The NBA Development League's top defense had no stoppers for the league's No. 1 offense Tuesday night. Never resembling the unit that has ridden its stingy defense to the top of the D-League standings, the Flyers were ambushed for 72 second-half points and gave up a 15-point lead to the run-and-gun Roanoke Dazzle, falling 126-123 at the Roanoke Civic Center.
Fort Worth (22-13), which entered the night allowing a league-low 93.6 points per game, had its five-game winning streak snapped and lost for only the third time in 15 games. The Flyers, whose cushion on second-place Austin slipped to one game, play at Roanoke (18-16) again tonight, at 6 p.m.
"We like to think we're the best defensive team in the league, but we didn't play like it tonight," said Fort Worth coach Sam Vincent, whose club had yielded only 80.4 points per game in its winning streak. "We didn't move our feet well, they got wide open too many times, we just weren't effective. We'll be better on defense [tonight], I promise you."
Fort Worth's 123 points topped its previous season-high output of 115, but Roanoke's 126 was a season high against the Flyers, who had never given up more than 112.
"We were just terrible the second half," Flyers guard Ime Udoka said. "We gave up 72 points, let them dictate tempo, we just didn't play our game at all."
Guard Anthony Grundy led Roanoke with a game-high 33 points, going 11-for-14 from the field, including 5-for-8 from 3-point range. Forward Isiah Victor contributed 30 points. Dazzle point guard Will Bynum finished with 23 points and 11 assists.
Yet, the Flyers, who shot 57.7 percent (45-of-78), were in control until their defensive lapses.
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Flyers' defense absent against Roanoke
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