EDINBURG — During a matchup that was as much a track meet as it was a basketball game, the RGV Vipers never slowed down offensively or defensively and are now one win away from capturing another NBA G League title.
Trevelin Queen, Daishen Nix and company ran all day and night en route to a 145-128 blowout over the Delaware Blue Coats in Game 1 of the NBA G League championship series Tuesday at Bert Ogden Arena. The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, as the Blue Coats went on a 17-0 run to end the contest and close the canyon of a gap during the final minutes. Before that run, the Vipers held a 34-point lead
Game 2 of the best-of-three series takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday at Wilmington, Delaware. If necessary, a deciding Game 3 will be played at 7 p.m Sunday at Bert Ogden Arena.
The game only slowed for timeouts and free throws, and when the Blue Coats tossed up an airball, Queen followed with a 3-pointer two minutes into the fourth quarter, the crowd erupted and RGV led 124-102. The teams came into the game as the top-two scoring teams in the G League, the only two teams to average more than 120 points per game, and they put that offensive prowess on display. By game’s end, the teams had taken 229 shots, including 100 from 3-point land.
The Vipers knocked down 18 3-pointers during the game.
The numbers were of video game proportions.
Queen paced the Vipers with 44 points and seven rebounds. Nix registered a triple-double with 31 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. Anthony Lamb also earned a triple-double with 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. And Mfiondu Kabengele contributed 19 points, 14 rebounds and a G League-championship record eight blocked shots.
In the end, however, it was a relentless defense during the fourth quarter and an overpowering performance rebounding the ball throughout the contest that put the Vipers one game away from a G League-best fourth championship. No other team has more than two titles.
A large and enthusiastic crowd responded loudly down the stretch to the Vipers after each dunk, fast break basket and 3-pointer and there were plenty of each. Tuesday, their Vipers were the fastest of the fast for 48 minutes.
“It was an amazing feeling hearing that crowd today,” Queen said. “Kids chanting your name and things like that is something we feed off of. The crowd was definitely energizing us.”
As expected, it was a helter-skelter pace right from the start, each team sprinting and attacking the basket — or launching from anywhere on the floor — at will. After one quarter alone, both squads were on pace to score 140 points or more with Delaware leading 36-35. The Vipers trailed by as many as eight late during the first quarter but took the lead for good early during the second quarter on a Nix layup.
“I’d rather play a team with a different style of play than one similar to ours,” Vipers head coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah said. “Now we’re going there and they are going to want to protect their house. We need to rebound even better and take care of the ball.”
The Vipers finished with 70 rebounds compared to 51 for Delaware.
“We had a game plan and we stuck to that game plan,” Queen said. “We know that we lead the league in rebounding and they were near last in defensive rebound, so we had to be aggressive on the boards. Now, we need 48 more minutes.”
At the half, the teams had already combined to take 121 shots, including 29 3-pointers. Both teams averaged about 95 shot attempts per game throughout the regular season.
The game, as has happened all year, shifted in the Vipers’ favor on the boards. RGV, the top overall rebounding and offensive rebounding team in the G League, methodically continued to crash the boards and held a 39-25 advantage overall and 15-11 on the offensive glass.
Queen showed why he was named the NBA G League MVP, scoring 25 points during the first half, connecting on 5-of-8 3-pointers during the first half, while the Houston Rockets’ Daishen Nix added 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Mfiondu Kabengele, the tallest player on the court for a change at 6-foot-9, relished in that role with 13 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots in the first half. He left the court late during the half with an apparent slight injury but returned to start the second half.
The most points scored by the Vipers in a half is 88.
To see more, view Monitor photojournalist Delcia Lopez’s full photo gallery here:
Photo Gallery: RGV Vipers turn back the Delaware Blue Coats 145-128
