Reported by Shunsuke Nagatake
On June 29, the Drew League Week 7, LA Loop played against CABC. LA Loop defeated CABC by an overwhelming victory with the score of 84-72. And the win-loss record of LA Loop at the Drew League is now 6-1.
In the first quarter, LA Loop led the game from the very beginning by well-balanced plays. At the 2 minutes remaining, when LA Loop led the game by 6 points, a great Japanese point guard, Narito Namizato, entered the court. Immediately he started playing, he showed a great pass to the wide-opened player. But he couldn’t make it because it was the first time to play at LA Loop for Narito, and he missed his first assist opportunity. At the end of the first quarter, LA Loop led CABC with the score of 26-19.
In the second quarter LA Loop played well on defense. Even though there was a younger brother of a NBA player, Klay Thompson in the CABC, LA Loop held him to 9 points. The final score of the halftime was 42-28.
LA Loop kept leading the game from the beginning to end, but they showed worst team offenses in this season in the third quarter. Every player tended to play 1-on-1 and they didn’t move the ball well. At the end of this quarter, LA Loop was 64 and CABC was 51.
In the last quarter, LA Loop still played bad on offense, but CABC also played like giving up the game. LA Loop won the game at LA Loop 84 and CABC 72. LA Loop is getting stronger game by game, but we still have some internal problems, such as team offense and concentration on the game.
Narito’s stat at his debut game at the Drew League was 2 points and 2 assists. It’s hard to say it was a great impression as his debut. But as Narito stated it’s been a while since Narito played a game last time. And he will be getting better next time. He also mentioned about how he felt after playing at one of the greatest Pro-Am leagues in US, the Drew league:
“I don’t say I couldn’t do in this high-leveled league. I could make more points. But in today’s game, we had a bad team condition. In that situation, I prefer to control the team as a point guard than to attack and score points.”
Narito came to LA for his challenge to be a NBA player, but at the same time, he always thinks about winning games as a team. This attitude impressed me. His challenge just began. LA Loop will be stronger with a Japanese great point guard.
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