Over the weekend, the Arsenal took back-to-back games from the Idaho Stampede (93-86 and 113-107), extending their season-best winning streak to 4 games. They were impressive wins, the first being a come-from-behind effort from 16 points down, and the second being a gritty effort in a see-saw battle. Considering that the Stampede were 5-1 in the season series up until this point (with a couple of blowouts in there), I’m pretty happy about this. I’m trying to figure out how much of an effect the roster changes since their earlier meetings have had — Mike Efevberha and Mo Charlo had two great games for the Arsenal, and Idaho was missing Lance Allred, Mickael Gelabale, and Mouhamed Sene, but it’s hard to gauge the relative changes in talent level.
The D-League also announced the playoff structure for this year, with two single-elimination rounds followed by a 3-game Finals. The Arsenal, still under .500 for the year, won’t be in the playoffs, but with the season winding up, they could still affect the final seedings. They finish the season with a game against the Austin Toros, a game against the Utah Flash, and 3 games against the Los Angeles D-Fenders (currently vying for the West division crown with Idaho). The game against Bakersfield to finish out the season, though, might as well be a scrimmage…