Notorious D
The Raps don't play D, and that much has been made clear again this year. We've got better defensive players, just no team defence at this point. The Hawks were Brent Barry open vs. the Raps and it showed in their 50% + shooting. Of course our inability to box anybody out giving the Hawks free layups on their misses didn't really help either.The raps came out with a huge Bosh dunk, then went 0-7 and we never saw the lead again. It was one of those games where we get close, and then the other team hits the big shots to pull back away. Joe Johnson and Josh Smith had the answers for every run we put on, and that was that.
We played decent, but give Atlanta credit they played better. Open or not, they hit the shots, crashed the boards and stuck it to us.
Disturbing Trend
Garbajosa's inability to shoot has led to him passing when he should be shooting. Having brought the game to within 5, midway through the 4th, Garbajio got the ball wide open in Mo Pete's office and didn't even consider shooting. He stared down TJ, threw a turnover and whammo, breakaway layup, down 7 and then 9. That was the story of the game. Rumours have it that the Garbage man isn't exactly working through this rough patch, choosing not to stay after practice and get his shot going by actually practicing. A disturbing bit of news if my new favourite work horse turns out to be lazy.
Disturbing Trend 2
Is it too early to call TJ's 1 on 3 drives a 'trend'? No, it's not. He loves the 1 on any number of peole and much like a young Elvis Stojko, gets especially excited about shots with a high degree of difficulty. It's nice that he challenges himself with low percentage shots, so when the day comes he'll be ready. It's just too bad he does it during games. He's not half bad at crazy layups, it's just painful when he misses. How about a little more of the old 1 on 3, take all the defenders down low, DON'T SHOOT, and kick it out to wide open guys who just ran the floor with you? He started doing it a bit in the second half, but every point guard who is on a running team, a la Steve Nash, has got to have that in their playbook. Though TJ had good numbers, the Raps made most of their runs tonight with Calzone on the floor.
Great trend that isn't a trend that i wish were a trend...Josh Childress is a cross between the cover boy from NBA Street Vol 2. and Fletch. If you can grow and afro like that why wouldn't you? I would. Too much head shaving and not enough afro wearing. You can shave your head anytime, but one day that afro might prove elusive. Plus it's only a matter of time before David Stern goes all Steinbrenner on us and institutes mandatory hair styles.
Superstar on the rise? Joe Johnson just dominated us. Does this guy miss? He's actually looking like the guy Atlanta thought they signed last year. I'm surprised, but since he's on my fantasy team, i'm pleasantly surprised. Otherwise I couldn't care less. More some other day on what happens when your fantasy team plays your real team.
Play of the Game...the reverse alley oop. Not one but two. TJ to Bosh and Calzone to The Slam Dunk Champion. A couple of pretty reverse dunks that fired up the crowd and were both snuffed out by Atlanta's ability to score at will.
Nidbits and Nugents
Bosh had 17 rebounds and given nobody else goes to the glass, he might jus lead the league in rebounding this year.....Calzone was once again playing great ball when he was on the floor. A couple of brain farts, but he's certainly looking like the smartest point guard on our team.... Speaking of brain farts, Jack (Armstrong) was calling tonight's game along with Swirsky and he had me longing for Leo. "I think having Calzone and TJ on the floor would cause some real matchup problems for people". Huh? By people i can only assume he is talking about us. Let's see, two short, not tough, not long range shooters who play adequate defense at best on the floor at once. Yes, i could see how that would generate panick and confusion out there. At least he's not Rod Black. Remember those days? And can you believe Rod shaved his mustache!? Doesn't he know that guys who become famous with a mustache can never ever shave their stache?
Reality Quote of the Night...'We never, ever, put a string of stops together' - Chris Bosh
posted by WG @ 3:34 PM
3 Comments:
great blog. just wished it had come last night. ie right after the game. oh well.
You pretty much summed up the game pretty good. But what is TJ to do? When he kicks it out like you suggest we do, ala your example to Garbo and he doesn't take the wide open shot your choices are limited when trying to make things happen and come back. I would argue this is less a trend for TJ and more a reaction to the game situation.
As far as Garbo maybe a few extra shots in practice would help. I am hoping he turns it around soon or he will be riding the bench a lot this season.
TJ needs to keep on working it around. Right now he doesn't know who needs to get the ball where, so a few growing pains. A good default is Bosh. Parker has been hot and cold but he shoots open quality shots and everybody knows where Mo Pete's office is! I can't blame TJ for our shooting, but he's got to be the example! Remember the Mike James example? Twenty solo dribbles followed by 30 footers....at least we're getting better.
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