12/6 Wolves V Knicks 6:30

[shangrila]

Yeah, the scoring and rebounding have been picked up before in games. It's going to be harder to do now with Webster and now Tolliver out but it's doable. But until the team can find another defensive big or at least a replacement for Tolliver they'll struggle defensively when Darko is out.

The Love-Beasley combination was interesting and would have worked a lot better if Beasley wasn't constantly matched up with Chandler.

wolfbourne, Ridnour was dribbling himself into traps but the guy still likes to take contested, long jump shots early in the shot clock. I'll give him credit for reigning in his shot selection, although I wonder how much of that was the defence Felton was playing on him. He also telegraphed his passes worse then Brewer which is sad for a 9 year vet. He's playing a little better now because his shots have been falling but he can still try to be a hero at times and can't match up with guards that can actually defend. He's too slow to beat them off the dribble and then he's useless.

[younggunsmn]

The Love-Beasley combination was interesting and would have worked a lot better if Beasley wasn't constantly matched up with Chandler.

Beasley was matched up vs Galinari (and burned him repeatedly) in the first half when we had a center in the game. They were only able to put Chandler on him because we went small (because D'Antoni is afraid to put Gallo on Love). That's part of what I was talking about with the nellie-ball lineup negating our matchup advantages.

Love had 14 pts on 6/6 at PF and 4/12 shooting at C after Darko went out. Darko, Love and Beasley all had 10+ in the first quarter alone (and we would've led by 10+ if Raymond Felton hadn't gone **** at the end of the quarter). It's clear to me the bigger lineup was killing the Knicks.
We got thumped 31-18 in the 3rd quarter with the small lineup and Rambis refused to make an adjustment.

Why the Koufos hate Shangrila? You don't think he deserves any minutes even with Darko out, and even when that means those minutes go to Brewer or Ellington? I thought he played very well vs Duncan when Darko got into foul trouble (8 rebs and 1 block in 14 minutes). I'm not saying he's the greatest thing ever or the answer for a backup 5, but I thought he deserved some run, especially when the alternative was running Brewer and Ellington out there for 55 minutes. Give the guy a shot.

The small lineup with Love at Center just frustrates me to no end to watch because it is so horrible defensively, it has been horrible defensively going on 3 years now and I don't see how that will change in the future. We'll see what Rambis does vs OKC tonight.