Player of the Game (11/25/08)

[nate33]

Blatche's numbers extrapolated over 40 minutes:
33 points
16 boards
7 assists
7 blocks
3 steals

That's like a prime Hakeem Olajuwon having one of his career best games.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Blatche's overall floor game was just out of this world.

In addition to hitting shots and hustling, there was only one time he brought the ball up the court and he soon gave it up to AJ... and no weak behind the back stuff.

He mostly played within himself... he'll be up and down, but if he can consistently simplify (his decision making, his footwork and his stroke), he'll be so much better than he has been.

[Tiago]

Easily:

1 - Blatche
2 - Butler
3- Jamison

[doclinkin]

Blatche.

Heck I was happy to see him actually dunk the ball, at all, instead of trying to finesse it in with an old school up/down dipsy-do now-ya-see-it-now-ya-don't flying finger roll deally. There's only one Antawn Jamison in the league, the soft stuff is generally not reliable. Jump up there, put your nads on someones shoulder and bring the thunder. Pls thx.

In the category of 'first you win, then you get good', and operant conditioning: a game like this is the best positive reinforcement to get the kid to want to give good effort all the time. He had success playing fierce and now collects accolades, that goes a looong way to helping you WANT to go to the weight room early, get in the extra conditioning etc. Sometimes that taste is all it takes.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

Gotta go Blatche. Just seeing him hustling and playing passionately won it for him. I had a pretty heated debate with a friend who thought Blatche was more promising a prospect than Lemonhead, and my big knock on him was he never plays with the intelligence and passion McGee is already showing as a rook. But I'm hoping last night was an epiphany.

And hopefully this is just the beginning of some of our young guys really blossiming under Ed, I'm hoping the fact he was our player development guy and he knows their games inside and out means he'll be able to put them in the position to succeed.

[Halcyon]

Blatche
Butler
Jamison

[MJG]

Random note: Blatche's PER jumped six full points between yesterday morning and today. Yes, it was a good game.

[dobrojim]

Blatche.

Heck I was happy to see him actually dunk the ball, at all, instead of trying to finesse it in with an old school up/down dipsy-do now-ya-see-it-now-ya-don't flying finger roll deally. There's only one Antawn Jamison in the league, the soft stuff is generally not reliable. Jump up there, put your nads on someones shoulder and bring the thunder. Pls thx.

In the category of 'first you win, then you get good', and operant conditioning: a game like this is the best positive reinforcement to get the kid to want to give good effort all the time. He had success playing fierce and now collects accolades, that goes a looong way to helping you WANT to go to the weight room early, get in the extra conditioning etc. Sometimes that taste is all it takes.

Yeah I loved to see him drive right into the paint and dunk that one time. It was sooo
refreshing to see him play like a man instead of a sissy trying to prove how skilled he is.

Now can he duplicate that which will require him staying out of foul trouble.

edit to add - I didn't vote but if I did I'd have to consider McGee simply for
the first 2 plays of the game. When have we EVER seen that before? It set a tone.

[Kanyewest]

Blatche's numbers extrapolated over 40 minutes:
33 points
16 boards
7 assists
7 blocks
3 steals

That's like a prime Hakeem Olajuwon having one of his above average games.

Fixed. Hakeem had 28 30+ games just in the 1995-96 season. Hakeem getting 16 rebounds or even 7 blocks a game was simply a pretty good performance for him.

[nate33]

Blatche's numbers extrapolated over 40 minutes:
33 points
16 boards
7 assists
7 blocks
3 steals

That's like a prime Hakeem Olajuwon having one of his above average games.

Fixed. Hakeem had 28 30+ games just in the 1995-96 season. Hakeem getting 16 rebounds or even 7 blocks a game was simply a pretty good performance for him.

Hakeem had one quadruple double and flirted with one two or three other times. I'm guessing that in most of those near-quadruple doubles, he didn't score 30+ points in the process.

[Zerocious]

c-but
snatch
a-jizzle

i understand peoples voto for blatche, but that game would not have been won without butler. Everyone votes for blatche because it was a breakout performance, exceptional for his career, and everyone is happy he finally delivered, si ithink the vote is skewed. what if caron would have only averaged 6-8 points on the season (numbers comparable to blatche this season), he would be the POG after this game?

gotta go with caron, thanks for carying this team to a nice win.

[MJG]

c-but
snatch
a-jizzle

i understand peoples voto for blatche, but that game would not have been won without butler. Everyone votes for blatche because it was a breakout performance, exceptional for his career, and everyone is happy he finally delivered, si ithink the vote is skewed. what if caron would have only averaged 6-8 points on the season (numbers comparable to blatche this season), he would be the POG after this game?

gotta go with caron, thanks for carying this team to a nice win.

I'm sure the breakout nature of the game does sway people, but you know what the bigger deal is? Blatche played only 29 minutes - ten fewer than Caron. If Blatche had played as many minutes as Caron at the same level he did his original 29, his performance may have wound up being been the best individual game of any player on the team for the entire season. Caron was fantastic, but that's tough to ignore.

[Zerocious]

c-but
snatch
a-jizzle

i understand peoples voto for blatche, but that game would not have been won without butler. Everyone votes for blatche because it was a breakout performance, exceptional for his career, and everyone is happy he finally delivered, si ithink the vote is skewed. what if caron would have only averaged 6-8 points on the season (numbers comparable to blatche this season), he would be the POG after this game?

gotta go with caron, thanks for carying this team to a nice win.

I'm sure the breakout nature of the game does sway people, but you know what the bigger deal is? Blatche played only 29 minutes - ten fewer than Caron. If Blatche had played as many minutes as Caron at the same level he did his original 29, his performance may have wound up being been the best individual game of any player on the team for the entire season. Caron was fantastic, but that's tough to ignore.

I agree with you there, however, do you think he could have kept it up had he played 10 more mins, or rather, could have kept up playing 10 more mins? i think a-bla is a very close second, but the game would not have been won without butler rallying the troops! hats of to snatch, i was at the game and very impressed even though the people behind me could not keep themselves from saying "oh no" everytime he touched the ball... .

[hands11]

c-but
snatch
a-jizzle

i understand peoples voto for blatche, but that game would not have been won without butler. Everyone votes for blatche because it was a breakout performance, exceptional for his career, and everyone is happy he finally delivered, si ithink the vote is skewed. what if caron would have only averaged 6-8 points on the season (numbers comparable to blatche this season), he would be the POG after this game?

gotta go with caron, thanks for carying this team to a nice win.

It was more then him just having a great game. It was what he did and when he did it. He was key to them breaking this thing open. He came in at the 8 min mark in the first quarter and started to ball.

He did great on the boards. Boxed out. Rebounded. He blocked shots. He stepped in when McGee was in foul trouble and produced. If Blatche didn't do what he did in this game, it would have been a different story. CB and AJ couldn't have produced as well without what Blatche gave to the game.

That is why he should he POTG.

[Severn Hoos]

1. Blatche
2. Butler
3. Jamison

Duh.

And props to the new ET (sorry, I still think Etan when I see those initials) - that was an amazing first game. I can't decide whether to say "Keep it up!", since I'd already shifted into the ping pong ball mindset. I guess we'll have to see how the next few weeks go if I'll be on the playoffs bandwagon or the Lotto Express....