Muslim Basketball

Knocked off a Goldberg-less Mombasa squad. Frustrated Mombasa early to create a lead and found a way to hold off what looked to be a potential Mombasa run. This dude Patrick has been an absolute horse this season, 31 points on 18 shots and 66% shooting is impressive - he also left a handful of potential points on the line. Come playoff time, you need that kind of player you can rely on in critical situations and Kazan has two players on that level. Mark’s taken a back seat to Patrick, but he has it and will unleash it when necessary. This isn’t an easy team to defend, add to that a top third defense and you have a beast of a squad.

Played against four, but ran them out of the gym. They may not look pretty, but they sure are an effective effective offense. They don’t put up a ton of points, but when you hold teams to 40, winning games becomes easy. I’m not sure if they have the premier big man like Dhaka or Mombasa, but they won both those games  by containing the opposing big man - impressive.

Overcame poor shooting by being balanced. Jon, Herb, and Scott are all guys that can score when points are needed and that is an extremely valuable asset. Add to that a very underrated center in Muhammad Darwish, a spot up shooter like Ahmed Saleh, and you have terrific core with contributing pieces around them. Really impressive win against a bigger Cordoba team. Lahore seems like one of those teams (just like the other top two teams) that could potentially benefit greatly from all playoff games being played on court A. Jon will be able to navigate and direct a much more free flowing and spaced offense, which is something that plays into Lahore’s advantage. 

They are essentially unbeatable when Kenny and Luke get it done down low - that is where they need to play their game. In their 3 losses, they’ve shot 25 or more 3s. In their 6 wins, they attempted less than 25 3s. Cordoba doesn’t shoot it at a bad percentage, they do though sometimes fall too in love with the deep ball. Against Lahore, it may have just been a result of a halftime deficit they were trying to quickly overcome. Their half court offense running through the bigs with an occasional kick out three would be far more effective and difficult to guard.

No Shahsamads were present in this loss.

“Give me the ball”

No Ali, but still got it done against a very good Tehran team. I think they wanted to lose a couple early so they wouldn’t have to lose one when it matters. The four-peat is in play.

They’ve given up 50+ only twice this season, but have lost both times. The defense is there, but that offense is not doing enough. Joe P did his thing, but they couldn’t get much else. Mo Amin needs to be the offensive catalyst for this group - he’s too tough to guard one on one in the post, feed him and create kick out opportunities. He needs to be a 15 point 10 rebound guy for this team to get to the next level.

Huge second half to erase both a five point deficit and Beirut as a whole. Four guys in double digits, OQ looked more like Jon Mingo than Jon Mingo - BEAST.

Got a much needed win after two poor offensive showings. Their defense and rebounding will keep them in games, just need a sprinkle of offense here and there to win them. Lil ‘O has shown that he can be an X factor of sorts for this group. He might not yet be the offensive catalyst, but his scoring is much needed. Biggz needs to be a bit bigger and consistently bigger.

All I can say is that they’ve been consistently inconsistent. They have a solid group who has played together for a while now, just need to perform at the high level they can perform at, game in and game out. They have both the size and guard play to go toe to toe with any team in the league, but at times they just don’t.

When you have two guys that can combine for 67, you should be winning a ton of games. When you give up 67 points, you probably going to lose more than you win. Sana’a is on the end of both those spectrums. They’ve 4-5 because they can score and because they get scored on. They average what they give up, so games will be tight and come down to a couple points. They inexcusably gave up 67 points to (no disrespect intended towards Baghdad) a below average offense that has no business scoring in the mid 50s, let alone 60+. They’ll give a high seed some problems, but if they don’t defend, there really isn’t enough offense they can score.

Ah Ed you don’t pay the stat guys enough to just give you the triple double, you gotta go get it.

Went down early, but found a way to steal Damascus’ first win. They show glimpses of some really terrific play, but they have also shown the ability to get knocked out in the opening round.

They really do have some nice talent, just hasn’t translated week to week.

Much better than their record shows. Just can’t get over the hump to win that first game.

Haven’t been able to beat a good team yet.

Islamabad needed this one and played like it.

They played hard but ran out of gas pretty early. Not easy playing with just four against a fast team like Suba.

Oh you almost had it!