Aloha,
When a magic traded DLO for a salary dump I thought it was a bad idea. Yes he was immature but you could see the kid had talent. Then Magic compounded that error by drafting Lonzo over Tatum, the staffs choice. Magic has admitted it was a mistake but now we have DLO without the growing pains, entering his prime. I have feeling that DLO isn’t going anywhere this summer. We may have found the perfect 3rd star without the salary or baggage that Kyrie would bring. DLO was our closer with 18 in the 2nd half and put the game away with some huge threes. He is the kind of player that can keep us a float when one of our often injured superstars are out.
Still, he doesn’t get my game ball. That goes to the 2nd unit. The reason the Raptors are struggling to make the playoffs was on full display last night. In a word their 2nd unit sucks. Their starters play more minutes then any other starting unit in the league. However I can’t recall anything as lopsided as the 61 to 12 advantage we had last night. Just look at this
Dennis +32
Austin +26
Rui + 21
Gabriel + 19
That’s outrageous. Even more so when you consider all of starters had a minus with the exception of DLO. And when LeBron comes back Troy will be moving to the bench, giving us even more depth. Lonnie didn’t even get in and he’s a pretty good player.
That 3 guard line up of Austin, DLO and Dennis that closed the game, worked like a charm. And when AD came back in, it was over for the Raptors. Their entire defensive scheme revolved around sending 2 or 3 guys at AD, leaving holes all over the place and we took full advantage of that in the last 5 minutes. And having AD and Vandy on the back line made up for some of the height advantage that the Raptors had.
Even though we are only a game out of the 6th seed, it’s not going to be a cake walk getting there without LeBron. But if we are healthy and whole going into the playoffs, this team may surprise the world thanks to the roster Additions and what could be the deepest bench in the NBA.
Great post, MIchael. I concur with game ball to bench but I would also give Dlo a game ball. That 4th quarter was Kobe-esque. Like LeBron said: “Man, I love this team.”
We have a rea shot to win 11 or 12 of our last 15 games and to make the 5th or 6th seed. Just keep winning. Tomorrow’s game is important. You know Thibbs is going to try to shut down AD too. Need to see Ham come out with some great counters.
Right now, I would bring everybody back on this team, including Beasley. We could swap out Beasley and the pick for a true 3&D wing or quality backup center but this team is full of keepers. Just need a training camp and a couple of upgrades.
As happy as I have been about this team since the trade deadline, I am hurting we are not finding minutes for Lonnie Walker. Am feeling very disappointed. I am also very disappointed that we will not get a chance to see what Mo Bamba’s addition could produce because of his untimely injury.