Tony Gaffney Plays Hard, Utah Flash Earn A 92-84 Victory Over Fort Wayne

by Scott Schroeder on Feb 1, 2026 9:45 AM EST in D-League Game Recaps

Good morning, seven people that still read Ridiculous Upside, and happy day before Groundhog's Day!

Before we get to what happened last night in the D-League, I wanted to do a bit of self-promoting and tell you to read all about Scottie Reynolds and how he's becoming an actual point guard because, as he said it, he's "sick of scoring."

Anyway, there was only one game last night in the D-League as the Fort Wayne Mad Ants traveled to Orem, Utah, to take on the Flash.

[Cut to the decidedly non-HD highlights!]

The Flash won this game 92-84 despite having the only point guard on Utah's roster, Orien Greene, called-up earlier in the day to the New Jersey Nets.

Most impressive to me, actually, was the box score of Utah's Tony Gaffney. A surprise pick-up by the Boston Celtics to end last season, Gaffney's been one of the hardest working players in the D-League since he joined the Flash in early January.

Gaffney finished the game by making one of five his shot attempts to total just three points, but made up for that by grabbing nine rebounds, dishing nine assists and swatting four shots while showing he's capable of definitely doing the little things. The only bit you'll see of him in the above highlights, however, is the nifty assist at the :45 second mark to Ryan Thompson for the open jumper.

The scoring load for the Flash was carried by Ronald Dupree (22 points, nine rebounds), Andre Ingram (19 points, 4-of-6 from beyond the arc) and Ryan Thompson (19 points, seven rebounds and four assists). Kevin Kruger, Utah's starting point guard to begin the season, is expected to re-join the team later this week after rehabbing back at home in Vegas.

For the Mad Ants, point guard Walker Russell Jr. led the team with 24 points but had more turnovers (five) than assists (four) and an inefficient 9-of-20 from the field. Darnell Lazare did what Lazare does, though, as the versatile big man had 20 points and 10 rebounds. Oliver Lafayette had a disappointing outing with just eight points on 3-of-12 shooting in what might have been his last game in a Mad Ants uniform as he's expected to buy out of his contract and head to Turkey to replace Allen Iverson sometime in the near future.

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Read More: Ronald Dupree (F - TOR), Orien Greene (G - NJN), Kevin Kruger (G - MIL), Tony Gaffney (F - UMass), Tony Gaffney (F - BOS), Oliver Lafayette (G - BOS), Ryan Thompson (G - UTA), New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics

Comments

Don't sell yourself short

I’m sure we can find an even 10 people still reading the site.

by Surujh Operator on Feb 1, 2026 1:20 PM EST reply actions

Great article on Scottie.

You could kind of see him beginning to shift his focus during the summer league games with PHX. He looked like a real PG and the offense flowed more smoothly with him in there than Zabian Dowdell. He did a great job of leading the team and distributing the ball. You could see in those games that he had the ability to play as a traditional PG, and I’m glad his coach saw that as well. The fact that he improved on defense is awesome as well, especially considering he doesn’t seem to be all that athletic.

I’ve always been a fan of Scottie, which is wierd considering I usually don’t like score-first PGs. Unfortunately, Scottie turned the PHX training camp invite down and opened the door for Zabian Dowdell to move in. I didn’t like what I saw from Dowdell in the SL, but he played pretty darn well in his first extended minutes against NO, so it looks like he has that spot locked down if he can keep it up. SO it looks like Scottie won’t be a SUn, but I hope he can find a spot somewhere soon.

Go Suns, Packers, Jays, and Huskers!

And go Shawn Watson and Barney Cotton! Seriously, leave Lincoln. Now.

Super Bowl here we come!

by Omaha Sun on Feb 1, 2026 2:01 PM EST reply actions