My team’s collective ego got a boo boo
Last week, we won by 20-something. This week? Lost by 20-something. The main factor: the guys we played were just more experienced and a lot more aggressive on both offense and defense than we were. We flat got outplayed. I had my worst game in a while. I scored four points–same as in the first game–but I did it on something like 14 shots or so. I missed several easy lay-ups, didn’t have any 3’s and couldn’t get 5-foot jumpers to fall. My teammate said I (and we as a team) were playing scared and I think he may be right. As I think back, I missed some easy shots, but they were shots that should’ve been a lot easier. I wasn’t jumping too hard on lay-ups and jumpers because I was trying for a quick release to avoid getting blocked; my 3’s were falling short because I was shooting too high and quick to avoid getting blocked.
We were caught off guard because they played very aggressive defense. They only had five guys and we had seven, so we figured we could “run ’em”. Well, since they had at least one guy who played Division 1-A basketball, they were in pretty good shape and weren’t intimidated by a fast-paced game. Ironically, our team totally forgot that we beat a ten-man team by 20 last week and we only had six guys.
Anyway, it was humbling, but it was good to see what we need to work on in practice and throughout the season. We’ll probably see this team again in the play-offs and I think we’ll be more ready for them this time around.