Terminator 44, Air Force 1 43

Before this game even started, there was some drama. No, there wasn’t any fighting in the stands, but there was the case of a missing jersey. After arriving without his threads, Treasure Kyn-Neal went all the way home to Brooklyn and came back just to play. Now that’s dedication! If they were on the same team, I would have said he could have borrowed some gear from Christian Grant-Fields, because you know he has comes to games with a wardrobe specialist for all his accessories.

But right away in this one, you could see that the guards were going to dominate the game. Without Paul Rivera, Stalley was forced to handle the ball and play the point, starting with a nice dime to Brandon Smith for the triple. But just when you thought he was gonna get going, Omar Grant had a monster swat on him on the other end which pushed the energy in Terminator’s favor. Riding the wave, Grant stole the ball the next possession and was fouled on his lay-up attempt (making both free throws).

But in a game of runs, the pendulum swung back Air Force 1’s way. Taking the ball the basket with a purpose, Chris Dowling had back-to-back buckets plus the foul, putting on that Kobe finesse. But while Dowling may have been playing like him, it was his GM Ben Detrick that looked like the Black Mamba. Looking as if he raided Niketown during the holidays, Detrick was wearing the new Nike Zoom Kobe Vs to go along with some Nike Pro Combat shorts and top.

But for all their individual talent, Air Force 1 just couldn’t get things going. After Dan Gladstone hit a three to put Terminator up 17-13, NRF personality Steve Halo commented that Air Force 1 looked like the ’99 Portland Trail Blazers. While I would make the comparison to this year’s Washington Wizards (minus the whole gambling and guns in the locker room thing) for their group of All-Stars with very few wins, you get the point.

But as the half came a close, it seemed to be an audition for All-Star Weekend’s three-point contest. As I said in the preview, it always comes down to three-point shooting, and it seemed like they were trying to prove my point as Smith connected before Grant hit one, followed by Stalley answering and Gladstone putting in the last work with a trifecta at the buzzer to put Terminator up 27-24 at the half.

In the second half, things got heated. Right away, Terminator’s floor general Grant picked up a technical foul. Playing like Chris Paul out there with both heart and fire, you can see that all this guy wants to do is steal and score. And some fuel to the fire was Air Force 1’s “enforcer,” Kevin Wildes, who somehow managed to foul out at like the 15-minute mark in the second half in about five minutes of total play.

But as the game went on, things different get any easier. Back and forth for the next 10 minutes, the game was tied 38-38 with 3:45 left to play. Then things got interesting. After a controversial call, Air Force 1’s Cory Hogan was T’d up – from the bench – and Terminator took the lead with the freebies. But AF1 got it back together and tied the game at 40-40 with 1:30 to play.

After a Gladstone travel, a Stalley bucket and a subsequent Grant-Fields steal on the inbounds pass and timeout, you thought Air Force 1 was going to sneak out with the W. But on the next play Stalley turns the ball over leading to a Terminator possession in which big man Al Reyes misses a wide open lay-up underneath the hoop – which Halo ran over to me to dub as Charles Smith on the ’93 Knicks.

Up two, Smith goes to the line and makes one of two, but perhaps as the play of the game, down three, Grant decides to race down the floor and take it to the hoop as opposed to launching from three. Converting with six seconds left, Grant-Fields (who you’d wanna foul) wisely takes the ball out of bounds, but proceeds to throwing it off the ceiling.

With a 43-42 lead and 6 seconds on the clock, Terminator has a chance to win it. Getting the ball in the hands of Kyn-Neal, he drives to the basket and dishes to… Reyes?! Redeeming himself from his previous gaffe, the big guy lays it up to put Terminator up 44-43. Still with 1.8 seconds on the clock, Air Force 1 has one more chance at a miracle, but proceeds to throw the ball out of bounds up the court so it’s Terminator’s ball under their own basket. They foul Kyn-Neal, he intentionally misses, and the game is over.

	1	2		T
Terminator	27	17	-	44
Air Force 1	24	19	-	43

Box Scores

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