A few thoughts

Aloha,

This was kind of a weird game. We dominated more than the score would indicate, even when we led by 18. We just missed a lot of easy shots. AD missed his first 6. All good looks. But in defense of the shooting, it has been a while since I saw so many in and outs or balls rolling around the rim. As Chick would say on his night, Heartbrrrreak.

Even though it took AD a while for his shots to fall, his campaign for DPOY rolled on. 5 more blocks to go with his 14 boards. And if there was a stat for altered shots he would lead in that stat as well. I know he would prefer the 4, but Darvin is a smart coach. He won’t do that. When someone is the best defensive center in the league, you don’t move him.

Max Christie is growing up before our eyes. The 3 for 3 from three was nice, but it’s on defense where he has shined. The last thing that comes to young NBA players is defense but Max at only 20 is way ahead of the curve. He is making a case for playing even after we are at full strength.

We saw playoff Austin for a quarter last night and that’s all we needed. 15 points in the quarter and a tremendous amount of energy on both sides of the ball is what drove our comeback and win. Now if he can just start making his 3’s.

Speaking of 3’s, Prince seems to have found his stroke again. He is 11 for 20 over his last 4 games. If the rest of our current players shoot as well as they have proven they can, we will be all right.

LeBron is playing amazing basketball in year 21. And that 360 spinning lay up was just ridiculous. But there are two areas I wish he could clean up. Turnovers have been a real problem this year. He had 5 of the teams 9 las night. Perhaps this an effect of aging, maybe his reflexes are not keeping up with his vision. But he makes a lot of WTF turnovers. He also needs to be shooting better than 69% from free throw line.

On a night he didn’t shoot well DLO did other things. He had 7 assists and 5 steals in 24 minutes. His D has been visibly better this year but last night he looked like a defensive stopper.

Vando came back last night. He played 14 minutes. While he didn’t score he played smothering D and had 4 boards. Paired with Cam who always seems to be everywhere on defense and AD allowing them to be even more aggressive, the skies the limit for this team.

Evidently they decided to hold Rui out one more game, even though he dressed. I think that was the right move. He didn’t even make the road trip after the surgery. It now gives him until Tuesday to find his rhythm.

I fear Wood might be out of the rotation soon. He only 11 minutes, most of that was in garbage time.
He is not a very good defender but his offense was supposed to make up for it. But with the exception of a couple of games that hasn’t happened. He is shooting 26% from 3 and only 46% overall which isn’t good for a big. If he is not going to score Hayes might end up getting the minutes when AD rests .And Rui can cover Lebron’s rest minutes.
Hopefully his shot will come around soon.

We have the Suns next and it’s huge that we will have both Vando and Cam available to throw at Booker and AD. When we play top heavy teams like the Suns the bench really becomes important. And with players back our bench will be stronger then it’s been all season.