G League
Blue Coats’ Longabardi on Lofton Jr.: ‘He’s an extremely talented player’
Newly-acquired forward Kenneth Lofton, who signed a two-way contract with the 76ers last week after recently being released by the Grizzlies, made his Delaware Blue Coats(G League team for 76ers) debut on Wednesday at home against the Capital City Go-Go, and he did not disappoint.
Lofton Jr. had a team-high 30 points as Delaware defeated Capital City Go-Go 134-126.
After going 9-7 in Showcase Cup play, the Blue Coats got the NBA G League regular season started on a winning note.
“He’s an extremely talented player, very high IQ,” Blue Coats coach Mike Longabardi said about Lofton Jr. “We’re extremely happy to have him. For the first game, I thought that he exceeded all of our expectations.”
The first half was tight, but Delaware went into the halftime break leading by nine after going on a 7-0 run to end the half. Then, in the third quarter, the Coats outscored the Go-Go 39-31 to enter the final frame up 17.
The Blue Coats put forth a balanced offensive attack, with five players scoring in double figures. Javonte Smart and Ricky Council IV had 23 points each, and Terquavion Smith added 21 off the bench.
Devon Dotson and Hamidou Diallo did the heavy-lifting for the Go-Go, scoring 30 and 28 points, respectively. Chase Audige chipped in 15 points, and the duo of John Butler Jr. and Davion Mintz scored 14 each off the bench.
The Blue Coats return to action on Saturday when they go on the road to battle the Rip City Remix.
Photo: Delaware Blue Coats
Blue Coats win third straight
The Delaware Blue Coats (5-3) defeated the Greensboro Swarm (2-8) 123-113 on Saturday night at Chase Fieldhouse. The win marks the Coats’ third straight and fourth in their last five games.
“Our practices have definitely been better,” Blue Coats forward Chris Clarke said. “We’ve been moving the ball better, and that translates over to the game.”
The Blue Coats led 31-23 after the first quarter, but the Swarm stormed back in the second, with Delaware taking a one-point lead into halftime. In the third quarter, the Coats outscored Greensboro by 11 to put themselves in the driver’s seat for the final frame.
Three Blue Coats scored 20 or more points, led by David Duke Jr. with 27. Javonte Smart scored 24, Ricky Council IV scored 21, and Jared Brownridge came off the bench and contributed a season-high 18 points on six three-pointers.
Greensboro displayed a balanced offensive attack, with seven players scoring in double figures, led by Amari Bailey’s 22 off the bench. Terrell Brown Jr. and Jaylen Sims each scored 18, and Nathan Mensah scored 14 and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Blue Coats will now hit the road on Wednesday, Dec. 6 to face the Maine Celtics at Portland Expo Building.
Blue Coats announce complete 2023-24 schedule
The NBA G League today released its complete game schedule for the 2023-24 season, which features a record 31 teams.
The 2022-23 NBA G League Champion Delaware Blue Coats open their season at home on Friday, November 10 against the Westchester Knicks at Chase Fieldhouse.
The NBA G League schedule will again be organized into two parts: the 16-game Showcase Cup, followed by a 34-game regular season. All 31 NBA G League teams will compete in a total of 50 games during the 2023-24 season.
The Showcase Cup begins on Friday, Nov. 10 and culminates with a single-elimination tournament to crown a champion at the 2023 NBA G League Winter Showcase from Dec. 19-22. During the Showcase Cup, teams are placed into four regions and play 14 games exclusively against one another in NBA G League markets. The teams with the best winning percentage in each region, along with the next four teams with the best winning percentages regardless of region, will advance to compete for the Showcase Cup Championship during Winter Showcase.
Following the Showcase Cup, team records will reset in advance of the 34-game regular season, which tips off on Wednesday, Dec. 27.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the top six teams in each conference will qualify for the NBA G League Playoffs presented by Google Pixel, which conclude with the NBA G League Finals presented by YouTube TV in April 2024.
Two new markets in addition to Portland will welcome NBA G League basketball, with the former Fort Wayne Mad Ants and Lakeland Magic relocating to Indianapolis and Osceola, Fla., respectively. The Indiana Mad Ants (Indiana Pacers) will make their Indianapolis debut at Gainbridge Fieldhouse against the Windy City Bulls (Chicago Bulls) on Monday, Nov. 13, and the Osceola Magic (Orlando Magic) will play its first home game at Osceola Heritage Park against the Texas Legends (Dallas Mavericks) on Thursday, Nov. 16.
The Rip City Remix tips off its inaugural NBA G League season at the South Bay Lakers (Los Angeles Lakers) on Friday, Nov. 10. That same night, the Mexico City Capitanes will host Osceola as part of a week-long celebration of basketball in Mexico.
The 2023-24 NBA G League calendar includes several league-wide initiatives, such as Hoops for Troops in November, Season of Giving in December, Martin Luther King Jr. Day games in January, Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March.
Continuing from the 2022-23 season, games that advance to overtime will be determined by a Final Target Score. The winner of an overtime game during the season will be the first team to reach or surpass the Final Target Score, which will be the tied score after four quarters plus seven. For example, if the teams are tied at 100-100, the Final Target Score would be 107. Overtime will be untimed and games will end when a team makes a basket or free throw to reach or surpass the Final Target Score.
Complete Blue Coats schedule below:
Blue Coats advance to Eastern Conference Finals
The Delaware Blue Coats are hoping to make it to the G League Finals for the third straight season, and they are one step closer as they defeated the Capital City Go-Go 104-99 at Chase Fieldhouse on Thursday to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Delaware, the number two seed in the East, will await the result of Friday’s Eastern Semifinals matchup between the number one seed, the Long Island Nets, and the Cleveland Charge.
The Blue Coats finished the regular season on a four-game losing streak but got to their winning ways when it mattered the most.
Delaware led most of the contest and took a 85-77 lead into the fourth quarter. In the fourth, the Blue Coats took their largest lead of the night at 95-81 with under nine minutes to go, but the Go-Go went on an 11-0 run to cut the lead to 95-90, and eventually, Capital City would cut the lead to 100-99 with 1;24 left in the game.
However, the Blue Coats stepped up on the defensive end, especially Braxton Key, who had a big block, and he would punctuate the game with the team’s 19th steal, which led to his game-clinching dunk with 05.4 left in the contest.
Delaware forced 27 turnovers, which led to 22 points.
Jaden Springer led the way for Delaware with a team-high 24 points, six rebounds, and three steals. NBA Slam Dunk champion Mac McClung added 20 points and five rebounds.
For Capital City, Jules Bernard had a game-high 25 points and six rebounds as the Go-Go had six players in double figures.
Fort Wayne Mad Ants clinch playoff berth after big win over Blue Coats
The Delaware Blue Coats(G League affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers) finished the regular season on Saturday night against the visiting Fort Wayne Mad Ants(Indiana Pacers).
The Blue Coats had already secured a playoff berth and were locked into the second seed in the East.
However, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants were looking to secure a playoff berth for the first time since 2018. The Mad Ants won the first of the two-game set in Delaware on Friday night but needed to sweep the two-game set to get into the playoffs, and they got the job done.
Fort Wayne(18-14) had six players in double figures, including all five starters, and defeated the Blue Coats 125-121 to clinch a playoff spot.
The Mad Ants finished the regular season winning five straight, while Delaware(20-12) ended the regular season losing four in a row.
Fort Wayne’s Jermaine Samuels Jr. had a game-high 31 points and 10 rebounds; Gabe York added 28 points, including six threes and grabbed 10 boards, and Pedro Bradshaw had 17 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.
Braxton Key led Delaware with 18 points; Louis King and Charlie Brown Jr. had 17 points apiece; Delaware also had six players in double figures.
Fort Wayne was the more desperate team, but you thought the season could end on Saturday night. After trailing 63-60 at the break, Delaware started the third quarter on a 16-0 run. The Mad Ants finally scored their first points of the second half at the 4:22 mark of the third quarter.
After a Ty’Shon Alexander three, the Blue Coats had their largest lead at 89-74 late in the third. However, following a timeout, Fort Wayne closed the quarter on a 10-0 run and trailed 89-84 at the end of three.
Fort Wayne took over in the fourth as Bradshaw scored 14 of his 17 points in the final stanza, and the Mad Ants had a 41-point fourth to seize control and get the much-needed win.
As the second seed in the East, Delaware will get a bye and get back at it on Thursday at Chase Fieldhouse in the second round of the G League playoffs, while the Mad Ants, the sixth seed in the East, travel to D.C. to play the Capital City Go-Go on Tuesday.
This season’s playoff format will feature four rounds and 12 total teams, the six top teams from the Eastern Conference and the six top teams from the Western Conference. The top two teams from each conference will receive a bye into the second round. The playoffs will begin with three single-elimination rounds before culminating with a best-of-three NBA G League Finals, which will be played in a one-one-one format.
Springer leads Blue Coats to Eastern Conference Finals
The Delaware Blue Coats defeated the Motor City Cruise, 124-116, in the NBA G League Eastern Conference Semifinal round on Friday night at Wayne State Fieldhouse.
The Coats head north to face Raptors 905 in the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday. The game is slated for a 7:00 p.m. ET tip-off on ESPNU.
Jaden Springer led the Blue Coats with 30 points, five rebounds and four steals. Charlie Brown, Jr. put up 28 points and 10 boards, and Myles Powell dropped 22 on 5-9 shooting from THREE-POINT RANGE.
The back-and-forth contest featured 18 lead changes and the score was tied 16 times throughout the game.
Aaron Henry poured in 18 points and eight rebounds, plus a game-high three blocked shots. Recently-named G League Defensive Player of the Year Shaq Harrison had 12 points and 10 assists to go along with a couple of steals and a blocked shot.
Motor City’s Cheick Diallo tallied 25 point and 13 rebounds.
Photo: NBA/E
Blue Coats’ Paul Reed named G League MVP, Rookie of the Year
On Monday, the NBA G League announced that Blue Coats F Paul Reed was named both the 2021 NBA G League Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year.
Reed, whose a two-way player with the 76ers, was the only player in the league to average at least 20 points and 11 rebounds per game this season while leading the Delaware Blue Coats to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Reed led the G League with 12 double-doubles in 15 games and is the first player in Delaware franchise history to earn either MVP or Rookie of the Year honors.
Reed, the No. 58 overall selection in the 2020 NBA Draft by Philadelphia, shot .588 from the field, .444 from three-point range, and .789 from the free-throw line. He was the only player among the G League’s top-10 in total rebounds with at least 20 three-pointers made (24).
The DePaul product started each of the Blue Coats’ 15 regular-season games and was the only player in the league with at least 25 steals (29) and 25 blocks (27) during the regular season. Reed was one of only three players with at least two 30-point games.
Continue reading ➞ Blue Coats’ Paul Reed named G League MVP, Rookie of the Year
Blue Coats’ Johnson is happy with what the team accomplished this season
The last time the Delaware Blue Coats battled the Lakeland Magic, they trailed by 22 points at halftime and ultimately would lose 115-107 in their regular season matchup, and on Thursday night in the NBA G League Finals, Delaware again got down early and trailed by 12 at the break. From there, Lakeland would push the lead to as much as 25 points in the third quarter and would capture their first NBA G League title by defeating Delaware 97-78 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Florida.
Devin Cannady led Lakeland with 22 points, while Rayjon Tucker led the Blue Coats with 20 points. Lakeland held Delaware to 31% from the field, including 20% from three-point range.
“We really struggled just to kind of get anything going,” Blue Coats head coach Conner Johnson said after the game. “I think that’s on us for sure. We could have done a better job in some areas. I think it’s a huge credit to them(Lakeland).”
While the Blue Coats did not win a championship, the 2020-21 season was filled with a lot of great accomplishments for Delaware, including making the playoff for the first time, getting their first playoff victory, and making their first appearance in the G League Finals, so in many ways, this season was a success for Delaware, which Johnson discussed.
“I think to the whole season a positive we take away are we crossed off some firsts for our team that we were hoping to accomplish by making the playoffs, having a playoffs game, and now getting to the Finals,” Johnson said. “I think that the development of these guys kind of from the top and bottom of the roster. It’s something that we really look at and take a lot of pride in.”
Based on the way they were playing in the playoffs, you thought Delaware was built and ready to win a G League title, but in a single-elimination game, you have to be at your best, and the Blue Coats were not at their best on Thursday night.
