Showing posts with label Game recaps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game recaps. Show all posts

Friday, October 29, 2010

Erebody PANIC!!!

Ok, don't panic yet. It's only 1 or 2 games in and two teams seem to stick out as "in trouble". Perhaps because they both got housed last night, but both the 'Zards and the Jazz have their fans in this position:



I'm going to try and talk you back onto the ledge.

Wizards - Much like the Heat on opening night, it's hard to imagine them starting out in a game which will make them look worse. As Assani pointed out, the Wizards were 13.5 point underdogs so them getting blown out is not exactly a surprise. Further, against a good defensive team (which the Magic surely are) the absence of Arenas is only more magnified as he's the only guy who's truly dangerous against a set defense. Wall isn't there yet, as seen by the Magic's willingness to give him every 18 footer he wanted. Blatche is Blatche and neither McGee nor Hinrich are creators. Further, Washington finishing the season with a "mediocre but not wretched" record won't be determined by their record at Orlando, Miami, Boston and the Lakers - those are games that aren't realistically winnable for the Non-Impressive Nine at the bottom end of the Eastern conference. So while the manner of the loss was certainly disheartening for the Wiz, it's still just one loss in a game they were never going to win anyway.

Jazz - Unfortunately for the Jazz, they've looked really bad, twice. And have done so against two of the Western teams many thought most primed for declines in Phoenix and Denver. However, it might not quite be that bad. Jefferson and Millsap have the makings of a nice pairing and if Okur can give anything (especially floor spacing) when he returns those three (along with whatever minutes Kirilenko gives them at the 4) comprise a pretty solid, if somewhat defensively deficient, big man rotation. No, Utah's problems lay on the perimeter. Deron was a little nicked up in the preseason, as well as missing some time with "personal issues" whatever that means, and it shows, as he is not making shots and not looking totally in sync. Raja Bell is somewhere between zombified and mummified at the moment, though one has to imagine that he won't shoot this badly for the entire season. CJ Miles is a trainwreck. Gordon Hayward is probably their lone bright spot on the wings thus far as he looks an actual NBA player. But he's raw and suspect defensively against quick players.

So where is the optimism? Well, Deron will get better. Hayward will get his legs and start to take Miles' minutes. Bell will either be better or out of the rotation, as Ronnie Price is probably a better option if Bell is as done as he looks. (In fact Price would provide the added benefit of allowing Deron to guard 2 guards which is a better matchup for him vs. most teams due to his size and strength.) And perhaps there might even be a move to be made for a quality wing player. Rip Hamilton's name has been mentioned, though his awful contract makes that less likely. Another possibility might be Lou Williams, as Philly has 2 too many wing players demanding minutes at the moment. Maybe even someone like Bill Walker, who appears to be out of favor in New York? Or, you know, keep $30million Man Wes Matthews...

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Day 2 According to Dschmeidreu

Or, as we like to call him, Brittany's BF:
NBA Headlines Night 2

For the lazy donks who don't want to NBA or go on yahoo to read recaps

1. Rose sucks at defense
2. Monta Ellis loves to shoot the ball.......a lot......and play absurd minutes
3. lol boston
4. Brook Lopez all star for sure one time
5. CLEVELAND could make the playoffs?! Interesting
6. Horford blows
7. Poor houston........team has a ton of potential though, but like, how about some defense? Allowed average of 122 points in their first 2 games
8. Blake Griffin = all star Clippers = still going to suck
9. AARON AFFALO
10. Parker/Duncan/GINOBLIIIII/Jefferson looking like the Big 4?


That's about the size of it.

Random Day One Overreactions

1) The Celtics are who we thought they were. They are going to defend. They are going to knock people on their asses. Unfortunately, they are also going to keep teams in games especially if Doc continues to give us more of the "oh shit" lineups with which he opened the 4th quarter (Rondo/Nate/Queesy/FFD/JoN) - they were one Ilgauskas questionably moving screen away from only being up 3 in a game they had more or less dominated.

2) Relatedly, as bad as Miami played last night (and it was really, really, bad. Everybody point and laugh at Chris Bosh, "superstar"), they were still right there because Lebron is just that good, and once Wade gets his sea legs, even good teams are going to have to play better than the Celtics did last night to get it done.

3) That said, the Heat made the cromagnon offense Mike Brown ran in Cleveland look revolutionary. And their interior defense is...not good. Again, everyone laugh at Bosh as the "anchor" of a defense. This team has holes, and unfortunately for them, those holes play very much into the hands of the other top teams (Magic, Celtics, Lakers). It's very possible that they are good enough in other areas to overcome this, but a lot of the "crown their ass" type stuff from the preseason will hopefully subside a bit.

4) Moving on to other games, Nic Batum! My man. Also according to BlazerNation, Wes Matthews justified the entire $30 million of his contract in one night. He was that good! Blazers 82-0!!!!111one!1!1!

5) Adelman needs to do a better job of managing Yao's mythical 24 minutes so that he isn't done with 7 minutes to go. Though to be fair to Adelman, it's possible he did it that way because Yao was A) in foul trouble; B) a foulbox so he was just going to play him until the inevitable hackfest. Houston's gunner guards (Martin and Lee, looking at you) should also probably recognize that 19 foot pull-ups with 16 on the shot clock are pretty bad shots when Yao is on the floor.

6) LakerFan continues to make my head asplode. Let the overrating of Shannon Brown, superstar, commence. That said, Steve Blake was a truly massive pickup for them. Even aside from the game winner (that pass was 147% intended for Pau, btw), the viable "gee, let's just let our PG torch Derek Fisher's corpse" has been taken off the table for an end of game strategy. Even though Fisher is going to keep his starting job, Phil Jax has already signalled that Blake is probably his finisher against teams with dynamic PGs.

What did everyone else think?