After three quarters of Friday night’s G League basketball game, Red Claws point guard Kadeem Allen had as many fouls (four) as points.
Not to worry. Highlighted by a pair of dunks and a corner 3-pointer that ended with him sprawled in courtside seats behind the sideline, Allen finished with 17 points to lead Maine to a 102-93 victory over Raptors 905 before a crowd of 2,105 at the Portland Expo.
“I just kept playing with aggression,” said Allen, who also dished out six assists, grabbed six rebounds and made three steals. “I took it out on the rim, what the referees did in the first half.”
The victory was the third straight for the Claws (7-3). The defending league champion Raptors 905, based outside of Toronto, are 4-6.
The game was a rematch of last spring’s Eastern Conference finals, and included two prominent members of that Claws squad – current Boston Celtic rookies Guerschon Yabusele and Abdel Nader.
Yabusele had played in Wednesday’s Red Claws victory in Westchester, New York, but Nader was returning for the first time since winning the league Rookie of the Year honor last season.
“It was really fun having those guys here,” said Red Claws Coach Brandon Bailey. “Obviously they’re extremely talented people, so having them on your team is always good.”
Yabusele finished with 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot. His driving dunk opened the second half after Maine returned from intermission with a 50-42 lead and his prettiest move of the night, a reverse layup that resulted in a three-point play, ended an 8-0 Raptors run midway through the third quarter.
“It’s fun for me to come here and play basketball, and be on the court with these guys,” said Yabusele, whose scoring output Friday topped his season total (14) in seven games for the Celtics. “I’m in a situation (in Boston) where I’m on the bench but I want to be ready when the coach calls my name. I’m trying to work on every aspect of my game.”
Nader led all scorers with 19 points, including a critical 3-pointer with a little more than two minutes remaining after the Raptors whittled a 16-point deficit to four. He also blocked two shots, grabbed three rebounds, and had two assists and three turnovers in 34 minutes.
“It feels great, just to get some runs,” said Nader, who has seen 70 minutes of NBA action this season and scored 16 points in 11 games. There were nine Celtics games last month in which he never saw action.
“The fans are cool, they get after it,” he said of the Expo faithful. “It was nice seeing them.”
Allen and the other Celtic on a two-way contract between the NBA and the G League, Jabari Bird, combined for 35 points and five dunks.
Andrew White scored 13 points and connected on 3 of 4 3-pointers, all in the first quarter. Maine’s first 21 points came on 3-pointers.
“The game plan is always just to get the ball moving and to get a good shot,” White said. “When you’re penetrating and kicking it out, and playing the right way, usually your offensive spacing just allows the basketball to go in the hole.”
The Claws bogged down a bit after opening a 62-46 lead early in the third quarter. Former Red Claw Davion Berry sparked a 12-3 run and his late 3-pointer made it 69-64 late in the third.
“The ball was moving extremely well in the first half,” Bailey said. “In the second half it got stagnant offensively. I felt like that was a lot on me. I was calling some (plays) that probably we shouldn’t have called. That’s something we have to clean up.”
Nader and Yabusele are expected to be back in Boston for Saturday’s game with Phoenix.
NOTES: Daniel Ochefu was traded to the Windy City Bulls with a fourth-round draft pick for the returning rights to Wesley Saunders, currently playing in Finland, and a second-round pick. … The Raptors 905 roster includes three former Red Claws – Malcolm Miller (the first of two with that name) and Berry, and former assistant coach Nathaniel Mitchell. Miller finished with 16 points.
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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