WE BEAT THE UNDEFEATED DEFENDING CHAMPS TONIGHT!!!

So last week, my team "La Ciudad" (The City) lost to one of the weaker teams in the league. We had a legitimate reason, though.  George Delgado has been no-showing all our games since game 2, and Henry has classes or something for his nursing program. Felipe had to work early the next day.Tommy (1/2 of our star players) was in K-Town for a friend's birthday eating Korean BBQ, and Clark (the other half of our star players) didn't show up for some reason. It was just Marv, Big Joe, Keith and I running Iron 4-man against 8 other players. We actually gained a 10 point lead for much of the first half before the other team closed in on us and cut it to 4 at the half. Then the second half kicked in and we were up by as much as 11 or 12 at one point. Then they other team cut it to 1, and the score was like 31-30, our lead. No one made a bucket for three minutes straight. We called a time out with about 5 minutes to play, came back into the game and started to have turnovers that bit us in the butt. We lost by 9 at the end because we just crapped out. The other team played bad bball and didn't exploit the fact that we only had 4 players with no subs. Instead of 4-1, we were 3-2.

So today, after reeling from last week's loss against the Purple Cobras with Moses and John Cena on the team, our entire team, except for Henry who has his career obligations, came out to play against the defending champs: "Construction Crew." Clark came out and hit three 3s straight to start out the game giving us a 9-2 lead early on. We had a lead over the champs until midway through the half when they finally took the lead. The game was pretty close all the way through. We were down by 2 at the half. At this point, the best player on the other team, a Jermaine O'Neal/Xzibit-looking guy, was guarding Clark. We finally gained the lead for the second time in the second half, but lost it a few minutes later, where we traded the lead back and forth a few more times. At the end, we were up by 2 and that O'Neal/Zxibit guy hit a tough shot to tie it up. We inbounded the ball and Marv got hacked and swarmed with no foul called. Clark called a time out with 30 seconds left. Big Joe went in for me to set a high screen for Clark. We inbounded with the score 68-68 and Clark immediately got double teamed because the team recognized him as "the shooter." Big mistake... TOMMY PHU was left open! Tommy got the ball, squared up, I put my fist up in the air ala Jordan because I knew it was money, Tommy shot the ball with a high arc, it swished, buzzer rang. This was the second buzzer beater I've see from Tommy. That guy is clutch. Both times he did it, he just hits the shot and walks back to the bench like the ending of every other game. All while his team is celebrating and jumping around him like moons orbiting around a planet. Big Joe looks up at the scoreboard and goes "How are we up by 3? Damn, he shot a 3?!"

Clark came out to play this week. He was hitting threes, getting the ball to the hole, making his jumpers, etc. Tommy was dominating the past couple games, but Clark came out and reminded us that he was still Clark Lopez lol. Flip was grabbing boards and hustling, Keith was Keith with 20+ points and tons of boards, Marv had sweet passes to Tommy, Tommy was awesome like always, Big Joe gave us that pressence in the key, and I got my 8 points, a couple boards and gave everyone a nice warm seat on the bench :D

Henry Vong came out to JJ Cafe after he got off work and met up with Keith, Marv, Joe and I during our victory dinner. We were going over our chances to make playoffs and see how many games we needed. Henry said it was wierd actually thinking about this stuff for Almansor league, because usually we just play and when we play the standard 10 games, we wait for next season. We actually have a legit chance to maybe even win the whole thing. It's crazy. I haven't been on a viable Almansor League team since... I guess En Fuego, but that was Teen League. I don't think I would have ever thought I'd be a part of a legit adult league team hahaha. Winning's awesome. Too bad this is a once in a lifetime one season deal where Tommy and Clark just kinda fell onto our team's lap.

4-2 and tied for overall 2nd in the league and in our conference. Four more games left in the regular season. 8:30 game next Tuesday! Cant wait!


Almansor score sheet:
Clark: 25 points with 5 3s
Keith: 20 points
Tommy: 12 points

I'm pretty sure Keith and Tommy had over 10 boards. Monsters man.