There were parts of the 7th grade boys game Sunday that was just plain bad.
It was summed up in one sequence late in the 1st quarter when four different players took turns missing shots from within close range, with a few of them not even having a prayer of going into the basket.
They looked like they had the skill level of 4th graders stuck in a 7th grade body, throwing up shots with one hand that went over the backboard, chucking the ball back at Raymond at full speed because they were afraid of holding onto the ball for longer than two seconds, and inspecting the ball on fast breaks by not looking up court to the open teammate.
Raymond had a very bipolar performance, as the bad Raymond played the first half out of breath, tired and uninspired.
Then came the second half when Raymond woke up and surged straight to the basket on consecutive drives, making some real tough shots around the hoop. He had a game high 11 points.
The offense was sparked late in the first half when Aaron threw up a 3 pointer for his first career shot from beyond the arc. Jason Ng then followed with two nice drives to the basket off of Raymond passes in transition.
At (3-2), they are very well and alive in the playoff chase, but if the 7th graders can't play consistently at a higher level, it's going to be another one and done playoff.
Maybe it was the awkward 1 p.m. Sunday start time, in which they are normally wrapping up their practice that led to a lack of energy in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Or perhaps it was overlooking an opponent which hadn't won any games this season.
Whatever it was, it wasn't good for the most part.
Their biggest problem boils down to fundamentals, and this team does not have it. It's not something that is solved overnight but even slight improvements can't be found.
The post players, especially The Twins, cannot shoot correctly and do not consistently make shots by the basket. One of the Twins' even follows through with his left hand when he is a right handed shot.
Joseph, Thomas, Garrick and Ryan are all pretty good rebounders more often than not, but they rarely put the ball back in the hoop, and those gimmes are going to loom large come playoff time if they can't get better at it.
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