CLICK HERE

Buffalo Blizzard 71-21 (3-5)

Costa Mesa Condors 75-13 (5-3)

Game 1 – There’s nowhere to hide when you reach the semifinals of the VBA Playoffs, evidenced by this Western Finals matchup between the Costa Mesa Condors and the Buffalo Blizzard. Both squads combined for 134 wins during the regular season and prevailed to win tense semifinal matchups, both teams needing six games to turn away some stiff competition. The squads were battling for the rights to be a team other than Fresno to win a championship for the first time in three years when game one tipped off. Costa Mesa, which won a title in ’85-86, entered this semifinal heavyweight series as the clear favorite over Buffalo after the former squad landed huge whales in Rolando Blackman and Kevin McHale to cement a 71-win regular season, then get past Minnesota in the Western semifinals. The defending West-champion Blizzard which has pulled out coaching stops time and again to win five playoff series the last two years (many in upset fashion, including the latest in Sun Valley), was hoping to draw from a bag of tricks one more time to defeat the Condors in the West finals for the second straight year. Unlike last year’s semis however, this game one was in the California confines of the higher seeded Condors at the Aerie at the Honda Center. And the home court advantage was clearly on display early: the Condors scored the first six points; then just eight minutes in, Costa Mesa, serving notice they would run and gun all night, maintained a lead of 31-25. That proved to be the high point of this contest for the visiting Blizzard. The last four minutes of the first quarter, Costa Mesa embarked on a 21-6 tear for a 52-31 lead after one quarter, as missed bucket after missed bucket by Buffalo transitioned to Costa Mesa offense. In the early minutes of the second, the Condors maintained their sizable lead and continued the breakneck pace. Frustration clearly set in for Buffalo with 7:35 left in the second quarter when center Kevin Duckworth was ejected following a flagrant two leveled on Cliff Levingston, who made his free throws that by that time had put the Condors ahead 68-45. The cause was likely lost at this point for the Blizzard and when the dust cleared in the first half, Costa Mesa had extended its lead at intermission to 93-55: the law that objects in motion continued to stay in motion held true here. Buffalo’s poor shooting and first game jitters continued through the night (it would finish with a dismal 35 percent from the floor (42-120), which contributed in no minor part to the Condors crushing its visitors under the glass (dominating the rebound stats by an astonishing 82-43). And a demoralized, matador Buffalo defense allowed its hosts to fastbreak its way to an incredible 52 points (versus 12 for buffalo). The home team, which never close to trailing, took its foot off the accelerator just slightly in the second as both teams played out the string of a 138-94 Costa Mesa victory, the Condors’ Western dominance on display in full glory in front of a packed impartial crowd that smiled all the way through the exit turnstiles. Buffalo successfully contained Costa Mesa’s marquee starters Isaiah Thomas, Rolando Blackman and Akeem Olajuwon as the three combined for just 35 points (led by Thomas’ 22). It failed to have an answer, however, for Vinnie Johnson who sizzled off the bench to the tune of a game-high 29 points along with 13 rebounds and seven assists (this was a game where the box score did not cite an MVP, but make no mistake, it was clear in this opening contest that those honors belonged to VJ). The Blizzard’s Clyde Drexler and Karl Malone both shot five for 16 in dismal showings, with Malone’s paltry 14 points leading the Blizzard and just three other players for Buffalo registering double figures. The edict was clear for Buffalo entering Game 2: solve the Condors’ fast-break offense and find the basket, or its season will expire in short order.

Game 2 – Entering Game 2 of the West finals, Buffalo Blizzard coaches, following a 44-point blowout (138-94) to a seemingly invincible Costa Mesa squad in the series opener, recognized their unit would have to shoot and rebound much better, not to mention “get back on defense” after yielding 52 fastbreak points in the opener. The message was received loudly and clearly by the Buffalo players in the early stages of this second game on the Condors’ home court at the Honda Center. The Blizzard fell behind 42-32 in the first quarter as Akeem Olajuwon led the way with 11 points for the hosts during the period – Olajuwon’s output in that first period alone exceeded his entire night’s performance in Game 1 where he scored just 10 for the contest in yielding to Costa Mesa’s run and gun attack. But Buffalo rallied with an 8-0 run to start the second period, a spurt featuring three Clyde Drexler dunks. That cut the lead to 42-40, but from there the Blizzard wilted: the Condors would outscore Buffalo the rest of the period 34-21 to raise its lead at intermission to 76-61. In the third, Buffalo, playing a much more focused and determined contest as opposed to Game 1, trimmed its deficit down to 91-85 with 3:45 left in the period, but Costa Mesa closed with a 15-9 run that put it ahead by a double-digit 12-point lead after three in front of the Condors’ spirited home crowd. Teams traded baskets in the early stages of the final period. The Blizzard was able to cut into the lead 116-107 near the five-minute mark of fourth, but Costa Mesa responded with a jolting 18-4 stampede over a worn down Blizzard squad in the next four minutes to effectively put the game on ice and ensure a victory that puts the Condors ahead 2-0 in this series. The final was 136-120. Buffalo — armed with a better game plan to try to slow down this Costa Mesa squad that has for all intents and purposes been a near unbeatable juggernaut since the acquisition of Kevin McHale at the trade deadline — outshot its hosts .477 to .467. It also slowed down Costa Mesa’s rebounding edge 58-49 after being obliterated under the boards 82-43 in game 1, while slowing down the Condors to 29 fastbreak points in this contest. But the visiting team coughed up an uncharacteristic 25 turnovers, with the Condors forcing 11 steals. Costa Mesa’s starters all came to play, and the Blizzard had no answers against such a widespread attack. Olajuwon finished with a game-high 30 points and McHale in the frontcourt added 21. Rolando Blackman and Isiah Thomas combined for 21 and 20 points respectively and Thomas was the Game MVP, delivering a flawless triple double performance punctuated by 13 rebounds and 16 assists. Drexler was the lone bright spot for Buffalo with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Karl Malone offered just 16 for the Blizzard; he has now been outscored in the first two games of this contest by Condors sixth-man Vinnie Johnson, by a back-breaking 48-30 margin after Johnson scored 19 in a game 2 reserve role – suffice to say the Mailman has not delivered the way he has needed to. And for the series, Buffalo has only led briefly by one point, and that on just a couple occasions during the opening minutes of this Game 2. The series shifts to Buffalo for the next two contests. But if the momentum continues for Costa Mesa, the Condors could be eyeing a sweep and a potential flight straight from Western New York to Fresno for the VBA finals.

Game 3 – The series heads to Buffalo Memorial Auditorium with the home squad hoping to put the freeze on the Costa Mesa offensive attack. The Condors were able to run up a significant gap in the score to be able to cruise to victory with 136+ points in the two contests at home. The Big 4 for Buffalo have struggled shooting, dismal 20-63 game1 and an average 26-54 game 2. The Mailman has been less than his team MVP status by putting up a combined -50 Plus/Minus rating in the first two games. The Costa Mesa side’s team depth is proving to be too much for the Blizzard as the Condor Big 4 are being given big support from the bench. At the tip, the crowd are on their feet but the enthusiasm is quickly quelled by a big dunk by ​Kevin McHale and fastbreak layup by ​Isiah Thomas. The Condors then took it to the next level by scoring 46 (16 on fast breaks) vs the home team’s 28 in the 1st. Malone was held scoreless on 6 shots. Thomas and ​Akeem Olajuwon led the way with 12p and 10p respectively. ​ Tom Chambers led the Blizzard with 10p in the 1st quarter. The two teams traded baskets in the 2nd to a 85-66 halftime tally. Malone finally hits his first FG with 4 minutes left in the quarter (1-9 shooting), finishing the half at 2-13 shooting and shared team high scoring for the quarter at 7p with Chambers. More of the same in the 3rd, where ​Rolando Blackman led all scorers with 12 for the quarter. The end of the 3rd quarter showed a 20 point Condor lead at a 119-99 score. If Buffalo wants to prevent a 3-0 series deficit, they need to get into gear. The home crowd urged their team to get on a run to close the gap, but to their disappointment it never came. The two teams traded baskets for the third quarter in a row making the first quarter Condor burst hold up for a 3-0 series lead in a 162-138 final tally. The scoring balance continued for the visiting squad with 9 players scoring double digits. The Condors were led by game MVP Blackman 32p 9a and Olajuwon 14p 22r 4stl. The Blizzard were led by Chambers 29p 11r and Mark Aguirre 22p 7a. Thethe Condors were 26-38 on fast break shots. Malone’s struggles subsided but ended up shooting 6-21 for 16p 10r 3blk 5to, a respectable line less the shooting percentage, for players not named Malone. The Buffalo squad has their backs to the wall down 3-0, but will have the hometown crowd behind them for game #4.

Game 4 – The Western Conference Finals storyline so far is the inexplicable dominance of the Costa Mesa team over the Division Rival Buffalo. Costa Mesa’s average margin of victory is 28 points. Trade deadline acquisition Kevin McHale’s defense on Malone seems to be the main Blizzard setback even though Malone has almost fouled McHale out in the last two contests. The Mailman is needed to step up to keep alive the Blizzard hope of repeating as West Conference Champion. And step up he did, scoring 12 points to lead the home team to a 42-35 lead in the 1st period. The Condor running game was working with many opportunities but didn’t capitalize on all of them (4 missed shots and 4 turnovers in the quarter), while they did get 12 points on the cashed in opportunities. Malone continued his tear in the 2nd by getting McHale his third foul with 9 minutes left in the quarter and scoring 14, he finishes the half with 26p 8r (the Blizzard Big 4 are all in double figures at the half – Chambers 13p, Aguirre 12p and Drexler 10p). However, the Condor pressure, depth and balanced scoring comes into play as the Condors narrow the lead to 1 point at intermission, 78-77. Both teams are stealing and turning the ball over at higher than average rate (turnovers: Condors 16, Blizzard 13 at the half). Buffalo fans are feeling good up by 1 at the half after being down big in the first three games of the series. But their hopes are soon dashed, as the Condor running machine kicks into high gear. The Costa Mesa squad outgunned the home team 40-22 in the 3rd period with the run-and-gun was especially lethal in the 3:30 stretch where the Condors scored 12 fast break points while the home team managed 2 points. It came in the middle of a 23-4 run, in which the Blizzard were leading 84-81 at the start and were down 104-88 at the end. The Blizzard snapped back with a 8-0 run of their own but found themselves on the short end of the 3rd period score,117-100. The Blizzard Big 4 faded in the final period as they could only muster 15 points combined as the Condors waited for the late surge. The Condors had 3 quarters in a row scoring 40+ as a team. Blackman wore out Aguirre by scoring 13p to Aguirre’s zero. The dejected and stunned Buffalo crowd left the arena for the last time this season as the Condors swept the Blizzard with a 158-136 victory. Malone finished with a game high 39p to go with his 19r, but had 8 turnovers. He did not get the help he needed to bring home one more win. Despite the disappointment of not repeating as the Western Conference Champions, coach Michael Cole should have high hopes for the future as it looks very bright for his team’s core and will look to exact revenge next year. For the balanced and deep Condors, 9 players had double digit scoring lead by Blackman’s 33p, 5a, 8-8 FT that was slightly offset by his 8to, and game MVP Olajuwon 29p, 16r, 5stl, 4blk. Lane came up big from the bench in his 13+ minutes producing 10p, 10r, 2a. Olajuwon was the series MVP with 21p,14r,3+stl, 3+blk while staying out of foul trouble and containing Tom Chambers offensive numbers. The Condors look for a little revenge in a most likely showdown with the mighty Fresno Stars. The Costa Mesa – Fresno matchup is the Finals pairing for 3 of the last 4 years, with each team taking a Championship ring home. This year’s matchup may be the closest competition-wise of the three Finals series. Can the trade deadline acquisition of McHale be the difference maker for the Condors? Or will Majic, Ewing and company continue their dominance for a Fresno three-peat? We shall see.

Series MVP – Akeem Olajuwon
20.8 pts, 14.0 reb, 3.3 blk, 3.3 stl