Aloha,
What fun, exciting and at times frustrating game. On a night when 4 rotations players were not available our much ballyhooed depth was on full display.
Cam was thrust into the starting 5 and delivered. While he had trouble scoring his defense was impressive. Hopefully he can straighten out his shot moving forward.
Max was kind of the same. After playing one minute this year he became part of the rotation. His shot wasn’t falling either but he played some solid defense.
A lot is being made of the minutes LeBron had to play. But last night those minutes were born from necessity. With 3 forwards down against a very good team, he had to play big minutes and he came through with a vintage LeBron game.
AD continues to dominate. He has had one bad half in 5 games. His over all game may have him in the MVP conversation if he manages to stay healthy. DPOY is his for the taking.
I was upset by the rotation in the 1st quarter but Coach Ham made a brilliant move in the 3rd quarter. With Kawahi resting he went with all 3 centers and it exposed what could be a Clipper weakness going forward. Lack of depth and size. PJ Tucker is a gutsy player but offensively he was an easy cover for Wood and at 6’ 5” he was just too small. Hayes handled the centers. And of course having your AD being able to guard PG is a luxury. We went on a run while LeBron rested. We probably won’t see that line up much but under the right circumstances it’s powerful.
Welcome back Austin. He made his season debut At exactly the right time in the 2nd half.
Could DLO become our long coveted 3rd star? His defense has improved and if he can come even close offensively to what he has done the last 2 games he could be. He showed off his high IQ all night, especially against the Clippers zone where he found soft spots for 3 easy hoops.
Can we not fall down by double digits in the first quarter? Asking for a friend. Oh we may want to spend more time practicing free throws. A lot of misses and 3 for 6 down the stretch gifted that overtime session to the Clippers.
All in all it was a great short handed win against a quality team. But the true test of our depth will come when either LeBron or AD are unable to play. Hopefully that will not happen often this year.
Good stuff Michael, I think DLo has come into this season with the perfect mentality. His scoring was zone busting last night as he slithered into every crevice, wormed his way to the hoop and just played stellar ball night. Everyone is still finding some mojo, One thing left unsaid so far is how the team is, to a man, pulling for one another. Great to see that this early.
Thanks Jamie. I agree. While the team may still be figuring out how to play together, the teams bond seems to be ahead of the curve.