Aloha,
On a night when we shot the worst percentage of the season, we caught a glimpse of what this team can become. We had 21 offensive rebounds, 11 steals and forced a total of 20 turnovers. Our size and length on the defensive end is going to be a problem for a lot teams moving forward.
Vando, Cam and Rui are all coming back from injury, but with AD as the defensive anchor once this group can gets a few games together, the size they represent will lead to more games like last night.
I understand that Beal is still out, but even with him, we match up very well with the Suns. They have no answer for LeBron and AD. They are also a relatively a small team that has difficulty with our long wings. They also do not have a point guard. Booker is a tremendous shooting guard but he couldn’t hold up against taller defenders that can stay with him. He just was unable to run the offense effectively.
While we are not a great shooting team, we are not that bad. It’s good to know that we can win on even the worst night with a smothering defense that will only get better as they have more reps together as a unit.
The defense we’ve seen in the last two games is going to be a monster difference maker for the Lakers. Our size and length is really shrinking the court for the other team.
While I joined in the criticism of Ham’s rotations and love for Prince, I have to give Darvin props for how well the team played defensively. The guys obviously love Ham and play their hearts out for him.
The thing that impressed me most Tom, how connected we were defensively with Vando, Rui and a lesser extent Cam just getting back. I expect it to get better as guys get a few more games in.
#1 defense by 5 points over #2 defense the last 2 games.