The Erie BayHawks are scheduled to play two preseason games in a six-team jamboree hosted by the Texas Legends this weekend.

A week away from their Nov. 23 season opener at Fort Wayne, the BayHawks play Tulsa today and defending D-League champion Austin on Saturday. Both games are scheduled to start at 5 p.m. EST.

The BayHawks have 13 players on their training camp roster. The D-League affiliate of the New York Knicks must get its roster down to 10 by Nov. 21.

Rookie guard Jeremy Green is averaging 7.1 points in 19 games for the Erie BayHawks this season. Photo by Janet B. Kummerer/Erie Times-News

This D-League playoff series will end in his hometown.

After Thursday night’s Game 1 at Tullio Arena, Erie BayHawks rookie Jeremy Green will return home for Game 2 of this best-of-3 series against the Austin Toros.

Game 3, if necessary, will be in Austin where Green grew up. So out of all the BayHawks, Green was probably the happiest Austin chose Erie as its first-round opponent.

“I was actually excited,” Green said. “Austin is a good team. That’s where I’m from. Everyone around the city goes to watch the Toros. It should be interesting with me coming back there as a visitor instead of cheering for the home. It should be fun.”

Out of Stanford, Green expects family and friends to attend Game 2 and Game 3 if necessary.

“It should be a pretty nice homecoming,” Green said.

No booing the hometown boy now.

“Austin is good city,” Green said smiling. ” Good fans. I don’t think there will be any booing or anything like that, but it should be fun.”

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Gerald Green will make his debut with the Los Angeles D-Fenders in tonight’s D-League game against the Erie BayHawks at 7 at Tullio Arena.

The 2007 NBA Slam Dunk Champion was waived by the Los Angeles Lakers in training camp this month, but joined the D-Fenders through the D-League’s allocation rule which allows D-League teams to acquire up to three players waived from their NBA affiliates.

I talked with Green, 25, after today’s shootaround about being with the D-League, playing for former NBA coach Eric Musselman and what the 6-8, 200-pound forward expects in today’s 7 p.m. game.

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Former BayHawk Maureece Rice will make his Sioux Falls' debut against his former team Friday night at Tullio Arena.

Sioux Falls Skyforce (2-12) at Erie BayHawks (11-6)

Friday, 7 p.m., Tullio Arena.
▀  On the air: WFNN-AM 1330; www.nba.com/dleague/

Players to watch
▀  Erie — PF Ivan Johnson (Leads team in scoring at 17.1 points a game. Johnson is the only player on the team to start every game the BayHawks have played this season. … C Solomon Alabi (A rookie with the Toronto Raptors, Alabi is making his second trip to the D-League. In his first run with the BayHawks, Alabi averaged 8.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and three blocks in seven starts. … SG Blake Ahearn (Had a season-high 16 points in his third game with Erie after being reacquired by them. He averaged 25.7 points in 13 games with the BayHawks last season).

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Latavious Williams is jumping from high school to the D-League.

Huh?

In the past, guys went straight from high school to the NBA, but now a player must attend college at least for one year or have their graduating class be out of school a year to enter the NBA draft.

So Williams, who is from Starkville, Miss., is in the D-League draft pool for Thursday’s draft. He’s the first player to go from high school to the D-League. He finished his prep career at Christian Life Center Academy in Humble, Texas.

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Nearly a week after being released by the Erie BayHawks, point guard Cliff Clinkscales was picked out of the D-League player pool by the Rio Grande Vipers on Monday.

Wasn’t surprised by this at all.

The Rio Grande Vipers picked up point guard Cliff Clinkscales nearly a week after the Erie BayHawks released him to bring back shooting guard Oliver Lafayette, who had been out since Feb. 11 with a broken left hand.

The Erie BayHawks released Clinkscales Tuesday and the Vipers gobbled up the 6-foot 1-inch, 165-pound rookie from DePaul out of the player pool Monday.

The irony of all this is the Cleveland Cavaliers were an NBA affiliate of the Vipers last season. This season, the Cavaliers are one of Erie’s two NBA affiliates.

The Vipers are mathematically in playoff contention, but with a 19-25 record, the odds are against them to make it. Then again, they are just four games out of the eighth and final playoff spot Albuquerque currently holds with six games remaining.

Clinkscales will certainly help the Vipers make that final playoff push. Now he’s not a good 3-pointer shooter (21.4 percent from behind the arc), but he can make clutch shots.

However, his strength is breaking down defenses off the dribble, protecting the ball, running an offense and finding the open man. Clinkscales leads in the D-League in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.02-to-1).

His first game for the Vipers will be Wednesday at Utah.

One thing is for sure. The weather is much warmer in McAllen, Texas than Erie.