Posted 7:41 AM by Andy
Since moving into the city center of Pudong, I haven't played an organized basketball game in a month. It's with great relish that I savor the return to my first love. Okay, if it's not the prime love of my life, it's a close second behind God. I had forgotten how much fun it is to compete and run up and down a court in a musty gym. Due to the long lay-off, my rhythm was off in the first game as I bricked shot after shot. Even my measly attempts at crossing guys over were nullified by timely steals. We predictably lost our first game. Then as my teammate Thomas Y stewed on the sidelines, I regrouped and reupped the ante. We started running a motion offense with our four-guard lineup and Thomas handling the point-forward duties. I set some screens to free up our shooters. The amazing thing was Thomas kept feeding me the ball even after my initial cold spell. Then I hit a couple shots and proceeded to pace my team to 8 straight wins. In my own analysis, I played a balanced floor game, with good passing, decent rebounding and defense and some timely jumpers, including 2 game-winners. On one play, Thomas threw a perfect diagonal cross-court pass in transition that hit me in stride, but I blew the layup. The evening was capped by a rhythm j that I swished from the right baseline on the break. I think I'll start playing on Thursday nights now too on the outdoor courts to mix it up. Yeah, here's to thinking less about girls and devoting more time to honing my game.