Kareem Grabs 11 Boards, But Duke Roars Back Late in All-time Showdown

Our first game using all-time great players instead of teams could not have been better. The ultimate twin towers of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton dominated on the boards as expected, 

However Duke turned Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. over five times and help him to 6 of 14shooting while Duke hit some 3-pointers including Christian Laettner playing as an almost "stretch center" in an incredible game.

The game was so good we decided to give the actual play by play with the running score on the left. If any of the plays do not make sense, there is a key at the bottom. Below the running score we list the team box score.

Also, the plays in red indicate the referee made a bad call in favor of the home team, and unfortunately for Duke that happened three times - all sending 90 percent free throw shooter Reggie Miller to the line.
 

Duke	UCLA	Duke All-time team	Play	UCLA All-time team	Play
20	20	Score starts 20-20		All players with 4 pts
		Shane Battier	miss	Kevin Love	Reb
				Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	TO
22	20	Justise Winslow	2
		Christian Laettner	Steal	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	TO
25	20	Johnny Dawkins	3
				Reggie Miller	miss
				Bill Walton	Oreb
		Johnny Dawkins	Steal	Russell Westbrook	TO
		Christian Laettner	miss	Bill Walton	Reb
25	22			Bill Walton	2
		Johnny Dawkins	miss	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Reb
25	24			Bill Walton	2
28	24	Shane Battier	3
28	25	Justise Winslow	Foul	Bill Walton	1
28	26			Bill Walton	1
31	27	Christian Laettner	3
31	27	Christian Laettner	foul	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1
		Christian Laettner	Reb		0
		Johnny Dawkins	miss	Reggie Miller	Reb
31	29	Christian Laettner	Foul	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	2
31	30			Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1
33	30	Jon Scheyer	2
33	32	Justise Winslow	Foul	Bill Walton	2
33	33			Bill Walton	1
35	33	Christian Laettner	2
35	35			Reggie Miller	2
		Justise Winslow	TO	Bill Walton	Steal
35	37			Kevin Love	2
		Christian Laettner	miss	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Reb
		Shane Battier	Reb	Russell Westbrook	miss
		Jon Scheyer	miss	Bill Walton	Reb
		Justise Winslow	block	Bill Walton	miss
				Kevin Love	Oreb
		Justise Winslow	block	Bill Walton	miss
				Reggie Miller	Oreb
				Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	TO
37	37	Christian Laettner	2
37	39	Jon Scheyer	foul	Reggie Miller	2
37	40			Reggie Miller	1
38	40	Jon Scheyer	1	Reggie Miller	foul
39	40	Jon Scheyer	1
		Christian Laettner	block	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	miss
				Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Oreb
39	42	Christian Laettner	Foul	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	2
39	43			Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1
41	43	Christian Laettner	2
41	46	Jon Scheyer	foul	Reggie Miller	3
41	47			Reggie Miller	1
		Justise Winslow	0	Bill Walton	foul
42	47	Justise Winslow	1
42	49			Russell Westbrook	2
43	49	Christian Laettner	1	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	foul
44	49	Christian Laettner	1
44	50	Justise Winslow		Bill Walton	1
44	51			Bill Walton	1
		Christian Laettner	TO
				Bill Walton	miss
		Shane Battier	reb
		Christian Laettner	miss	Reggie Miller	Reb
		Jon Scheyer	Reb	Reggie Miller	miss
45	51	Shane Battier	1	Kevin Love	foul
		Shane Battier	0	Kevin Love	Reb
				Reggie Miller	miss
				Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Oreb
		Justise Winslow	Reb	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	miss
		Shane Battier	miss	Russell Westbrook	Reb
45	53			Russell Westbrook	2
		Christian Laettner	miss	Kevin Love	reb
		Shane Battier	block	Kevin Love	miss
				Russell Westbrook	Oreb
45	55			Reggie Miller	2
		Jon Scheyer	miss	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	reb
		Shane Battier		Reggie Miller	miss
47	55	Johnny Dawkins	2
		Christian Laettner	Steal	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	TO
49	55	Justise Winslow	2
49	56	Christian Laettner	foul	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1
49	57			Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1
51	57	Johnny Dawkins	2
		Shane Battier	block	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	miss
52	57	Jon Scheyer	1	Reggie Miller	foul
53	57	Jon Scheyer	1
53	59			Bill Walton	2
		Justise Winslow	TO	Bill Walton	Steal
53	62			Russell Westbrook	3
		Justise Winslow	TO	Russell Westbrook	Steal
		Justise Winslow	Steal	Bill Walton	TO
		Shane Battier	miss
		Jon Scheyer	Oreb
55	62	Christian Laettner	2
		Jon Scheyer	Reb	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	miss
57	62	Shane Battier	2
57	64	Jon Scheyer	foul	Reggie Miller	2
57	65			Reggie Miller	1
		Justise Winslow	TO
57	67			Bill Walton	2
60	67	Justise Winslow	3
		Christian Laettner	Steal	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	TO
63	67	Jon Scheyer	3
		Christian Laettner	block	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	miss
		Jon Scheyer	Reb
		Justise Winslow	miss	Bill Walton	block
				Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	reb
63	69			Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	2
64	69	Justise Winslow	1	Bill Walton	foul
		Justise Winslow	0
65	69	Justise Winslow	1
65	72			Reggie Miller	3
		Shane Battier		Reggie Miller	reb
67	72	Christian Laettner	2
67	73	Shane Battier	foul	Kevin Love	1
		Shane Battier	Reb	Kevin Love	0
70	73	Jon Scheyer	3
				Bill Walton	TO
72	73	Christian Laettner	2
72	74	Christian Laettner	foul	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1
72	75			Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1
		Jon Scheyer	TO	Bill Walton	Steal
				Reggie Miller	miss
Qq				Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Oreb
72	77	Shane Battier	foul	Kevin Love	2
				Kevin Love	0
				Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Oreb
				Reggie Miller	miss
				Reggie Miller	Oreb
72	79			Reggie Miller	2
74	79	Justise Winslow	2
74	81			Kevin Love	2
		Shane Battier	miss	Kevin Love	block
		Christian Laettner	Oreb
76	81	Christian Laettner	2
				Russell Westbrook	miss
				Reggie Miller	Oreb
		Justise Winslow	Reb	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	miss
79	81	Shane Battier	3
		Justise Winslow	block	Bill Walton	miss
		Christian Laettner	Reb
		Justise Winslow	miss
		Shane Battier	Oreb
81	81	Shane Battier	2
81	83			Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	2

Here is the composite box score after Kareem shook off a tough game to score at the buzzer and deliver UCLA the 83-81 win. UCLA travels to UNC next.

While much if the game played out along the lines of what you'd expect, there were two surprises in the box. it was not a surprise that Laettner could score so much away from the basket in Kareem. However Kareem had the best offensive card in the game - with 1-15 either a basket or drawing a foul in the 20-sided and had the max dunk ranges of 51-66. Dukes ability to turn him over 5 times including the first two times he had the ball, and then hold him to 6 of 14 shooting kept the game close.

However, Kareem had the game high 11 rebounds,.including kicking the ball out to shooters off offensive rebounds, drew 7 fouls on Laettner since we played no foul outs with only 5 on 5, hit all 6 free throws and hit the game winner.

The other surprise of the dice was that UCLA had much better shot blocking cards, but it was Duke surprisingly getting the blocked shots.

Here is the key to the symbols in the running score. Remember based on the score sheet other plays have already happened before the first dice are rolled - accounting for the 20-20 start to the game. Also note since we only had five players each we played with no foul outs - which saved Christian Laettner since he committee 7 fouls trying to guard Kareem.

Yes, you read the scoreboard right. The three bad calls against Jon Scheyer gave Reggie Miller three "and-ones" as a 90 percent free throw shooter (1-18 on the 20-sided die) which is the average game (3 points home court advantage) and in this game that could have been the difference. 

UCLA won 83-81 when Kareem beat the buzzer, but take away those three extra free throws on a neutral court or this should have been a 81-80 upset by Duke. Duke will still get UNC at home and this round robin will be decided by total point margin so Duke only starts 2 points down in the round robin.

 

Symbol	Meaning of Symbol	Total in Game
0	Missed Free Throw - 0 points	5
1	Made Free Throw - 1 point	26
2	Made 2-Point Basket	34
3	Made 3-Point Basket	10
block	Blocked Shot	9
Foul	Committee Foul	18
miss	Missed Field Goal	33
Oreb	Offensive Rebound	13
Reb	Defensive Rebound	23
Steal	Steal	9
TO	Turnover	14
	Total Plays	193