Lightning lay it on the line in Jamestown

Around the Perimeter: London set for one-game playoff in New York. Winner moves on to semi; Coach Williams believes he’s found the right mix; Can Lightning conquer the Jackals’ den? …

(Photo: Luke Durda).

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After 20 weeks, 33 games, and 20 players, the London Lightning’s quest to defend their crown boils down to a final number. One. On Tuesday, the fifth-seeded Bolts take on season-long antagonist Jamestown Jackals (4) in a one-game quarterfinal playoff contest in New York.

“It’s win or go home. If you can't get up for that, you can't get up for anything,” Lightning head coach Jerry Williams said.

Across the league, the Sudbury Five (1) and Windsor Express (2) finished tops in the league and earned first-round playoff byes. The KW Titans (3) host the Pontiac Pharaohs (6) in the other one-game, play-in game.

Let’s look at a starting five of topics to keep in mind before tipoff:

1 | You don’t know anything. Forget what you think you know about this Lightning team. Throw it all out the window. Don’t look for answers in season-long trends or stats. This is a completely new squad since the last time it was a completely new squad.

In just the last few months, the Lightning have had more eras than Taylor Swift. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the starting lineups in each of the Jamestown matchups:

Feb. 2
Paul Parks *
James Towns II
Joel Kindred *
Billy White
Calvin Godfrey

Feb. 23
Paul Parks *
Jaylon Tate
Tonzell Handy *
JR Holder *
Calvin Godfrey

March 25
Scottie Lewis
Jeremy Harris
Jaylon Tate
Billy White
Calvin Godfrey

* No longer with team.

That’s a total of 10 different starters across three games, with three of those players no longer with the team. Extend that across the entire roster, and you can add another three players (Jachai Taylor, Corey Boyd, and Milan Acquaah) who contributed minutes, but are no longer with the team.

(Photo: Luke Durda).

2 | Change is good. If you have been following the team all season long, you know that this hasn’t been easy on anyone. Ownership. Front office. Coaches. Players. Fans. Everyone has experienced their share of frustration this season.

For London, however, there are plenty of reasons these playoffs feel like a fresh start.

“I am finally coaching the kind of team I want to coach,” Williams said. “I can finally get my claws into this team. We have the buy-in. We are all on the same page, with the same agenda. It’s a great thing. I just wish I had more time with them.”

This evolution wasn’t easy. Williams is grateful for a franchise and a front office willing to trust the process and build this team on the fly.

“You have to credit (Lightning GM Mark Frijia) for being willing to listen and make the changes we needed to make. It means a lot. This is London, and a lot of people want to win and win and win – all right now. But you can’t win a championship in the regular season. You can prepare for it, but you can’t win it. You need to get the right team together. You have got to get the roster together. I feel like we’re at the point where we’re able to jump over the hump we’ve been behind the whole season.” 

London’s constant roster churn has turned the team into a fascinating experiment in adaptability. What started as a squad with a clear identity has morphed multiple times, each iteration trying to find the right chemistry.

(Photo: Luke Durda).

Williams feels he has the right mix now to create something special. Even outside of games, Williams admits there’s a different feel to this team day in, day out.

“Going to practice is like night and day from two or three months ago. It’s not even the same. You have guys ready to go. They want to be there. They’re happy we’re practicing. It wasn’t that way at the beginning of the year. There wasn’t anything wrong with those guys; they were just different. It’s a different situation now. These guys want to live in it. They want to stay in the gym. They want to get better. They want to learn. They want to win.”

The question is: Has all this reinvention made them stronger? Or is it just another identity crisis?

3 | Peaking at the right time. So, if the season-long stats offer no insights into the present, what does? Well, let’s just focus on recent history. Run it back to March 1. That’s when Scottie Lewis joined the squad, and when you start to see this team – the one right now – start to take shape.

Look at team scoring leaders in those last 10 games:

James Towns II | 21.7 PPG (9 games played)
Billy White | 20.1 (8)
Marcus Ottey | 15.5 (10)
Calvin Godfrey | 14.7 (9)
Tonzell Handy | 14.25 (4)
Jaylon Tate | 12.6 (10)
Scottie Lewis | 11.9 (10)
JR Holder | 11 (2)
Jeremy Harris | 7.8 (6)
Marquis Collins | 5.3 (9)
Justin Steers | 4.0 (4)
Yaw Obeng-Mensah | 2.7 (10)
D’Andre Austin | .9 (10)

(Photo: Luke Durda).

More interestingly, we’ve seen players who pre-date the last 10 games improving on their season averages.

James Towns II | +5.9 PPG
Marcus Ottey | +1.6
Billy White | +1
Jaylon Tate | +.2
Calvin Godfrey | +.1

Over that same time period, the Lighting are averaging 114.9 PG, while holding opponents to 107.7 PPG, including three times holding opponents under 100 points – something they only did four times total all year.

Also, don’t look now, but the Lightning finished the season winning seven of their last 10.

4. Healthy options | London is armed with something they haven’t had all season – health.

“That’s huge,” Williams said. “We’re finally playing with a full roster now. That makes a whole difference. It’s the first time since the first three or four games of the season. It seems like somebody was always hurt, or somebody didn’t play. It was always something.

“But now we’re playing with a full roster. It’s good to look down on the bench and have options.”

5. Stepping into the Jackals’ den | The Jackals have been dominant at home this season, 11-2 when playing at Jamestown Community College. That’s wild – and perhaps no surprise.

When you look at the former NBL Canada team arenas (and, especially, the crown jewel of Canada Life Place in London), JCC feels like a rural high school gym where the game takes place after auditions for the spring musical. BSL TV broadcasts from there look more like a closed-door scrimmage than a professional basketball game.

But it’s that complete difference from other arenas that may be the advantage.

This season, the four former NBL Canada teams are 1-6 in Jamestown. The KW Titans (0-2), Sudbury Five (0-1), and Lightning (0-2) were all winless in the birthplace of singer Natalie Merchant, while only the Windsor Express (1-1) managed to scratch out a win.

There are lots of reasons for this to challenge a visiting team: Wildly different shooting backgrounds. Cramped court and sidelines. Even different crowd dynamics. (Oh, and some, ahem, interesting officiating.) But no matter the size of the arena, the wins and losses still count the same.

“Going into Jamestown, going in to get that win, it’s going to be a war,” Williams said. “Consider the fact we have been there twice, and lost twice, we know what it is like there. Like I said, it’s going to be total war.”