Well, might as well end this like it began. Some thoughts on the game last night.
- At least this one wasn't a blowout loss like the last preseason game. We made progress.
- To borrow a phrase from PP25, Andrew Bogut scored the quietest 24 points I've ever seen. I looked at the stats in the fourth quarter expecting to see 10 and 10, and couldn't believe that he had 20 and 15. But, he was never dominant. His back to the basket post moves are still awkward and he still isn't a force on the defensive end. A big part of the problem with our perimeter defense, is that our bigs are not good at showing and recovering, nor are they good at weakside shotblocking (maybe Yi can be that guy?). He also hit a seven foot jumpshot, which totally blew my mind.
- Michael Redd looked totally lost. It seemed like the team was also ignoring him for the most part, which is fine if that's the way it has to be. The team needs to seriously consider Redd to the Cavs for Wally World and picks this summer.
- We need better versions of Michael Ruffin (DJ White) and Awvee Storey (Tyler Smith). The team looked much more balanced and played better ball when those two were on the court. The guys who played the best together, were:
Sessions
Simmons
Storey
Mason
Ruffin
Voskuhl
Bogut
I'd still like to bring Ruffin and Ivey back on minimum salaries, as the 11th and 12th men. Really was impressed with Ruffin and even with Voskuhl to an extent in this game. I'm sure in the case of Voskuhl it's because he was matched up with Madsen and Doleac. Ruffin has impressed me all season long. He makes the most of his limited ability. I should probably give thanks at the Shrine.
- The reason we lost this game, and I do hate to put it on one player's shoulders, was because of Charlie Villanueva. He cost us countless points at the end of the game because of poor positioning, lack of awareness, bad fouls, and lack of hustle. He had more than a few rebounds stolen from him. He was also shooting everything he touched, not driving, not trying to score inside. Well, actually he did try at first, but it wasn't working, so he started to drift. He was leaving everything short, even tip-ins, which to me screams lack of effort. If they guy had 1/2 the heart, motor, and awareness of Ruffin, he would be a perennial All-Star.
- Sessions was masterful. Keeping everyone involved, great on the fastbreak (we need athletic combo guards/swingmen for this guy to play with), scoring in the flow of the offense, and verbally directing the team. I was extremely impressed. One play that stood out, was when Marko Jaric came from behind him to steal an inbound pass, made the steal, missed the shot, a different Wolf rebounded and passed it back to Jaric, but Sessions got right in there and stole the ball back. I thought that showed a nice competitiveness. He also hit a half court shot at the end of the half that had the fans shouting. In fact I think I heard at least equal applause for Sessions, in relation to the amount Foye was getting. Lots of ooh's and ahh's on Sessions' nice passes. The guy can make the passes. And, his defense wasn't that bad.
- Larry K. did a poor job of managing timeouts at the end of the game, and I thought the rotations were bad as usual. Good luck in the future, Coach K.
- The half time show was an asian woman on a 15 foot tall unicycle, who rested bowls on her shins, while keeping balance, and then proceded to kick them in the air and catch them on her head. Words can't do it justice, it was radical.
- Well, that's all I got. Time to start missing Bucks basketball for another 5 months.
