DMV Trilogy vs Miami 305
If the DMV wants any chance to extend their season past eight weeks, they must get a win this week. The problem? They face arguably the best team in the league after three weeks in the Miami 305.
Trilogy is 0-3 for the second straight season and suffered a heart-breaking loss last week following a valiant effort to come back against Chicago. That seems to be the theme for them and despite shaking up the roster a couple times, they’ve yet to reach 50 points.
Meanwhile, Miami is coming off an entertaining win in front of their home crowd where they scorched the Ball Hogs by double digits. Michael Beasley is once again putting together an MVP like season (ranking second in the league in scoring) and Lance Stephenson is making his own case for Rookie of the Year.
The biggest challenge the DMV might face comes from a size standpoint. Despite Earl Clark leading the league in rebounds, Trilogy was outrebounded by nearly double last week due to playing with a smaller lineup.
Don’t get it twisted. Franklin Session and Mike Taylor dominated last week and their small guard lineup was the reason they were in it till the end against the Triplets.
But against a bigger 305 team that includes one of the best rebounders in league history in Reggie Evans, it might come down to Trilogy needing to win an offensive showdown. That’s a tall task going against instant buckets like Beasley and Stephenson but making the playoffs will be even taller if they start the year 0-4.
Dallas Power vs Chicago Triplets
Heading into Week 5, the matchup between Dallas and Chicago features two teams that might not have been hyped enough heading into the summer. Now they get a chance to separate themselves from the pack.
Power is coming off a blowout win that was very Power-esque against a Joe Johnson-less Detroit Amps squad. They shared the rock, got into the paint, and forced a ton of turnovers while all three of Glen Rice Jr., Paul Millsap, and Greg Monroe ended up with double-digit points.
On the other side, the Triplets found themselves in a dog fight but came out on top thanks in large part to Week 3 Player of the Week Montrezl Harrell dropping a league-high 26 points. Additionally, Nasir Core continues his All-Star caliber season recording his first career double-double in the win.
Let’s be honest, on paper, these two squads stack up very evenly. Go to scorers, size to protect the rim, and strong guard play are just a few things both of these teams do very well.
The differentiator? What kind of defense will we get from Dallas and can Chicago close out the game if up late. We obviously saw Power’s defensive prowess last week racking up eight steals and holding their opponent to 30 points. That being said, we’ve also seen a lapse in the defense in times and teams make game-ending runs when they lose their focus.
For the Triplets, they’re one of the best offensive teams in the league but they allowed Detroit to come back in Week 1 and struggled to close out the DMV last week. Core’s closed out the last two but they need to decide who gets the ball in their hands late to end it.
Either way, this should be the best game of the week and should give us a better idea on who’s a pretender and who’s a contender.
Boston Ball Hogs vs Los Angeles Riot
Arguably the most iconic rivalry between two cities in the history of sports now emerges within the BIG3.
For decades, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics dueled it out for NBA championships. Now a new rivalry comes to light between the Los Angeles Riot and Boston Ball Hogs in Beantown to cap off the triple header on CBS.
Boston is looking to bounce back at home after a tough loss on the road in Miami while Los Angeles is on a roll following their second straight win.
The Ball Hogs are a team that everyone is still trying to figure out – maybe even Gary Payton himself. On one hand, they have a lot of experience and a ton of dominant scorers from Jonathon Simmons, Kevin Murphy, and Chris Johnson. On the other hand, they haven’t been able to piece together the best way to utilize everyone’s skill sets.
Simmons has been a revelation as a two-way wing but outside of him, they just seem like a group that hasn’t had a ton of time together yet – mainly because they haven’t. The 2022 MVP Murphy has yet to score over 10 points this season, they haven’t found a go to lineup yet, and they rank in the bottom four defensively.
As for the Riot, it’s been all uphill since their season opening blunder. BIG3 rookies Dwight Howard and Wesley Johnson are both coming off their best games of the season, Jordan Crawford ranks top-4 in the league in points and assists, and they’ve done all this with Elijah Stewart off to a slow start.
Defensively, they’ve had their challenges with every team scoring at least 45 points on them but they’re so offensively gifted it hasn’t mattered.
If the Ball Hogs want to avoid going 1-3 they need to find an offensive rhythm early. Simmons scored 19 points off the bench last week and missed one shot so expect to see him back in the starting lineup this week.
For LA, it might just be about feeding the hot hand and basing the game plan around how they play Crawford. Crawford was the leading scorer the first two weeks but last week acted as more of a facilitator dishing out seven assists as he was more of a defensive focus.
Detroit Amps vs Houston Rig Hands
The city of Detroit is hopeful to get Joe Johnson back this week after missing Week 3 with a thigh contusion.
And The Amps could certainly use him. They struggled to find their offense in the second half last week and beat themselves with 10 turnovers against Dallas.
Iso Joe should obviously help from an offensive perspective. Johnson is still tied third in the league in scoring based off his first couple games alone and it was promising to see Jeremy Pargo have a productive outing in Miami.
But the Amps haven’t had much offense outside of those two. In fact, Johnson and Pargo have made up 72 percent of the scoring the past two weeks.
Houston on the other hand hasn’t been able to stop much of anything in front of them the past couple weeks.
Corey Brewer had his best offensive output in Week 3 but we haven’t seen that same gritty, defensive-minded style we saw with some of these players last year. They’re second to last in points allowed and the past couple weeks have allowed teams to shoot 49 percent from the field.
The Rig Hands need a good rebound this week. While things will be tough for Brewer with steals leader Shakur Juiston assigned to him most of the afternoon, they’re a team that can find offense. But they don’t find offense or win this game if they can’t guard anyone.
As much as Detroit would like a healthy Johnson, there’s no guarantee. He’ll of course make things easier from an offensive standpoint but playing or not, the Amps need to find some help outside of their top-2 scorers to get back in the win column.
