drosestruts wrote:Another fun win!
Ayo started off the game looking great. Also hit a big 3 in the fourth right after coming back into the game - I feared he was maybe out too long, so was glad to see him come in and immediatley knock down a big three.
I'd also like to point out that, much like our sadly injured Patrick Williams last year, Keegan Murray is currently rated as the top iso defender in the entire NBA. Or rather he was before that 4th quarter by DeMar and White. The comeback was impressive for many reasons - but this guy is the top iso defender in the league and both these guys scored on him multiple times in the clutch.
Re-watching the last 5 minutes. Right when we tied it at 109 Lyles on the following possesion had 2 wide open 3-pointers and just froze in the moment, didn't pull the trigger on either then tried to drive and turn in over. So happy Sabonis had fouled out.
scoring wasn't there from our bench but I thought Phillips, Bitim, and Drummond all gave good minutes.
Unclear what it is Vuc provides at this point
I love DeMar. I can see he's old, and I can see your charts that show players can experience quick drop offs at any point at his age and beyond, but I see what he does on the court, I see his leadership off the court, I see he's a hard worker, and I'm just left believing he's one of the anomalies , one of the players that will continue playing at a high-level at an older age. I would be ecstatic to see the Bulls extend him, similar to how Olynk just signed an extension with the Raptors yesterday.
And my last shout out - again DeMar. Hitting two free throws when we're up two with under 5 seconds to play is hard.
Nothing much notable from other scores around the league. Nets lost again putting us 5 games ahead of them.
Not that our schedule is easy but the Pacers next 5 is against Dallas, Minnesota, Orlando, OKC, and us and they're currenly 5ish games ahead of us for the 8th seed.
Miami plays Detroit and Washington 4 times in their next 7 so they're not gonna slip. Orlando has an easy next 5 too.
I keep waiting for Philly to freefall in the standings and it's just not happening.
I think both NY and Philly are quite vulnerable... but the clock is ticking and we cant seem to pull off a hot stretch to bridge the gap. Next 5-6 games will likely settle the questions, and we do play each of them 3x before the season ends and they play each other twice next week iirc.