THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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2007_Summer/Fall NL (NYC) |
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Can the Cruisers Make History? Or Will the Spartans Repeat It? | |
| If you’re a history buff and you’re the RL Cruisers, you’re not liking what tonight may bring. Aside from a possible snow-in (though it’s lightened up it seems), the Cruisers head into tonight’s NL Championship match-up with the most daunting of tasks. Beat the Spartans twice. The Spartans, by virtue of their semifinal win over the Cruisers two weeks ago sit in a driver’s seat that is so relaxing as measured by Dream League season’s past, that it seems we ought to just gift wrap the hardware and hand it over to them. Never ever in history has a team who held the double-elim card heading into the championship round wound up losing the chip. There have been instances when the team holding the advantage has lost Game 1, but they always came back to claim it in two. There was the greatest finals ever in 2006 Winter/Spring when these same Cruisers nearly pulled off the impossible, won Game 1, but lost to the Ghee Unit on a three-quarters’ court heave by Nik Nayak. There was Fall 2005 when, again, the Cruisers held the advantage, lost Game 1 to Da Bien, but closed it out in the repeat final. Then, there is tonight.
This time, and for the third time, the Cruisers are involved. And this time, and for the third time, the Cruisers know how the odds are stacked against them. If you’re the Spartans, all you have to do is win one – just one. You want to close it out in one, of course, and there’s no reason to think they won’t. The Spartans have beat the Cruisers twice this season already – once in the regular season by 6 and then the semi game by 8. It seems they just have their number. Their speed poses all sorts of problems for the chug and plug Cruisers and in both match-ups this season, that’s what gave the Spartans the edge in both wins. Never has the saying size matters, but speed kills meant more. The Cruisers’ size is imposing. Tony Hu. George Chan. These two, just a season ago, were running along side many of these Spartans as they played together on the Renegades. But the Spartans speed is devastating. Their roster, led by Eddie Wang and James Choi, top to bottom, can run like the wind – the thing that T&G fear most. For even if the Cruisers knock off the Spartans in Game 1, they’ve got to turn their tired legs around and run it back against them in Game 2. The chances of the Cruisers picking it up and surviving to win are downright impossible. Just ask history. She’ll tell you. |
