camakazee
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Yea dude, losing at home against the Bulls is meaningless.
I understand your sarcasm, but in the grand scheme of things, yeah it pretty much is.
A few weeks into last season the Los Angeles Lakers lost at home by 11 to the Detroit Pistons, a team that barely salvaged an eight seed. They would go on to lose three more home games to the Bobcats, Magic, and Hornets.
I'm not trying to compare the two teams, but if the Lakers were panicking over a November home loss to a so-so Central division team in terms of what it meant for their playoff and championship aspirations then shame on them (I mean the team; I'm sure their fans, like ours, were somewhat panicky). The thing is, until Mike Brown finds something that works and sticks with it, it's going to be a rough ride. Anyone who saw this three game win streak where we won by double digits all three games and thought "oh, just like last year's start!" and expected a 9 game winning streak was foolish. That's like comparing a rally in today's stock market to one in the 1990's and predicting an economic boom.
The truth is, this is a different team. No, I don't just mean Shaq, we have guys playing different roles besides him. Parker went from a starter on one team to another. Z is coming off of the bench for the first time since 2002. Varejao is entering his first full season as the starting power forward. Delonte West is adjusting to coming off the bench, looking to be that energy guy in Varejao's absence. Jamario Moon, who has started for two different teams in the past two years not only knows he won't get the chance to start, but now knows he might not even play some nights! The point is, this team needs to gel, mesh, click, hell whatever cliche you want to use before we get back to being a top 3 NBA team. The pieces are there, the puzzle simply needs assembled.
And the burden of this puzzle rests on Mike Brown's shoulders. He needs to utilize all of our pieces instead of just sticking to what is presently working or what he thinks will work (e.g. the Twin Towers lineup). Until then, expect ugly losses. But don't buckle and lose faith because of them.
My biggest concern tonight was the effort of the ballclub. No intensity and no real attempt to attack the hoop outside of Shaq and first-quarter LeBron. Also, as sharp as LeBron looked being the one to defend their big that was setting the pick and pop, why was this not defended by him the entire fourth quarter? Or at least the last five minutes? One possession? We need to bring that defensive intensity the entire game and entire fourth quarter--not just when we're down 6 with 2:30 to go.
Like I said, it's going to be a bumpy ride for another month or two. But this team will start to work together. Just expect growing pains along the way (remember, last year's team really had only one new addition--Mo). Oh, and speaking of Mo, if I was him I wouldn't be able to look my teammates in the eyes after tonight's performance. That is all.