The NBA D-League entered its twelfth season on Friday night. Some great individual scoring performances were on display as Ron Howard and Chris Douglas-Roberts both lit it up on offense for their teams. Neither strong outing resulted in a win.
Despite previously proving himself a steady NBA role player, Chris Douglas-Roberts now finds himself in the D-League as he fights for another shot. With a 49 point effort in his preseason debut, he began to show NBA teams what they're missing out on.
Thanks to 28 first quarter points, the Bakersfield Jam escape out of Des Moines with a win that put the home team Iowa Energy in flux with two games to go in the NBA D-League playoff race.
Smiles beamed on the faces of the Iowa Energy as they headed back to the locker room as they returned back to their locker room after defeating Canton 107-100 Thursday night. Mike Efevberha led the way with 31 points and he was one of the many Energy players relieved to actually win one, especially at home.
All it takes to fall flat on your face is a slick spot to have you land on your back. That's exactly where the Iowa Energy are as they dropped two weekend games to the Canton Charge then to the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
The Iowa Energy get back on track with a 111-84 win over Fort Wayne Sunday night.
Usually when a series happens in professional sports, it takes place in baseball. However, as Iowa Energy and Dakota Wizards fans have experienced this past week, the D-League has scheduling quirks of its own.
The second of four days is underway at the 2012 NBA Development League Showcase in lovely Reno, Nev., and your's truly is in a decent mood after making it back to even at the blackjack tables on Monday night. My day got better when I woke up and realized I'd get to watch Donyell Marshall coaching Ricky Davis to start my morning.
The 2012 NBA D-League Showcase is underway in Reno, Nev., with the Idaho Stampede and Erie BayHawks playing in the first game of the day. Your's truly is here and, since it's going to be tough to stay focused as I watch 16 games over the next four days, I figured it might be a good idea to leave some thoughts here.
The Iowa Energy finish the calendar year with wins over Sioux Falls and Idaho.
Check out a weekend recap of the weekend's games of the Iowa Energy.
The Iowa Energy have been racking up the wins on this long homestand before the holiday break, but they learned Friday, two of their most productive players went to try out for NBA squads. Moses Ehambe, who is the only returning player on the squad for Iowa this season, went down to New Orleans to try out for the Hornets.
The Canton Charge will host the Iowa Energy in the opening game of the NBA Development League season on Friday night. The D-League game will be televised live on NBA TV.
The NBA Development League starts with seven games on Friday night. The D-League games will all be broadcast live either on NBA TV or the internet.
In the first game of the third (of four, obviously) series to debut in the 2011 D-League Playoffs, the sixth seeded Bakersfield Jam upset beat the third seeded defending D-League champion Rio Grande Valley Vipers, 110-105.
Coming into yesterday's action, there were three teams, the Idaho Stampede, the Texas Legends, and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot. All three played, and all...
I decided to take in the Utah Flash at Dakota Wizards game (highlights above, obviously) last night and figured you guys might be interested in hearing what I thought about the NBA prospects that were in attendance.
There were only two D-League games last night. The more prominent of the took took place in Orem, Utah, where the Utah Flash were coming off a clinching a playoff berth against the Maine Red Claws...
Typically I'd like to lead off these nice little wrap-ups with a player from the winning team that dominated or at least a player that was included in the above highlights. This morning, however, we're going with neither because the Legends were led by little-known Dominique Johnson as he scored 31 points (10-12 FG, 5-5 3-pointers, 6-6 FT) in 34 minutes off the bench.
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.
The reason I decided to post over here this morning was to bring attention to Boston Celtics assignee Avery Bradley and his game against the Maine Red Claws last night.
First and foremost, the Texas Legends rang up an insane 84 points in the first half on their way to a 135-112 victory over the Austin Toros.
Recaps and notes from last night's D-League games.
But then I remembered one of the players in the game, Rob Kurz, has his own sweet set of highlights already - set to sweeter music. Thankfully, I was able to use said highlights because he apparently dominated: 27 points on 10-of-11 shooting (the one miss was due to his 3-of-4 effort 3-point land), nine rebounds and three blocks with just one turnover in 41 minutes
Recaps of last night's D-League cames, highlighting Tulsa's comeback win over Austin.
# Kevin Kruger was apparently the star of this game, finishing with 32 points (14 in overtime) on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and adding eight assists. Ross Siler, beat writer for the Utah Jazz, was in attendance and tweeted afterward that "Kevin Kruger just had the kind of game that deserves a call-up."
