HOUSTON -- The Game is four quarters long. It's unclear as to how 4 by 6 index cards that call the Houston Iguanas envelope their home know this. But they sure seem to.
The Oklahoma City Lariats led after every one of the first three quarters in this Season 34 Championship Finals opener, only to see the Iguanas put on the defensive clamps down the homestretch and thwart the potential theft of Game 1.
The final was 74-71, but the tale of the tape is in the last quarter where Houston held the visitors from the West to just 11 points after allowing them 22 to start the game and 23 in the second quarter.
You could feel it coming in the third quarter, where the Eastern Division champions and heavy favorites outscored their opponents 21-15 to pull within four points.
Somewhat uncharacteristically, the Iguanas mounted their comeback with precision passing (15 assists) that led to high percentage shots (68.1 percent team shooting) while taking just 47 attempts overall.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma City was yakking up 62 shots and hitting 48.0, which was nearly as effective, but not quite.
Looking at the lineups, the teams are fairly evenly matched except in the point guard position, and that slight edge to Houston was, in fact, the difference in this one. Walt White of Oklahoma City and Hrundi V. Bakshi of Houston can both score, but Bakshi plays some defense, while White plays almost none. Bakshi's trio of blocked shots on White were all on good shots from his opponent, two from 3-point land, and that was more than the difference in the final score.
MVP of the Game was Lemon Jell-o, the two guard for the Lariats who led all scorers with 20 points and played strong defense against Ching-Chong Chung (while switching over more than once to thwart Bakshi).
Houston had great balance, with four starters getting between 12 and 18 points. The one who did not make it into double figures, Stone Flinthorn, was the game's top rebounder with 7 and limited his man to just 8 points while dishing out four assists.
This series could have become very interesting had Oklahoma City been able to steal the opener. Now they go home with a must-win situation in this best of five set.
Series Note: Should Houston win the title, Ching-Chong Chung would get his 10th award and be admitted to the MBA Hall of Fame.
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