All Marqus Blakely did in 28 minutes of action last night was pull down 13 boards -- 6 of them offensive -- and score 15 points. Last night was the first game of the playoffs for Marqus' team, the Iowa Energy, who go into the NBDL playoffs as the top seed in the Eastern Conference. I cannot explain why this means they play the fifth seed in the Western Conference (the Utah Flash), but I'm sure there is a (not so) good reason. Trying to figure out the NBDL playoff system is kind of like trying to figure out why VCU made the NCAA tournament this year. Wait... they went to the Final Four? Seriously??!! Okay, bad example. But seriously, the NBDL playoff system makes zero sense. Two teams from the Eastern Conference made the playoffs while six from the Western Conference made it. And then it would appear random seeds play each other. Why have conferences?
Regardless, Blakely's passionate performance helped spark the Energy to a 103-96 road victory over the Flash to take a 1-0 lead in the best of three series. The next two games are Monday and Tuesday (if necessary) in Iowa.
Marqus also converted a nice alley-oop dunk at the start of the second quarter, which is always fun to see. Blakely was on the receiving end of that "didn't-you-learn-how-to-defend-this-backdoor-alley-oop-when-you-were-in-high-school" play which seems to work at every level of basketball for some reason. Let's just say he converted.
You can see highlights of the game here. That link leads to a website, NBA Futurecast, where you can actually watch all of the NBDL's games live and for free. I just found that out for myself this week and have enjoyed keeping up with Marqus via games being broadcast online.
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