“Let’s run the forward picks,” I said, patting Walter on the shoulder. “We run it right side, and then we run it left side. We got all the game to get these ten points back,” I said. “Let’s not throw the game away. We just play it from now on. They need the ten to try to stay even. Let’s go.”

The first play worked, and we scored. Then they missed, and we came down on the break. Ox blew the cripple, but Roy stuffed the bound. They came back and scored two quick baskets. We scored on a jumper by Roy, and then Ox fouled Tomkins. He hit two, and we brought the ball in. I missed a J, and Tomkins got the bound. He came down and tried to go around me. I just touched the ball, and the whistle blew. He got two shots and made them both.

“Lighten up!” I said to the ref. “I didn’t even touch him.”

“Watch your mouth!” The ref stood about three feet away from me and stuck his finger in my face. I didn’t like that, but I let it slide.

Breeze got tied up, and there was a jump ball. Roy got the tap and passed to me in the corner. I hit the J, and it began to look like a game.

Slowly, but surely, we began to catch up. Then with two minutes to go to the half I came down the right side and drove past Tomkins. They inbounded, and I took the ball away from their center and scored again. They brought the ball down and blew an easy lay-up. I got a good feed from Lenny, who was in the game, and I got to stuff over Tomkins. Ox made another basket, and we went into the locker room with a two-point lead.

We were feeling good, but I told everybody that the game wasn’t over yet. We still had another half to go. The half time went quickly, and we were on the court again. This time we got off the first scores. We were up by five points, and we were exchanging basket for basket. First we would be up by seven, then five, then seven, then five again. I began to dig something about Tomkins. When he dribbled with his left hand, he could shoot, and when he dribbled with his right hand, he could pass. But he couldn’t switch hands on either. I was all over him, and I took the ball from him twice. I had only picked up one foul in the first half, so I wasn’t too worried about that. With six minutes to go and we were up by five, they called time-out and brought in this brother named McDade. He took Tomkins’s place, and that made me feel good because I knew he was going out because I smoked him.

The first time I put a move on McDade he just about left his sneakers. I faked right, and that sucker fell over his feet trying to recover when I went around his left side. I made a nice lay-up. Paul dug the action and brought the ball back to me when we got it again. This time I tried to make a move, started around him again, and he almost tore my shirt off. Only they called me for traveling.