Wednesday, September 25, 2013

A Win and a Loss as Shooting Woes Haunt the HHR

17 and 18. 29 and 26. 32. The numbers above correlate as follows: - The teams three-point shooting percentages for over the past two games (W, L). - The teams total field goal percentage over the past two games. - The teams combined field goal percentage from the past two games. Those numbers rarely equal victories, though in the HHR's case, they eeked one out two Mondays ago. The good guys defeated NBN 44-35, in a game that wasn't as close early, yet ended closer than it should have; then followed that up with their hardest fought game of the season, albeit a loss, to M-Town 53-55. Brandon Hunter led both efforts, totaling 31 points and 15 rebounds over the two games, yet has yet to find the long range stroke. Sitting just under 20% for the season, he is well below his career total of nearly 33%. But the sub-par shooting bug has not only affected the teams leading scorer. The team is totaling a mere 24% from beyond the arc this season (21 of 87) and only has two players about the 40% mark (Jason Hunter 60%; Kerry Hunter 50%), yet Kerry has only taken two three pointers on the year, connecting on one. Explosive point guard Kyle Komer is below his 48% shooting percentage from last season as he is below 40% (38%) from the field this year. Komer has been getting to the basket with penetration, yet has been slightly off the mark finishing. Energetic middle man Andy Kempf, coming off a career season last year, got off to a slow start in game one, but has slowly begun to regain his 2012-13 form. Justin Woo got his first in-game action two Mondays ago, as well as playing this past Monday, but is still finding his niche in the offense, scoring only once in two games. For all the negative from the floor, there is some positive to take from it. The HHR's are shooting better from two point range (48%) than they did all of last year (43%) and are also connecting on more free throws (67%) than the previous year (63%). Once the big scorers and leaders of the offense begin to find their true ability from the field, the team will start to look like the group it intends to be. The Human Highlight Reels (2-1) face Wilson Group next Monday at 7:20. The Vegas line has the Wilson Group slated as an 11 point underdog. The Reels are currently #5 in the latest power rankings out of 12 teams.

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