Overcoming a week of adversity

It has been one of those weeks for my Beijing teammates and I as well as our coaching staff.

The past seven days have moved so slowly.

Quite honestly, a turtle moved faster than this week, which has felt more like a month.

I guess that is because we lost three games in a row - a first for us this season.

Boy, when you are winning, life is good, and it tastes real sweet.

But start losing and you will quickly find out just how bitter of a taste defeat leaves in your mouth. It does with me, and I didn't realize this as much as I did until recently when I was reflecting on the past two seasons.

Around this same time last season we had serious basketball woes. In fact, last January, we lost seven out of eight games.

The strangest thing is the games we lost then did not sting as much as us losing these past three games.

Maybe because this season we had not lost back-to-back-to-back games until recently when we were upset by Tianjin, Shandong and Qingdao.

Here is a quick recap. We were down big to Tianjin and Shandong before they beat us. Then, we lost in overtime to Qingdao.

It seems as a team we were lacking in intensity before tipoff of the Tianjin and Shandong games. We just had no energy on the defensive end. That explains how we allowed our opponents to jump out to as much as 15 points very early on.

It is hard to get back into a game on the road when you spot a team 10 or 15 points in the first eight minutes.

Thank God we came out differently against Qingdao despite taking an 'L'.. Even though we lost, our play changed drastically from when we battled Tianjin and Shandong as we played smarter and harder. Now, that's Beijing basketball!

We opened up an 11-point lead in the first quarter, but failed to stay up in the second quarter as Qingdao went on a 23-4 run. By halftime, we were facing an 11-point deficit. However, we did manage to claw our way back and make it a game in the third quarter.

I must say my teammates and I fought hard, like true champs.

Unfortunately, we made some crucial turnovers in the last 60 seconds of the game, including me.

My turnover near the end of regulation was vital to Qingdao forcing overtime and beating us by three points.

Even so, the silver lining of our latest loss is we felt like we were getting back to our winning ways. That could not have come at a more ideal time because we were set to face at home another strong team in Xinjiang.

With our backs against the wall, we stepped up and avoided a four-game losing streak.

Yet, this was not before Xinjiang came out firing a barrage of three-pointers from everywhere to take a 12-point lead early in the first quarter.

This time we answered by roaring back by the end of the second quarter to take a two-point lead going into halftime. In the third quarter, we took control of the game, and held onto the lead - eventually beating Xinjiang by nine points.

The bulls eye is off our backs for a minute.

I'm just so glad in our latest win we were able to find a path to victory.

When my teammates and I faced our mini-slump, we also found out we must give our all each and every night that we step onto the court. That is if we expect to win, and we do!

Love is love.

Stephon Marbury can be reached at sports@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/22/2013 page24)