Aloha,
The road trip is over and 5-1 is a very good result. While it wasn’t always pretty, a 6 game roady with 2 back to backs does not lend itself to perfection.
LeBron and AD have both ramped up their games and are playing at a high level. When those two play like this we always have a chance.
Darvin’s handling of Rui still baffles me. He scored 19 on 9 for 12 shooting with 7 boards in 27 minutes. 7 less than any other starter. He was a plus 21and played some good defense. He was generally off the floor when the Wiz made their runs. I just don’t get it.
If we are going to make any noise in the playoffs we will need more production from the 2nd unit. I think Darvin will need to mix up the rotations some and stop having say 4 reserves with one star.
Vando is working out and could be available for the last couple of games. While that’s good news, I think it could be a while before he could give us quality minutes.
At one point we were 25 and 25 in the 9th seed. Now we are 44 and 33 in the 9th seed. Pretty frustrating.
I still think it’s possible to get out of the 9th spot. If we can win our last 5 we might have a shot at the 6th. And the scenarios are not a stretch. The Pels would need to go 4 and 2 and the Kings 4 and 3. Both have key injured players with some tough games coming up. The Kings have a very tough back to back against the Celtics and Knicks. Hoping the Celtics don’t start resting their stars yet. As for the Suns they also would need to go 4 and 2. They also have a tough schedule. They got a little lucky when they played the Nuggets without Murray. It only takes one of the 3 to slip to get out of the 9th. That is if we keep winning.
Love to have 6th or such, but Playin is a must.
That’s pretty much a lock DJ. We would have to go 0 and 5 and the Rockets would have to go 7-0 for us to miss the play in.
Hopin!
Great points, Michael. I hope AR can get his mojo back. I still believe the logical move to make once Vando is ready is to move AR to the bench to get more scoring and playmaking there and replace Austin with Vando at shooting guard, where he will have a similar advantage to what Rui gets at the three. I believe that will be the change we make once Vando is ready.
Thanks Tom,
I’m not sure when Vando would be ready for that role. if somehow we could secure the 6th spot, that would give him 6 days before the playoffs start. thats why its so important for us to continue to win.
We need to stay with the starting lineup we have until Vando is ready to play starter minutes. Decision will likely depend on how well Reaves is playing and how the bench is doing.
There’s a strong argument that we need Vando’s defense in the starting lineup and Reaves scoring and playmaking off the bench.
Vanderbilt cannot shoot, or handle the ball. Inserting him in at guard (shooting guard) would put added pressure on the other 4 players and defenses would surely put their weakest defender on him.
In the NBA, you can play any position you can defend. Vando is going to be defending shooting guards and wings. He’s not going to replace LeBron or AD or Rui imo. He either replaces DLO or AR. AR did well coming off the bench.
When or if it happens will obviously depend on whether Vando is ever ready to play and how the team and Reaves and the bench are doing at that point. My guess is we stick with the starting lineup we have.
Queue yet another harebrained idea. When it doesn’t work, it’ll be conveniently forgotten. Problem is you can’t decide which you’re more enamored with: three point chucking or rangy bigs who can switch on D. Here’s a quick clue, Vando will not stop any top-notch guard they’ll face after yet another log injury layoff.
It all depends on which Vando we get. The one who recently got injured was playing exactly how we need him to play. Hitting his shots, crashing the boards, and playing great POA defense. Unless Vando can be that player, we’re better to stick with our current starting lineup and rotation.
Wherever we end up seeding-wise it’s the way we’re playing that matters most.
Other than the Indy game we were solid and that was a PJ penciled loss if ever there was one.