BIG3 SEASON 6
EVERY GAME LIVE AND AVAILABLE ON BROADCAST &
STREAMING PLATFORMS
TUNE IN ON SUNDAY, JULY 9th ON CBS AT 1:00 EST FOR POWER VS. TRILOGY, WHICH WILL BE FOLLOWED BY TRI STATE VS. TRIPLETS AT 2:00.
THE FINAL 4 GAMES OF THE WEEK WILL BE STREAMED ON BIG3.COM, STARTING WITH 3’S COMPANY VS. 3 HEADED MONSTERS AT 3:00. BIVOUAC VS. ENEMIES WILL BEGIN AT 3:50, KILLER 3’S VS ALIENS WILL BEGIN AT 4:40, AND BALL HOGS VS. GHOST BALLERS WILL BEGIN AT 5:30.
Welcome to Week 3 of the Summer of Fire. All six BIG3 games this week will take place on Sunday, so make sure to mark your calendars. As always, we’ve got a great slate of games:
GAME 1 (1:00 EDT on CBS): POWER (1-1) VS. TRILOGY (1-1)
Leading off the day will be a rematch of the 2022 BIG3 Finals Game. Both of these teams will be looking to bounce back after suffering losses in Week 2, and neither one of them wants to fall to 1-2. These are absolutely championship-caliber teams that are built around quality size. Trilogy, the reigning two-time champs, prefer to get things done with physicality while Power likes to play more of a finesse game and keep the ball moving.
Needless to say, both teams are extremely good at what they do, and this should be one of the best games of the season. One thing to watch out for will be what role depth will play. Trilogy Coach Stephen Jackson only uses his bench sparingly, while no coach enjoys going to his or her reserves more than Power Head Coach Nancy Lieberman. Will the extra tools at Power’s disposal enable them to do what they couldn’t in last year’s Finals and come away with a victory? It will certainly be fun to find out. Keep a special eye out for the matchup between Trilogy star guard Isaiah Briscoe and 2022 Rookie of the Year Glen Rice Jr., as well as the matchup between 2022 Defensive Player of the Year Earl Clark and Power’s ultra-skilled big man duo of Royce White and TJ Cline.
GAME 2 (2:00 on CBS): TRI STATE (2-0) VS. TRIPLETS (1-1)
This game couldn’t be coming at a better time. In Week 2, Tri State’s Jason Richardson and Triplets’ Jannero Pargo had the two best games of the week, with both players putting on virtuosic performances.
Richardson has been looking elite from everywhere on the court, as he’s been blending his deadly outside shot and ability to slash to the rim with some great big-man play in the paint –
whatever his team has needed, Richardson has provided, like a true Captain should. In Week 2, Power was able to ride Richardson’s performance and a great game from new Center DeShawn Stephens to a stunning 20-point blowout win over Power.
If Tri State wants to keep it rolling against Triplets, they’ll have to get past Jeremy Pargo, who was absolutely on fire in his team’s Week 2 victory over Trilogy. He had the ball on a string and tortured the defense with a number of highlight-reel dribble moves, he got to his spots with ease, and he didn’t miss when he got a good look – he splashed in almost everything he looked at, including a pair of four-point buckets.
Of course, Joe Johnson is also a member of Trilogy. He’s struggled a bit to find his shot over the first two weeks, but there’s a reason he’s still known as the GOAT of the BIG3 – look for him to have a big performance.
GAME 3 (3:00 on BIG3.COM): 3’S COMPANY (0-2) VS. 3 HEADED MONSTERS (1-1)
In the BIG3, the season can come at you very fast, and 3’s Company will already find themselves in some serious trouble if they can’t show some signs of growth against 3HM. Through the first two weeks of the season, the team has been far too willing to play isolation basketball and live with their players, specifically Michael Beasley, settling for tough looks. They need to add some creativity and ball movement into their offense, and they need to do so quickly.
Of course, even if they do that, they won’t have an easy time of things against 3 Headed Monsters, who finished with the best regular-season record in the league last season. Through the first two weeks of the season, the team has been effective but not dominant – 2022 BIG3 MVP Kevin Murphy and Reggie Evans, who missed all of last season with an injury, both have big games, and they’re still learning the best way to play off of each other.
If that lightbulb goes off in Week 3 and Evans’ physicality and inside scoring blends with Murphy’s unparalleled ability to pour in buckets from anywhere on the floor, it could be a very long afternoon for 3’s Company.
GAME 4 (3:50 on BIG3.COM): BIVOUAC (1-1) VS. ENEMIES (1-1)
Bivouac is another team that needs to figure out where to get some consistent offense from. They’ve been settling for quick-trigger jumpers from the perimeter, and it hasn’t been getting them results.
The Enemies don’t feature a ton of ball movement either, but they’re a team of professional scorers that knows how to get to the spots they want and put the ball in the hoop. Take a look at the battle between Bivouac’s Ryan Hollins and Enemies’ Isaiah Austin inside on this one, because both seven-footers play with a lot of energy and will be battling for paint supremacy all night long. Through two weeks, Enemies seem to have a better grasp on where to get offense
from than Bivouac, but Bivouac has shown a lot of hustle, have played some tremendous defense, and have a lot of great shot-makers – they just have to establish a bit of flow.
GAME 5 (4:40 on BIG3.COM): KILLER 3’s (1-1) VS. ALIENS (0-2)
Aliens have struggled through the first two weeks, due largely to an over-reliance on three-point shooting and a shooting slump from the normally-reliable Dusan Bulut. That’s not great news for them, because Killer 3’s are not the team you want to see when you’re struggling.
The Killer 3’s play with as much energy as anyone in the league on both ends of the floor, using their speed and unselfishness to constantly keep pressure on the rim when they have the ball and always fighting for loose balls and steals when they don’t. Frank Nitty’s team is going to put a lot of pressure on Bulut and the Aliens, and they’ll need to find something they haven’t been able to locate over the first two weeks if they want to stave it off and come away with their first win of the season. They have the talent to do it, but it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
GAME 6 (5:30 on BIG3.COM): BALL HOGS (1-1) VS. GHOST BALLERS (2-0)
We end the day with a classic size vs. speed matchup. The Ball Hogs, who put on a clinic in Week 1 and lost a 51-49 heartbreaker in Week 2, have been giving teams fits with their speed and floor spacing – nobody can stay in front of Leandro Barbosa with the ball, Jodie Meeks is constantly flying around the court when he doesn’t have the ball, the ball is always moving, and the team can shoot the lights out. Jeff Ayres, the team’s lone traditional big, is capable of knocking down open 3’s, but the team has been at its best when it goes small and refuses to let the opposition breathe.
While Ghost Ballers do have the very, very fast Mike Taylor at the lead guard spot, their calling card is their size. Between swingman Jonathon Simmons, Chris Johnson, Charles Garcia, and Darnell “D-Block” Jackson, this is a very big team. They’re capable of knocking down the occasional shot from the outside, but their main advantage is their size, and the key to this game will be whether they’ll be able to control the paint without the Ball Hogs running circles around them. Again, it’s a classic matchup, and it should be a whole lot of fun to watch.
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