Roadblock

Well to be honest I have slacked on writing this entry as well.  This one wont bring the hilarity or the great finishes the other ones have.  Every now and then there are stumbling blocks that block our success














And dropping four games in a row would certainly be considered a stumbling block...




















The first thing that always happens when a team is losing is always "whos fault is it?"  Let me address that from the get go so we are clear.


















Basketball is a team sport.  5 guys are on the court at one time with up to 10 others on the bench ready to come in and take their place.  Alot of focus and analysis by those outside the team goes into the mistakes and baskets that happen in the last two minutes.  Weather it is a turnover that gives the ball up or a missed defensive assignment that gives the other team the go ahead basket.  But in this sport there are 38 other minutes that are played are just as important if not more so than the last two.  A ten point run in the second quarter could be enough to win against an 8 point swing in the last two minutes.  4 empty possession (for you non basketballers empty possessions are when you do not score whether its a missed shot or a turnover of some kind) in a row in the third can mean the difference between being down 5 and being down 15.  The whole game is important and when a team has lulls in the game it can hurt towards the end of the game.

















Our team has certainly had our lulls, but one thing our team has is fight.  There has never been a game where we have not fought to get back in a game.  I guarantee you know one wants to face the Solna Vikings in the last 5 minutes because we will do ANYTHING IT TAKES to get that game close again.  The problem is how to play that way for the first 35.  Here is a short script of what has happened in those last 4 games.
















The first game we played after our win against LF Basket was against Sodertalje at home.  It was a back and fourth game with a run by Sodertalje in the 3rd.  We found ourselves down by double digits.  Leads don't affect us however and in the last five minutes we battled back and got it to a tie game.  it went back and forth and we found ourselves with the ball with a chance to win the game.  Against LF we had a game winner, sometimes the Jordan magic just isn't there as the ball rimmed out while the game horn sounded.  My performance was a tough one with only 6 points 9 rebounds and a block.










Our schedule then sped up like the train from the movie "Unstoppable." We had 3 games in 5 days and 7 games in 11 days.

I need to find a way to Put Denzel's face in every one of my blogs

Our next game was at Jamtland no Friday.  We went into halftime with a ten point lead and a feeling that we could turn this around.  But the wheels came off in the second half and to be honest sometimes the other team just doesnt miss (Hargrove decided he wanted to have 42 points against great defense...sometimes its just your night) and we lost another close one.  Due to foul trouble my play was severely limited and I did not play well and only manage 3 pts and 2 rebs.

















Our Sunday game was against Norkopping and we found ourselves down early and couldnt really recover from the early deficit.  We narrowed the lead to 5 or 6 a few times but teams with the firepower they have they quickly bounced it back up to 11.  I recorded my best game as a professional with 25 pts but still not enough to get us the win.
















Our last game was up in Boras (pronounced Bo-ro-as) (The a is supposed to have a little o over it but my computer wont make those...how ignorantly american of it) and our defense struggled to say the least.  After a crazy ending to a game that was much closer than the final score we found ourselves on the short end of the stick again.  I did manage to get my first professional double double with 21pts 10 rebs and 4 blks.  Still when you play well in a loss it still doesnt seem satisfactory.





















So what do you do when you face adversity?  How do you overcome what seems to be an increasing pile of garbage?  What is it that we need to do to get back on track?




















we do what we do best.

Fight.




























I have no doubt we will get it back.  This team is hungry.  This team will continue to push through.  And we will be back on the winning side soon enough.