NBA dynamo Tornike Shengelia did not dress because of a head injury as Springfield suffered its fifth loss in six meetings with the Red Claws.
Tyshawn Taylor did his thing for Springfield Sunday, but it wasn't enough to prevent another loss to the Red Claws.
By KEVIN THOMAS
PORTLAND, Maine – After winning their second straight game Saturday night, the Springfield Armor could not carry that momentum north Sunday.
The Maine Red Claws led nearly all the way and cruised to a 120-112 win before a sold-out Portland Expo crowd of 3,045.
Guard Tyshawn Taylor, on loan from the Brooklyn Nets, paced the Armor with 27 points and 11 assists. But Springfield played without the other half of its NBA contingent. Forward Tornike Shengelia did not dress because of a head injury. He suffered a cut under his eye Saturday night and was withheld Sunday for precautionary reasons.
Shengelia has averaged 28.3 points and 13.7 rebounds in three games with the Armor.
“He’s been the best player in the league,” Armor coach Bob MacKinnon said. “But we haven’t had him for a lot of games and you still have to play.”
Maine was also at less than full strength, missing two of its top post players – 7-foot Celtics draft pick Fab Melo and 6-8 forward DaJuan Summers (both with strained quadriceps muscles). But the Red Claws did have 6-8 forward Chris Wright, who played 24 games for the Golden State Warriors last year.
Wright was soaring Sunday, scoring 25 points and grabbing a team-record 20 rebounds.
“They outrebounded us (51-42) and Chris Wright was terrific tonight,” MacKinnon said. “That was the difference in the game.”
Taylor remembered Wright from when the two met in the 2009 NCAA tournament, Taylor with Kansas and Wright with Dayton.
“All (Kansas) Coach (Bill Self) kept saying about him is to watch out because he’s an athlete,” Taylor said. “He’s been doing things like this for a while.”
Dennis Horner hit for 24 points for the Armor while Ben Uzoh had 21 and forward James Mays 17 with 19 rebounds.
The Armor were playing their third game in four days after arriving at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, just 12½ hours before tip-off. But MacKinnon wasn’t blaming that.
“All we did was bus here. Slept in, got up and played basketball,” MacKinnon said. “There’s no excuse not to have energy. They’re 20 years old.”
Maine coach Mike Taylor, however, was sympathetic.
“The schedule’s tough,” he said. “We both battled really strong Thursday. We came back and were a little bit tired and flat against Santa Cruz (Friday night). Then they played Santa Cruz in a tough game (Saturday night) and came up here, and they were tired and flat.
“That’s part of the D-League. Everyone has to fight through it.”
Taylor is learning that after playing 39 minutes Saturday and 42 Sunday.
“My legs are shot,” he said. “I haven’t played this many minutes in a while, especially consecutive days. I’m feeling it now. I’ll be all right.”
Taylor averaged only 4.3 minutes in 21 games with the Nets. He said being sent to Springfield is a good experience.
“This is positive, getting minutes,” Taylor said. “This is a way for my coaches to see what I could do running the team.”
The Armor return to the MassMutual Center Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game against Tulsa.