Post#11 » by gflem » Sun Nov 16, 2008 5:38 am
I agree with baseline that 55 is in our sights, and I really think 60 is doable if we stay very healthy. The reason is that we are pulling away from teams late in the games that in the past we would let stay in the games. Mo, and Delonte are the biggest difference though you cant discount Big Ben's defense.
I really dont miss Drew missing 2 or 3 defensive rotations at crucial times late in the games. And the biggest thing is, while Lebron has had to score big lately, I dont believe he has had to work anywhere near as hard to get those points as he has had in the past. With Mo sharing the duties of creating and bringing the ball up the court it has in given Lebron the opportunity to score his points against single or double teams rather than trying to beat a double team above the three point line and then having to beat whoever rotates to him behind the inital double team.
I think that the acquisition of Mo on this team may have had something to do with Detroit trading for AI in that we have proved that we could shut them down the last two years, and with Mo here we improved our offense, which imo put us on the next step above where both teams were last year.
Not to mention they were getting older in their starting lineup, and had little cap flexibility before the move. anyway, I have been pumped since we acquired Mo, and am liking what I have seen so far, much better than the Hughes experiment.