Category: Basketball

After racing out to a 15-point lead in the first quarter, the Birmingham Squadron appeared to be in good position to extend its winning streak to two games.

But basketball games are never won in the first quarter, and it was the last three that helped put the New Orleans Pelicans developmental club back in the loss column.

Raptors 905 (3-5), G league farmhands of the Toronto Raptors, heated up from the floor from the second quarter on and took advantage of Birmingham (2-5) turnovers in a 112-98 victory on Saturday in front of 1,616 fans at Legacy Arena.

“Turnovers,” Squadron coach T.J. Saint said, shaking his head. “They scored 112 points on 102 or 103 possessions. If we have normal turnovers, our defensive effort and rating would’ve been better than Memphis (a 122-111 victory on Thursday) but turnovers killed us. They’re demoralizing.”

While Birmingham’s 24 turnovers were actually one less than 905, they came at the worst possible times.

“Trying to pick up human morale when you’re dealing with turnovers is a trick I’ve got to figure out as a coach,” Saint said. “But the good thing is that it’s very correctible, it is on us, and we will be ready (Monday).”

Trey Jemison recorded his sixth consecutive double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds), and Malcolm Hill led the home team with 19 points. Others scoring double figures for the Squadron were Jalen Crutcher (17), Izaiah Brockington (16), Tevian Jones (12) and Devin Cannady (11).

Raptors 905 shot a sizzling 51 percent from the floor and netted 12 more field goals than Birmingham.

Omari led six double-digit men with 22 points, followed by Jaysean Paige (20), Kevin Obanor (16), Mauhamadou Gueye (14), Drake Jeffries (13) and Markquis Nowell (11).

Gueye had 13 rebounds and Nowell added 11 assists to give each player double-doubles.

Birmingham controlled the first quarter, leading by as many as 15 points before settling for a 33-22 edge after 12 minutes.

Brockington and Jones had already accounted for eight points each, although Brockington was saddled with three personal fouls.

The team repping Mississauga, Ontario, however, stormed back in the second quarter, wiping out the deficit and taking the lead (44-42) at the 5:10 mark. Their cushion inflated to five before the Squadron launched a mini-rally and tied it up at 52-all with 1:47 to go before halftime.

But 905 got those points back – and more – and with 24 minutes in the books, held a 61-54 advantage.

The visitors threatened to end all doubt about this one early in the third quarter, scoring the first 14 points of the frame to secure a 75-54 lead.

Brockington’s 3-pointer finally ended the drought, but Eric Khoury’s team rarely cooled down, and led 91-73 going into the fourth.

From there, 905 put the game in maintenance mode.

Specialty unis: The Squadron wore theme uniforms for Saturday’s game, the first time in 2023-24 the team has dressed out in alternate colors. As part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Weekend, the Squadron paid tribute to the Birmingham Black Barons by wearing black unis that featured the legendary Negro League club’s BBB logo on the jersey, and an outline of the Magic City skyline across the shorts.

The team will wear the same uniforms again for Monday morning’s MLK Day game.

OTD in 1949: The Birmingham Steelers of the Southern Professional Basketball League beat the New Orleans Sports, 119-75.

The win at Municipal Auditorium, which improved Birmingham to 14-8, was also record-setting as the 119 points by the victors was an all-time high in a SPBL game.

Bob Murphy led the onslaught with 28 points, followed by John Murphy (27), Darrell Lorance (26), Joe Parker (23), and Lloyd Spitzer (11).

OTD in 2023: The Squadron lost to Salt Lake City Stars, 132-110, at Legacy Arena.

Feron Hunt led Birmingham with 24 points, Javonte Smart scored 21, and Kelan Martin added 17.

Both Zyan Cheatham and James Kelly Sr. recorded double-doubles. Cheatham had 18 points and 10 boards, while Kelly tallied 13 points to go with 14 rebounds.

Up next: The MLK Celebration Weekend continues on Monday as the Squadron faces Raptors 905 again to close out a two-game set.

Game time is set for 11 a.m., and Red Panda will perform at halftime.

Devin Cannady has been a professional basketball player for six seasons, and currently hones his craft as a guard with the NBA G League’s Birmingham Squadron. He averaged 10.2 points per game during the Showcase Cup portion of the Squadron’s 2023-24 season, and through five regular season contests is scoring 9.2 points per outing.

His wife, Katie Lou Samuelson, has six WNBA seasons on her resume, following a decorated college career with the UConn Huskies. She is now with the Los Angeles Sparks.

Hoops is likely a hot topic of conversation in their home, but so is parenthood; they welcomed their first child last August. And while all parents want their kids to succeed, Cannady decided to put his hopes and dreams for his daughter in writing.

Cannady is the author of Aliya Can, a book “for all parents who want their children to believe that they can achieve anything they set out to do.”

The book – set for release on Monday, January 15 – is illustrated by Danika Runyan.

“My wife and I were just having a conversation on the way to our honeymoon,” said Cannady, who’ll suit up for the New Orleans Pelicans’ affiliate tonight in a road game against the Memphis Hustle. “And we were just thinking, ‘Hey, how great would it be to write a book for our daughter about our daughter?’ She’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’d be so fun. How would you ever do something like that?’”

Cannady, who says he’s always looking to learn new things, began to investigate what such an undertaking would involve. So, he decided to Google “How to write a book.”

Eight months later, his book was written.

“That brings us where we are today, where we have a physical copy in hand and they’re ready to be distributed,” he said. “It’s really been a process of learning for me.”

Cannady said he hopes Aliya Can is something that his daughter can one day read and know that it was for and about her, but also provide a positive impact for other children and their parents.

“I guess it sounds cheesy or cliché, but I just wrote it from my heart,” he said. “When you think about children’s books, and study some of the classics with a rhyme scheme, you want to do something that’s quick-hitting and that kind of flows, almost like a nursery rhyme. So that’s what I had in mind from day one.

“When I talked about it with my wife, I was like, ‘This is the vision I have. Let me just speak from my heart and see what that end product could be.’ And honestly, it didn’t take very long for me to come up with what is now the final product.”

Although aimed at young kids, the message is universal.

“It blends in with my ethos of believing in yourself and having confidence,” he said. “I think that’s something that parents or anyone, for that matter, can embrace, and inspire kids to believe in themselves and achieve anything at a young age. That’s something I’m going to be preaching to my daughter her whole life. So, I figured I’d get it in book form. Once it’s out there, I can say that’s my philosophy.”

His Squadron coaches and teammates have been supportive of his project ever since they found out it was almost ready for publication a few weeks ago.

“A lot of my teammates just look at me like, ‘Are you kidding me … you’re doing that?’ So, they’re all super excited for me. I think a couple of guys, even coaches, are looking to purchase some for siblings and cousins, and it’s really exciting to have that support.”

And while fatherhood might not have changed his approach to basketball, it most certainly has changed him as a person.

“One hundred percent, yes,” he said. “Once you’re in that delivery room, and in the moment she’s born … it’s a feeling you can’t truly describe or put into words. But you feel kind of this overwhelming sense of joy, and also a sense of responsibility. For someone like me who’s been in the NBA, who has goals and aspirations and feels a need to give back, it just raises that level of focus and intensity.”

Aliya Can will be available through Barnes & Noble or you can get further information by clicking on Cannady’s bio link on Instagram at devin_cannady3.

It seems appropriate – although disappointing for most of the 1,477 fans in the building – that on Star Wars Night at Legacy Arena, the force was with the visiting Sioux Falls Skyforce.

I mean, it’s literally in their name.

But for T.J. Saint and company, it was a timeout that was forced upon them that contributed to their undoing.

The Miami Heat affiliates entered the G League clash against the Birmingham Squadron with a circuit-best 4-0 record and exited with a 5-0 mark after topping the New Orleans Pelicans’ developmental club (1-4), 121-116.

With the Squadron trailing 115-111, the home team forced a turnover thanks to a Malcolm Hill steal with 24 seconds remaining and were headed for a transition bucket.

Instead, an official said the Birmingham bench had called a timeout.

That was news to Saint.

“I have no idea,” said Saint, obviously frustrated. “(The official) said he heard a player call a timeout, but I don’t see how he knew who it was because he wasn’t looking. He just guessed.”

The Squadron still managed to pull within one at 117-116 – and with the score 119-116, Kira Lewis Jr. had a chance to tie it with three seconds left – but his 3-pointer wouldn’t fall.

Lewis, on assignment from the parent club, led Birmingham with 29 points.

Trey Jemison had a career-high 21 points to go with 17 rebounds. It was his fourth double-double in a row and eighth in the last 10 outings.

“I’ve played more basketball this year than I’ve played my entire life,” Jemison said. “I’m just in a rhythm now.”

Hill also had 21 points, and Jalen Crutcher contributed 14.

Despite solid numbers, Saint was disappointed in his side’s unforced errors.

“This is the first time in 20 games I had no clue who that team was,” Saint said. “It wasn’t a physical energy thing because we improved in the second half, but it was a mental thing. And you can’t do that and be a good team.”

Center Orlando Robinson had a monster game for the winners, tallying 41 points – included a trio of baskets from 3-point range – and snatching 13 rebounds.

Justin Champagnie scored 26 points, followed by Alondes Williams, Jamaree Bouyea (17), and Caleb Daniels (12).

Sioux Falls took control of the game early, racing out to a 42-25 first quarter lead. Robinson had already amassed 15 points and six rebounds after just 12 minutes, and registered a double-double (23 points and 10 boards) by intermission.

Birmingham rallied in the second quarter, slicing the Sioux Falls lead to just six points at the 8:11 mark. But Robinson got busy again and allowed his team to get most  of those points back, and at halftime the visitors held a 65-50 advantage.

The Squadron regrouped after the break and got right back in the game in the third period.

A Lewis layup made it a three-point game (75-72) with 5:32 left in the frame, and Hill’s 3-pointer at 4:05 cut the deficit to 77-75.

When the buzzer sounded the Skyforce was clinging to a 91-86 lead, and Birmingham still had a quarter to flip the script.

They almost did – but wound up on the losing end of a game in which they led only once (6-4).

Road weary: Friday was the regular season home opener for Birmingham, who played two games at Indiana and then a pair of back-to-back days against Grand Rapids.

The team has logged a lot of minutes in a short time, and it showed – especially early in the loss to the Skyforce.

“We got back (Thursday morning), some of us were under the weather and we got some meds and got right but man, it was a long trip,” Jemison said. “We’ve played five games in seven days, and it’s my first time to do that as a rookie to play that many games so fast, so I’m just trying to adjust to the flow.

“You want to keep playing at your top level every day, but it’s kinda rough. You could tell today we were exhausted the first 20 minutes.”

Honoring legends: As part of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration – and as a salute to Birmingham’s role in the civil rights movement – the Squadron will wear Birmingham Black Barons specialty jerseys for games against Raptors 905 on January 13 and January 15.

The jerseys have a black torso design and BBB across the chest, as well as the outline of the Magic City skyline on the shorts.

A tribute to the Negro League baseball team that played here from 1920-1960, the jersey was designed to “honor the players and history of this part of the cultural heritage of the Birmingham community.”

 “We are honored to celebrate and recognize the Birmingham Black Barons with the donning of these specialty jerseys,” Squadron general manager Leslie Claybrook said. “The history of the Black Barons in the Magic City and nationally is quite remarkable and needs to continue to be told. These specialty jerseys play a small role in keeping the legacy top-of-mind.”

Game-worn jerseys will be auctioned at Legacy Arena during both games and proceeds of the jersey will benefit the Negro League Baseball Museum.

OTD in 1948: The Birmingham Vulcans of the Southern Professional Basketball League lost to the Jackson (Mississippi) Senators, 48-47. Jackson’s Charley Ward hit two free throws in the waning seconds to secure the victory for the hosts.

Birmingham was led by Shag Hawkins’ 12 points.

OTD in 2022: The Squadron fell to the Stockton Kings, 103-80, at Stockton Arena.

Tra Holder led Birmingham with 15 points, while Joe Young and Riley LaChance finished with 14 points apiece.

OTD in 2023: The Squadron dropped a 113-107 decision to the South Bay Lakers at the UCLA Health Training Center.

Kelan Martin and Javonte Smart each pumped in 28 points, with Kalob Ledoux chipping in 22.

Zylan Cheatham had 10 points to go with 11 rebounds for the double-double.

Next up: Birmingham is back on the road Thursday for a matchup with the Memphis Hustle at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi.

Tip time is 7 p.m.