Aloha,
It’s funny, I never feel like we are doomed when LeBron has to miss a game. Over the last 2 years we have won more than we have lost. It’s when AD had to miss a game that I panic.
While AD was AD, it really was DLO and Rui driving the win. This was reflected in plus minus AD was +4 but DLO was +29 and Rui was +31.
Yesterday was the first game this year that DLO has dominated. It happened a lot more last year. It was good to see and I hope this wakes him up.
As for Rui, this an example of what he can do when the team involves him in the offense. From an efficiency standpoint point it was one of his worst recently he was only 9 for 13. He missed 4 shots! And only 3 for 5 from 3! I’ll give him a break on one of the 3’s the ball was dumped off on him and he had to throw it towards rim to beat the shot clock.
I kid of course. I have been calling for Rui to get more touches because he is our most efficient scorer. And JJ said something in post that was surprising. He said that this was the first game since pre season that he drew up an ATO for Rui. And it was not just offense. Rui had 4 steals, a block and Grant didn’t score a point against him.
While I would like to see Rui more involved, we have enough weapons to get multiple players more involved. Sometimes I believe we force feed AD and LeBron too much. I would love to see a more balanced attack. We have a lot of days off coming up, maybe JJ can work on that.