Muslim Basketball

Didn’t blow it open early, but the consistency of their style of play and efficiency prevailed, grabbing a 25 point win. It’s very impressive watching them - they make their opponents look helpless. Kabul had zero chance to win this game, even when the score was within single digits. Omar Abbassi had what he diagnosed as his worse game of the season, yet the team did not stutter - his tangible double double impact and his intangible leadership, court management, spacing, and overall IQ is so so valuable to this team. Even when shots don’t fall, they look somewhat sloppy, or other teams are finding ways to score, there is never any let up and their substantial point differential confirms that - they dominate even when it looks like they shouldn’t.

Would’ve liked to see a little bit more defense, but nobody can run with them when they have it going. Four different guys with more than 14 points…good luck.

Too many weapons that can kill you from any direction. Extremely balanced team that executes how they want to, when they want to. Daniel may be the most efficient big man in the league - he plays with very soft hands, almost always catching the ball on the first try and finishing nicely under the rim. Him and Weiss are often the beneficiaries of Raza and Sadat’s aggression - when teams lay off of Raza and Sadat to pay attention to Mombasa’s front court, same result ensues - Mombasa gets what it wants. Add the extremely patient and opportunistic play of ‘Yo Shah’ and boy do you have a very difficult team to play against.

Expected them to respond to their first loss of the year in a big way. They faced a Cairo team who played with just four guys - the perfect chance to get back on track after a tough loss. Unfortunately, they played an ugly and sloppy game - BUT they have a top defense and that will win them games when their offense doesn’t. 

The space between them and the top four is getting extremely narrow. A shorthanded Delhi team threw their best punch and Tehran took it with poise. Joe, Ali, and Tayeb lead the offense to their second 60+ game of the season. What concerns me though, is that they are very inconsistent on offense. They are though, very balanced when it comes to winning games by scoring and by playing defense - they can beat you either way and that is a great threat.

With the whole squad, they are easily a top 5 team - but there are also 5 other top 5 teams. I don’t know what that means lol. This team is legitimate - Mujtaba out there surveying the field like an NFL QB, picking and choosing the right spots to make a play. Teams still don’t understand they need to find Omar Elsamna and box him out, because he’s going to eventually start getting all those put backs to go down. Saw Himey hit a 3 - hell has frozen over!

Ahmed bros combined for 42, Omar Singer ‘held’ Abdul to 28, take away the three Hail Mary 3s he hit late in the game and you have a very pedestrian game from the leagues leading scorer. Omar Qasem struggled a bit, but it didn’t effect the group. Very strong start to the second half blew it open for them. They’ve shown some terrific stretched over the season, but they haven’t been able to sustain that high level for a string of games. They’re talented, but somewhat inconsistent. If they get a great game from one of the top 6 teams, I don’t believe they will match that level of play - they have the talent to do it, but have not shown it yet.

Luis had a day, but that ended up being a net negative as he only defended Jaber for like four possessions, succumbing 34 points to the Mecca floor general. Bad games from Moayad and Muhammad Mustafa did not help the cause. I hope Mana shows up for enough games to be playoff eligible or else this team won’t see past the second round. With Mana, they’re a different team - they could potentially be sitting at 7-0 (and before you blast me, go look at their losses, Mana would’ve gotten them at least 2 additional wins.)

Tough, tough loss. Straight up heartbreaking. Mahdi had the chance to ice it with an open layup or just dribble the clock out, instead he blows the layup. The rest of the story can be seen further down the rankings. Bright spot though, they were very balanced scoring the ball, but wow they are really turning into Alexandria of the past - chuck up shots and don’t play defense. Hasn’t worked before, no chance it will work now.

A bad win, but a win nevertheless. We’ll leave it at that.

Saad puts up the three, even with 2 other guys imploring for the ball - nails it. Sarajevo, steal, Saad again puts it up at the buzzer…BAAAAAAAAAANG *Mike Breen Voice* Rameez and Leonard are the horses, but the other guys got it done against a top 10 team. Let’s see what they have in store for Dhaka next week - that could be their coming out party.

If Jaber’s gonna do that in Anas’ absence, they’ll challenge some teams. Big time start from Marwan who got hurt after dropping 16 in as many minutes of play. If Jaber plays the two man game with Ammar and Obada, they’ll force teams to have to play some tough defense. I’m not fully convinced yet though, this performance was an anomaly for Jaber this season, but he’s shown in the past that he’s a very respectable point guard. He just needs to utilize the weapons at his disposal.

To challenge Sana’a, brava. To challenge Sana’a with only four guys, bravo. Really made Sana’a work to sneak out a win.

Oh man.

Might have won it with Splash and Muhanad - Aymen did everything you could to keep it close, but Tehran paid all their attention to him and no one else could step up.

Because they won.

Most respectable fight.

That first half was not for the faint of heart. Viewer’s discretion needed to be advised.

If they played like this in their first 6 games they may have a win not by forfeit.

Played a respectable first half. Couldn’t handle Islamabad beyond that.

Adam Froogh would drop 20 against this team, easy.

Kind of challenged Granada, but had absolutely no answer on offense when Abdul wasn’t getting it done. If it wasn’t for some late 3s, this would’ve been a 20 point loss.