Muslim Basketball

Literally just tossed Baghdad away.

Showed an unbelievable amount of resilience to get this win. They really struggling in the first half, Moayad was visibly frustrated, Qasem struggled, but then in the second half, the script was flipped. Moayad led his team back and ultimately set the stage for Qasem’s game winning three. Full team effort across the board - Marwan hit two momentum changing threes in the midst of the comeback and Mana with a pedestrian 20 rebounds. Really big time win for this group in what seems to be a huge next step.

I don’t like how inconsistent they’ve been, but I think it’s fair to say that they’ve shown that they have what it takes to be a top team. Not a fan of seeing 60 points against, but when you have five guys in double figures, you’re a dominant team. Their transition game is unstoppable, they all know that anyone on the court can score, so their is a significant level of unselfishness (even though Patrick seems to take the bulk of the shots in the half court). If they can play like this week after week, oh boy.

Let this one slip away. Looked exception in the first half, defense was swarming, and the Himey clap was in full effect. Fast-forward to the second half and offense got stagnant, non-fluid, and stiff. Muj accounted for 8 of their 15 made field goals, while the rest of the team shot 7/33. Muj will consistently get his when he wants to, the difference and ultimately the team’s success lies within the play of Yousef and Mo - when both click, Jakarta is unbeatable. Also, defense is been very lackadaisical for an Ibrahim Omar led team. Hopefully just because they know they have a handful of offensive weapons, they didn’t decide to stop playing defense.

If it wasn’t for a week 1 smacking, they would have the top ranked defense. They have arguably the best defensive backcourt and have shown that they can stop the leagues top players. They’re offense isn’t going to put up massive numbers, but if each guy can hit and extra shot or two, they’ll significantly stretch their margin of victory.

The combo of Steve Netti and Abdul might be the start of something really nice for Sana’a. Teams tend to not let Abdul beat them, but once Steve starts beating them, they’ll be forced to focus on both - not an easy (or even possible) task.

I don’t like looking at averages to get the full picture, but two numbers really define this team: top 2 defense, 15th ranked shooting percentage. Their defense is tremendous, but they leave the door open because they cannot close it on the offensive end. Sana’a was just able to sneak by. I’m not really sure what the solution is, or if there is one - they take good shots, but they don’t fall. Billz and Omar are the only guys that can score at will, but sometimes they get cold. Their best bet is to remain patience on offense and continue to get the good looks created by their movement and chemistry.

Cannot score 60 and still lose. They’ve been able to keep games close enough for Jon to win on the offensive end, but no way are they giving up 82 and winning games.

Quietly getting it done.

Their lack of defense is more consistent than their potent offense. Not a good recipe.

Not sure if 100% for real. Win against Dhaka was legit, but that was Dhaka at their worst. Seems like teams tend to play their worst against them (besides Cordoba). That could be coincidence or it could be Suba - we’ll find out.

Damascus makes everyone look good, but this might be what Dhaka needed to get going again.

Ed + Jaber + Adam Froogh = W

Ted’s the engine, tough to win without him.

Great first half, self destructive second half. Looked like they forgot what defense and basketball was.

Good fight, not enough against a very solid defensive team.

Gave Beirut a fight, but didn’t have enough in the tank to go toe to toe in an offensive slugfest.

Mombasa makes everyone look bad.

Three guys scoring won’t beat a top 5 offensive team.

and it continues.