The Armor may be without two frontcourt players entering two-game weekend series.
Armor forward James Mays may need to produce a little more as the team goes into a pair of weekend games down two players.
The Springfield Armor are just five games into the season and already facing a shortage of bodies heading into a weekend of back-to-back games.
The Armor will be missing forward Carleton Scott for Friday’s game at the Canton Charge and Saturday’s contest with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, and center Willie Reed is questionable for both.
“Carleton is out all weekend and we’re not sure when he’s going to be back, and Willie’s day-to-day, we’re not sure if he’ll be able to play or how much he’ll be able to play,” Armor coach Bob MacKinnon said. “No one’s going to give you any sympathy in this league, so you’ve got to take care of your own business and hopefully our guys respond with toughness.”
Scott sprained an ankle during the second quarter of last Saturday’s 118-88 loss to the Charge, a game in which Reed sat out because of a foot injury.
Without those two players, the best rebounding team in the D-League was soundly beaten on the boards, 54-29. The 29 boards were the fewest by far this season, and the 21 offensive rebounds by Canton tied a Springfield opponent record.
“We got down a couple of frontcourt players and we got down 11 and it went to 15 and I made a decision to go small and scramble and they made shots out of our scrambles,” MacKinnon said. “I took a gamble and it was a gamble that didn’t pay off, and it’s probably the main reason why I don’t go to Vegas.”
Either Cliff Tucker or Jonathan Thomas will get the starting nod for Scott while Shawn Taggart will get additional minutes if Reed can’t go.
The Armor (3-2) have not played since losing to Canton (3-5) on Saturday while the Charge have played twice, including a win Wednesday over Springfield’s opponent on Saturday, Fort Wayne.
“Like I said before, the schedule is kind of crazy where we play two games and sit a week, then we play two games and sit a week,” MacKinnon said. “It’s been really hard finding our rhythm, but we have to deal with it and make the best.”
The Armor have played their last four games at home after opening the season with a win over the Charge in Canton, giving them an unbeaten mark on the road.