Storm players in celebration following their 115-113 win in Friday's semi-final.
Despite a game-high 58 points by Cameron Burhannon, Waves suffered a tough 115-113 loss to Storm on Friday to advance to Sunday’s final of the Elite 1 Caribbean Basketball Winter League where they are set to face defending champions Horizon.
Brandon Armstrong scored 32 for Storm in a most-compelling encounter.
Horizon, meanwhile, battered the winless Rivers 112-87 in the second semi-final.
Rivers will play Waves in a play-off for third.
Played in front of a vociferous group of spectators, the Storm/Waves game featured end-to-end action and almost constant lead changes in what many described as the game of the tournament.
Waves enjoyed the largest lead, six points, over Storm at the end of the third quarter, an advantage that was quickly erased by the second minute of the of the final quarter.
“I must commend my team. They played their hearts out,” said Storm’s head coach O’Neil Brown.
“We played this team twice since this season, this is the third game and I told my guys going into this match if one team beat you three times it means they are better then you.
“The last game when I watched over and over again we saw that when we play with two ‘bigs’, it kind of give us problems guarding the perimeter ‘cause the Waves like to shoot threes so we decided at the end of the game that we were going to go small and force them to go small and it worked out for us."
Brown said he was confident of his team’s chances against the defending champion in the final.
“I feel great and this going into the finals. We are confident that we can pull it off. This lifts the guys’ morale and we can't wait for Sunday to come," Brown said.
Losing coach Rohan Robinson was naturally despondent.
“Well, it’s simple. You could see the team prepared for us. You play a team twice and you beat them, you can do so much and no more,” he said.
“If you prepare yourself you will come out the victor. I told them if we cannot get a chance to prepare ourselves and we not playing together when things are tough we not going get through."
The second match of the night between Horizon and Rivers went as expected with Horizon winning by 25 points as Bobby Gray scored 23 points in tandem with Rasheed Maynard and Asaad Wood, who each scored 19 points.
They led at the end of every quarter and were ahead by as many as 35 points in the third quarter.
Rivers outscored Horizon 27-17 in the fourth quarter but it provided little consolation.
Rivers’ Anthony Ottley scored 24 with support from Ricky Shuford 17 and Tre Brewer 16.
"It was a pretty good game. We have played them about four times. We weren't surprised that we were able to pull out another victory tonight, not really a strong opponent but nevertheless, we were able to pull a victory and I am proud of the team tonight" said Horizon’s coach Cleon Morgan.
River’s coach Tesfa Milligen is hopeful his team can win third place on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, another rough night. We still have one more game left which is for third place so hopefully we can put it together and play a full 48 minutes of competitive team basketball and come out with a W," he said.
The third place -off and final will tip off on Sunday, January 29. The first match begins at 6:00 pm and the final set for at 8:00 pm. The day's activity will actually start at 2:00 pm with several exhibition matches featuring high school girls and boys teams.
Suns reportedly to waive Paul after 3 seasons
Chris Paul's time in the Valley of the Sun is over.
The Phoenix Suns informed Paul on Wednesday that he will be waived, according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.
The 38-year-old future Hall of Famer will become a free agent after spending the last three seasons with the Suns.
With two years left on a four-year, $120million contract, Paul was due to make $30.8million this season but only $15.8million of that was guaranteed.
By clearing cap space, the Suns will now build around Kevin Durant and Devin Booker as they again try to capture the franchise's first championship under new coach Frank Vogel.
Despite being near the end of his career, Paul will still be considered one of this summer's top free agents, as he can still efficiently run an offense and excels at finding open teammates.
In his first season in Phoenix in 2020-21, he helped the Suns reach the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in six games.
With Paul running the point, Phoenix won a franchise-record 64 games in 2021-22, but the season ended at the hands of the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semi-finals.
This season also ended with the Nuggets again eliminating the Suns in the conference semis with Paul missing the final four games of the series after injuring his groin in Game 2.
A 12-time All-Star, Paul finished the 2022-23 season with a career-low 13.9 points per game, but still showed a proficiency at distributing the ball, with an average 8.9 assists to rank fourth in the NBA.
With career averages of 17.9 points, 9.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 steals, he is the only player in NBA history to average at least 15 points, nine assists, four rebounds and two steals.
His 11,501 career assists and 2,544 career steals are both third most in NBA history, trailing only John Stockton and Jason Kidd in both categories.
The fourth overall pick of the 2005 draft, Paul was named Rookie of the Year in 2005-06 and has been selected to the NBA All-Defensive first team seven times. The 18-year veteran has also been an All-NBA first-team selection four times, a second-team selection five years and a third-team selection twice.
Heat rally in fourth quarter to even NBA Finals at 1-1
Gabe Vincent scored 23 points and helped spark a fourth-quarter rally that propelled the Miami Heat to a 111-108 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, evening the championship series at 1-1.
The Heat overcame an eight-point deficit to start the fourth quarter to snap the Nuggets' seven-game winning streak and send the series to Miami all tied. Game 3 will take place Wednesday.
Denver also was handed its first loss in 10 home games during this postseason despite another big effort from two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, who poured in 41 points on 16-of-28 shooting along with 11 rebounds.
Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo each contributed 21 points for the Heat, while Duncan Robinson scored all 10 of his points during a pivotal 15-2 run to open the fourth quarter that sent Miami ahead to stay.
Jokic scored the final six points of the third quarter to give the Nuggets an 83-75 lead that turned out to be short-lived. Robinson had the first eight points of Miami's momentum-shifting surge, and Vincent later added a 3-pointer before hitting two free throws that put the Heat up 90-85 with nine minutes remaining.
Miami held a 107-95 advantage after Caleb Martin's 3-pointer with 3:39 left to play, but the Nuggets responded with a late charge to put the outcome back in doubt.
Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray hit 3-pointers to ignite an 11-2 run Murray capped with another triple that pulled Denver within 109-106 entering the final minute.
After Jokic countered two Butler free throws with a short turnaround jumper with 35.6 seconds left, Butler missed a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to give the Nuggets a chance to tie.
Murray misfired on a step-back 3-point try with 1.9 seconds left, however, and Martin grabbed the rebound as time expired.
Denver, which led by as many as 15 points in the first half, had been 11-0 this postseason when holding a double-digit lead.
Miami Heat rally late against Denver Nuggets to even NBA finals series
The Miami Heat produced a fourth-quarter comeback to win the second game of the NBA finals 111-108 and even up the seven-match series against the Denver Nuggets.
The Heat trailed by eight heading into the final period, having trailed by 15 earlier in the game in the wake of another massive performance from Nikola Jokic.
Jokic scored 41 points, scoring 16 of 28 shots from the floor including one with 36 seconds remaining which cut the Heat’s lead to three points.
But after Jimmy Butler missed on Miami’s next possession, Jamal Murray was unable to tie the scores with an effort on the buzzer.
The defeat was Denver’s first since May 7 and they had won all 11 play-off games in which they had opened a double-digit lead.
They had trailed 21-10 in the opening quarter before a barrage of three-point scores helped them to a 44-32 advantage which had been trimmed to six points at the break.
And Miami held on through the third quarter before the late surge that takes the series to Miami all square.
Gabe Vincent led the way for Miami with 23 points as Butler and Bam Adebayo each grabbed 21.
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