After an awkward start to the season with more practice time than game time since mid-October, the Tokyo Apache now begin the full-scale busy portion of their nonsensical 2010-11 bj-league campaign.
The Apache are 6-6 under first-year bench boss Bob Hill, who has guided four NBA teams during his lengthy coaching career. Their first league-designated "home" games were played Oct. 30-31 at two venues in Nagano Prefecture, and now after 12 straight games away from Tokyo, they'll begin a stretch in which they play 24 of their next 40 regular-season contests at home.
A busy January begins with four straight games Thursday through Sunday — the first time in the sixth-year league's history any team has faced this challenge — at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2.