Game 5 recap 5/12/08

Zuricalaw.com Vs. MPI

Member present and game grades:

Zeke (A-) – played the point effectively. He didn’t feel the need to force passes or breakaways.

Mike A (B) – too much confidence in his jump shot, more effective around the basket. Played with intensity.

Mike B (A) – Made big shots when the team needed it.

Ahmad (A+) – sidelined in the first half with the continuation of a groin injury only to pull the team out of the swamp.

Joe H. (B-) – played big in the first half, ran out of steam by the second half.

Mike T. (A) – Kept the team close when they were struggling in the first half. Played an intense game on the defensive end.

Jeremy (DNP) – attend a meeting at the rotary club.


“The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation” – George Santayana (1863-1952) on Ahmad’s performance last night.

The Lawmakers came into the gym last night fresh off their first loss the season. A loss that left a bad taste in the mouths of the players that were at that game (your author being one of them and so disgusted not to write a recap on it) that they needed to secure a victory in last night’s matchup not only to get back on track but to remind themselves that if they had a healthy and full roster, they would not have lost last week’s game. It was Ahmad, a.k.a. AO (Always Omnipresent…or Ahmad Oloumi, you choose) that was sidelined for the past couple of weeks with a groin injury. Jeremy was the only Lawmaker missing last night, so the team again needed to find a way to work through a decimated roster. Coach Zurica decided to leave Ahmad off the starting lineup and work him into the rotation slowly.
The Lawmakers came out against a much smaller albeit quicker team. They had the quintessential Asian point guard, tall anglo-saxon white guy, Italian looking doof, a juicehead, guido with a Chinese symbol tattoo on his arm with spiky hair, and of course no black teammates. The Lawmakers came out in a 2-3 zone (one of Anicito’s biggest criticisms of the team…however it made sense last night because we only had a healthy 5 and Ahmed). But what had happened was the zone was not effective against MPI as they knocked down three after three. The anglo-saxon gentleman was their best ball player and he was getting open looks on the wing through the skip pass and Anthony and Mike B had a hard time getting to the shooter. On the other end, Mike B made some big shots and Mike T made his 8 footers along with him and Joe dominating the glass and scoring at will. This would have been enough for the Lawmakers but there were many series’ in which passes and shots were forced and turnovers from the likes of Anicito who was handling the rock way too much. For the past 15 years Zurica has been telling Anicito not to dribble the basketball, at one point causing Anicito to form a complex and sit in his room for weeks playing with string puppets in order to gain hand strength.
Ahmad checked in but was useless. His lateral movements were infantile at best and he couldn’t move in the zone. The Lawmakers found themselves down by 14 with six minutes to play in the first half. That’s when the Lawmakers went into a man defense. Things started turning around when Anicito plowed through the guido with spiky hair. The guido tried setting a pick and from a combination of being frustrated and hating guidos with trite tattoos, Anicito lowered his shoulder and barreled this guy to the floor. It was classless but it was meant to spark Zuricalaw.com to start playing hard and get back into this game. Which is exactly what happened. The man defense put a tourniquet on the threes and Mike B and Mike T scored at will. At half time the Lawmakers had tied the game at 37.
Coming out of the second half Ahmad sat once again, re aggravating the groin injury. Being the cautious GM that Zurica is he wisely put Ahmad back on the bench, fearing that if Anthony worked Ahmad’s groin too much it could permanently make it hard for him. So the Lawmakers traded baskets with MPI and were +/- 3 for the opening ten minutes. That’s when Ahmad stepped back into the game. He knew that his contribution could not be his normal, attack the rim game. He had to use his wits to help zuricalaw.com (he did get high grades on the WONDERLIC test). Not known as a shooter Ahmed stepped his game behind the three point arc. At one point an MPI screamed out “can someone get on Sylvester Stallone”, meaning Ahmad resembles Stallone. From there the game was sealed. Three after three poured in from an unlikely source. Between Mike B’s three point threat and now Ahmad, MPI had no chance. Both Lawmakers were fluid and the rest of the team followed their lead. Even Mike T made some free throws. All in all, it was complete second half domination. MPI had been undefeated before last night’s game, but now it was Zuricalaw.com that rides the wave of success.