A friend of mine said to me this morning -- albeit after a rough night out --, "Way to make a blog that hurts some one's feelings and get people visiting it". This was after I told him that I had 27 new visitors to this site yesterday. To be honest the jury is of course still out on this. I could become bored of it pretty quickly and just shut it down. But for now I will continue to critique SM's decisions.
Now onto last night's game.
I was happy to see that Jorge "Kramer" Garbajosa -- thank you Chuck -- was in the starting lineup to start last nights game against the Nuggets. He definitely adds more offence and mobility to the starting lineup and he of course works very hard on defence. I would also like to mention that SM made a good decision to switch to the 3-2 zone during the game. It confused the Nuggets offence for a while. But here's the thing with the zone, when you are defending against a good perimeter shooting lineup you can't stick with it. You need to give them many looks of defence, especially when the Nuggets were shooting like they were last night.
I would like to question the decision not to play Calderon much last night. Fred "Every one of my shots feels like it's going in" Jones was on fire in the first half, but went stone cold in the second. Instead of maybe going small with a back-court of Ford and Calderon -- which would have matched up fine against a Boykins-Miller back-court -- He stayed with the cold shooting Jones. I do recognize that Mo-Pete had a sore elbow last night and he therefore couldn't pull Jones for Mo, but come on, he could have at least tried something else. Calderon only played 9 minutes last night. He has been stellar this season and deserves much more playing time that that. It's hard to get into the flow of the game when you only get to play 9 combined minutes during the game.
Rebounding again was a huge issue last night. You don't win games in any league getting out-rebounded by 21. I just don't understand, we were supposed to be a better rebounding team this year. I have no idea what the issue is, it's basic basketball, box-out your man ie. get between your man and the basket and seal him when someone shoots. They have talent that I believe can rebound they just choose not to. Aside from Bosh and Kramer no one took their rebounding assignments seriously last night. It's ridiculous when your big men off the bench give you 3 rebounds in 22 minutes. Maybe SM can talk to Dennis Rodman or Shawn Kemp about coming in to give the team a hand. I hear they're looking for work.
On a bright note - Congrats to T.J. Ford on his Carear High 18 dimes last night.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
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2 comments:
Bang on man! Look forward to reading more.
I whole heartedly agree with the use of the zone defense, things need to be mixed up. If only Earl Boykins played the entire game, and continued being shot happy.
Garbajosa did have a breakout game, which is nice to finally see, although again, he can muscled down by bigger men in the post. I agree with keeping Fred Jones in rather than Calderon. Although he was putting up shots like his name was Mike James (who?) it was in the flow of the game. As well, Calderon is not a shooter, putting him at the 2, for any amount of time, would be a damage to the offense. It would create redundancy on the floor with both Ford and Calderon, and Ford was playing a helluva a game. Shooters get out of funks by shooting, and unfortunately Jones did not get out of his funk, nor did Parker continue his strong shooting on this West Coast trip. It seems we have "depth", but there were just too many people cold last night to overcome the deficit. In terms of rebounding, I think with the different philosophy of a run and gun offense, they are leaking out more. I remember last year when there were deficiencies, it was a gang mentality of everyone stay back until you could secure the rebound. It is my opinion they will get out rebounded most of the time, and that is just the nature of their style. Is it good? no. Is it entertaining on the offensive end? yes. but entertainment doesn't necessarily equal wins, so SM is still on a leash, although i don't think he will be gone anytime soon.
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