybe he just likes playing the Vipers (their opponents the last three games).
• Jonathan Wallace, meanwhile, is strugg-a-ling.  He's moved back into the starting lineup with Will Conroy called up, but while he picked up a decent amount of assists early in the season he had none last night despite playing 33 minutes, and he hasn't had more than three in a game since January 10.
• Mike Harris, Julian Sensley and Mickell Gladness combined for four three-point attempts.  For some reason.

Tulsa 103, Utah Flash 96 (Box Score)

• I guess the frontcourt problems I expected from Tulsa sans Chris Richard didn't happen.  DeVon Hardin, Latavious Williams and Marcus Lewis combined for 27 rebounds, 13 of which came courtesy of Williams.  Deron Washington added another eight.
• Even more impressive is that all of that came against Utah, a pretty good rebounding team in their own right.  Carlos Wheeler was the only Flash player with more than four boards (he had eight).  Utah's frontcourt rebounded pretty poorly in the previous game against Tulsa as well, even though the team won, so maybe they just can't handle Williams and Hardin for whatever reason.