If there’s ever such thing as lousy timing for a nine-day break, it’s now for the St. John’s Edge.
Not that the basketball players aren’t looking forward to Christmas, but with five wins in a row, thanks to a sweep of the Five from Sudbury, the Edge would like to keep things rolling.
“Yeah,” smiled coach Doug Plumb following Wednesday night’s 120-98 NBL Canada romp over Sudbury, “we’d like to keep playing.
“That said, these guys have been here for a while, and we train harder than anybody in the league. They deserve a couple days off.”
— Plumb
It’s a different Edge team we witnessed over these last four games at Mile One Centre, which included a two-game sweep of the Charlottetown, P.E.I.-based Island Storm last weekend, than the one which opened the season 1-5.
The Edge now stand at 6-5 and have climbed into second place in the Central Division and closed the gap between them and the expansion Five (7-4), who hold first in the division.
It was the second straight game the Edge held the high-scoring Five to under 100 points after winning 118-98 Tuesday night.
And they did it without reigning league MVP Carl English, who didn’t play in either game because of a calf injury 38-year-old English suffered over the weekend against the Storm.
Part of the reason the Edge have been able to maintain such a hot streak is the all-star play the team is receiving from point guard Maurice Jones, while Dez Lee has been on fire, in particular, these last few games.
Before 2,156 at Mile One Wednesday night, Jones led the Edge with 25 points and Lee chipped in 22.
But there’s also the presence of former NBA star Glen Davis, who is getting more and more minutes as his conditioning improves.
And Davis’s presence isn’t just on the offensive side of the court, although he did score 16 points, to go with eight rebounds, on Wednesday to earn player of the game honours.
“Our defensive chatter is a lot better now,” said Plumb, “and we want to be the best communicating team in the league. We weren’t for the first five games.
“Insert Glen Davis, who was an all-defence type guy for the (Boston) Celtics, and the energy and talk goes through the roof. There aren’t as many mental mistakes, and we’re not beating ourselves.
“Glen’s gotten better each day. It’s going to be scary where he gets to in about a month.”
Former Edge player Grandy Glaze had a big game for Sudbury with 36 points and eight rebounds.
The Edge don’t play again until Dec. 29, the first of six road games.
