EDINBURG – Kevin Burleson kept telling his team they would make a run soon – that the shots would start falling and the wins would start mounting.
After starting the NBA G League regular season with a dismal 2-7 record, the RGV Vipers – the defending G League champions – are looking, and playing, like the team fans have come to enjoy and expect. Like the team Burleson has believed in since the season opened.
Saturday’s 126-110 thrashing of the Austin Spurs was a dominant performance from a team with just eight dressed players, one of them putting on the Vipers jersey for the first time. The Vipers led by as many as 33 points and were in control from the jump ball, never trailing en route to their fifth win in the past six games.
The recent surge has moved RGV to 7-8 on the season, one game behind Sioux Falls for sixth place in the Western Conference. The top six teams from each conference advance to the postseason. The Vipers look to keep the hot streak with a pair of games today and Wednesday against the Ontario (Calif.) Clippers, sitting in third place with a 9-5 record in the Western Conference. The Vipers then close out the first half of the season at Salt Lake City before the all-star break.
RGV returns home Feb. 22 and 23 against the South Bay Lakers.
The Vipers led by 7 after one quarter, 21 at the half and 25 entering the fourth quarter Saturday. Seven of their eight players scored in double digits, led by Darius Days with 29 points and Trevor Hudgins with 22. Most impressively, the Vipers dished out a season-high 33 assists. Shawn Occeus led the way with seven, while Willie Cauley-Stein and newcomer Jarrett Culver each tallied six assists.
Culver, in his Vipers debut, finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. It was an impressive start for the Texas Tech product.
“I knew he was tired. He hasn’t played in two and a half weeks so he’s been doing some personal workouts,” Burleson said. “I told him to just breathe, don’t worry about the misses and makes. Just keep playing until you get your rhythm.
“He had a big dunk to get us going and I believe he kind of sparked us in a sense. The guys are gonna like him.”
While the offense performed with a purpose, under control and moving as a team, it was a higher level of defensive intensity, and the ability to keep turnovers low (just 11) that helped the Vipers jump out early and remain out front.
“We needed to come out to a good start, especially defensively. I think all of them were super hyper actie on the defensive end and of course we made shots, which helps,” Burleson said. “But they mastered the defense and that got us that early lead. In this league, it’s hard to play up hill and we kept them on their heels the whole game.”
Ray Spalding, Trhae Mitchell, Jalen Lecque and Josh Reaves were all inactive for the game but are expected to return for the road trip. That’s what made Culver’s performance so necessary. His posterizing dunk electified the crowd and his team.
“I was just making reads, drove the ball and saw it was high enough,” Culver said. “(Jalen Lecque) didn’t play tonight and they were out of wristbands so he gave me his wristband. I know JQ has bounce. It must’ve been the wristband he gave me.”