Muslim Basketball

Made minced meat of suba in the first half. The overall offensive execution, unselfishness, and efficiency makes it very difficult to stop them. This wasn't their best offensive performance, but they box out and rebound very well, defend as a cohesive unit, and play at a very consistent level. They won't have a Player of The Week, they won't have an MVP, but they all play at a very high level, consistently, and efficiently. They spread the ball and attack at every angle - this makes them very difficult to defend.

They ripped the heart out of a team that had very little heart left. Dominant second half, there's absolutely no denial to that, but, watching Istanbul's body language, they no longer had any desire to play AND THAT IS A DIRECT CREDIT TO SANA'A. #thingsMBsays

Farzad had his best game in a long time. Salman had a very under the radar 9 and 13. As a whole, they limited Fez's explosive offense, starting with keeping Ed to a season low of only 10 points on 3-11 shooing. First half looked a little iffy, but they got it going on offense and defensive to close the game out. Would have liked to see a more dominant start, but keeping Fez to 47 is an impressive feat. Each individual piece of their Big 4 is starting to click, once they can all play at a high level at a unit, Dhaka will be Dhaka again.

Yousef. Sadat. Raza. Very difficult "backcourt" to guard. Weiss continues his great play underneath, Raza continues to get to the hole, Sadat looked like he found it again, and Yousef is the X-Factor. He'll always be seen as "Muj's little brother", but, very strong but, he will have the chance to help Raza guide Mombasa back on top. He can do a lot of things to make defenses relax on Raza and open up more paint space for Weiss. He's shown so far that when he has the chance to make an impact, he makes a heck of one. Look for him to take advantage of the mismatches teams will be forced to defend him with. If they focus on him, Raza and Weiss will continue to load up the stat sheets. Very complete team with weapons all around.

Took a punch early in the game, but the return of Omar Singer seemed to be an extremely positive one. Defensively, the whole team gets after it. They were missing one of their Big 4, Waqas, but it really was not an issue. This is going to be a tough group to defend, and even a tougher group to score against. They have length and athleticism in the front line, and they have speed and quickness in the backcourt. Granada shut down a great offensive play in Hosam Karkis, and limited Damascus' 3 point shooting. Then, when the opportunity presented itself, they went on a run to take the lead, then capped it off with some very impressive transition offense to blow it open. I wouldn't put them at the level of the top 4 just yet, but they have the pieces to be a force late in the season.

No Mana, no problem. Louis and Moayad are the real deal. Both of them are finding ways to get and make high percentage shots, both are playing extremely efficiently, and both get to the foul line at will. Muhammad Shabazz provides a level of stability down low, especially in Mana's absence. Would like to see a little bit more out of Muhammad Mustafa, just to keep defenders from crowding Louis and Moayad. They'll need to find a way to stretch the floor. They shoot a league lowest 2.5 3s per game, and shoot it at a bottom six percentage. Teams will continue to crowd the paint and force them to win from the outside, but Louis and Moayad have been playing at a very high level, so just crowding the paint to stop them will be easier said than done - especially when Mana plays.

After taking the league by storm, the Bernie for MVP chatter has been silenced. After a less than spectacular game against Granada, he was held to a goose egg in their matchup with Riyadh, a team that ranks in the bottom quarter of defensive efficiency. The Masri brothers both had it clicking, combining for 33. Add to Ahmed Odah's 21 and you have a pretty solid scoring combination. Not sure how sustainable their style of play is though, early on they were playing very well on the glass and playing larger than they were, but now, it seems like they resorted back to their three pointer oriented offense. It's great when the ball is passed well and the shots fall, but when they don't, that's when this team is very vulnerable.

Whatever Tayeb is on, give me it. Now. Will not disrespect or dilute his performance by talking about anything else. He deserves this moment to shine. That a boy.

Did everything they could to keep Beirut from stealing this game late. For the third straight week, they get a W in a dramatic, but cool and collected fashion. Muj struggled a bit, but he had jawad by his side to carry the offensive load. Big boy Omar Khalaf ate on the boards. Omar "Bunnies" Elsamna looking like he came out of Space Jam to grab some of his 17 rebounds. These boys can defend and rebound, but again, consistent offense is their Achilles heel. We've seen spurts of tremendous fire power, but then we've seen a 30+ minute stretch (last week against Sana'a) where without Muj, they cannot buy a basket. 

He didn't necessarily match him statistically, but Kareem Ahmed carried this Cairo squad similar to how Abdul Popal carried his team. Fortunately for Cairo, they have a couple more pieces around Kareem to be able to spotlight his performances and turn them into Ws. I don't think they have what it takes, yet, to consistently compete/beat the upper echelon of the league, but they are without a doubt the best middle of the pack team. 

Couldn't find a way to steal this one late, but that shouldn't be the biggest of their concerns. They defending well, but got blasted on the boards. Beirut has never been a team to get dominated on the glass, so this may have been an anomaly, but nevertheless it is concerning. If it wasn't for terrific defensive play, this game would have been much uglier. They'll need to tighten up on the glass as they play Damascus next week, a top rebounding team who grabs many second chance opportunities.

Did not get a win, but I liked seeing some other guys besides Ed play and contribute at a high level. They played a very solid first half and played very well defensively throughout the entire game, but just couldn't get and make good shots. 29 from Elias, Zabi, and Idriss is solid, expect Ed to add at least another 20, and then 10-14 more from Jason. They have the recipe, just need to execute now.

Not a very inspiring win, but they are starting to look better in Anas' absence. Even with 9 assists, Jaber looked very ball dominant. Malik was feeling it from 3, but he needs to find more ways to get the ball besides putting the pressure on Jaber to drive and kick. Would like to see more of Ammar, especially while Anas is out. Good game from Yousef who's shown in the past that he's a respectable center. That 3-21 mark from Jaber and the lack of scoring in the second half as a whole team leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'll move them up solely because the got the win in a game they could have let slip away.

Gave Granada a fight early on thanks to Humza's early outburst. Could not sustain anything though. Offensively, no one got anything going. Defensively, Granada's guards were too aggressive, getting to the line, and exploiting them in transition. They were without their big man Muhanad, but I can't really see a different outcome even if he was playing. They're a good team, but very inconsistent and inefficient. Hosam's 7-19 and 0-6 from deep gave his team zero chance to sustain their early push.

They played the better versions of themselves. A team that shares the ball and plays unselfishly, but they don't have a single guy who can take over and just dominate. Islamabad does, but doesn't need to use it. They were outmatched talent wise and couldn't do anything about it. Nobody stepped up to give them a chance.

I liked the balance offensive attack, but it wasn't enough. They have a couple guys who are somewhat capable of leading a team, they've done it in the past, but I cannot feel confident in their ability to do so. They're a bottom third team, but they are the one team that could potentially catch some sort of fire and make a little bit of a run. 

I don't know. They played a better Mombasa team, but they look like they should be winning some of these games. They aren't.

Almost took it late. A missed 3 away from winning it. They dug themselves a hole early, but they almost completed the climb out. Caught a couple breaks while Mecca missed two front end on 1&1s. Unfortunately they could not capitalize when the opportunity presented itself.

Never believed I would say this about a Turan lead team, but they played with absolutely no heart and effort in the second half. Did not like seeing that at all. They seem like they're starting to feel sorry for themselves and no longer believe they can be the team of seasons past. There's still time, but I'm not sure there's any life left.

Aymen has put up monster numbers in his first two games, but neither of which have remotely come close to a win. Maybe when they add Muhanad something will click - he returns this week.

Starting to just look like stat padding for Abdul. He's playing hard, but there's no chance.

yikes.