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A understandable Sacrifice

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Aloha,

I tuned into the game last night with no expectations. With our top 6 players sitting, this was clearly a schedule loss. It was the 6th game in 8 days, which is brutal and never done. Unfortunately, games had to be moved around because of the fires, leading to 3 straight back to backs. Guys were tired and a little banged up, so we sacrificed a potential win for health. And I agree with that. The good news is we may have a full squad for Saturday. With a lack of practice time, I think it’s important to play everyone against a subpar Bulls team as a tune up for a difficult road trip coming up.

Last night I watched, just to see how the remaining guys would play. While we did manage to hang around until the mid 3rd quarter due to defense, we struggled. One of the roster construction problems this team has is, we have 3 play makers on the roster and they all start. We don’t have a true backup point guard off the bench. And it showed. As much as I like Gabe, he isn’t a true point guard. I view him as an Avery Bradley type. A Bulldog on defense that can hit some shots. He is not a play maker. And it showed last night in the poor quality looks that we were getting. That was disappointing.

I was also disappointed in Dalton. While he scored 17, most of those points came after the game was decided. He actually went 1 for 8 on 2 point attempts which killed us. And Goody, while he gave his normal all out effort, he also wasn’t hitting shot.

There were bright spots. Morris played well. He had a plus 7, the only plus on the team. Jax was okay, with 9 points and 5 boards in only 16 minutes. Len actually played pretty well with 10 points and 9 boards in 17 minutes. Defensively, I think he held up well against Lopez.

But the star of the night was Bronny. 17 points on 7-10 shooting and 5 assists. And that one long pass to Morris was straight out of his Dad’s playbook. I occasionally watch the South Bay Lakers and I have seen him grow as the season has progressed. His confidence has soared and he was usually the best player on the court for either team. It was great to see that confidence translate to the varsity. What you saw last night is exactly how he has looked in the G league for the last couple of months. With the way he works, I can possibly see him breaking into the rotation at some point as early as next year. While he was the 55th pick, he is looking like a player taken much higher.

The good news is that even with all the injuries and the hellish schedule we are still sitting in the 4th seed with tie breakers over everyone in the top 8 with exception of the Rockets and we have 2 left with them. Even with a difficult remaining schedule, if we remain healthy the rest of the way, this team could still realistically finish 2nd. I think sacrificing one game for that was worth it.