‘Everything is different’: Five seasons later, Target Score endings remain as complex as ever

In just the eighth game of the season, the stakes were already high.

Niagara was visiting Scarborough, and with both teams sitting on 4-3 records and carrying big expectations for the season, a victory here would create slight separation and could jumpstart a second-half run. Moreover, the Shooting Stars had eliminated the River Lions in each of the previous two years.

As expected, the game was close. The Shooting Stars came back from down 11 to take a 72-69 lead into Target Score Time, but eventually the teams found themselves tied at 78, each three points away from the win.

River Lions head coach Victor Raso called timeout. Khalil Ahmad, the two-time Clutch Player of the Year in his season debut, already scored seven of his team’s nine points with the clock off. And so Raso gave the ball to Ahmad.

It was a good idea.

Ahmad drained a triple, ending the ballgame. Talk about clutch.

“The game is literally in your hands. You make this, the game's over, and then they can't do anything about it,” Ahmad said. “To just be able to end on a bucket and literally the other team has no say in what happens unless they get the ball back and I happen to miss or whatever, it takes the competitiveness in me to another level.”

The CEBL instituted Target Score Time in time for the 2020 season and has used it ever since. A quick recap of the rule: the clock is turned off at the first stoppage with four minutes or less in the fourth quarter. Nine points are added to the winning team’s total, creating the Target Score. First team to hit the target wins.

Over five seasons, trends and strategies have evolved over how best to crack the code of Target Score Time.

Ahmad, the all-time leader in Target Score Winners with 18, said the format reminds him of the basketball games he’d play as a kid in Anaheim, Calif.

“It's kind of like playing 21 with your friends when you're growing up and someone has game point, everyone's suddenly super, super locked into another level because just the thought of losing, it's just that much closer, that much more in your face,” he said.

Ask anyone, and you’ll likely hear just how much Target Score Time completely revamps the end of basketball games.

Raso, the CEBL’s all-time coaching leader in games and wins, said Target Score endings are hardly even comparable to the regular fare.

“Other than it's on a basketball court and it's basketball rules, your strategy towards ending the game, the momentum, the pressure, everything is different,” he said. “Simply from a strategy perspective, all of the fouling, end-of-clock scenarios, the things that we've all just learned to know about the game of basketball, those things are out the window.”

In the NBA, if you’re up 15 points with four minutes left, you can often just run out the clock. But in the same scenario in the CEBL, you still must go out and win the game.

The increased pressure is often revealing of which players can rise to the moment.

“It kind of brings out your true qualities both as a player and as a team. I have a love-hate relationship with Target,” Raso said. “The thing I love about it is that over the course of the year, it puts you in situations where you're never going to care more than you do in Target time.”

Yet there is also another side to the coin. Raso said luck can play a factor, depending on teams’ foul situations, while teams who tend to play with flow can falter in the more stilted end-of-game action.

“It is mentally taxing. It definitely is. And it's not just Target, right? It's the fourth quarter, it's the two or three minutes leading up to Target where possessions are so incredibly valuable,” he said.

Ahmad, 27, said he enjoys seeing CEBL newcomers adjust to Target Score Time and realize they can’t just wait out the game if they have a lead.

Mitch Creek, who recently signed with the Vancouver Bandits for his first CEBL stint, gave Target Score Time a rave review.

“This Target Score ending? This needs to be in every league. I’m telling you — CEBL, you’ve done an amazing job,” Creek said.

Despite Creek’s optimism, though, Ahmad said there is an adjustment period — one that he endured himself.

“I think I've become more and more aggressive consistently. And it really developed the way I see the game, I think, because even when it's not [Target Score Time] there's still so much to think about — kind of like playing chess and stuff like that. You got to think ahead in certain cases,” he said.

Raso said Ahmad is “built for” Target Score Time.

“It's a combination of his skillset and his confidence and his mentality. One, he trains a lot, so he's confident. Two, he has the ability to score at all three levels against anybody. And three, he wants it,” Raso said.

Outside of relying on Ahmad, Raso said he’s learned the best strategy is often to just stick with what got his team to Target Score Time in the first place.

And while ending the game with three three-pointers can seem tempting, rim pressure is most important.

“If you don't tell guys, remind them to put pressure on the rim, they'll get greedy and search threes and that's how you can let another team back in,” he said.

Ahmad, in three seasons with Raso, has heeded that lesson.

“That's kind of like going up to the plate and trying to hit a home run. You're more likely to strike out if you swing it with all your might like that instead of hitting the singles and doubles,” he said.

In almost all cases, the pressure falls on the winning team. When the playoffs begin on Friday, that will only ramp up further.

“It does change it, but that's what you have the whole season for, to calm yourself down and understand that what actually wins in Target is very good possessions,” Raso said.

After that early-season win over the Shooting Stars, the River Lions won eight of their last 11 contests to finish the season with a 14-6 record, setting themselves up to host a playoff game on Sunday — a possible rematch against reigning champion Scarborough.