New faces, a Burns return, and a win streak?

Around the Perimeter: Two newcomers will suit up this weekend (Jeremiah Mordi & Elijah Lufile); Terry Thomas back from injury, Mareik Isom banged up; Depth win a good sign for Plumb. All the latest Lightning news & notes …

Mike Nuga has continued his solid play in the first month of the season. In last weekend’s second win against Sudbury, he went for 19 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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STARTING FIVE

1. The only constant? Change. That’s the nature of pro basketball, and it’s nothing new for the London Lightning, who have already seen roster changes in the first month of the season. Chris Jones’ suspension and departure aside, Mike Edwards and the club mutually parted ways before last weekend’s back-to-back home series against the Sudbury Five.

Gone now are Christian Nobles and Otas Iyekekpolor, who were the odd men out when the Lightning signed a pair of new players this past week in Jeremiah Mordi and Elijah Lufile. Iyekekpolor saw very limited playing time this season, while Nobles, a backup point guard, averaged 14 minutes a game in seven contests.

And Jordan Burns? He’s returning to action Saturday after sitting out last weekend for disciplinary reasons due to an off-the-court team issue. Unfortunately for Nobles, with Burns back and Mordi on board, he was left expendable.

Mordi, in fact, is expected to start Saturday against the Newfoundland Rogues at Budweiser Gardens, and Lightning head coach Doug Plumb is looking forward to his addition to the lineup.

“He’s a winner, he’s my type of guy,” the coach said. “He’s a true point guard, and he plays at a pace that I like, not too frantic.”

Jordan Burns will make his return to the London lineup this weekend. In six games thus far, the guard has averaged 20.7 points, 8.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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More on Mordi. A 30-year-old veteran, Mordi is no stranger to the National Basketball League of Canada. He spent two seasons with the Saint John Riptide, from 2017 to 2019 (where he played with Mareik Isom), and then another with the Moncton Magic in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season.

The latter was his best campaign, and he was awarded the league’s Most Improved Player award for his efforts (and All-NBL First-Team). In 23 games, Mordi averaged 16 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists for the Magic, who went 19-4 that season before COVID shut down play. Perhaps most notable? His impressive shooting percentages (52.3% overall and an eye-popping 60.3% from three-point range.

“He shot it at a high clip,” Plumb recalls of coaching against Mordi when the former was in his first season as the bench boss in London. I wouldn’t say he’s an overly dynamic offensive player, but that doesn’t mean he’s not extremely capable. And he has the ability to post up, which takes the pressure off of Terry (Thomas) and Antwon (Lillard).”

Mordi, who played in France after Moncton and then with the G-League’s Texas Legends, also played for the Nigerian national team two summers ago at the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 in Rwanda.

“He’s going to bring veteran leadership, too,” said Plumb.

3. New face, same family. Lightning fans will recognize the last name of the other new addition who will suit up for London this weekend. Elijah Lufile is the younger brother of Abednego Lufile, who was a member of the Lightning last season (and during the 2019-20 campaign). 

The elder Lufile saw action in 26 games in London’s championship season in 2022 but saw limited minutes (10.2 per game). He was instrumental in his brother joining the Lightning this week, and coach Plumb is intrigued by the talents of the 25-year-old, who comes from a basketball family (two other brothers having played pro ball).

Most recently, Elijah, who was born in Toronto, played for the Salt Lake City Stars, the G-League affiliate of the Utah Jazz. Selected in the 2nd Round (25th overall) in last year’s NBA Development League Draft, Lufile played 16 games off the bench for the Stars. That followed a collegiate career at Oral Roberts University.

“He’s a younger player, but he’s 6-foot-8, 285 pounds and he can do everything on the court,” said Plumb of his newest acquisition. “I don’t think his conditioning is where it needs to be, because he hasn’t played all that much in the last year and a half, but that will come. He’s going to learn how to play the four position, and I think learning from Mo Isom and Justin Jackson is going to be awesome for him.”

4. Banged up Bolts. Injuries are a nature of the beast, and the Lightning have missed the presence of veteran Terry Thomas over the last couple of weeks. The reigning Canadian Players of the Year and NBLC Finals MVP started the year with a bang, pouring in 28 points with 13 rebounds in the season opener, but he hasn’t contributed much since then due to injury.

A foot injury (heel) that flared up on the team’s trip to Newfoundland in late January resulted in Thomas missing the final two games of that series – and the next contest, a Feb. 1 home loss to the Windsor Express. When the veteran returned to the lineup Feb. 4, he managed just four minutes before hobbling off with the same injury.

“It’s essentially a bone bruise at this point,” said Plumb. “So, it’s on a basis of how much pain he can tolerate and how much we need to subject him to. He will be playing this weekend. I don’t know how much, but he will be in the lineup.”

The Lightning will be careful with their veteran forward, who contributes in all facets of the game, with an eye on preserving him when they need him most. The emergence of Mike Nuga has certainly helped take the pressure off the absence of Thomas. Nuga, who got a start in the second of back-to-back wins over Sudbury last weekend, produced an impressive statline: 19 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. (“You don’t usually get rookies in this league that surprise you, but Mike Nuga has surprised me,” said Plumb).

Meanwhile, Mareik Isom is dealing with some knee swelling and will miss this weekend’s games. That’s no small loss, as he’s enjoyed strong play thus far, averaging 15.8 points and 5 rebounds per game while shooting an efficient 47.6 percent from the field.

With Isom unavailable, it’s expected that Cameron Lard will enter the starting lineup Saturday (alongside Burns, Thomas, Justin Jackson and Jeremiah Mordi). Lard is coming off a game in which he scored 18 and brought down 8 rebounds in 20 minutes of action.

Terry Thomas, who has missed four games due to a heel injury, will return to the lineup this weekend — but it’s an injury the team says they’ll have to continue to monitor. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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5. Depth rules. Speaking of that Lard performance … It came in a 104-102 Lightning win over Sudbury in the second of a back-to-back home series at Budweiser Gardens, and it was a contest London played short-handed. The fact they managed to steal a win with a short bench is surely a good sign going forward.

“That was a really good story for our group,” said Plumb. “We had no Jordan, no Terry … Justin was hampered, Mo (Isom) was hampered … if you look down the line, I’m not sure our talent was better than Sudbury’s in that game, but these guys just really played hard and we had guys step up.”

One of those guys was Lance Adams, the guard who joined the team from The Basketball League (TBL) last year and played 13 games down the stretch during London’s championship run in 2022. Last Sunday, Adams scored a team-high 21 points (7-of-10 shooting) in 34 minutes off the bench. It was arguably his best game in a Lightning uniform to this point.

“I was thrilled for him. Lance is the definition of a true pro. Whether he plays five minutes or he plays 35, he’s always locked in on the things that we want,” said Plumb. “I said to him, ‘Lance, that’s the first time that you looked like Lansing Lance.’ When he came here for the Lansing Pharaohs, the guy was pulling up from 35 feet in transition. And you saw that in that game, so I was happy for him.”

Lighting fans might remember Adams knocking down shots all day against their team in the fourth game of last year’s regular season. Wearing the Lansing Pharaohs uniform, he amassed 28 points in a March 6 Lighting win at Budweiser Gardens, making eight of his 13 three-point attempts. That was enough to catch Plumb’s eye, and the guard was signed later in the year to the Lightning.