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It took the London Lightning 11 games before they lost last year.
This year it took one.
The Express handed the defending champion Lightning a 113-105 loss Friday night in Windsor in the National Basketball League of Canada opener for both teams.
It was a shockingly rugged, intense, desperate game considering it was Game 1 in the season, but this was a case of both teams wanting to mark their territory early.
These teams are tagged as the two powers in the Central Conference.
But what was obvious after Friday’s opener is this will be the most difficult of all seasons to win a championship.
There was a time when the Lightning could wear teams out by going to their bench. They have that kind of talent again but so do other teams and the Lightning talent still has to prove itself.
The Lightning have some work to do. They were troubled yet again by things that bothered them last year and almost cost them a championship — guards putting up big-point nights against them and getting outrebounded.
Coach Micheal Ray Richardson was not pleased. He called a film session for 7:30 a.m. Saturday and judging by his demeanour, he wasn’t going to be buying coffee.
“Our defence was horrendous. Our offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding was horrendous,” Richardson said. “I tried to explain to these here guys, we won two championships in a row, they just ain’t going to let you win another one. You have to earn it.
“I know this is the first game but we need a wakeup call. This is the second game we got outrebounded.”
The Express outrebounded the Lightning 50-36 and that just isn’t going to get it done.
Guard Stefan Bonneau led the Express with 31 points, followed by Chris Commons with 23.
Jaytornah Wisseh had 24 for the Lightning, with Marvin Phillips adding 19 and Garrett Williamson and former Express player Greg Surmacz hitting for 12 each.
Wisseh tried his best to go step-for-step with the Express but that didn’t get it done, either.
“My contribution wasn’t good enough to stop the other player from scoring,” he said. “We still lost the game. Every achievement that happened goes out the window when you lose.”
It didn’t help that the Lightning stayed on the bus for the first three minutes and went down 12-0.
That, too, was horrendous.
But the Lightning started to play when Richardson inserted Wisseh. His quickness, ability to distribute the ball and find open players changed the momentum.
“Today we were just a step slow,” Wisseh said. “It’s the first game of the season. We can’t hang our head on this one loss. It’s a long season. We just have to keep working.”
It was a terrific game.
These teams beat on each other last year and picked up right where they left off.
Just seconds into the game, former Lightning player DeAndre Thomas stepped into Williamson as he was walking across the top of the key with the play stopped.
It almost started something.
In the second quarter Surmacz was driving to the basket for a layup when Thomas wiped him out.
The hard fouls continued later in the second half but when Thomas nailed Wisseh with another body block, the referees warned both benches. Thomas is not any smaller than he was when he was with the Lightning. When he whomps you, you stay whomped.
That didn’t mean the teams let up. The referees were more than willing to let them whomp away on each other.
There were some horrendous spills and the Express won a lot of loose balls on the floor.
“What we need to do is we need to work,” Richardson said. “We didn’t work. We didn’t box out. We didn’t play defence. If we’re going to win the championship, you have to box out and play defence and we didn’t do that. We need to fix that. We’re going to fix that.”
But if Game 1 is any indication, the other 39 games in the regular season are going to include a lot of great battles and some seriously beaten up and tired basketball teams.
This year it took one.
The Express handed the defending champion Lightning a 113-105 loss Friday night in Windsor in the National Basketball League of Canada opener for both teams.
It was a shockingly rugged, intense, desperate game considering it was Game 1 in the season, but this was a case of both teams wanting to mark their territory early.
These teams are tagged as the two powers in the Central Conference.
But what was obvious after Friday’s opener is this will be the most difficult of all seasons to win a championship.
There was a time when the Lightning could wear teams out by going to their bench. They have that kind of talent again but so do other teams and the Lightning talent still has to prove itself.
The Lightning have some work to do. They were troubled yet again by things that bothered them last year and almost cost them a championship — guards putting up big-point nights against them and getting outrebounded.
Coach Micheal Ray Richardson was not pleased. He called a film session for 7:30 a.m. Saturday and judging by his demeanour, he wasn’t going to be buying coffee.
“Our defence was horrendous. Our offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding was horrendous,” Richardson said. “I tried to explain to these here guys, we won two championships in a row, they just ain’t going to let you win another one. You have to earn it.
“I know this is the first game but we need a wakeup call. This is the second game we got outrebounded.”
The Express outrebounded the Lightning 50-36 and that just isn’t going to get it done.
Guard Stefan Bonneau led the Express with 31 points, followed by Chris Commons with 23.
Jaytornah Wisseh had 24 for the Lightning, with Marvin Phillips adding 19 and Garrett Williamson and former Express player Greg Surmacz hitting for 12 each.
Wisseh tried his best to go step-for-step with the Express but that didn’t get it done, either.
“My contribution wasn’t good enough to stop the other player from scoring,” he said. “We still lost the game. Every achievement that happened goes out the window when you lose.”
It didn’t help that the Lightning stayed on the bus for the first three minutes and went down 12-0.
That, too, was horrendous.
But the Lightning started to play when Richardson inserted Wisseh. His quickness, ability to distribute the ball and find open players changed the momentum.
“Today we were just a step slow,” Wisseh said. “It’s the first game of the season. We can’t hang our head on this one loss. It’s a long season. We just have to keep working.”
It was a terrific game.
These teams beat on each other last year and picked up right where they left off.
Just seconds into the game, former Lightning player DeAndre Thomas stepped into Williamson as he was walking across the top of the key with the play stopped.
It almost started something.
In the second quarter Surmacz was driving to the basket for a layup when Thomas wiped him out.
The hard fouls continued later in the second half but when Thomas nailed Wisseh with another body block, the referees warned both benches. Thomas is not any smaller than he was when he was with the Lightning. When he whomps you, you stay whomped.
That didn’t mean the teams let up. The referees were more than willing to let them whomp away on each other.
There were some horrendous spills and the Express won a lot of loose balls on the floor.
“What we need to do is we need to work,” Richardson said. “We didn’t work. We didn’t box out. We didn’t play defence. If we’re going to win the championship, you have to box out and play defence and we didn’t do that. We need to fix that. We’re going to fix that.”
But if Game 1 is any indication, the other 39 games in the regular season are going to include a lot of great battles and some seriously beaten up and tired basketball teams.
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