PREVIEW: SBL DAM FINALS 3:5
Tonight it's time for the third game of the Finals in SBL Dam, and it's maybe the most pivotal game of this series. The winner will go up 2-1 and since the women's league only plays best-of-five in the finals, it's a huge advantage. First, I don't understand why the women's league only plays best-of-five, when the men's goes best-of-seven. It has to be an economical decision, but that makes no sense to me. If you don't make money as an organization from hosting a Finals game, you've done your part bad. Some players wants a longer regular season and the shorter playoff format, others want best-of-seven. I'm pro both, since I love watching hoops. But back to the game.
It's Game 3 back in Luleå and with the series tied 1-1, and from what I've seen from the two games so far, I think the winner of tonights game will win it all on Friday in Game 4. And that's because I think Luleå will run SBBK out of the gym tonight, since that's when they're at their best. SBBK is the better half court, slow pace team and their only chance of pushing Luleå up against the wall is to make this a slug fest. For a moment in Game 2 I thought Bria Goss and Elin Eldebrink were about to get in to it. The difference between the two games, is the pace. First game Luleå came out strong but all of a sudden SBBK just took control and slowed it down. I asked Ellen Nyström why, and she said it was a combination of many things, but mostly because they hadn't got in to Finals mode, that long wait between Semis and Game 1 wasn't to their favor. They needed to get the rhythm of playing, and it was a big difference in Game 2.
Speaking of Bria Goss, who's the front runner for MVP, the league will announce the MVP tomorrow. I wouldn't mind seeing Solesquad hooper Ellen Nyström win it, as she's my obvious favorite player in the league, but it's hard not to say that Bria Goss is the most likely candidate to win it. It's beyond me why they wouldn't do it tonight if it's a Luleå player. Maybe it is Klara Lundquist, then it would make sense to wait for their home game on Friday, but Luleå might not have any more games in LEA to give it in front of Luleå's fans tonight. But that's how it's been for years, in my world we have a cheat code in the NBA. Copy paste whatever they do, since they're the best at this.
I just got off the phone with Ellen, and she said she expects SBBK to come out fighting for their lives but the key will be to stick to their game plan and not buy in to their style. Makes sense, but at the same time, what is she's supposed to say? And it sounds way easier than it is, "just stick to the script and make shot" right? That's what I've seen other so called expert say about every game so far this series. But one thing Ellen said stuck with me, and that was the last thing she said before we hung up. She feels good and calm, excited to be back in Luleå and I've no reason to doubt her.
My wish for tonight, is that Hometown hero Allis Nyström will play big minutes and have a great game. Like, I wanna see her put up LeBron type numbers from last night, give me a 22-20 game. I'm a big Allis fan, and to see her ball out is something we all need. The 7 titles didn't just fall into her lap, she won 'em all.
It'll be a great game, and it'll be fun to go to Södertälje to see Game 4 live. But tonight, it'll be from home.
If you missed Game 2, here's a recap for you: