Will Lightning take care of business with TBL in town?

The London Lightning, who host the Kalamazoo Galaxy Friday and Saturday, will need to win both to keep their first-place hopes alive; Diego Kapelan ready for debut; Rookies Nuga, Jongkuch continue to impress. Catch the latest in Lightning land …

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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It’s been quiet on the Lightning front in April. After a busy March, in which the team played 10 games, London has played just two contests in the first 20 days this month – both against the KW Titans, and both wins for the second-place Lightning squad.

They’ve done their part. But it’s not moving the needle on their position in the standings. In fact, with more games in recent weeks, the Sudbury Five (21-5) have now moved 1.5 games ahead of London (19-6) for top spot in the NBLC standings. And it’s starting to look like an uphill climb for the Lightning to nab that No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs.

As it stands today, with five games remaining in the regular season, the Lightning would face the Windsor Express in the first round of the playoffs, a best-of-five series in which they’d have homecourt advantage. Sudbury would play the KW Titans in the other league semi-final.

But there are still games to be played – including a final-game-of-the-year showdown in Sudbury between the Five and Lightning set for May 2. But first …

STARTING FIVE

1. TBL comes to town. London will play a back-to-back set against the Kalamazoo Galaxy this weekend, tipping off both Friday and Saturday at 7pm at Budweiser Gardens in front of the hometown faithful.

It’ll be the final contests London will play against The Basketball League (TBL) opponents this season. The Lightning have gone 6-1 in games against teams from the U.S.-based league – with their lone loss coming against the Albany Patroons (96-91) in New York State on March 31.

The Galaxy, who play in the same Upper Midwest division as the Kokomo Bobkats and Jamestown Jackals, two teams the Lightning dispatched earlier this year, will carry a 4-7 record into this weekend’s double dip against London. The Lightning are the only NBLC team Kalamazoo will face this year.

Justin Moss has done most of the damage for the Galaxy this season. He’s averaged a double-double (22.3 points and 10.4 rebounds) in nine games, including 4.3 offensive rebounds per contest. Edward Dyson III has averages of 16.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and a team-leading 3.8 assists in 10 games.

Three other Kalamazoo players are averaging double-digit points, including Chad Bowie (14.8), Arsenio Arrington (13.1) and Orlando Little Jr. (11.4). Bowie has a team-high 2.5 steals per game.

The Lightning are certainly the favourites, but no team can be taken lightly – especially when London has no wiggle room to lose games from this point forward. They’ll hope to build off their two straight wins against the KW Titans last week …

2. Winning the 401 battle. It may not match the Windsor-London rivalry, but the Lightning and KW Titans have seen enough of each other in recent years to create a pretty intense competitive matchup when they meet. Such was the case last week. The Lightning, facing something close to a must-win situation, did just that, winning once each at Budweiser Gardens and The Aud in Kitchener. 

In the first, Jermaine Haley Jr. returned from a multi-game absence due to illness and had a well-rounded game, putting up 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds (in a whopping 45 minutes) to help lead London to a 102-94 win. (For his efforts, Haley was named NBLC Player of the Week.

Jordan Burns, who also played heavy minutes (44) in that contest, scored 23, adding six assists and four rebounds. Terry Thomas had 18 points, six assists and five rebounds. From the time they took a 6-4 lead early in the contest, the Lightning never trailed in the win at Bud Gardens. 

And then it was a matchup in Kitchener, four days later, where the Lightning made it two straight with a 98-83 win over the Titans. In a bit of a sloppy affair, London rode a big third quarter, during which they outscored KW 27-14, to improve to improve their season record to 19-6.

Haley Jr., Thomas and Amir Williams had off nights, but some big performances from Mike Nuga and Jeremiah Mordi made the difference. Nuga had 19 points, six rebounds and a pair of steals, while Mordi notched a double-double (20 points, 12 rebounds) while adding four assists, a steal and a pair of blocks.2.

3. Rookie ‘glue guy’? No, he isn’t the team’s leading scorer or rebounder. He’s not the captain or a longtime veteran. But Mike Nuga has quietly been a consistent force for the London Lightning during the 2023 season. 

Lightning fans might be surprised to learn that he’s one of only three players (Marcus Ottey and Lance Adams being the others) to play in each of London’s 25 games this season. He’s started eight of them, averaging a sturdy 27.1 minutes per contest. In those minutes, he’s put up 11.0 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, shooting an efficient 50.2 percent overall. 

Maybe most importantly, he’s brought high energy off the bench and helped provide a boost to the rotation – offensively and defensively – when play has got a bit stagnant.

“I’m just a high energy person naturally, so I just like to carry it over and try to feed it into my teammates and into the game,” Nuga said following London’s win last Wednesday. “Every day, I wake up and I’m excited to go. It wasn’t too long ago that I tore my ACL, so I know what it feels like to not have basketball. So, every chance I can play, I try to make sure that I give myself the best chance to always be on the floor.

That means putting in extra workouts, going to rehab, taking care of his body. It’s a grind of a season, but Nuga, in his rookie season, has not only played – and made an impact – in each game this season, but he’s developed his game along the way. Even with his high-energy, up-tempo game, he’s been able to slow the game down and make better decisions as the year has progressed.

“I think I’m learning when to pick my spots,” he said. “My teammates and coaches have done a good job being in my ear helping, even when I make mistakes. They’ve helped me to just slow down and understand the game. I’m just coming out of college and really just getting that pro feeling and going through that learning curve, but I think I’m doing well.”

And he’s finding multiple ways to contribute. In London’s last two wins, Nuga has found success from beyond the arc, making seven 3-pointers.

Mike Nuga, a potential All-Rookie Team honouree in 2023, is averaging 11.0 points and 5.6 rebounds while playing all 25 Lightning games this season. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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4. Winning ugly. The Lightning have had a couple games at The Aud this season where they came away with wins despite subpar play. That was the case last Wednesday, and it was something London’s head coach, Doug Plumb, readily acknowledged following the game.

“I thought it was an ugly game and we just grinded it out,” he said. “If you look at our shooting percentage [41.4%], it was not very good. But sometimes it goes like that. You need to find ways to impose your will on the game and get stops, and I think we did that. It was a good sign because in the playoffs, especially on the road, you have to win ugly.”

Plumb pointed not only to Nuga, but also Jeremiah Mordi and Kur Jongkuch, another rookie, for helping lift the team to a win despite a few of the team’s starters struggling to get much going. Mordi did a bit of everything.

“He’s such a pro. He’s tough, and you know what you’re gonna get from him every single night,” Plumb said. “He’s resilient. He’s just a winner.”

And Jongkuch, who has just five pro games under his belt?

“He was amazing,” the coach said. “Defensively, he was a handful. His rim protection and his effort and energy was fantastic. To have two rookies come in in a big game like that is a good sign for us.”

Plumb has been happy with the play of his bench for much of the year, and he’s often stated that it’ll be the team’s depth that will ultimately decide their playoff fortunes this spring.

“You can’t just rely on your top guys, because you never know,” Plumb said. “Foul trouble, injuries, whatever. You need to be able to have your 10th and 11th man come in and impact the game. It’s the players who are those x-factor guys that can outplay their roles and have the confidence and championship moxie to come out, shoot their shot, and go out swinging. That’s really why you win.”

5. Burns for MVP? The Lightning guard is certainly making a case to be named the NBLC Most Valuable Player by year’s end. In 21 games, Jordan Burns has averaged 20.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and a league-best 8.6 assists. His point-per-game average ranks second in the league (behind Sudbury’s Jeremy Harris) entering action Apr. 21.

Playing both the point and as a shooting guard, Burns has been explosive on offense this year for the Lightning, and he’s been a workhorse, playing a league-high 39.8 minutes per game. He’s scored in double figures in all but one game this season, eclipsing the 20-point mark 11 times.

A few of the highlights? A 37-point game – in 53(!) minutes – in an overtime win in Newfoundland back in late January, where he shot an eye-popping 60.9 percent (14-for-23) from the field; a 31-point game in a losing effort in Sudbury March 19, during which he hit nine three-pointers; and a big 45-point game March 29 where he put a shorthanded Lightning team on his back and hit 11 three-pointers in a home win over Windsor.

There’s no shortage of competition for league MVP, of course, and the other primary contenders appear to be the aforementioned Harris, Sudbury’s A.J. Mosby Jr. (20.0 ppg, shooting a league-best 47.0 percent from three-point range), longtime Windsor Express veteran Billy White (17.3 ppg, league-best 9.4 rebounds per game), and JD Miller of the Sudbury Five (18.4 ppg, 8.6 rpg).