Dunk 55, Terminator 52

The opening matchup for week nine started off tight but actually looked like the most fun game of the season, so far. Harold Reid (12 points, seven rebounds) threw an alley-oop to Ryan Kearney that would have made the J. Kidd, KG and the rest of the fun police from those Nike commercials of my youth proud. The pass hit the backboard and had to be considered more a shot than a pass but again, it was fun.

Last night marked the return of Dunk center Will Blunt or the “walking double-double,” as the commish put it. Blunt did his best to live up that in his first game of the season with nine points and eight rebounds. However, he proved to be as valuable as fellow Dunk-mate said he was earlier this year, and teams need to look out down the stretch.

His presence down low forced the Termies into settling for outside shots in the first, until Omar “from the wire” Grant (21 points) took over and aggressively went to the cup.

Dunk took it’s their biggest lead off the first half (21-16) after a Jed Berger layup with 3:25 left. Omar was all O-fense for Team Term until Raymundo (nine points) knocked down back-to-back three’s, including the night’s first four-point play, giving the Termies a 25-23 lead with one minute to go. After Dunk managed to tie the game, Grant knocked down a three at the buzzer for a 28-25 halftime lead.

Terminator opened the second half with six three-point attempts, and went 0-for-all. Dan Gladstone stepped in and hit a mid-corner jumper, and Raymundo followed up with a runner in the lane. Blunt answered back with a three-pointer, along with Reid who hit from three on the next Dunk possession to tie the game at 40. After Terminator took a 48-46 lead, Grant got to the cup and split three defenders, to do so.  With the score tied at 48, Gladstone made it clear he’s been paying attention to Gallo at the Garden, when he hit Dunk with a Euro-step to the basket (50-48, Terminator). With 45 seconds on the clock, Raf (24 points) hit a trey-ball to put Dunk ahead by one. Dunk-mate, Sureshot was soon fouled after the Termies turned the ball over late and knocked down both free-throws. Lucian Dickson (six points, nine rebounds) hit a layup late but the clock ran out for 53-52 Dunk win.

Box Scores