I had me a bad game

Ill Wind had their 5th game of the season on Tuesday. If you remember, we got quite beat up in the previous game but prevailed to even up our record to 2-2. As we enter the second half of the season (only 8 games) our confidence was high, all pistons firing with a modicum of success.

That's usually where it all falls apart and this game was no excepation. We played a team called Trip Dorkeys (I don't know what that's all about) and had a generally awful game. After an opening 3-pointer from Mike, we did not score. Nothing went in. We were getting good looks from 5, 10 feet out but nothing dropped. It was ridiculous. I had maybe two or three shots in the paint and they just seemed to go nowhere. My shots weren't even close, careening off the backboard at weird angles, not even hitting the rim. Christ, we played like the Bad News Bears without a charming drunk guy coaching us or any chance to gain sympathy for being cute little kids.

At the half, we had only scored 10 points, 3 of which came at the buzzer from a Winston perimeter shot. The other team, led by a 6'11" dude, had 24. Those guys weren't particually good, except for the big guy, but they perfected the high post inlet pass to which Winston (with his bad ankle) and I could do nothing. And, as opposed to Ill Wind, Trip Dorkeys couldn't miss. I think I only had 1 rebound in the first half and it wasn't from not having position, it was from them not missing, ever.

The second half started and we had a little bit of momentum from Winston's buzzer-beater. I can't say that we ran at them, but we did hit a string of threes. Robert had 3 over the course of a few minutes. Suddenly we were back into it. The outside shooting helped open up the inside and I was able to pass to Winston on a couple of cuts to the hole. But even with a few assists, I have to say it was my worst game in a long time. I just didn't play well. I turned the ball over, I missed all kinds of shots, and I didn't do the one thing that the team expects of me, rebound. It was as if the ball just wasn't bouncing to me, but more than that, I lacked any kind of drive to get the ball. A few times I lazily grabbed a missed shot, only to have it snatched away. We ended up losing by six, 32-26. Trip Dorkeys scored less in the second half than we did in the first but it wasn't enough to get past them.

Who knows why I sucked? Perhaps I was over-confident from last week's game. Perhaps I shouldn't have jerked off right before the game. Perhaps I shouldn't have smoked that cigarette at lunch or that bowl after work. But with Jason out and Winston still hurting, I needed to step up.

And I tripped while running up the stairs, embarassing myself in front of everyone in the subway called Ill Wind.