The legend -- maybe that's going a little far -- of Chris "Birdman" Andersen didn't start in Denver, where he played for the Nuggets for seven years (over two stints). It actually started in Fayateville, North Carolina as a member of the Fayeteville Patriots.

In 2001, Andersen -- seen here without his trademark tattoos and mohawk -- was an original member of the NBA D-League. That year, he earned the first ever NBA D-League Call-Up, getting picked up by Denver. Since then, the Birdman has been a source of muscle in a NBA paint for 11 years, as well as transforming himself into a fan favorite.

Don't tell that to Indiana's Tyler Hansbrough.

In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Andersen exemplified his role as enforcer, receiving a flagrant foul as a result of a scuffle with Hansbrough. Andersen followed the controversial foul with a thunderous block on Hansbrough the next possession in a momentum-gaining play for the Heat, who went on to take a 3-2 advantage in the series over the Pacers.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, Andersen has been as efficient as he is intense. In fact, he hasn't missed a shot yet, going 15-for-15 in five games. His series was highlighted by a 16-point (on 7-for-7 shooting), five-rebound outing in Game 1.

For the postseason, Anderson is shooting an astonishing 86.0 percent from the floor, missing only six of his 43 attempts. Not bad for an enforcer.

With Andersen's help, Miami is only one win away from an NBA Finals appearance and it appears that the team will continue to rely on Andersen's toughness.

The San Antonio Spurs will represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals after convincingly sweeping the Memphis Grizzlies. While the focus will be largely on the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili -- and rightfully so -- there were two players with NBA D-League experience that played a role in getting San Antonio to its first NBA Finals since 2007.

The first was Danny Green. Green has been an NBA fixture the past two seasons -- starting 118 regular season games -- but this ascension to starter did not occur until he played 19 games, with three different teams, in the NBA D-League, averaging 20.6 points. He last played in the NBA D-League in 2010-11.

Against Memphis, Green was a typically solid producer. In the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, his shot was working, as he finished with a combined 27 points on 10-for-17 shooting in San Antonio. His shot cooled a bit in Memphis, but he was still active on the glass (six rebounds in Game 3) and the defensive end (two steals in Game 4).

The second was Cory Joseph. While it's not easy to find minutes behind Tony Parker, the point guard out of Texas averaged nearly 10 minutes a game against the Grizzlies. His shot struggled a bit in the early going, but he was more efficient in Game 4, scoring four points on 2-for-3 shooting in seven minutes. A bit of a raw prospect out of college, Joseph is a prime example of how the NBA D-League and the assignment system can help a player grow and develop into a key piece for any franchise.

The NBA Finals begins June 6 and Green, Joseph and the Spurs will face either Miami or Indiana.

Around the NBA D-League, most of 'em are the roads less traveled.

And when Elite Mini Camp -- the league's equivalent of the NBA Draft Combine, featuring its absolute upper rung of Prospects -- opened up in Chicago on Monday, a whole lot of them converged in the same place.


"Is it all because of this camp?" said Springfield Armor head coach and camp coordinator Bob MacKinnon. "No. But it doesn't hurt."

The paths, however, came from all over. A few players took the straight route, going from college to the NBA D-League to Mini Camp -- players like Tulsa 66ers guards Tony Taylor and Dominique Sutton, Iowa guard Justin Hurtt and Rio Grande Valley guard Toure Murry, who went from all-around everything at Wichita State to the RGV bench to postseason hero in a year.

But not many.

This year's crop ranks as "strongest, I believe, this camp's ever been," MacKinnon said, largely because of the NBA talent crammed into the Chi-town gym. Ten players with NBA experience -- seven of whom came to the league via the NBA Draft -- make up nearly a third of the 35-player field. Guys with paths that went from a Summer League MVP nod in 2012 to the NBA D-League and back to Mini Camp, like Josh Selby. And Jermaine Taylor, veteran of 64 NBA games who scorched the NBA D-League for nearly 25 points a game this year. And Lester Hudson, who's played for nine teams between the NBA, NBA D-League and China since being drafted in 2009 -- and now ranks as the NBA D-League's No. 1 overall Prospect.

Which means that for the NBA D-League's Top Prospects, no matter where you were, if you're looking to crack -- or find an way back -- into the NBA, the journey must now make a two-day stopover in Chicago.

"You gotta come here and do a lot of work here -- you're just trying to stay on guys' minds," Hudson said. "Whether it's getting an invite to training camp or Summer League, it's about never giving up."

According to MacKinnon, 26 of 30 NBA teams had applied for credentials. Half of them showed up for Day 1 on Monday, when players spent more time running through drills than game action. But with the Combine set to start on Wednesday, the staff's expecting all 26 -- if not the full 30 -- in attendance on Tuesday.

"The NBA looks at it from two angles," MacKinnon said. "You look at young guys who have potential -- and that's the category where Toure Murry fits. And Lester Hudson fits into a category of a guy who fills a need, who's a veteran who can come in and play. There's a need those those guys. And obviously in our league, you can come in and play and find your role and your niche at both levels."

MacKinnon said that although Murry and Hudson shone, Monday was too early to pick standouts -- "the level here's real good," he said -- but that on Tuesday, when the camp breaks out into longer scrimmages, a few players will stand out, as always.

But what's clear is that, as players look to keep their names on clipboards -- and not in waste bins -- this event's become a must-attend.

"I was very excited," Murry said about getting the invite. "People are starting to take notice of me, of my skills, it shows my work."

Said MacKinnon: "I think this is one of the best things our league does."

Since an injury that ended his college career two years ago, Rio Grande Valley's D.J. Kennedy has been through a lot. Saturday's championship victory, where he played a key role, helped validate his perseverance.

To paraphrase either Voltaire or Spiderman’s uncle, with great talent comes great responsibility.

A responsibility to cultivate it, for one: the sports world has a locker crammed with clichés about hard work beating talent when talent doesn’t work hard. A responsibility to persevere, too. Talent, sometimes, needs to bloom in shadow.

And a responsibility, maybe above all, to share it.

In Game 2 of the NBA D-League Finals on Saturday night, Santa Cruz guard Scott Machado – after a year that tested him, forcing him to tend to the first two responsibilities – was finally able share all sides of the budding brilliance that could make him a future fixture at point guard in the NBA.

His Santa Cruz Warriors team didn’t win, falling to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers for the second time in as many games to lose the best-of-three NBA D-League Finals. But the Golden State Warrior assignee, as much as anyone else in blue, gave them hope. Only with Machado in the lineup did the Warriors rally back from 17 points down. Only with Machado did their offense move with confidence. And only with Machado, on Saturday, did they stand a chance.

“He’s great,” said Santa Cruz coach Nate Bjorkgren. “What he is, is a steady player. He does a really nice job of coming off the ball screen and finding the right person. He was taking it to the rim when he should have and kicking it when he should have. He was making the right decisions. His defense was great. He had a great game.”

“This was his best game since he got here,” said Travis Leslie, who himself had 16 points and 13 boards. “I’m proud of him.”

The NBA D-League’s nothing if not a collection of carpetbaggers.

Machado’s played for four teams this year – six if you count his senior year at Iona and the Rockets’ Summer League team – after opening the season with the Rockets, finishing it with the Golden State Warriors and playing for both of their NBA D-League affiliates. But then again, so did Malcolm Thomas (Maccabi Haifa, the L.A. D-Fenders, the Golden State Warriors and the Chicago Bulls, where he’s currently stationed). RGV center Chris Daniels, who was traded to Rio Grande Valley in the deal that brought Machado to Santa Cruz, has played for six in 15 months (in Korea last year after leaving Erie, then Summer League, then Santa Cruz, the Quingdao Eagles in China and, finally, RGV).

What’s important is what happens during those stops. And Machado’s grown every step of the way, especially in Santa Cruz working with Bjorkgren – and just as importantly, sitting on Bjorkgren’s bench. Machado, who led the nation in assists while at Iona in 2011-12, hadn’t spent much time on the sidelines. Ever. Then he got to Santa Cruz and averaged 15 minutes a night, even after getting Called-Up by Golden State and coming back to SC on assignment.

“Coach Nate helped me grow a lot,” Machado said. “I’m really not used to coming off the bench. But, just coming off the bench, composing myself and basically becoming a man, being professional about the game, that’s helped a lot.”

Machado’s played behind Stefhon Hannah since he got to Santa Cruz. And, largely, with good reason. Hannah ran with the Warriors when they were the Dakota Wizards in 2011-12, earning his first Defensive Player of the Year Award and starring in a stretch where he seemed to score 30 every night in March 2012. And although the former Mizzou guard’s shot didn’t fall nearly as often as it did in 2011-12 (he went from 45 percent shooting last year to just 34 percent this time around), he still terrified opposing guards enough to earn his second straight Defensive Player of the Year nod.

So Machado began Saturday night the same way he did his previous 15 games in Santa Cruz: wishing he were in the game.

“I’m not accustomed to coming off the bench,” Machado said. “But being new to this level, being a rookie, playing behind veterans, you just have to take what comes. And when you step on the court, you gotta take advantage of your time out there and do all the little things. Just like not being upset about being like, ‘I wanna go in.’ Or being upset about a teammate, like ‘he’s not playing well -- why am I not playing?’

He helped me grow, because I was a kid like that. … Knowing you have to control your emotions, it helps a lot.”

Machado played just 2:25 in the first quarter, and watched the Warriors turn the ball over nine times, as RGV stormed out to a 23-14 lead. But after the same shooting and ballhandling woes that tugged at Hannah in Game 1 emerged again (he finished 2-for-12 with four turnovers), in came Machado.

Machado played 28 minutes on the night – including 19 of the final 24. And while he only finished with three assists, he brought equal doses of poise and punch to a team in need of both.

“He got people in the right spots,” Bjorkgren said.

When he saw a hole, he took it, showing a soft touch on the inside, finishing amongst RGV trees like Tim Ohlbrecht and Chris Daniels. When he saw a lane blocked, he stopped. When he saw an open teammate, he hit him. And if it all sounds simple, it’s because Machado made it look that way, after RGV had snake-charmed the Santa Cruz offense into 14 first-half turnovers.

After RGV took a 56-41 lead into the half, Santa Cruz steadily marched back in the second, with Machado setting the pace. And when the Warriors cut the lead to six going into the fourth, at 73-67, then watched the Vipers wrench that back up to 13 two minutes later, Machado sparked a run that brought Santa Cruz as close as they’d ever be. With 9:37 left in the frame, he curled right, slipped a layup high off the glass, drew a foul and hit the free throw. Two RGV possessions later, he parlayed suffocating defense into a layup on the other end. With 8:02 remaining, he drove the lane again, then hit both free throws to make it 82-79.

Thirty seconds later, running the break, he drew a commitment out of his defender and slipped a pass to Lance Goulbourne for a baseline slam. 82-81.

But Rio Grande Valley took it from there, sending 11 Warriors players home and Machado back to Golden State, where the Queens native will rejoin fellow Gotham-bred point guard Mark Jackson in the Warriors’ playoff run. But not before he showed much more than a glimpse of what’s to come – and a reason to believe he’s got a lot more to give.

“This is real tough,” Machado said. “Coming from playing for another NBA D-League team, and where I used to play, I just wanted to give it my all.”

McAllen, Texas -- We're through 24 minutes of play here in State Farm Arena and Rio Grande Valley looks poised to win its second championship in four years. Still a lot of basketball yet to played, however, and Santa Cruz can make a run. Here are our thoughts.

Kennedy Breaks Out: Kennedy struggled with his outside shot in Game 1 and in the early parts of Game 2, but after nailing a jumper from the left elbow with under six minutes to go in the second quarter, the rim started to get bigger for him. He hit his next attempt from 3-point range -- his first trey of the series -- and he goes into halftime with a game-high 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting.

Rice Can Ball: Through two games, Glen Rice Jr. has been the best player on the court. He's scored in transition, from beyond the arc and he's been active on the boards and on the defensive end. In all, Rice Jr. tallied 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and three blocks in 19 minutes. That's an incredible first half.

On-Point: Stef Hannah brings an irreplaceable presence on the defensive end, plaguing opposing guards from end to end . But this series, Hannah's struggled to find flow at the point, getting himself into far too many situations he just couldn't get out of. Machado, on the other hand, gives up a little bit from Hannah on defense, but has been the only player who could routinely get Santa Cruz into its offense. Confident with the ball and always moving with a plan, he may take over duties more in the second half.

As the Warriors Turn: A team picked apart by turnovers in Game 1 hasn't done much to correct it in Game 2, coughing up the ball 14 times -- which is pretty much a game's worth. RGV's taken advantage, too. Transition buckets have clearly returned DJ Kennedy's faith in his shot, with the RGV Top Prospect finding his rhythm and his stroke, while Glen Rice, Jr. has benefited most, absolutely making the Warriors pay every time he gets the ball in space.

Inside Men: Armstrong and Tyler, when they've gotten the ball on the block, haven't had much trouble out-muscling Tim Ohlbrecht and Chris Daniels under the hoop and going for 18 combined points on 8-for-11 shooting. But SC's had a lot of trouble getting the ball into their hands. Ohlbrecht had three fouls, however, which might limit his minutes early in the second half.

McAllen, Texas -- The Ides of March. March 15. That was the last time the Rio Grande Valley Vipers lost a game.

In a span of 43 unblemished days, the Vipers have rattled off 15 consecutive wins. They've also won 10 straight at home, where they'll find themselves tonight with an opportunity to clinch the NBA D-League Finals with a win over Santa Cruz.

"Our guys have done a really good job. I think we've been really resilient and just found different ways to win," Rio Grande Valley coach Nick Nurse said of the streak. "We've been in a lot of situations against a lot of different teams and we've just been able to adjust and continue to play and continue to get contributions from everywhere on the bench."

In no uncertain terms, the Vipers have been the league's best team since March 1, steamrolling to a 20-2 record. Coincidentally, RGV's only two losses in that span came to none other than Santa Cruz -- March 15 and March 2. The Vipers, however, did best Santa Cruz on March 1. RGV also boasts a league-best 22-5 record at home this season, including the playoffs. Santa Cruz, on the other hand, has gone 15-12 on the road on the year.

As long as you’re the kind of person who counts Las Vegas as an American city and not just a waterless plastic and Styrofoam pit of dreams gone wrong and greed gone very, very right, Scott Machado’s played for six different teams since last April.

He finished last spring as the NCAA’s leader in assists in the 2011-12 season, while dishing ‘em out for (1) Iona College. Come July, after going undrafted, he found his way onto the (2) Houston Rockets’ Summer League Team in Vegas and, having impressed Daryl Morey and Co. there, earned a spot on the (3) Rockets’ big-league roster in Houston.

And was promptly assigned to the (4) Rio Grande Valley Vipers – a team that Machado, after being waived by the Rockets on Jan. 7, claimed off waivers by RGV again on Jan. 28, then traded to the (5) Santa Cruz Warriors on Mar. 8 and Called-Up to the Golden State Warriors (team No. 6) on April 7, just hit up the Vipers for 16 points (on 4-for-6 shooting from behind the arc) in Game 1 of the NBA D-League Finals.

“This game is so fast, and when you’re open you gotta make that shot,” Machado said. “That’s a big step in my game, and once I’m able to do that, I can advance in my game.”

Machado’s one of two players in the Finals taking on former teammates from this season. The other is the guy he was traded for when he went to Santa Cruz on Mar. 8: Chris Daniels. The former Erie BayHawks big man opened up the year with Santa Cruz – after he had a nice Summer League run of his own – and then jetted off to China where he teamed up with Tracy McGrady to form a brutal one-two punch on the Chinese Basketball Association’s most punchless team, the Quingdao Eagles.

And in Game 1, slug away he did.

“I was talking to the guys yesterday, and the first game’s always the hardest one,” Daniels said. “You wanna make sure you come out and punch ‘em in the mouth first. I’m glad we won the first one.”

Both relative newcomers to their teams – Machado’s played just 10 games for Santa Cruz this year (“I’m basically just trying to fit in,” he said), and Daniels has logged 13 for RGV – they both impacted Game 1 far beyond their usual contributions in their current roles.

Machado’s served as the team’s backup point guard since coming back down, giving way to Stefhon Hannah, who’s been with the Warriors all year (and if you count the Dakota Wizards, the Warriors’ previous incarnation, two years). If Darington Hobson’s running point, Machado even falls to third string at times.

But he took over on Thursday, pestering RGV’s guards all night and mixing the evolving part of his game – his jumper – with the part that’s always been there: an NBA-ready ability to control pace of play and feel out the flow of the game. All against a team that let him go.

“I was a little upset,” Machado said before the series. “I kind of wish I got a shot to go on the NBA court, but I was like, ‘alright, back to the grind. Back to work. I gotta get myself back.’”

In the first quarter, he got out in transition, realized the Vipers were hedging against the alley-oop to Travis Leslie, and finished with a lay-in. Minutes later, after his defender tried to pick off a pass and went sprawling upcourt, Machado calmly looked back, stepped up, and drilled his first of four threes.

“It was adrenaline, and me working on it,” he said about his jumper.

Daniels, for his part, did what Daniels usually does. Which means hanging out around the basket, leaning on the other team’s best big man and budging less than Congress.

He finished with 16 points on only eight shots, thanks to 10 shots from the foul line, of which he made nine. Consistently in the muck in the middle, the Good Daniels – the one that makes you think he could do virtually the same thing at the NBA level – came out.

“It was real physical. It’s a championship round. It’s always gonna be physical,” he said. “Who wouldn’t like to be playing in the championship? It’s gonna be physical. It’s gonna be tough all the way. I love games like that.”

And it was Daniels who led his team to the win, out-gritting Jeremy Tyler and Hilton Armstrong on the inside – though he had some help from two of Machado’s old pals on the perimeter, with Glen Rice, Jr. going for 33 points, and Toure Murry picking up a triple-double.

“Those are my boys back there in the Valley,” Machado said. “They played unbelievable. T-Murry had a triple-double. I think that’s his first time ever. I don’t think he had one in Wichita State because we spoke about that. That was unbelievable. I’m very happy for him, but at the same time, I’m going up against him.”

And unless the Golden State Warriors come calling, he’ll have a chance to get even Saturday.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif -- After all the talent that’s sailed through the Rio Grande Valley this year – from James Anderson to Jeff Adrien to Terrel Harris to Tim Ohlbrecht to Maalik Wayns to Andrew Goudelock to D.J. Kennedy – it was the 55th overall selection in the 2012 NBA D-League Draft that made the biggest impact in the Vipers’ NBA D-League Finals Game 1 win.

Glen Rice, Jr., who wasn’t receiving much playing time at the beginning of the season and only became a fixture in the Vipers’ rotation in February, scored a game-high 33 points to go with 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and four blocks in RGV’s win over Santa Cruz on Thursday night. That performance, along with a torrid past few months, revealed Rice as a promising player with NBA potential.

“Glen has had a remarkable second half of the season,” said Rio Grande Valley Head Coach Nick Nurse. “He just did a really good job of being patient and staying in there with our organization. He was working really hard at practice and not getting a lot of minutes, but when the minutes opened up for him, he literally just grabbed them. He grabbed the position with both hands and refused to let it go.”

Rice said it wasn’t easy seeing his teammates get the lion’s share of the minutes in the early part of the season, but he remained confident that he would get his chance.

“Just waiting on your time to come,” Rice said of his early-season mindset. “That’s what everyone says in the D-League, that your time will come eventually. Of course it was frustrating because everyone wants to play. I mean, that’s why we’re here, to play, but you can’t let it get to you. You have to keep working and believe that your time will come and make the best of the opportunity that’s given.”

Rice, the son of former NBA great Glen Rice Sr., has certainly done that. He went on a meteoric rise to the No. 14 spot in the Prospect Watch for his strong play in February and March and he’s been even better in the playoffs. In RGV’s five playoff games, the Georgia Tech product is averaging 25.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. Even more impressive, he’s been able to show off a rather complete skillset.

“He's an interesting player,” Nurse said. “He scores it from in and he scores it from out. He rebounds the ball really well for his size and position. And he's -- I hate to make such an obvious statement -- but he's obviously a hooper. He's got basketball in his blood and that shows. He makes a lot of tough, hard basketball plays. He's done a good job, especially for a rookie, to play as well as he has.”

His ability to play in the post and score with ease in the paint, whether it be off drives or posting up smaller defenders, separates his game from his father’s, who was well-known for his 3-point shooting.

“It probably came from playing post a lot when I was little,” Rice said of his penchant for scoring in the paint. “And then, just not falling in love with the jumper -- even though that’s something you can do -- you want to play inside-out. That’s what coach preaches a lot.”

In Thursday’s Game 1 victory, Rice was equal parts effective in the paint and from deep. He shot 3-for-7 from downtown and 12-for-21 overall. And, in what was maybe the most telling sign of the rookie’s ascension to being an irreplaceable player on this RGV team, his teammates actually deferred to him on several occasions in the clutch.

It’s not just his own teammates, however, that are taking notice.

"Glen Rice is an up-and-coming young player and he did his thing,” Santa Cruz guard Scott Machado said. “He's a young kid, he has lots of talent. He has a lot to learn still, but I feel like he has a chance.”

Those aren’t words you would have heard three months ago – but Rice has validated them in a big way.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- The story’s grown some extra arms by now, sure.

But here are the facts: years before Philadelphia had a professional soccer team, it had a professional soccer supporters club.

Let that sink in.

The Sons of Ben came about in 2007, when some Philly-based footie faithful banded together – amidst rumors that Major League Soccer was debating whether the City of Brotherly Love could support a team – to show MLS that they could not only provide a team with fans, but funds, too. And by the end of the 2007, a season ticket pledge drive had netted nearly 3,000 buyers. Two years later, the Philadelphia Union debuted. And four years after that, each game remains a celebration not just of soccer, but of communion between the people on the pitch and the ones in the bleachers.

The point of this all is that sometimes, in the right market, fans don’t find teams – they find each other.

And all throughout the 2012-13 season, the Pacific enclave of Santa Cruz – famous for its boardwalk, its waves and its relative isolation from the rest of humanity – has treated its new basketball team like it treats everything else in its town. Which is to say like a personal sort of treasure. One to be cherished and cultivated and shared with the fortunate few.

And nowhere was that more evident than in the closing minutes of Santa Cruz’s loss in Game 1 of the NBA D-League Finals. With the game out of reach, a few fans flowed out of Kaiser Permanente Arena – this is California, after all – but most stayed and chanted “Two in Texas” for a minute.

“Our fans our great,” said Santa Cruz point guard Stefhon Hannah. “They’ve been supporting us thew hole season. A lot of people didn’t think we wewere gonna get here. We defied the odds. We’re gonna bring home a championship to our fans, because they’re great. Everybody around here.”

"I think this place is gonna be packed on Saturday, watching the game on the big screen," said Jeremy Tyler.

All throughout the night, in a building that was just a bunch of rubble and an artist’s rendering on the corner of Front and Laurel, a capacity crowd of 2,505 felt like triple that.

Hilton Armstrong’s grown pretty attached to his adoptive home this year, too,

“Literally this is one of the best crowds I’ve ever had in my career,” said the veteran of 277 NBA games with six different teams. “It’s ridiculous. No excaggerateon. [Against Austin], the other team was shooting free throws we could feel the floor vibrating on the bench. It was so loud in here. The whole crowd was stomping. They couldn’t call a play because it was so loud.

“I’ve never been in an atmosphere like that. It’s a small place, but it seems so much bigger,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about Santa Cruz. I knew it was in California, but when I got there, I was happy how it ended up. I ended up in the best city in the NBA D-League. This is better than some NBA cities, acdtually.”

And there’s no other way to do this than just come out in say it. Hilton Armstrong will probably never play another game in Santa Cruz. Because after this series is over, he’ll likely spend the rest of his days at the game’s highest level.

In a season defined by three things – a continuous flow of assignments that more than tripled the previous high, an overall talent level that sat above any in league history and, finally, the emergence of an NBA-quality class of bigs nearly across the board – Armstrong provided a benchmark. He led the league in field goal percentage, at .628 in the regular season (though he’s shooting .708 in the postseason) and blocked 2.2 shots a game in 26 minutes a night.

“Hilton’s in my opinion the best in the league,” Hannah said. “He gets down on defense, he’s not selfish. He’s just a hard worker. A great teammate to have.”

On Thursday, he was credited with three blocks – including one particular sequence where he stopped a Glen Rice dunk attempt cold, then came back and made a put-back lay-in on the opposite end – but he might have had upwards of five. He also picked up two steals and seven rebounds, along with 12 points (on 4-for-5 shooting) in 25 minutes. He made good decisions, The Warriors were just a better team with him on the floor.

But if they’re going to win Game 2 in Texas, they’ll need more from the guy that ransacked the league through his first four playoff games. Jeremy Tyler got in foul trouble early, so he never had much of a chance to get in a rhythm, but he did make two crucial buckets in a stretch where Santa Cruz scored six points in 40 seconds to even the game at 102-102.

Tyler has the highest upside of any of the bigs on either team – four of the best to play in the NBA D-League this year – with a smooth offensive game that includes ways to score from everywhere 15 feet and in. So expect something big from him in Game 2.

Hannah, too, will need to do more on the offensive end for the Warriors to win.

He looked every bit the two-time Defensive Player of the Year on Thursday, coming up with five steals – including one on a full-court press during that six-point swing. But he also turned the ball over four times on the offensive end, and looked unsure with the ball for most of the night.

He tried for the spectacular – long lobs, low-percentage heaves and such – instead of the kinds of passes from the perimeter that keep an offense humming. And after the Warriors got a stop with the score 102-102 with less than a minute left, instead of taking time to get into a set, he took a jumper from a step inside the 3-point line that caromed off the rim and sent the ball the other way.

While Hannah’s capable of brilliance, he’ll need to show the ability to manage an offense to not only keep his Prospect status high, but to give Santa Cruz a chance to win on Saturday.

Outside Looking In: D.J. Kennedy had a rough shooting night from the outside, hurting the case he's trying to make that he can be a consistent threat from the perimeter. The 6-foot-6 swingman doesn't really have a true position -- playing anywhere from the 1 to the 3 -- but he projects most likely as a 2-guard on the next level. In order for him to be successful at that position, he needs to be able to stretch the defense on a nightly basis to make up for a lack of elite quickness. While he doesn't normally struggle shooting from deep (he shot .366 from 3-point range this year), there is certainly room for improvement, and Thursday was a good example of just that. After hitting a jumper to start the game, Kennedy missed his next seven shots. In fact, he did not make another perimeter shot all game. To his credit, he was able to get into the paint and score 16 points, but they came on 14 shots, including an 0-for-3 mark from 3-point range.

There's no denying Kennedy's well-rounded skill set, but he may be lacking that one unstoppable tool that propels him to the next level. It will be interesting to see if Kennedy can get his shot to fall against a pesky defensive team like Santa Cruz in Game 2.

Big Effort: Chris Daniels, who has at times suffered from passivity, was very active on Thursday night. In 38 minutes, the 7-footer got to the line 10 times, making nine of those attempts. He finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds -- it was only the second time he had double-digit rebounds for RGV this year -- and showed off a variety of offensive moves in the process. He hit one 3-pointer and even once took the ball at the top of the key, dribbled at Hilton Armstrong, spun and finished at the rim. Those are the types of moves that 7-footers just aren't supposed to be able to make. And the type of move that makes him an intriguing -- albeit sometimes frustrating -- talent.

On the other end of the floor, Daniels was assertive as well. It was a physical game in the low post -- especially between Daniels and Jeremy Tyler -- and Daniels held his counterpart to just nine points. Tyler is the more powerful of the two, however, and the referees called a tight game in the paint on Thursday. If Tyler, Armstrong and Co. have more leeway in Game 2, the tides could turn.

Toure de Force: Toure Murry played his best back-to-back games of the season in the semifinals against Tulsa and he kept the momentum going against Santa Cruz with an impressive 17-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double on Thursday. An extremely versatile player, Murry was manned up against Santa Cruz point guard Scott Machado for much of the game, but also was assigned to players like forward Taylor Griffin at times. Defense was never the issue with Murry, but his offensive game seems to be coming along nicely, despite the fact that he committed eight turnovers against Santa Cruz's pressure defense. Murry appeared to know when to shoot and when to dish, and he has become a very important player in this series, against Santa Cruz's multitude of talented wings and RGV's lack of true point guard.

The turnovers are no doubt discouraging, and he will look to lower that number on Saturday night, but for a player that is playing a little out of position to shoulder such a high amount of the ballhandling duties against Machado and Defensive Player of the Year Stefhon Hannah, you can forgive him. A little.

Glen Rice's torrid second half of the season continued on Thursday night in Game 1. The 6-foot-6 guard finished with a game-high 33 points to go along with 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and four blocks, while playing a variety of roles for the team, including even bringing the ball up the court at times. He worked his game from the inside-out, and had a nice variety of pull-up jumpers, finishes at the rim and 3-point shots, where he went 3-for-7 on the game.

In once stretch early in the third quarter, Rice Jr. used he body to ward off Santa Cruz's block-happy center Hilton Armstrong and converted on a difficult shot in the paint. Then, a few possession later, he pulled up in mini-transtion and drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key. That impressive sequence was a microcosm of his night.

"They were playing physical, but sometimes they were playing a little too physical and they'd leave you a little space to get through," Rice Jr. said. "That definitely worked the best for us today."

This season has seen an incredible turnaround for Rice Jr., who didn't start logging 20-30 minutes a night consistently until February. But, when the game was on the line, his teammates trusted him and ofen looked his way. In fact, Rice Jr. appeared to be the most aggressive of all the Vipers on Thursday night.

"Of course it's nice, knowing where I started from, barely getting any playing time," Rice said of playing a key role late in the game. "Coach believes in me, the team believes in me. I just try to go out there and try my best."

After the year he’s had, it’s tough to think any higher of Leslie. The guy did everything for Santa Cruz in 2012-13, including selling a whole lot of tickets.

On Thursday, he did more of the same, going for a team-high 19 points. But he also played a ton of defense, including a big swat on the taller D.J. Kennedy under the hoop early. He crashed the boards, too, pulling down four offensive boards – including one with 1:29 left, on a Stef Hannah miss, that led to a Jeremy Tyler game-tying baby hook.

But it was the one that missed that’ll linger longest.

With 35 seconds left and RGV up, 104-102, Leslie took the ball on the left wing. Slicing through the defense the way he did all night long, he rose up near the rim and skimmed a shot off the backboard. It circled the rim, ducked in and fell out.

But the shot showed everything that Leslie’s become: a danger from the outside that needs a hand in his face, and thus, a guy who’s able to really show off up his first step when somebody comes out to do so. Not to mention somebody who’s getting a far better feel for the game – instead of just barreling toward the rim, he made the right play.

And, above all, a leader. He took the ball at a time when his team needed him, beat his defender, pulled up at the right time and only missed because somewhere in Indonesia a butterfly flapped its wings.

RUNNER-UP: Cameron Jones – When NBA scouts talk about what they look for in a Prospect, they often talk about rhythm – as in, how well a player makes a string of decisions look like one easy flow. And Jones, nearly every time he had the ball, was as smooth as a senator. He’s got a quick release and a soft touch, which makes him a threat at any level. And even though he went 2-for-8 on the night, cooling off after the first, he routinely beat his opponent to the spot on defense and finished plus-six on the night.

Through 24 minutes in Santa Cruz, we know one thing: the burritos here are delicious.

Beyond that, the first half of play in the NBA D-League Finals has turned out the quality of play you'd expect from two teams filled with NBA Prospects. And here are a couple take-aways. Written in pencil.

-- Santa Cruz center Hilton Armstrong has just four points (on 2-2 shooting) with three boards, but he's plus-18 in 9:33 of first-half play. He does have three fouls, though.

-- Toure Murry, as Anthony was quick to point out, is carving up the Santa Cruz defense like...well, like a burrito. Playing nearly 18 minutes, he applied constant pressure on both sides of the floor and made the kind of decisions that'll get some some serious NBA looks. He also showed an array of finishing moves, from a silky touch from the outside to a lefty scoop shot in the lane to the Sub-Zero Skeleton.

-- Chris Daniels, as we suspected, pretty much just needs to hang anywhere near the lane to impact the game. He's taken just five shots, but he has 12 points (thanks to 5-for-6 shooting from the foul line) and five boards.

-- Cam Jones can get rid of the ball quick, and with a lot of rotation. Throw in his defensive abilities, and he's a sleeper for an NBA gig next year.

The NBA D-League Finals are set to tip off tonight and NBADLeague.com was at both team shootarounds on Thursday. Take a behind-the-scenes look at their preparation.

With a half-dozen of the league's very best Prospects about to meet in the Finals, a new shipment of highlights is on the way.

But to hold you over, check out last week's best here:

The NBA D-League Finals serves as the last chance for players to essentially audition for NBA teams, whether it's for a roster spot or an NBA Summer League invite. These are the three players on each team that can improve their stock the most, like RGV's Chris Johnson.

Things change pretty quick in the NBA D-League.

In a league built on both development and evaluation, players trade hands like a mixtape. In the last five months alone, between Call-Ups and assignments, 89 individual players have moved between the leagues a total of 219 times. In other words, prediction ain't a winning proposition.

But when the 2013 NBA D-League Playoffs bracket came out on April 8, one matchup looked like it had some destiny in it. Even though West Division champ Bakersfield had grabbed the No. 1 overall seed in the Playoffs (giving the Jam the right to select their first-round opponent) and Canton had cruised to an East Division title on the strength of a defense that reduced its opponents to a thick paste, Santa Cruz and Rio Grande Valley had the Prospects. The guys living on the border of the NBA. The ones that sit just a turned ankle or aging body away from a phone call with their dreams on the other end.

Which is why, when the NBA D-League Finals open up on Thursday in Santa Cruz, Calif. (9:30 pm ET), it'll feature more true NBA Prospects in a single game than in any the league has seen since All-Star Weekend.

Santa Cruz plays home to three of the league's top five Prospects, as judged by our editors. And although RGV lost its own Top-10er when Andrew Goudelock earned a closing-seconds Call-Up to the L.A. Lakers, the Vipers still have two in the Top 15, not to mention three other guys with NBA experience and a big man on assignment (Tim Ohlbrecht) that had jumped into the Top 10 before getting his own Call-Up to the Rockets at the season's midway point.

So with March Madness long gone, and the Portsmouth Invitational and Nike Hoop Summit in shipping boxes, too, consider the next two or three games your best chance to see the globe's best collection of NBA-ready talent. A preview of the names on the rise in Summer League, even. Or, simply, the best basketball that the world's second-best league has to offer.

"The matchup is certainly going to be a good one," said RGV coach Nick Nurse, who led the Iowa Energy to the 2010-11 NBA D-League title. "I really hope it's a great series, I think it will be. What they are and what they do pretty much every night is they play defense. They play hard ball pressure and a very, very physical style of defense. We know that and everybody that plays them knows that, however, it still seems to give teams problems. We have got to prepare for that and hopefully our guys do a good job handling all of that physical play."

"RGV's as talented as ever," said Santa Cruz coach Nate Bjorkgren, an assistant on Nurse's title-winning Iowa team. "Nick is very, very good at what he does. Maybe the best coach in this league, the way he handles this team and with the success he's had in this league."

If you're looking for one player to watch on both sides, check out Jeremy Tyler in Santa Cruz and D.J. Kennedy in RGV. Tyler, a former prep phenom who spent his first year out of high school abroad, then never quite found a place in the NBA, is in his fourth week of a personal wave of destruction. In the 11 games since signing with Santa Cruz in late March, he's shot 61 percent from the field and put up 21.1 points and 8.7 boards in 26.1 minutes a night. Playing extended minutes for the first time in his pro career, Tyler's blossomed.

Kennedy, meanwhile, had to make up for the loss of leading scorer Goudelock at the end of the first round. And after nearly averaging a triple-double in the first round, he got one in the second round, finishing RGV's series-clinching win with a 28-point, 13-board, 10-assist night to bring his Playoff averages to 21.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.8 dimes.

Tasked with stopping Tyler will be RGV big men Tim Ohlbrecht and Chris Daniels, who can both clog a lane. Meanwhile, Tyler and former NBA center Hilton Armstrong (shooting 68 percent and blocking 2.25 shots a night in these Playoffs) will try to return the favor. Daniels has a bigger frame than Ohlbrecht -- not to mention, as a career .328 3-point shooter, longer range -- and the well-traveled 7-footer can tractor his way to the hoop with the NBA D-League's best. He just doesn't have anywhere close to Ohlbrecht's consistency. The German-born center rebounded, defended and baby-hooked his way from this year's NBA D-League Draft to a contract with the Rockets, and it looks like he'll finish the Finals in RGV.

Which means that, in a year where BIG finally made its way to the NBA D-League (in years past, the league has a severe shortage of tall), four of its very best will meet in the paint.

"Their crew of big guys, I don't know if I've seen anything like it in the D-League to be honest," said Nurse. "To have guys like Tyler and Armstrong all over there, and not to mention some of their other four guys like [Lance] Goldbourne and Taylor [Griffin]. They've got some beasts, so our bigs are obviously going to be a key to the game and hopefully we’ll get them playing to the best of their ability to get a chance to win."

Moving slightly out of the paint, both teams stay even. Tyler Honeycutt and Chris Johnson -- both of whom spent time in the NBA this year -- can finish inside and out for the Vipers. But Santa Cruz answers with 6-8 forwards Goulbourne and Griffin, who clean the glass as well as any forwards in the league.

Things pick back up on the perimeter, where four more of the league's Top Prospects meet. On the RGV side, Glen Rice Jr. joins Kennedy, forming one of the league's most dangerous backcourt tandems. Throw in super-defender Toure Murry, and the trifecta can hurt you in all sorts of ways. But maybe not as badly as Santa Cruz, which brings not only No. 3 Prospect Travis Leslie at 2-guard, but two-time defending Defensive Player of the Year Stef Hannah (along with his 18 ppg average in the postseason, including a .448 mark from 3-point range) and former NBA guard Darington Hobson (7.0 apg in the Playoffs) trading time at the point. Oh, and in case they get stuck in traffic, Golden State PG Scott Machado's down on assignment.


Apt Pupil: Bjorkgren spent four years coaching under Nurse, the 2010-11 NBA D-League Coach of the Year. It's where he learned everything from how to run a pro offense to how to manage the many personalities and ambitions that make up an NBA D-League roster. Said Bjorkgren of the reunion: "We've spoken. But our communication will now cease for a little bit. ... Throughout the year we'll talk to each other, and I'll call for advice, though. This is a guy I learned a lot of basketball from, and it's gonna be fun to compete against him."

Scott Free: Machado opened the season with the Vipers, after earning a spot on the Rockets' roster out of training camp. He still has plenty of former teammates left over there, even after a year of roster remodeling in RGV, and the guy who led the NCAA in assists two years ago wouldn't be opposed to reminding the Rockets of what they missed when they waived him.

Which Daniels We Getting?: This one might come down to Chris Daniels. Able to dominate as well as disappear, RGV's new big man went for 28 points and 11 boards in the first game of the Playoffs, then scored fewer points over his next three games combined than he did in the opener. When he's right, he ranks among the NBA D-League's elite centers -- a combination of raw power and range. When he's off, he looks seconds away from rolling out a sleeping bag on the baseline. And for RGV to compete with Santa Cruz's front line, they'll need the former.

Three years ago, a junior out of Northern Arizona named Cameron Jones declared himself eligible for the 2010 NBA Draft. Jones had led NAU in scoring, at 19.3 points a game, and earned his second straight All-Big Sky nod. He didn't hire an agent, giving him the option of returning for his senior year if he didn't have any takers. But if somebody wanted him, his services were available.

"My goal is to get my name out and see if any teams are interested," Jones said in a statement.

The basketball world was happy to let him know. Jones returned for his senior year and dropped 20 a night.

But the PR stunt worked. Jones got ink -- the digital kind, at least -- in hoops publications starved for something to chew on in the news drought that comes around every year, post-Madness and pre-NBA Playoffs.

Which makes it all the more interesting to see the player Jones, now two years into his pro career, has become. Specifically, one with all the attention-grabbing voltage of a seminar on turnips. And that might be precisely why the NBA D-League's Most Improved Player could crack an NBA roster in the fall.

A guard who can defende everything from the perimeter to the post and an outside game to complement his 2-guard build (6-foot-4), Jones did a whole lot of everything for Santa Cruz this year. Most of it very, very well. And because NBA teams generally have their own fill of headliners, they go looking for supporting cast to fill the ends of their bench.

Which is where Jones comes in.

"He does every little thing you want a player to do," said Santa Cruz coach Nate Bjorkgren. "He's very coachable. You tell him to run the floor, he'll run the floor. You tell him to play on-ball defense, he'll give you everything he's got. He's very good at a number of things. He's a great teammate with his will to win."

And in the Finals, he'll spend a good amount of time matching up with D.J. Kennedy, RGV's main offensive threat now that Andrew Goudelock's a Laker. If Jones can keep the slashing Kennedy out on the perimeter -- something that most of the league hasn't yet found a way to do -- he'll help to neutralize a 3-point attack that rained pain on the Tulsa 66ers throughout the semis, including a franchise-best 19 treys in the decisive Game 2. Kennedy can hit from outside, but he prefers to do most of his damage in the lane.

Offensively, the lifetime .406 3-point shooter will get his looks. Jeremy Tyler's presence should ensure that RGV goes big, and if the Vipers pack the inside, Jones will be waiting on the wings for a kick-out. If he can make 'em, he'll add a new degree of danger to an offense that can already strike from everywhere.

Who Wins It All?
The Case for Rio Grande Valley	The Case for Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz may be the chic pick to win the NBA D-League Finals since Rio Grande Valley recently lost MVP candidate Andrew Goudelock to a GATORADE Call-Up, but RGV still has plenty of firepower to win it all. It starts with guard/forward D.J. Kennedy who, after Goudelock's departure, stepped into a more featured role, much like the one he previously played in Erie. The former St. John's star immediately responded and he looks like a star talent that has the potential to lead his team to a title. Case in point? His 28-point, 13-rebound, 10-assist night in Rio Grande Valley's Game 2 win over Tulsa on Sunday night. While Santa Cruz can counter with ample star power of its own -- Travis Leslie, Jeremy Tyler and Hilton Armstrong, among others -- the Vipers do have three key facets of the game going for them: 3-point shooting, rebounding and homecourt advantage. In four playoff games, the Vipers have connected 50 times (37.3 percent) from behind the arc. That's 12.5 treys per game, as everyone on their roster – even their centers, Tim Ohlbrecht and Chris Daniels – can sink it from downtown. In a short series against a team long on talent, the deep ball can be the great equalizer, and the Vipers have a clear-cut edge in that department. By contrast, the Warriors hit only 29 threes (on 35.4 percent) in their four playoff games. The Vipers also dominate in the paint. Having outrebounded their opponents by 8.5 boards a game in the Playoffs, they boast a imposing combination of big men like Daniels and Ohlbrecht and athletic wings like Kennedy and Glen Rice Jr. all attacking the glass. And, while Santa Cruz is also very stout on the inside, the Vipers’ length should be able to neutralize players like Tyler and Armstrong to some degree. Lastly, RGV is 22-5 at State Farm Arena this year, the best record of any team on its home court. In fact, the Vipers have won 10 in a row at home. On the other hand, Santa Cruz went just 15-12 on the road this season. If this series makes it to a third game, the Vipers would have to feel confident playing in front of their home crowd.	Through two rounds of the NBA D-League Playoffs, the only thing that's had any success stopping Jeremy Tyler has been the traffic light across from Kaiser Permanente Arena. The outstanding performer through two rounds of action, Tyler's averaged just under a point a minute (24.5 in 27.0 mpg), along with nearly eight rebounds, two steals and a block. Still a potential NBA star, he's done nothing but glisten -- well, that and turn a whole platoon of defenders into victims -- in four games. And sure, maybe Rio Grande Valley, with its 7-foot duo of Chris Daniels and Tim Ohlbrecht (on assignment from Houston), can come close to containing him. But what about everybody else? There's still Hilton Armstrong, the former (and very likely future) NBA big who swats shots like flies at a folk festival. Oh, and he's shooting 68 percent from the field in the Playoffs. Or Travis Leslie, our No. 1 Prospect for much of the second half of the year after making everybody else at the NBA D-League All-Star game look like they were playing in Kentucky mud. After spending a 10-day stint with Utah, he's been back with Santa Cruz ever since late March, firing at 48.8 percent in the Playoffs and pulling down 5.8 rebounds with 1.2 steals in just 21 minutes a night. Which, yes, means that one of the NBA D-League's transcendent talents -- a guy with legs built for liftoff and enough long-distance range to tempt an unsuspecting defender all the way out to the perimeter -- is a rotation player for the moment. In truth, not a single Warrior has averaged more than 30.5 minutes a night this postseason, with point guard and two-time Defensive Player of the Year Stef Hannah (18.0 ppg, 4.8 apg) on the top end and with Scott Machado -- an NBA player -- on the bottom, at 18.5 minutes a night. We haven't even gotten to former NBA guard Darington Hobson, who's dished out seven assists a game or Cameron Jones, the league's Most Improved Player, or even Taylor Griffin, Blake's brother and a nightly double-double threat. Which means that they have enough depth to do exactly what they've done so far: out-shoot, out-board, out-hustle, out-work and, well, oust everybody in their path.

Rio Grande Valley is flush with talent. Even with Andrew Goudelock recently getting called up to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Vipers still have two of our top 15 Prospects -- D.J. Kennedy and Glen Rice Jr. -- as well as other known commodities like Tyler Honeycutt and Chris Daniels. This is in addition to having Tim Ohlbrecht, who signed a multi-year deal with the Rockets in February, down on assignment.

Even so, there's another player that has flown relatively under the radar, what with all of RGV's Call-Ups, assignments and player movement this season, that could have a shocking impact on this championship series: Toure Murry.

The Wichita State product continued a strong month for his alma mater -- after the Shockers made it all the way to the Final Four in this year's NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed -- with his best two-game stretch of the season against Tulsa in the semifinals. Murray was methodical, scoring 16 points in Game 1 and 19 points in the decisive Game 2. Better yet, he scored those 35 points on just 19 shots, shooting 14-for-19 (73.7 percent) from the field and hitting five of his seven 3-point attempts.

Amplifying his impact is that Murry, who averaged 8.3 points per game in the regular season, did more than just score in bunches. In the semifinals, he also averaged 6.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists to just 1.5 turnovers in 36 minutes per night. Against a similarly Prospect-heavy Santa Cruz team in the Finals, Murry will be called upon for that same kind of effort.

At 6-foot-5, Murry has good size for a wing player and he plays above average defense, two very appealing attributes for NBA teams. If his offensive game continues to click like it did in the semifinals, he is sure to enter the summer with some solid momentum. Murry played with the Lakers in this past NBA Summer League and he is a strong candidate for another invite.

During Austin's championship run last season, the Toros -- much like its parent club, the San Antonio Spurs -- found ways to get contributions from everywhere. On any given night, somebody different stepped up for the Toros. And, it wasn't always who you'd expect.

Last year, it was the likes of Julian Wright, Brad Wanamaker and Terrance Woodbury that backed up 2011-12 MVP Justin Dentmon on the way to NBA D-League title. On the Spurs, this is equivalent to players like Tiago Splitter, Gary Neal and even NBA D-League alum Cory Joseph, who've provided able-bodied support to the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili as they chase another championship.

This year in Austin -- despite a different set of role players -- it's the same situation, where the Toros' supporting cast of Chris Roberts, Jamarr Sanders and Tre Kelley have all doubled as the team's second scoring option behind Lester Hudson, our No. 1 overall prospect.

In fact, it may surprise some, but Hudson's only been Austin's leading scorer in one of its three playoff games. He has gone for 20-28-25 respectively, so he has been far and away the team's most consistently lethal scorer, but it has been a handful of his teammate that have combined to be the Robin to his Batman.

In Game 1 of the first round series against Bakersfield, it was Roberts. The 6-foot-4 wing, who came out of NBA D-League Showcase looking like a prime candidate for an NBA Call-Up, saw his numbers dip a bit after the trade that brought him to Austin. On April 11, however, Roberts went off for 22 points, a season-high as member of the Toros, in only 25 minutes of action. He shot 8-for-15 from the floor and he hit two 3-pointers. Prior to that game, it has been exactly a month since he last hit multiple 3-pointers in a game.

In Game 2 of the first round, it was Kelley. Normally the team's top distributor, Kelley poured in a season-high 29 points to lead the Toros to a seven-point, series-clinching victory over Bakersfield. The South Carolina product shot 10-for-21 from the floor, including hitting four of his eight tries from distance.

Then, in Game 1 of the second round against Santa Cruz, it was Sanders. A member of last season's championship team, Sanders had an incredibly efficient night, albeit in a loss, after going for 17 points on just seven shots. He shot 6-for-7 from the field and hit all three of his 3-pointers as well as both of his free-throw attempts. With increased minutes in Austin this season, Sanders' numbers improved. It'll be interesting to see if another season in the NBA D-League propels him to potential Call-Up status.

Game 2 of the semifinals is on Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET and you can watch on CBS Sports Network. Who will step up for Toros as they face elimination?

Stef Hannah's been doing stuff like this for two years.

But last year, when Hannah was chaining together 30-point nights -- or leading his team to a win by taking over when nobody else could, like he did in Santa Cruz's semifinals Game 1 win on Wednesday -- he was doing it in North Dakota. This time around, when he has a big night, it falls under the shadow of former NBA players like Travis Leslie, Jeremy Tyler or Darington Hobson, among others. Not that it's hard to fall into a shadow for somebody who only cracks six feet tall about halfway through a layup.

Which means that Hannah, like countless other NBA D-League stars, would likely find himself in the NBA if his growth plates had just stayed open a few more months. Not that the reigning Defensive Player of the Year -- a serpent-quick defender who shuts down his mark like a chaperone -- won't get there. It's that that he, and the players below, have to rise up just a little bit more to make it happen.

PG: Courtney Fortson (5-foot-11) -- One of the league's best leaders, defenders and leapers, Fortson briefly touched the No. 1 spot on the Prospect Watch this year, but a still-evolving distribution game made NBA teams pass in favor of more polished points.

SG: Andrew Goudelock (a generous 6-foot-3; currently in the NBA) -- After some had begun to wonder whether or not Goudelock would return to the NBA this year, the Lakers finally scooped up the league's most consistent source of offense last week, just days before rosters locked.

SF D.J. Kennedy (6-foot-6) -- Kennedy's dominated the NBA D-League for two years now, but with the stature of a 2-guard but the skills of a small forward (though he's improved his passing game), he still fits somewhere between the 2 and 3.

PF:Arinze Onuaku (6-foot-8) -- As efficient as any player in the NBA D-League, Onuaku brings down every rebound that comes into his orbit. But doubts remain as to whether he can do the same against taller, stronger competition.

C: Henry Sims (6-foot-10) -- Certainly not small, and in possession of NBA-ready offensive tools, Sims' rebounding and shot-blocking abilities could use a lift.

The first year of hoops in Santa Cruz Warriors history has featured a whole lot. Two NBA Call-Ups. A first-ever Playoff run. A shout-out from Snoop.

And dunks. Lots of 'em. Travis Leslie started a Santa Cruz slampage in the first half of the year, but the team's taken the reins since then -- as you can see below:

A little more than a month ago, the league that waited for him, watched him and took a chance on him finally had enough of Jeremy Tyler.

A year and a half into his NBA career -- a run that only began after he became the first player to skip high school in favor of a year abroad -- the Golden State Warriors traded Tyler to the Hawks, shipping him to Atlanta in exchange for cash and future draft considerations. Atlanta cut him two weeks later, on Mar. 6, and Tyler, out of NBA takers, retreated to the NBA D-League the next week.

Near the top of the waiver wire stood the minor league affiliate of the team that traded him away -- a place where he'd spent five games earlier in the season. And Santa Cruz GM Kirk Lacob, knowing that if the Warriors passed on Tyler (a common enough move for single-affiliates who've had the player pass through their system), somebody else would take him. Fast.

"I gave him a a choice, because I knew there was another team that was very interested," said Santa Cruz GM Kirk Lacob. "I told him, 'I'm gonna give you the choice -- it's your career and it's your life, but I'll work hard for you. And he said, 'why would I go anywhere else? I love you guys. I love Santa Cruz. I want to stick it out.'"

They signed him on Mar. 13. And because of that faith -- from both Lacob and Tyler -- the Santa Cruz Warriors now stand just two wins away, in their first year in Santa Cruz, from reaching the NBA D-League Finals. With Andrew Goudelock gone in Rio Grande Valley, no team features more Top Prospects. No other team can score in as many ways. And no other team has, well, Jeremy Tyler. And after sweeping the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the first round of the Playoffs, Tyler and the Warriors will take on the Prospect-studded (and defending champion) Austin Toros -- including Lester Hudson, the only player in the league to roll out a better first round than Tyler did -- in a battle of the league's top two Prospects.

But just barely.

Going a combined 20-for-27 from the field over the Warriors' two wins, which rang up to a .740 shooting percentage and 29.5 scoring average, Tyler also averaged eight boards in just 26 minutes a night. Not that the performance stood that far above what he's done since coming to Santa Cruz full-time: in the seven games he played after signing in late May, he shot 59.4 percent from the field and put up 22.3 points and 10.8 boards a night.

"He's figuring the game out at his own pace," Lacob said. "It's starting to make sense. You gotta remember he's only 21. He really hasn't a full real season of basketball maybe ever, between what happened in Israel and Japan, where his season was cut short. With all the injuries, it's the first time he's been healthy in a while."

He and No. 5 Prospect Hilton Armstrong will take on the Toros' duo of Rick Jackson, JaMychal Green (and potentially Spurs center Aron Baynes, if he comes back to Austin on assignment) -- in the lane. While Tyler and Armstrong have the height, the somewhat undersized Jackson and Green have patrolled the paint as well as any forwards in the league this year. They combined for 27 points and 22.5 boards per game in the first round.

On the perimeter, it's a story of two elite Prospects moving -- at least for the moment -- in different directions. Santa Cruz's Travis Leslie has rented out the No. 1 spot in the Prospect Watch for most of the second half of the year, but he's struggled after coming back to the NBA D-League following a 10-day Call-Up to the Utah Jazz. He played just 19 minutes a night in the first round, going for 11.0 points and 6.5 boards.

In Austin, meanwhile, Hudson's playing the kind of ball that made him a meteor in the NBA last April, when he tore off a string of huge nights for Cleveland. He may not get the same chance this year -- given that rosters lock on April 17 -- but in Austin, he's still floating a level above the rest of the league. Averaging nearly a triple-double in the first round (24.0 ppg on 58-percent shooting, 10.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists -- all team-highs), he provided the crucial spark to send the Toros past the top-seeded Bakersfield Jam.

Meanwhile, Santa Cruz's Stefhon Hannah and Darington Hobson have taken over distribution duties. Hannah, the reigning NBA D-League Defensive Player of the Year, played the lead role in Dakota last year, stringing together what seemed like a month of 30-plus-point nights to close the year. Now, he's picking his spots more. And against the Mad Ants, he went 54 percent from the floor and 50 percent from distance, en route to 19.5 points and six assists a night. Together with Hobson -- the former NBA guard who averaged 14 points and a team-high seven assists in the first round -- they round out one of the league's top backcourts.

They'll be taking on a cast of counterparts encased by questions. Tre Kelley's run the point in Austin ever since the Toros traded Justin Dentmon to Texas, and while he averaged 18 points in the first round, it took 18 shots a night to get there. As a distributor, though, he can do some damage, dishing out six assists a night in the first round and five for the season (in only 27.8 minutes). Next to him stands Chris Roberts, one of the league's hottest Prospects at midseason and a a big ball of doubt by the end of it. His numbers dropped across the board once he got to Austin, with the two-way wing keeping his defense up, but plummeting in scoring and boards. However, his 17.5-point, 5.0-board average in the first round speak to a resurgent Roberts.

• Baynes of their Existence: Santa Cruz will take a pretty sizable edge on the inside unless San Antonio re-assigns Aron Baynes back to Austin, where the Spurs' big man went for 23 points, 15 blocks and two boards in the Toros' final regular season game of the year.


• Which C-Rob Will We See?: Toros guard Chris Roberts, then a Texas Legend, had smoke trailing him coming out of Showcase. A combination of size, speed and strength -- not to mention some touch from outside and the ability to leap over the occasional 7-foot-5 guy -- he looked poised to keep climbing. Then his offensive numbers sagged after getting traded to Austin, with Roberts suffering through a long March. But a 22-point night in the first round provided a reminder of what he can do -- and if Austin's going to take down Santa Cruz, they'll need him.


• Not-so-Great Scott: Machado had a mostly silent first round, going for a combined points and four assists in two games. He did play 18 minutes, and Stef Hannah did take on more of the load, but the league doesn't have many better distributors when Machado's in them minors. Look for the guy who led the NCAA in assists in 2011-12 to make some noise in this series.

From two NBA players on loan to their affiliates to a big man campaigning in Santa Cruz for a late-game NBA pickup to some deja vu in Austin, check out the Top 10 Performers of the first round here, with the semifinals now set.

Andrew Goudelock, the third-leading scorer in the NBA D-League, potential league MVP, all-out offensive artist and 6-foot, 3-inch motor driving the Rio Grande Valley Vipers' race up the standings in the month of March, is gone.

Called up by the Lakers on Sunday to fill the roster spot vacated by Kobe Bryant, the player christened 'The Mini Mamba' by Kobe himself returns to the team that drafted him out of Charleston in 2011.

So, one day after RGV secured a spot in the NBA D-League semifinals with a sweep over Maine, where's that leave the Vipers?

The answer, we're guessing, is pretty much the same place they were on Saturday.

Sure, losing one of the top 3 candidates for NBA D-League MVP (Jerel McNeal and Tony Mitchell rank up there, too) doesn't ever really happen at the right time. But that's the point of the league, coaches will tell you, teeth clenched. But because of five months of heists, foresight and gambles gone right on the part of RGV GM Gersson Rosas (with some oversight from Daryl Morey), few teams could withstand this kind of blow.

- They drafted on Glen Rice, Jr. in the fourth round of the NBA D-League Draft -- after Chris Johnson (who's back with the team after earning a Call-Up to Memphis earlier in the year), DeVon Hardin and Mike Singletary (who's still with the Vipers, too) -- and got a guy who's turned into one of the league's elite swingmen and an almost-definite future NBA rotation player. He averaged 27 points and 10 boards in two first-round games.

- Maybe sensing that former Heat guard Terrel Harris wouldn't stick around the NBA D-League for long after coming to the Vipers, RGV packaged Harris, Weesley Witherspoon and Mustafa Shakur to Erie in exchange for another MVP candidate in D.J. Kennedy, along with Singletary (who'd been traded earlier in the year). Harris earned a Call-Up three days later. Kennedy's still in RGV (though he always seems to live on the edge of an NBA bid), and, in terms of his production, looks like a Goudelock clone. He doesn't have the same outside game and his assist totals fall one dime a game short of Goudelock's (though Kennedy's at 4.8 apg for the season), but he'll grab more boards and can finish better on the inside. After averaging nearly a triple-double in the first round, look for him to explode in the second.

- Former Kings (and UCLA) swingman Tyler Honeycutt came to the team via waivers in March. He put up 10.1 points, 5.4 boards and 1.9 steals in 18.3 minutes a night, which balloons to 26 points, 14 boards and nearly five steals in 48 minutes. After seeing just four minutes of time in Game 1 against Maine, he rolled out 18 points (on 10 shots) and seven rebounds in 29.


- Expect Chris Johnson, who came back from the Grizzlies in February, to take over Goudelock's long-distance load in the second round. He's firing at a 38-percent clip this year. Singletary, too -- he's hitting at 40.6 percent.

So those are the guards. But RGV's real consolation comes on the inside, where only other team in the league (Santa Cruz, with Jeremy Tyler and Hilton Armstrong) can measure up -- in terms of both size and NBA potential.

- Chris Daniels, who came to RGV late in the year, stormed out of China and straight into one of the best games of the first round.

- They got Hassan Whiteside from the Sioux Falls Skyforce in January, bringing in a player that hasn't logged a lot of minutes lately (he didn't appear in the first round), though he did end up leading the league in PER by season's end (27.76).

- Then there's Tim Ohlbrecht, the German-born former phenom -- long considered, somewhat unfairly, the heir to Dirk's legacy -- who went 14th overall in the Draft to the Springfield Armor. He presented a bit of a salvage project after sputtering in Europe, but, at 24, the Armor saw the potential. The Vipers just saw more of it, shipping off Ben Uzoh to Springfield in exchange for Ohlbrect. In February, Ohlbrecht earned his Call-Up. But, with only a couple scraps of minutes coming his way, he's back with the Vipers, too.

So when the Vipers take on Tulsa -- and, most likely, the OKC trio of DeAndre Liggins, Jeremy Lamb and Perry Jones -- in the semifinals, they'll look a little different. But change, all year long, has been a good thing in the Rio Grande Valley.

You'll have to trust us on this one. Chris Daniels is huge in Asia.

In fairness, he's huge here, too, standing just a couple parquet scuffs under seven feet tall. But in Korea -- where he starred for three years -- and China -- where he just went for 28.6 points and 11.3 boards a night alongside Tracy McGrady -- Daniels has has looked every bit the ideal big man.

Here, he hasn't quite hit the same heights. An occasional dynamo who can light it up from the paint and the perimeter, Daniels hasn't ever produced with enough consistency to convince NBA teams he's worth a Call-Up.
But on Thursday, in an RGV-Maine Playoff Game 1 that featured more ready-made, right-now NBA Prospects than any other in the first round of the NBA D-League -- names like -- it was the nomadic, sleepy-eyed 7-footer who emerged as the difference.

Daniels finished with a team-high 28 points (one more than teammates Andrew Goudelock and Glen Rice, Jr. and one fewer than Maine's Jermaine Taylor, though it took Taylor 27 shots to hit 29 points) on just 16 shots, along with a game-high 11 points and two blocks.

It was by far his best game of the season -- a year that started with three games in Santa Cruz, careened to China (where he played with McGrady and Austin Toros guard Lester Hudson on the Qindgdao Double Star Eagles), then come to RGV in early March. It was probably the best one of his professional career. At least the part of it that happened on American shores. And while it didn't show everything Daniels can do, that might have been a good thing.

“I hope I can get there," Daniels said about the NBA at Summer League. "I pray I can get there. That's my dream. I didn't grow up saying I want to play basketball in Korea. No disrespect to them, I mean, they gave me a shot. But I didn't grow up saying I want to play basketball in Korea.”

When all the parts of his game align, few other bigs on earth present as many tools as Daniels does, from shooting to shot-blocking to raw size. But it's when he gets away from that 90's-style big-man game -- body as battering ram, and all that -- that he gets into trouble. That's when he slips farther and farther from the hoop and takes himself out of the play. When he plays for 63 combined minutes and grabs 10 rebounds (like he did last week against Austin).

But when Daniels attacks like he did on Thursday -- against Fab Melo, no less -- everything else falls into place. And one of these days, that place could be the NBA.

Said Bucks rookie center John Henson at Summer League, after Daniels and Henson had worked out together in the spring: “He’s very shifty and y’all didn’t really get a chance to see him much, but I’ve seen him play. He’s got that floater and the left and the right hooks. He’s got a very European game, in my opinion.”

The Rio Grande Valley Vipers closed the season on a 10-game winning streak and will face off in Game 1 tonight against the Maine Red Claws, who are entering the playoffs for the first time in the franchise's four year history.

Records don't mean as much in the NBA D-League, with players coming and going throughout the season. But this series will feature some of the strongest prospects and assignments the NBA D-League has to offer:

Fab Melo (Maine) vs. Tim Ohlbrecht (Rio Grande Valley): These two foreign-born bigs are assignments from their respective NBA teams, the Boston Celtics and the Houson Rockets. Melo, a 2012 first rounder in the NBA Draft, is a late-bloomer still learning the nuances of the game. But when he's focused, defensively he can be brilliant including his monster ability to block shots. But he lacks the consistency Ohlbrecht brings to Rio Grande Valley, where he averaged 13.4 points and 7.4 rebounds before getting a call-up from the Rockets this season.

Curtis Jerrells (Maine) vs. Andrew Goudelock (Rio Grande Valley): Jerrells joined the Red Claws last month to help them make the push to make the playoffs. On that front he's been successful averaging 14.4 points and 5.6 assists per game. But Andrew Goudelock is having an MVP-worthy season for Rio Grande Valley and is currently averaging 21 points and 5.2 assists per game.

Chris Wright (Maine) vs. D.J. Kennedy (Rio Grande Valley): They're both crafty scorers that aren't afraid to attack the basket and draw contact, in perhaps one of the most even matchups of the series. Wright has been one of the most consistent performers for the Red Claws all season. His ability to sink mid-range jumpers and grab boards make him a force that's hard to stop inside of 18 feet, with the former Golden State Warrior averaging 18.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Kennedy may not have the same skills on the glass, but he makes up for it with his ability to sink buckets from all over the floor and create for his teammates, with the former Erie swingman averaging 16.6 points and 5.1 assists per game.