Season-opening success for Lightning; What’s next?
Around the Perimeter: Dexter Williams an unsung hero?; Paul Parks impressive first impression; Chris Jones is still Chris Jones; Now, we wait … Columnist Jason Winders has the latest Lightning news & notes …
(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).
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WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK.
London (1-0) 123 – Sudbury 119 | Saturday, Nov. 23
WHAT WE LEARNED.
This isn’t going to be easy – but no championship run is. There will be stretches of dominance, stretches of frustrating play, and occasionally both in the same night as we saw in London’s opening night’s 123-119 win over The Five.
“It’s going to take a lot of work to keep everybody on the same page. It’s going to take a lot of work to make sure everyone understands our sole concept is to win a championship,” Lightning head coach Jerry Williams said. “These guys don’t want to be here just to play basketball or go through the motions. They all want to win a championship, and we understand that from the beginning, and that’s our goal. From the first game until the last game, we’re going to prepare as if we’re playing for the championship.”
The Lightning were down 10 heading into halftime, and as much as 15 with 6:40 to go in the third. Nevertheless, the team never felt out of a game that featured nine ties and seven lead changes.
Williams adjusted the lineup to counter Sudbury’s decision to go small against the defending champs. As a result, some players who typically see action during crunch time found themselves on the bench. Forward Billy White, for example, only saw five minutes of play in the fourth.
“These guys aren’t going to be happy all the time with my decisions. But when they end the game, I know they’re going to do everything they possibly can to make sure we win. That’s what I love about this team,” he said.
Williams saw plenty of areas to start building on, but one area that wasn’t lacking was a carryover in intensity from training camp to the regular season.
“In most cases, you would say it’s a relief that these guys get to play against someone else besides each other. But I tell you, the same things I saw in practice every day were the same things I saw against Sudbury. The intensity. The desire to win. The willingness to push your teammates to be better. It was the same exact thing; nothing was different. That’s rare. Because when I separate these guys and they play against each other in practice, they have a killer mode of ‘I want to win no matter what.’”
(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).
WHAT WAS AWESOME.
If you listen to the head coach, opening night’s MVP can’t be spotted by simply taking a look at the scoresheet.
“For the first three quarters, Dexter Williams sat there cheering his team on. He was into the game, even if not in the game. I put him in a game when we really needed to go on a run, and he came in and made the most defensive stops that you ever want to see in your life. It was because of him we got those stops we needed to take the lead. We were in a situation where we were going to lose – in their home with all their fans cheering and cursing and going crazy against us.”
The 6-4 guard played only four minutes in the first three quarters, before entering the game in the fourth. In that final quarter, he played 11 minutes, nabbing two steals while forcing The Five into numerous mistakes.
“Dexter didn’t complain. He got in and stepped up for us. For me, Dexter was a team MVP of that game. Of course, people go to who scores the most points – that is just what it is. But if you want to look at things that don’t make the stat sheet, Dexter was that guy. He brought us above water.”
Williams’ final line was pretty stark for casual observers – 0 points, 0 rebounds, 1 assist.
“Forget all that,” his coach said. “Sometimes stat sheets don’t tell the story. We want to see who scored here, who had this, who had that. But at the end of the day, who was the guy that took the charge? Who was the guy that got the steal? Who was the guy that made the guys turn the ball over? Who was the guy that was in the right place when you needed him to be? That’s who Dexter Williams is in a nutshell.”
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The Lightning forced 20 turnovers leading to 26 points. Nine of those turnovers came in the fourth quarter. That’s a huge number, especially when you consider The Five forced only 8 for 11 points.
(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).
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Chris Jones is still Chris Jones. The Five did an excellent job of controlling the veteran guard through the first three quarters – then he went off. The 33-year-old scored 20 points in the final stanza, on 5-7 shooting from the field (including 2-2 from three). He finished with a team-high 29 points.
“Chris Jones is a robot. He's not human. There was maybe seven and a half minutes or eight minutes left in the game, and he said, ‘Coach, I got you.’ Then he went out and played his butt off for us and put everything on the line for us. That’s just the guy who he is. It’s such a great thing, he just turns into this superhuman guy.”
Jones has had his troubles in Sudbury over the years, so it was exciting to witness an electric on-court performance (if only BSL-TV allowed fans to do so).
“It shows who he is as a person. It shows who he is as a player. It shows how much he loves the London Lightning and this team.”
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Might be a good time to start getting to know Paul Parks, the 6-5 guard who dropped 25 points off the bench against Sudbury.
“He can really, really play basketball. He knows how to get buckets,” Williams said.
WHAT NEEDS WORK.
The Bolts got beat on the boards, 39-28. Not ideal, but not yet a red flag. London newcomer Corey Boyd led the team with seven rebounds.
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The Lightning were 29 of 38 from the free throw line (76.3%), which is not going to cut it in a competitive league where a handful of points often dictate the game.
“We’ll be working on free throws every day,” Williams laughed. “We missed nine free throws in the game. That could have been a game changer right there. We’ll be shooting a lot of free throws in the next two weeks until we play again. Trust me.”
The Lightning free throw practice routine is simple (and potentially gives poor shooters like myself flashbacks to high school gym): Make a shot. Keep shooting. Miss a shot. Run down and back. Then keep shooting.
“Trust me, we’re going to do free throws over and over and over again. Missing free throws and being outrebounded is not acceptable.”
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BSL-TV is in midseason form, a new unreadable score bug, in-and-out audio commentary, and buffering that would make Tyson-Paul seem like IMAX. The league placed the blame on streaming issues at the Sudbury arena, but that was a frequent refrain last season, as well.
League officials said they are working on a solution, but the inability to find a solution for this paid – stress paid – service is among the most frustrating things about this league.
STORIES YOU MISSED.
Camp concludes, roster revealed
WHAT’S NEXT.
Has anyone tried turning Ticketmaster off and then on again? The London Lightning have been forced to reschedule its first three home games, originally scheduled for Nov. 28 and Nov. 29 (vs. Newfoundland) and Dec. 3 (vs. Pontiac), the team announced late Friday. No announcement was made as to when those games will be rescheduled.
Currently, the Lightning home opener will now be Sunday, Dec. 8 against Windsor (2pm).
The Canada Life Place website has updated its schedule but was silent on the reason behind the scheduling. The Lightning announced the change on its social media platforms, although only “unforeseen circumstances” was offered as a reason.
Fans have taken to social media to express their frustrations with both the franchise and its arena’s chosen ticket provider. While repeated calls to Oak View Group at Canada Life Place have gone unreturned, sources close to the snafu, along with dozens of fans, have placed the blame on the new Ticketmaster ticketing system that simply wasn’t ready to go for the new season.
In July, then-Budweiser Gardens switched to Ticketmaster as its main ticket provider, a move that fans feared would lead to the controversial ticketing giant’s usual hiccups, like higher service fees and now, for the Lightning, a delay in the season home start.
The rescheduling causes a bit of a scheduling oddity. As it stands, the Bolts would have a 15-day layoff between Saturday’s opener and their next game. Not ideal for a team looking to establish themselves early in a new season under a new head coach.
Around the Perimeter: Dexter Williams an unsung hero?; Paul Parks impressive first impression; Chris Jones is still Chris Jones; Now, we wait … Columnist Jason Winders has the latest Lightning news & notes …