The St. John’s Edge carried a little momentum with them as they made their way to Sudbury, Ont., on Tuesday.
They also brought along an insurance policy that might never be used, but could be cashed in if circumstances dictate and doctors sign off.
Veteran guard Carl English, who hasn’t played a game in more than eight weeks, travelled with the Edge, who take on the Sudbury Five in Game 3 of their National Basketball League of Canada first-round playoff series tonight (8:30 p.m. NT).
The best-of-five affair is tied 1-1 after the team’s split the opening two games of the series last weekend at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, where the Five won the opener in a 100-99 squeaker and the Edge responded with a 102-92 victory in Game 2 on Sunday.
That English is with the team in northern Ontario isn’t surprising — after all, he is St. John’s de facto general manager — but the 38-year-old from Patrick’s Cove and 2018 NBL Canada MVP may be more than a man in civvies on the bench in Sudbury, which will also be site of Friday’s Game 4 of the best-of-five series.
The Edge still have an open roster spot and word is English, who has recovering from ligament surgery on his left thumb, could come off injured reserve to fill that vacancy before the end of this series. Best guess is English is more likely to be activated if and when the season is on the line for St. John’s, which mean odds are that he won’t dress tonight. But if the Five win Game 3, putting St. John’s on the brink, and English gets even the most cautious medical clearance, then he could be a consideration for what would be a do-or-die Friday, or for next Sunday’s Game 5 back at Mile One, should the series gets that far.
English, whose injury is to his non-shooting hand, last played Feb. 7. He hasn’t been a full participant in recent practices, but has been working out alongside his teammates and has taken part in pre-game shoot-arounds.
The Edge star, who also dealt with knee and calf injuries earlier in the campaign, appeared in just 13 of the St. John’s 40 regular-season games, averaging 14.5 points per outing.
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When the Edge mounted a fourth-quarter comeback to pull out the win over the Five on Sunday afternoon at Mile One, English wasn’t the only star who was unavailable to the team during the rally.
Former NBA champion Glen Davis had his night end early after he picked up a pair of technical fouls early in the third quarter, leading to his disqualification.
Accumulation of technical fouls during the season leads to league-mandated discipline and that carries over into the playoffs. Davis now has five technicals in all. One more and the big man would be facing a single-game suspension.
Before his dismissal, Davis had been a force in Game 3, with 13 points and nine rebounds in just over 20 minutes of play. With him out, coach Steve Marcus was forced to go with a smaller lineup, with a key part of that plan being Canadian Shaquille Keith, who came off the bench to deliver 14 points —12 of them in the second half — and a dozen rebounds.
That after Keith didn’t score any points in just eight minutes of playing time in Game 1 on Friday.
As it is with team leading scorer Dez Lee, it’s hard to pin a permanent position tag on the 6-6, 220-pound Keith, who is officially listed as a forward, but can also play guard and can just as easily do a turn at the post position, as he often did Sunday in Davis’s absence.
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For those keeping track of former Edge point guard Maurice Jones, now a starter with the Five, he is averaging 22 points per game in three contests — one in regular-season and the two in this playoff series — against St. John’s.
Also notable is the fact he has played all but 125 of the 144 total minutes in those contests.
But he is not alone on a Five team that relies heavily on a few key players
Sudbury’s Jaylen Brand was on the floor for 45 of the 48 minutes in each of the first two games of this series. Braylon Ransom played a total of 82 minutes, while Cory Dixon saw action in 77 of 90 minutes last weekend.
By comparison, Lee was the top Edge player in terms of floor time through the first two games, with 72 minutes in total.
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