A few old friends dropped in on the Red Claws on Friday night.
Mario West, a member of the inaugural squad, returned to the Portland Expo to help celebrate the team’s 10th anniversary season. James Young, a former Celtics first-round draft pick who played 31 games for Maine over two seasons, also came back wearing the uniform of the Wisconsin Herd.
With West looking on, Young helped the Herd jump to a big early lead and the Claws never caught up, losing 106-94 before a crowd of 1,667.
“It was always great running here,” said Young after dropping 21 points on his former team. “Love the rims and the soft floor.”
The Claws (4-11) have dropped three in a row. Wisconsin is 2-0 against Maine, 1-13 against the rest of the G League. Last weekend in Oshkosh, the Herd beat Maine 119-118 in triple overtime.
“We watched a lot of film (Thursday),” Young said. “We saw people were open in slots and weak side, so that was our main goal, just getting it from side to side (Friday night) and we did a good job of that.”
The only lead of the evening for the Claws was 3-2 when Andrew White hit a 3-pointer. Two players assigned from NBA Milwaukee, D.J. Wilson and Christian Wood, joined Young and Michael Qualls in connecting from beyond the arc as the Herd surged to a 38-15 lead through the first quarter.
“They were the more prepared team and they jumped us right from the start,” said Red Claws Coach Brandon Bailey. “I’ve got to do a better job to make sure we’re prepared physically and mentally, for anything that can come about.”
The 6-foot-11 Wood finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds and the 6-10 Wilson added 21 and 11.
Justin Bibbs, in his first start, led the Claws with 22 points and Nick King added 21.
The Claws actually outscored Wisconsin in each of the remaining three quarters but could not overcome the big early deficit, which reached 26 (43-17) early in the second quarter.
“They had a lot of transition points, a lot of points on our turnovers,” King said.
“We can’t keep on starting off in a hole and trying to fight our way back. We’ve got to put a whole game together.”
Vitto Brown (16 points) sparked a 17-4 Red Claws run to open the third quarter and get the crowd excited at 60-58, but a dunk by Young ended the rally and he added two more long jumpers. The Herd headed into the fourth ahead 82-69.
A drive by King early in the fourth made it 86-80 with nine minutes remaining, but the Claws came no closer.
The Claws hit the road for five games, including two at the G League Winter Showcase in Las Vegas Dec. 19-21, before returning to the Expo for a New Year’s Eve matinée.
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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