This is the second in the two-part series documenting the Wheelin' Jazz (L-R Tyler Lathem, Layne Mangum, Sam Blakely, Jeff Griffin) and their quest to win a championship.

GAME DAY

SATURDAY, 7 A.M. PST

LOS ANGELES — It's a cool, gray, overcast morning, typical for the L.A. area. Usually, the cloud cover will burn off by noon-ish and restore that famous California sunshine.

The team is rolling out of bed and gearing up for the day ahead. Some light snacks pass for breakfast. The guys hope it'll be enough for this morning's games. Blakely is on the tailgate of the truck helping to repack the chairs. Being a single amputee, he is probably the most agile and nimble to help in this aspect.

The team is packed and on the road by 8. So far, Mangum is right: there's not much traffic this morning and they are able to arrive by 8:30 for their game at 9.

The tournament is double-elimination, and if you can stay in the winner's bracket, you only need to win two games today and two on Sunday to win the championship. There's eight teams that will be participating, of which four will be favored to win: the Wheelin' Jazz, the Wheelin' Lakers, the Arizona Wildcats and last year's champion the Rancho Renegades.

Games will be determined by the first to score 20 points or whoever is ahead after 25 minutes. Baskets will be scored as 1 or 2 points depending on which side of the traditional three-point line you happen to shoot from when you make the basket.

"We went over the (tournament) rules," Griffin says. "We know what we can and can't do, and we know that we can win."

During the regular season, the Wheelin' Jazz usually have their way with Rancho and the Wheelin' Lakers team. However, they are consistently below Arizona in the regular-season rankings and have only beaten the Wildcats once in the last two years, including a 31-point loss this past February.

"We've got the Wildcats of Arizona in the first game," Griffin continued. "Somebody said we should probably throw the game so we can play more games in the losers' bracket. I'm not gonna tell you who it was, but ummm, Tyler, Sam and I disagreed. We want to beat Arizona."

TEACH ME HOW TO JIMMER

The Wheelin' Jazz find a place to park and Blakely is the first one out and heads to the back of the truck. He pops open the back window, drops the tailgate and scrambles into the bed of the truck to unload the everyday and sport chairs. Mangum hops out to help distribute the chairs. Griffin ambles over from his spot in the passenger seat, gets in his chair and pushes a chair over to Lathem, who disengages from the truck to strap into his chair.

They leave the parking garage and maneuver through orange traffic cones on the closed streets of downtown Los Angeles. You can hear the sounds of street ball fill the air. The underlying bombastic bass tones of hip-hop and rap music grow stronger with each pulse, as they near their designated court.

Once they arrive at the McDonald's Court No. 33 on Lot 7, they find the first game of the day underway with the Wheelin' Lakers engaged in a surprisingly close battle with team T&A. The music is now stronger than ever as the sounds are originating from only one court away.

"I'm gonna have a headache by the end of the day," Griffin says. "I hate this music, hate it, hate it. I'll just ignore it once we start playing, but it's the games in between that's gonna get me."

Suddenly, one of the songs reminds him of Jimmer-maina. "That song was 'Teach Me How to Jimmer,'" Griffin exclaimed, perking up. "That's all I hear in my head right now, is 'Teach Me How To Jimmer.' I'm gonna throw down 60, even though we can't throw down 60, we're gonna throw down some Jimmer-esque moves today."

Mangum then starts to belt out his version of the Jimmer song right on cue. Not in tune, but on cue. Jimmer's jumpers have crossed over to inspire the Wheelin' Jazz.

SATURDAY 9 A.M.

GAME 1: Wheelin' Jazz vs. Arizona

There were two big surprises awaiting the Jazz in the 9 a.m. hour. The first was that the Wheelin' Lakers ended up losing their game against the upstart T&A team. It had been projected that the Lakers would advance and possibly battle the Jazz to stay on the winner's side of the bracket.

The second surprise was that the Arizona team the Jazz were expecting wasn't the team that showed up. Turns out Arizona sent the women's team to compete in place of the men. An instant buzz went through the team as Griffin broke the news to the guys.

"We're not playing the normal Wildcats," he said. "They didn't show up this morning. The Arizona team's here, we just weren't expecting the women's Arizona (team).

"Anyway, (the female Wildcats) will come out and start throwing up three-pointers and if we don't get in their face they'll make them," Griffin pauses as a semi-serious smile creeps across his face, "and we'll lose. And we'll be the talk, the laughing (stock) of the town.

"They'll be competition, ya know. We'll play them just like they're the men's Arizona team. I've seen too many people get burned by going easy. It's not gonna happen." After warm-ups the Wheelin' Jazz huddled together for some final pregame instructions.

"We can't look at these guys as women, we gotta go out and play," Griffin said. "If they wanna come out here and play with the guys, they wanted to be treated like the guys and that's what we're gonna do."

"They're gonna be quick and they're gonna be fundamental," adds Lathem.

"I want a mercy rule here. If we're up 10-0 it should be over," Griffin joked. "Listen, if they come out and they're playing 3-on-3, they want to be treated like any other opponent. So there's no reason to go easy, just go at 'em."

"Absolutely," Mangum concurs. "You go out and go at them."

Turns out the only thing the Arizona team would win would be the coin toss to see who got the ball first. "Ladies first," Lathem added gallantly.

While the Jazz didn't come out exactly on their game, in the end they were just too strong and experienced as they as they advanced by shutting out the Lady Wildcats, 20-0.

SATURDAY, 12:30 P.M. PST

GAME 2: WHEELIN' JAZZ VS. T&A

The cloud cover burned off just like expected, revealing another gloriously golden-rayed California day of sun and fun ahead. If there's one member of the Wheelin' Jazz who seemed right at home in this sunshine-splashed state it was Lathem.

His cocky-funny, daredevil persona rippled through every sculpted structure on his body. With his short hair cut and aviator sunglasses, there's no wonder why there are Facebook debates over his resemblance to Matt Damon.

Jazz fans will identify his stone mason muscles, hustle and mid-range shooting to Matt Harpring on the court. Lathem's successful lacrosse career was halted at the age of 18 as the result of him "crashing a motorcycle off a cliff' that would leave him paralyzed."

His personal account describes himself "crying for the first time in a long time."

Though the accident left him physically paralyzed, it didn't damage his stuntman sensibilities. Just two days before the tournament, he wrapped his Polaris RZR 4-wheeler around a tree while he was driving it off road at night. Lathem had the pictures to prove it as he was showing them off like a proud papa shows off his newborn son.

Lathem's steady shooting helped an erratic first game go smoothly and he was on cue delivering Hollywood one-liners before introducing himself to the next team.

"Let's go make some friends because they're gonna hate me in about 15 minutes," Lathem wisecracked as he turned, rolled off to warm up and meet T&A.

His aviator sunglasses were still intact when the game started.

The T&A team (Talent & Ability) quickly dubbed him with the 'Hollywood' moniker.

"I hope they're prescription, like [Layne's] 'cause stuff gets broke like that, especially if you have expensive ones," warned the T&A team captain. "Look at him, he's asking for someone to come and date him. Look at me, look at me," they mocked. "No, no, don't tell him [we] said that."

Lathem, overhearing the conversation, tried to defend his vanity.

"I'm thinking I can't see without them," he said justifying his eyewear.

Later he added, "Dealing with the sun was a new challenge and it really affected where you could shoot from. I tried one game with my sunglasses on but they quickly started falling off so I had to toss them." Sure enough, T&A scored the first basket and he ditched the sunglasses. He claimed they were "slipping off his nose too much."

T&A may have had something to do with that as he missed his first shot from the field and tried to get focused on the game at hand. He got in a scrum as he chased down another miss. He was able to rip the ball away from T&A, but couldn't keep control and gave the ball back.

A couple plays later, he dove down the lane to try and intercept another pass, but ended up on the pavement with a carnage tear on his forearm to show for his efforts. With that, Lathem checked out and sped to the medical tent to have the wound wrapped.

"Playing with the guys on the asphalt was a whole new experience and I have the cuts to prove it!" he exclaimed. "It was defiantly a lot rougher when you hit the deck."

The Wheelin' Jazz had another terrible shooting game, but with scrappy defense and patience they would wear down T&A to win easily, 14-8. They had managed to remain in the winners' side of the bracket and next up would be last year's champion, the Rancho Renegades. Tip-off will be the early game at 8 a.m.

SATURDAY EVENING

HOME BASE AND THE POOL

The Wheelin' Jazz bid adieu to Lathem who was meeting up with friends, so he could search out the L.A. nightlife. After collecting all their gear, including a new cellphone for Mangum to replace the one he lost, the team makes its way out to the Marina Del Rey beach where it refuels with some food and fun before making it through L.A. traffic and back to the campground. They were all excited to get back to home base where a jacuzzi and swimming pool awaited them.

Griffin, an experienced swimmer, was the first one in the pool. You can see his head bob when he breaks the water with each breast stroke. Blakely is waist high in the pool, balancing on his left leg.

When Blakely was nearly 5 years old, he contracted a flesh eating disease that was quickly threatening his life. After five days and a lot of damage to his right leg, doctors decided the only way to save his life was to amputate the lower half of his right leg.

Blakely, now 17, is a senior at North Summit High School and has played wheelchair basketball all over the world, including Beijing, Cancun, and Australia in 2009 as a member of the under-20 USA National Team. He helped win the gold medal.

While he's been to L.A. before, it's his first time playing street ball on the asphalt.

"This is my third or fourth time (in LA), I'm excited to be here," he said. "I've never done a 3-on-3. This looks fun, it really does. I can't wait to try it out."

He also enjoys cycling, horseback riding, skiing and even plays on the high school football team. He said all these sports help keep him "active, motivated to stay up with school work and keep my body in shape."

A self-proclaimed sportsaholic, it's no wonder he's not too worried about biffing it on the L.A. pavement during a game, "its gonna hurt, but its gonna be fun."

Griffin and Blakely race a couple times in the pool before Mangum joins them in the water cannonball-style. Griffin even lifts himself out of the water, props his feet up on the edge of the pool, stands and does his own cannonball. The sounds of camaraderie fill the air between the splashing water, the races and the jokes. Before long, the three head over to the jacuzzi to relax and let their cares melt away with the setting sun.

All but one care melts away for Mangum as he now realizes he's left his wallet by the table outside the beach restaurant. He uses his new cellphone to call the restaurant and see if someone found the wallet.

This becomes instant fodder for joke material for the rest of the team. Griffin scoffs at the notion that the wallet will be there moments before Layne gets the good news. The wallet has been returned, but he'll have to pick it up tomorrow as they are closing soon.

Mangum heads off to the trailer and the rest of the team follows shortly after. On his way out, Griffin picks up Layne's jersey that he forgot by the pool. Hopefully nobody will forget their game against the defending champs.

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L.A. TRAFFIC & THE RANCHO RENEGADES

SUNDAY, 7:32 A.M. PST

The Wheelin' Jazz are stuck in traffic on I-10. They have the early game starting at 8.

"We're pretty much stopped," Mangum says sitting in a sea of cars and orange construction cones. "We're down to a crawl."

Yes, it's Sunday.

Yes, it's early.

But, there's still traffic.

"It's 7 a.m. on a Sunday," Griffin marvels. "7 a.m. on a Sunday."

"It's 7:32," Mangum corrects, not helping any. The Wheelin' Jazz are further away than they should be from their court, but not all of the Wheelin' Jazz are gonna be late.

Lathem, after a night on the town, is already at the court trying to stall.

"Just got dropped off by my friends. We stayed at a hotel close by and had a great night in L.A. last night," he says from his everyday chair. "But, uh, I'm short three teammates. Hopefully they get here soon, so we can win this tournament."

From his lips to God's ears, the Wheelin' Jazz get an L.A. traffic miracle, equivalent to manna from heaven. The cars are starting to move. Mangum can see workers picking up the construction cones, opening lanes and freeing the congestion. It's smooth sailing as the Wheelin' Jazz round the bend past the L.A. Convention Center and head down to a parking garage.

8 A.M. PST

Blakely scrambles out of the rear seat, stopping to urgently adjust his prosthetic leg that twisted during his rushed exit. With his leg on securely, he heads to the back of the truck, opens the back window, drops the tailgate and starts grabbing chairs.

Mangum makes it to the back while Griffin is still walking towards the bed of the truck from the passenger seat. Blakely pushes a chair over to him and Griffin pirouettes to sit down in one choreographed motion.

Blakely jumps into the back, drops to his knees and starts pulling out more chairs and wheels. They can't forget Lathem's sport chair, which was stored with the others. With all three in their chairs, and Blakely pushing Lathem's chair, they exit the parking garage and speed to the court, some three blocks away.

Blakely's leading the pack, the traffic light on Flower Street is green and it seems like the last hurdle will be cleared as they cross without waiting. Then, Mangum's front wheels catch the last curb and he tumbles out of his chair, like laundry from the dryer.

Blakely looks back and then hurries along the sidewalk, dodging spectators and trees. Another hurdle ahead. One of the tree's root system has dislodged a sidewalk panel from it's uniform position, leaving a two-inch elevated crack.

Blakely slows down, nudges Lathem's chair up and over and tries to push his own chair over, but the smaller front wheels catch the uprooted sidewalk. Blakely stands, pulls the chair over the crack and finishes the last 20 yards to the court, where he is greeted by Lathem.

The rest of the team arrive quickly and the officials hustle them on the court to start the semifinal.

SEMIFINAL: WHEELIN' JAZZ VS. RANCHO

In all of the stress and rush, the Wheelin' Jazz must have left part of their game at the campground, on I-10 or in the parking garage. Rancho comes out quick with a two-pointer and some easy baskets to take a four-point lead. Combine that with bad shooting and poor defense, Griffin calls time out before it's too late.

Notably frustrated, he lays into his team.

"Wake up," he bellows, poking Blakely in the chest.

"You're letting them eat you alive out there."

Another poke.

"As soon as there's a one-second scuffle (for the ball), you give up."

Griffin places one hand on each wheel of his chair and unexpectedly, rams his chair into Blakely's.

The mood changes. He has everyone's attention.

"Play!" he exhorts with his brow furrowed and a laser glare that pierces Blakely's spirit, making Blakely lower his head. "Play!" Griffin yells again. "Play, OK!?"

"OK," Blakely says quickly.

His mouth looks like it wants to smile. His eyes look like they want to tear-up. Neither would be a good option right now, so he doesn't do either.

"We've got to get some intensity right now on defense, you guys," Griffin fumes. "Right now. We're gonna play 'tower' on top. Let's pick for each other. Let's keep them from coming up and making that pick up top.

"We're still in this, but we gotta fight for those balls. They want it more than we do. OK? Let's do this."

The Wheelin' Jazz are down 7-3 at this point.

Coming out of the time out, Griffin hoists a quick two-pointer that rims out. Rancho gets the ball, sets up a pick and roll. Lathem's man slips past him on the weak side for an easy layup to make it 8-3.

It still takes the Wheelin' Jazz awhile to get back into the game. Blakely gets a block and Lathem hits two Harpring-esque jumpers, but more mistakes let Rancho regain a five-point lead.

The teams trade buckets for awhile, until Lathem gets a free throw and Griffin banks in a desperation two-point shot: Wheelin' Jazz trail 13-11.

Utah is slowly playing better. Lathem grabs another rebound, outlets to Griffin behind the two-point line and his shot splashes home, hitting nothing but the bottom of the net. Amazingly, the Wheelin' Jazz lead 15-14.

Now, with some confidence, Utah stretches their lead. Griffin dances behind a pick from Mangum, who switches while releasing to the hoop. Griffin drops a pass over the top and Mangum rolls in for an easy bucket to increase the lead to 18-15.

Mangum taps out another Rancho miss to Griffin behind the two-point line.

"Let's finish this, let's finish this, right here," Griffin instructs.

Rancho knocks the ball loose, Griffin chases it down to the half-court corner, saves it, spins and finds a wide-open Lathem under the hoop to make it 19-15.

Mangum rebounds another Rancho miss, outlets to Lathem who hands off to Griffin, who fakes right, spins and finds a wide open court for the layup to win the game.

"That's how it's done," Griffin says out of breath. "That's doing hard work, right there."

There's smiles all around.

"That's tough," Griffin continued after the game. "That's a big deficit, five points. That's 10 points in a regular game. You start throwing up desperation shots. I got away with one. It went in, so it counted. Doesn't matter how it looks as long as it goes in, right?"

He also talked about overcoming the adversity of the L.A. traffic and slow start.

"You've got to just pick up the intensity and work harder. You know, we got stuck on the freeway, we barely showed up on time. We could have used all those as excuses to lose, (but) we had 25 minutes to get this done and you've got to just pick up the intensity and work harder. That's where it is. Just work harder and your focus comes naturally."

I also asked him about his flare-up at Blakely.

"The kid has talent. The kid has skills," he said. "He has the body to be a star in this league. He has the (whole) package and for whatever reason he was lacking in intensity. I think he keys off of us and I was just trying to increase that by getting in his face a little bit and pushing him around."

Blakely and the whole team responded. Now the Wheelin' Jazz are in the championship game and Griffin talked about avoiding the same kind of letdown in the next game.

"We've got to do the same thing to them and if that happens, we'll break them," he said. "We'll break them. It'll still be a battle, but if we can come out like that, it'll be over. We'll be the champion." Since it's double elimination and the Jazz haven't lost yet, someone will have to beat them twice to take the crown.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES, FORMER JAZZMAN BRYON RUSSELL

As it turns out, that someone was Rancho. After losing the semifinal game to Utah, Rancho defeated the Wheelin' Lakers, 10-8, to advance and face the Wheelin' Jazz again in the championship game.

Next to the Wheelin' Jazz court, it turns out that former Jazzman Bryon Russell was watching his son play. Every time there was a lull in the action on his son's court you could see Russell peeking over at the wheelchair game.

"Those are super athletes," Russell commented. "They're out there doing stuff that they love and they're not letting a wheelchair hold them back. My hat goes off to them."

Championship game No. 1: Wheelin Jazz vs. Rancho

This game was as hard fought as the semifinal. Both teams showed why they were in the final game. Wheels clashed like blades of steel in a sword fight. Hands were smudged, blackened and calloused from two days of maneuvering, pushing and crashing on the sunbaked streets of LA.

At one point, one of the Rancho players took a spill on the blacktop. Russell went over to help him up, but was waved off as the Rancho player magically got back upright by himself.

The Wheelin' Jazz would take their last lead when Griffin pushed up from the left baseline, floated towards the free throw line and looked up to find Lathem open underneath for an easy lay up for a 10-9 Utah lead.

Rancho comes right back with a lob for a short baseline jumper to tie the game at 10-10.

Griffin misses a short shot and Rancho rebounds, runs a pick-and-roll left and finds the open man for the easy basket. Utah trails 11-10. Rancho gets the ball back again and calmly hit a right baseline jumper, and it's now 12-10.

Utah has one last chance, but a miscommunication between Griffin and Mangum results in a turnover and time runs out.

Championship Game No. 2: Wheelin' Jazz vs. Rancho

Griffin and the boys try to regroup in the shade of the medical tent next to their court. They tried to tweak their strategy from the previous game, but you can tell something is missing.

The Wheelin' Jazz started off slower than the semi-final and trail 11-5. Griffin tried to muster some energy and spark when he made three-straight points, cutting the lead to 11-8. Rancho hit another free throw before time ran out and defended its title by an 12-8 margin.

Lathem tried to sum up the their play after the game.

"As far as the tournament play went we had a great time, but it seemed that, as a team, the mood was flat Sunday morning and Rancho ended up getting us in the last two games," he said. "Losing is never fun, but hey, that's part of the game."

After the tournament, Russell marveled at the wheelchair division.

"They compete," he said. "Every last one out there, they compete. And win, lose or draw, they fight to the end." Russell also had some advice for today's current NBA players: "That's how the ones that are out of the wheelchair should play, like the ones in the wheelchair; because they have the hearts of a champion."

POSTGAME REACTION AND THE UTAH AIR

Scott Hanley is the VP of events for L.A. Live and AEG, which puts on the Nike 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. It's one of the few tournaments in the country that include a wheelchair division; and it doesn't charge an entry fee for the Wheelin' teams.

Hanley says, "As long as there's a division where people know how to play basketball, we'll put them in our tournament."

Hanley says the wheelchair division really adds to the community spirit of the tournament.

"Those guys play their hearts out. We expect them to grow in numbers," Hanley continues. "They're competitive and respectful to each other and they're really good. It's really fun to watch. And people like to go watch them as well because it's such a tremendous thing that they do."

Hanley also says next year he may have the wheelchair championship game on the main court with the rest of the tournament championships.

The mood is silent and thoughtful as the Wheelin' Jazz pack their bags, grab their everyday chairs and wheel back to the parking garage. With each push, the finality of the championship loss grows stronger.

They will return tired, sweaty and empty-handed.

Empty-handed except for the new blisters, harder callouses, blackened palms and scraped knuckles. It's been slightly more than 48 hours since they left Utah for their basketball summer camp. They started this journey in the midst of turmoil, with a hopeful mood and the dream of a 3-on-3 championship.

There's still no cure for second place.

The guys now have to navigate beach traffic on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to go pick up Mangum's wallet in Marina Del Rey. Then, they'll make their way back across L.A. County, another 32 miles east of downtown to Pomona. The camping spot still needs to be paid for, cleaned up and the camper hitched back up to the truck before they can even start the long trip home.

If they're lucky, they will only have to spend 12 hours on a voyage that makes paralyzed legs grow more numb. Was it all worth it?

"I'm having a blast," Mangum said. "I still think we should have tried to lose to those girls, so we'd have a lot more games, but we couldn't lose to them because they couldn't score."

Blakely agreed.

"It was awesome, (really) good. Its been fun, we've learned a lot. It's been awesome." But, is he ready to go back home?

"Yeah, I'm tired of California air, I'm ready for Utah air."

Griffin adds to the positives.

"I saw Sam actually do what he was asked to do to go in there and rebound and do what we asked him to do," he said. "Tyler was good. He always brings that fire. Layne is a solid (player). He's good. He definitely has some fire and he tries to motivate other people by shouting out and other things."

Lathem would definitely do the trip again. "The road trip down to L.A. was a great time with the guys all crammed in the truck. Layne was not messing around and made great time on the trip down and back."

MAKING GREAT TIME

3:01 A.M. MST

Instead of going to bed, Mangum goes and joins the conversation on Facebook about how fun the Nike 3-on-3 tournament was in Los Angeles: "Yes, it was," he posts. "Finally home. Hats off to Rancho. We'll get 'em next year."

Maybe that competitive fire after a long drive, means they didn't return home empty-handed. Maybe they returned, like Russell said, "with the heart of a champion."

That's what happens when you never give up and just don't quit. Randall Wade is the founder of the digital media site www.justdontquit.com which motivates people to chase their dreams through Sports & Entertainment storytelling on Digital, Social & Mainstream Media platforms; in English and Spanish.

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