The Austin Toros
defeated the Los Angeles D-Fenders (owned and operated by the L.A. Lakers)
122-110 Saturday Night in L.A. to win the franchises' first Championship.
Not too many people
may have seen this coming after Game 1 of the D League finals on Tuesday night.
But this championship series was all about heart, character, and
determination.
AGAINST ALL ODDS
The series started
out rough for Austin. The Toros dropped a heartbreaking game in overtime
109-101 at home. To add injury to insult, they lost Impact Player of
the Year Eric Dawson within the first minute of the game with a concussion and
then announced he was out for Game 2 as well. To make it even worse, PG
Cory Joseph was then recalled by the San Antonio Spurs.
Now all they had to
do was win 2 straight games against the D-Fenders, lead by NBA D League
Coach of the Year Eric Musselman, who were awarded the 2011-12 NBA
Development League's Regular Season Championship having finished the season
with an NBA D-League all-time best record of 38-12.
The D-Fenders were
21-4 at home and hadn't lost a home game since January 28th, including 2
victories against the Toros during that span.
And they were 5-0
in post season play at that point.
If coach Brad Jones
felt like he was taking a knife to a gun fight, he sure didn't show it.
As Greg Ackerman had
reported in his CulterMap article " "We'll
see what happens when we get to L.A. A lot of people don't think we have a
chance [of winning two in row in L.A.], but the guys in that locker room do."
That's really all
that matters.
TEAM EFFORT
That belief in
the players and the team is what lead to one of the most dramatic victories in
D League history.
“We expected to
win every game,” said Toros head coach Brad Jones. “We beat one heck of
an L.A. D-Fenders team and we did it as a group so I’m really really excited
for our guys.”
Sure, Impact Player
of the Year Eric Dawson returned from injury and put up 21 points and grabbed
10 boards, and the MVP of the D League Justin Dentmon put up 30 points as well.
But the team is what won this championship.
Guys like Julian
Wright stepping up his game, Brad Wanamaker scoring 12 points higher than his
average in the final game, Squeaky Johnson showing his veteran leadership both
offensively and defensively, and Terrance Woodbury playing big time in all 3
games helped the Toros win this championship.
In this series, the
best team won.
CELEBRATION TIME
Join the Austin
Toros as they celebrate their championship this Monday night at 7pm at the
Cedar Park Center. The event and parking is free. Players and
coaches will be signing autographs.
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