Lee
Hall-of-Famer
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2005
- Messages
- 41,291
- Reaction score
- 62,317
- Points
- 148
Having your athletic 7 foot power forward make all 5 of his last 3 point attempts kind of helps open things up, lol
Nothing wrong with earning a close win. Blowing out every one every nite has a cost. Having a little reality thrown at you by a lower tier team is ok to meThat was close. You could see the Wizards were sick of getting embarrassed by the Cavs - they were playing hard on both ends. Fortunately Donovan carried us to another win with a line of 40/8/5. Just an extraordinary player with a relentless will to win.
The Cavs were down 90-88 with 9.5 minutes to go and went on a 13-5 run, holding the Wizards to 5 points in the next 6.5 minutes. They won with defense and Mitchell on a night where the open 3's weren't falling.
Niang and Garland played like crap for the most part. Niang was being abused defensively. Garland needs more time. He was 4-for-12 from the field with 3 turnovers.
The Wizards' bench lost this one. Omoruyi and Coulibaly were -19 and -17 in 13 and 28 minutes. Kispert played a great game with 23 points and 7 rebounds in 33 minutes on 9-for-15. Gafford was a +11 with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks. He was playing like his life depended on it. The Wizards were -19 in the 13 minutes he was down.
Mobley was huge with 22 points on just 10 shots (9-for-10) and 8 rebounds with great defense. He also hit both his 3-point attempts. Allen was having a tough time with Gafford (12 points, 9 rebounds) so Mobley was very important to get this win.
Allen and Mitchell played 37 and 38 minutes, which won't help us against Brooklyn tomorrow. I was hoping for an easy win with the subs playing the whole 4th quarter, but the Wizards were determined to make the Cavs earn it. Fortunately, Kuzma finally started missing shots late in the 3rd quarter. He had 28 points with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and that's all he got.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but Evan went 0 for 1 from deep in Monday‘s Kings victory sandwiched between the 3 for 3 and 2 for 2 efforts. Oh, and much better spelling today.Having your athletic 7 foot power forward make all 5 of his last 3 point attempts kind of helps open things up, lol
Not a debby downer, didnt catch the one miss....5 for last 6 is still very good.Not to be a Debbie Downer, but Evan went 0 for 1 from deep in Monday‘s Kings victory sandwiched between the 3 for 3 and 2 for 2 efforts. Oh, and much better spelling today.
After the game Garland admitted he is still working on getting back to his previous level of play after missing six weeks and he's also adjusting to the new style of play. As we go forward he should get better by the week if not by the game.
Mobley's 3-point shooting is a potentially huge development if he can keep it up. I don't mean keep hitting 5 for 6, but if he can hit 40% it would really help open up the floor.
Niang is really struggling at the moment after a strong January. He's made 4 of his last 25 attempts from deep and teams are going right at him as soon as he steps on the floor (and having success).
Dean Wade, OTOH, hit 45.9% of his 3's in January and is at 40% after four games in Feb. He also plays defense about eight levels above Niang, in fact, he has the 5th best defensive rating in the NBA among players with 25 games or more. Niang gets targeted and abused defensively due to slow feel and lack of length and jumping ability.
With Mobley back and Wade playing elite level defense and hitting 40% from deep, I don't see many (if any) minutes for Niang. JBB is showing him respect and playing him equal minutes with Wade at the moment, but at some point JBB will just have to decide who is the better player rather than giving each of them 17-18 minutes and even less as Mobley's minute restriction is lifted.
Niang & Strus coming in was always going create a minutes log jam. That's why I was surprised that at least one of Okoro, Wade or LeVert wasn't moved in the off-season (or even at the trade deadline). Its ended up being a huge benefit for the team this season with all the injuries, but, with everyone healthy, we are back to having more quality players than we have minutes to play them. It's kind of nuts to have two guys as productive as LeVert and Wade only get 13 & 12 minutes last night - and that's with 3 starters logging under 30. If we remain at full strength, JBB is going to have some hard decisions to make. He could stick with this 10 man rotation and play his starters less minutes - this probably makes the bench happy but it hurts the starters' stats. He could stay with the 10 many rotation, play his starters 32-35 minutes, and give short stints to the bench - this probably makes his stars happy but pisses off his bench players. Or he could go back to the 8-9 man rotation and have a couple of agents demanding a trade in the off season. I honestly don't know what is best, but I think I'd lean toward option 1 and try to sell the stars that it is to their benefit to play less now and be fresher for the post-season.After the game Garland admitted he is still working on getting back to his previous level of play after missing six weeks and he's also adjusting to the new style of play. As we go forward he should get better by the week if not by the game.
Mobley's 3-point shooting is a potentially huge development if he can keep it up. I don't mean keep hitting 5 for 6, but if he can hit 40% it would really help open up the floor.
Niang is really struggling at the moment after a strong January. He's made 4 of his last 25 attempts from deep and teams are going right at him as soon as he steps on the floor (and having success).
Dean Wade, OTOH, hit 45.9% of his 3's in January and is at 40% after four games in Feb. He also plays defense about eight levels above Niang, in fact, he has the 5th best defensive rating in the NBA among players with 25 games or more. Niang gets targeted and abused defensively due to slow feel and lack of length and jumping ability.
With Mobley back and Wade playing elite level defense and hitting 40% from deep, I don't see many (if any) minutes for Niang. JBB is showing him respect and playing him equal minutes with Wade at the moment, but at some point JBB will just have to decide who is the better player rather than giving each of them 17-18 minutes and even less as Mobley's minute restriction is lifted.