Muslim Basketball

When you look at the box scores of their games, couple things pop out, the first being the degree of difficulty pronouncing some of their last names. They also shoot the ball with tremendous efficiency, they rack up handfuls of assists, and they’re opponents struggle to score against them. Those four characteristics make Mombasa a difficult opponent and an early championship favorite. Daniel and Raza are two of the best players in this league - they both play with extreme efficiency and are always a matchup nightmare. Each of them dominate their respective positions are both have strong cases to be MVP candidates. 

Omar Abbassi X Omar Abbassi - just when the league thought one was too much to handle, we now have the youngin to deal with. Finally had his breakout game four weeks into his career, but don’t expect this 17 point 10 rebound double double to be his best performance of the year. Big O also has his typical double double to help Islamabad bounce back after last week’s loss. They held a very high-powered offense to just 7 points in the first half. Jon Mingo got his double double, but 14 points on 18 shots summed up the struggles Beirut had against the stout Islamabad D.

Overcame a halftime deficit to hand Lahore their first loss of the year. Story of the game has to be Jakarta’s ability to pressure defenses and get to the line. In past games it was Yousef, this week it was Muj. Mo Masri did his thing from beyond the arc, going 5/8, spreading out the Lahore defense very thin. Jakarta didn’t look exceptional defensively as they usually do, but Lahore didn’t have enough firepower without Jon. When the offense and defense click simultaneously, they’ll be able to beat anyone.

Can’t kill them for giving a top 3 team all they could handle, doing so without their best player. My concerns though, would be their inability to move the ball late in the game and their inability to get stops late in the game - both concerns could be eliminated by having Jon on the court. Bottom line, not concerned about this group - they have 3 solid scorers and a pesky supporting cast.

I didn’t like their loss to Cordoba last week, but they bounced back extremely well and Cordoba also got another solid win, so maybe that loss isn’t as bad as I believed. Kazan is not an easy team to play, especially on the small court. Amman found a way to overcome 22 turnovers and giving up 27 more shots than they took. Ultimately, their ability to finish shots made the difference in shot quantity negligible. Moayad’s ability to hit shots and capitalize in transition makes him one of the most difficult players to defend in this league. He’s added a permitter shot to his arsenal, when that falls, good luck. Add Mana under the rim and you have a loaded roasted with intelligent and potent players.

They hold two of the most impressive wins on the season thus far, but also lost two games they could and maybe should have won. Seems like they fall in love with the 3 and don’t look for alternatives when it doesn’t fall. Pat has had two tremendous shooting games and two atrocious ones. Him and Mark combined for 10/42 shooting, resulting in just 27 points. If they can get around 35 on 50%+ shooting, this team is unbeatable. Both players can score from anywhere on the court, but at times, it seems like they don’t try to - they’re only taking what the defense is giving them instead of taking what they want. They’re too talented to be sitting at 2-2.

Pretty tremendous team effort to hold Sana’a to 35 and Abdul to just 5 points. Cody and Joe harassed Abdul all game, making it very difficult to get going, and more importantly, they kept him from getting to the free throw line. Joe P also made his presence felt on the offense end, leading all scorers and making the correct decisions to make the most out of each and every Tehran procession. After a bad week 1 loss, Tehran looks to be finding their groove, but they don’t look anywhere near what their potential is. If this team keeps building week to week, they’ll be a behemoth at the end of the season.

They lost to a top team for the second straight week now, but wow did they look bad. Nothing from anyone besides Jon, who himself had a subpar performance (albeit a double double is nothing to scoff at). They have a back to back winnable games, look for them to get back on track.

That’s what happens when Abdul is the center of attention and doesn’t get going. They held Tehran to 47, but didn’t have anywhere near enough offense to get it done. I don’t know what adjustment they can make. Their DNA is Abdul on offense, anything extra is that.

mpressive win playing with only 4 guys. Yaqob and Zain had very solid games for a second consecutive week. Their guy Ted struggled, but they had enough with just 4 to get it done - very impressive feat.

Anwar Ahmad. That is all.

They might have something here.

When Aymen plays under control and with a chip on his shoulder, that is the result. Terrific team win on both sides of the ball, keeping Dhaka from getting into any rhythm, staying aggressive in transition for an entire 40 minutes, and they never let up. Dhaka kept closing in but never got the basket to make it a game again - credit to Suba for not letting them flip the momentum.

Looking extremely un-Dhaka like. No rhythm, no chemistry, out of sync, BUT they are Dhaka. I’ll count them out when another team KOs them in a playoff game. They have a handful of cupcakes coming up, this is there chance to smell blood and get it going again. The top of the league is crowded, but Dhaka still has the talent to be on top - it just hasn’t materialized this season.

After a solid debut from Layth, he struggled in back to back game. He had his best performance of the season so far, dropping 20 on uncharacteristically efficient shooting. Raied made a big time defensive strip late in the game, Khaild owned the boards, and Timbuktu flashed some potential. I don’t expect them to win a handful of games, but they should be competitive all around.

Besides losing to Cordoba, Mecca may have lost Obada and Malik to season ending injuries. Two guys who have significant value to their team, but at the same time 10-15 extra shots for Ed and Jaber may not be the end of the world. Never want to see anyone injured, but there could be some sort of a silver lining for the rest of the group. Jaber has shown that he has the ability to turn up when he feels like it, Ed has shown that he has extremely short memory and they light is always green.

That ending! Down 1 with 3 free throw attempts, down 1 with 2 free throw attempts, down 1 with one last opportunity to tie, L. Tough loss, but solid fight.

Tough game against the best team in the league. Missed a lot of 3s though, wow.

Not easy playing with just 4 and it showed. Couldn’t get anything started which put them in the hole very quickly. It started pouring and it didn’t stop. They’ll want to forget this one quickly.

Ya’ll lost to 4 guys? C’mon man!