Namuwongo Blazers completed a comeback from 2-0 down to claim their first National Basketball League title on Wednesday night in front of a capacity crowd at Lugogo Indoor Stadium.
To achieve that feat, the Blazers had to do something unprecedented—winning four consecutive games against the City Oilers.
After the Blazers suffered a gut-wrenching Game 2 loss, putting them in a 0-2 hole for the series, along with the defeat, the next few days were filled with the voices of some “pundits” pontificating over the series being all but done. But to others, myself inclusive, the voices were about adjustments the team could make heading into Game 3 to keep the series alive.
Obviously, the average fan often misses the degree to which teams really change what they are doing in the middle of a playoff series. It is only fair that when discussing these changes, a light is shed on what was initially going wrong.
Mentally, the Blazers were not prepared for the series opener, having opted to play through a last-minute decision. The all-round performance in the defeat was a testament to the fact, much as the score suggests otherwise.
In Game 2, the Blazers had lots of trouble dealing with the Oilers’ pick-and-roll, which in reality wasn’t intended to have a player glide through the key to the basket but rather force a switch and create an iso mismatch for Kurt Weigscheider to punish on the drive.
Namuwongo’s transition defence was bleeding, and in the half-court, they gifted the City Oilers every switch they wanted with a difficult-to-fathom laissez-faire on ball screen coverage that gifted Fayed Baale, Weigscheider and Ben Komakech wide open 3-pointers, most of which they cashed.
The referees were, for some reason, inclined to blow their whistles when Oilers’ go-to players on offense—Weigscheider, Chad Bowie, Baale and Moses Maker—veered into contact, attempting to draw fouls. Usually, playoff basketball rarely needs an explanation because everyone knows the stakes are higher, and so is the intensity of the action as well as the physicality of the game but the referees probably missed the memo.
Blazers’ half-court offense was more chaotic than a busy day downtown Kampala. They were putting the ball in the hole but it’s hard to explain how. Jimmy Enabu and Joel Lukoji directed the traffic but the teammates did not read from the same book because the pair was always a second ahead, which led to many broken plays.
Looking on from the sideline was Tonny Drileba, nursing a foot injury. His contribution in the first two games was talking to teammates during breathers. Not much he could do about the reckless, fruitless possessions and disastrous defensive coverage apart from swinging his hands in the air and shaking his head in frustration.
What Changed?
Defensively, the Blazers needed to be more cognizant about matching up with everyone in transition, particularly Weigscheider, to take away easy shots and generate more stops.
With their skill set, Weigscheider and Bowie baited James Okello, Anthony Chukwurah and Lukoji into contact in an attempt to get them into foul trouble and force them off the court and found some success.
The Blazers thus needed not just to slow Weigscheider and Bowie but break the secondary source of offense for the Oilers as well and then deal with the rest.
After falling in the 0-2 hole, a tough decision had to be made. Drileba, who had not fully recovered, had to be put in the lineup on restricted minutes to manage the tempo at which the Blazers played. It was a welcome decision for the Namuwongo faithful who cheered loudly as he walked on for the team’s pregame warm-ups.
I have known Drileba to be a tough lad mentally and showed that on his return to the team as he took on the toughest defensive assignment, guarding Weigsheider as the primary defender. Even though in some intervals he would lean back on the cushioned stanchion of the basket in exhaustion when teammates were shooting free throws at the other end, the success Drileba had in his defensive assignment during Game 3 ran through every teammate and the level of effort Namuwongo players showed the rest of the series was astonishing.
Drileba taking on Weigscheider gave Peter Obleng, who had been the primary defender, a lot of relief that translated into the long wing finding his mojo on the offensive end of the court which in turn exposed Weigscheider’s defensive frailty.
On the night that vet James Okello struggled, Arthur Wanyoto was a suave in the pick-and-roll and owes his laminar flow through the lane to the great work done by Drileba.
Chukwurah was not only a defensive pillar but also found success in bodying up Maker in the post for jump hooks and midrange jumpers. You see, basketball players are not machines. They get emotional. They get tired and when that takes a toll, they push back, which almost always works in favour of opponents. Blazers made sure they put Maker, Oilers’ secondary scoring option, in that position by throwing Chukwurah or Okello at him on every possession which made the South Sudanese power forward extremely uncomfortable and took him out of his zone the rest of the series.
While discussing how the series turned around, the contribution of Joel Lukoji on the defensive side of the ball may be slightly minimized by many but defense is an art form the Congolese guard has mastered. He proved once again that stopping an opponent is just as valuable as scoring by consistently being a menace for Bowie, who was City Oilers’ point of attack, picking him up from 90 feet.
All said, the comeback would not have been completed without the coach whose powers are so invisible and success downplayed by many, probably because of his quiet demeanour on the touchline.
