Half-arsed Game thread. Detroit, Wiz and all that

[DC_Ballin]

Great win by the fellas. Exciting play from Blatche and McGuire, especially.

Boy, every time Juan throws up a shot, I get the feeling that it's going in 95% of the time. Anyone else get that same feeling? He must work on that outside jumper for hours in pregame or something, because it's nearly automatic.

[RickRoll_inDC]

did something happen to McGee?

there was a more important local game on tonight here in Iowa, so I didn't see the game, but checked the score every once and a while. Looking at the stats, McGee didn't even have 5 minutes of playing time and only had a foul as a stat.

did he roll an ankle or something?

[nate33]

Nope. Rasheed hit a couple of tough shots on him early so Tapscott gave him a quick hook. DSong and Blatche did a really good job for the rest of the night so Tapscott never bothered to bring McGee back in.

It wasn't an inexplicable move like in the Chicago game. I think Tapscott just went with what was working. I can live with that. I was surprised that McGee didn't start the 3rd quarter though.

[doclinkin]

I'm not fixated on anything but improving this team long-term. Who cares if we win a game here and there? We aren't going anywhere this season. That sounds pessimistic, but it's the truth. We need to concentrate on young player development. Period. End of sentence. We're going to rack up a ton of losses this season, anyway. Why in the heck are we racking them up with veterans? Who really cares if the youngins are making mistakes so long as they are corrected and given more chances?

Sometimes in order to learn to win you have to sit and watch to see how the veterans operate. Songaila has been playing remarkably well the past few games. Smart on both ends, maximizing his lesser talent with good timing and veteran savvy. Blatche was welded to the bench with EJ but has been putting extra effort under Tap and playing smarter in a reduced role earning more minutes.

Thing is both of these players see time where JaVale might be playing. It helps him to see players like Songaila and Jamison work as hard as they can, and every now and again be rewarded with a win. As a coach you need a few gigs of game footage that show how it should be done, to be able to point out the difference between success and flawed play. May seem contradictory but a guy like Blatche is finally putting in the right kind of work and being rewarded for it with game minutes. JaVale has time, he'll get there, but I have no problem with letting Blatche take his minutes when he's playing well. Dray needs the work too.

So the real complaint would then be that Jamison is playing too many minutes at 4 to allow any time on court for any other frontcourt forward. Fine, except he's racking a double double nightly and whatever his perceived flaws he's putting in more consistent effort than any other player. When you reward that attitude it becomes contagious. You saw the defense he played tonight, he's been consistently scrapping in the paint since last year, even if he never gets a call down there.

And DeShawn, yeah he's been suck, no point protecting his consecutive streak, but he has been playing pretty solid D-- made Kobe work anyway. Right now perimeter Defense is what we need to learn more than anything. If Nick Young had the defensive habits and focus that DeShawn shows, there would be no question, DS2 would be out of the league, or off the team anyway. We may get there, but Nick needs to know he'll earn more time the better he is on D. Once he believes that, we're golden. He's got the framework to be good, if not the game smarts. He just needs to put in constant work when he's in the game. Kid is getting better. And on offense I think he's learning from the failures of DS2 too, the adjustments: if your game isn't working, move the ball. Don't dribble to death.

Both players will be here a long time, We can afford to give them a few minutes to learn by seeing as well as doing.

[dobrojim]

Man, Detroit is a horribly coached team right now. It's rare to see a team more coached then we were under EJ.

QFT

How could Maxiell who absolutely destroys us get a DNP-CD?
Curry better hope that Dumars is on the same page as him with this.

As for the season being over, I'll be the voice of unreason. If we continue
to really suck for another 15-20 games, then it'll be over. Just remember
what CHI did the year we played them in the playoffs and what PHL did
last year. We've been bad so far but maybe not quite as bad as our W-L
which is off the charts Etan bad. Even though we are dead last, CHI in 8th
place is only 4 games ahead in the loss column. It may be over by MLK day
but it ain't over now. Tanking is bad as long as there is no guarantee of
getting a player of unquestionable franchise talent. And there almost always
is no guarantee of that. Even if we totally suck the rest of the year, the odds
are against us getting Griffen. Then we'll just have sucked all year for no good
reason.

tonight - awesome dunk by 'dray over sheed. I thought that was the play
of the game. Great contributions from almost all over the roster. Although
DeBrick still sucked, at least he wasn't jacking bad shots all night.
Dixon has really come along with his floor game. He's also not a bad
matchup for AI since he's not going to be overpowered there. DMac should play
more regularly, like at the SG once in a while. And DET really made
a mistake playing small with us allowing us to use Song effectively
even if they did run out to a huge early lead by playing fast and
hitting ALL their shots.

Of course it would be a welcome change for us to have a winning streak
but with BOS coming up, that seems unlikely even though we did handle
them last year.

[closg00]

Man, Detroit is a horribly coached team right now. It's rare to see a team more badly coached then we were under EJ.

QFT

How could Maxiell who absolutely destroys us get a DNP-CD?
Curry better hope that Dumars is on the same page as him with this.

That's what I was thinking. Maxiell could have had his way with us had he played or had they gone inside more. The Pistons are trying to find there way just like we are I-guess.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

As for the season being over, I'll be the voice of unreason. If we continue
to really suck for another 15-20 games, then it'll be over. Just remember
what CHI did the year we played them in the playoffs and what PHL did
last year. We've been bad so far but maybe not quite as bad as our W-L
which is off the charts Etan bad. Even though we are dead last, CHI in 8th
place is only 4 games ahead in the loss column. It may be over by MLK day
but it ain't over now. Tanking is bad as long as there is no guarantee of
getting a player of unquestionable franchise talent. And there almost always
is no guarantee of that. Even if we totally suck the rest of the year, the odds
are against us getting Griffen. Then we'll just have sucked all year for no good
reason.

jim, I'll go right along with your unreason and note that at 4-15 there are 63 games left in the regular season. Conceiveably, 40 wins could make the playoffs. That would require only a 36-27 finish the rest of the way.

Not at all likely, but not at all impossible, either.

[dobrojim]

As for the season being over, I'll be the voice of unreason. If we continue
to really suck for another 15-20 games, then it'll be over. Just remember
what CHI did the year we played them in the playoffs and what PHL did
last year. We've been bad so far but maybe not quite as bad as our W-L
which is off the charts Etan bad. Even though we are dead last, CHI in 8th
place is only 4 games ahead in the loss column. It may be over by MLK day
but it ain't over now. Tanking is bad as long as there is no guarantee of
getting a player of unquestionable franchise talent. And there almost always
is no guarantee of that. Even if we totally suck the rest of the year, the odds
are against us getting Griffen. Then we'll just have sucked all year for no good
reason.

jim, I'll go right along with your unreason and note that at 4-15 there are 63 games left in the regular season. Conceiveably, 40 wins could make the playoffs. That would require only a 36-27 finish the rest of the way.

Not at all likely, but not at all impossible, either.

And the thing is, few here actually seem to believe that GA or Haywood will be
factors AT ALL this season. Haywood (on TV during the CHI game) sounded like he
was itching to get back and we'll know more about that in a couple weeks when
he gets his cast off. GA has not started running but it sounds like the team (justifiably
given the huge contract he just signed) is being VERY conservative with bringing him
back. That said, he could be back sooner than people realize. And that guy is pretty
good. He can change the team by making Caron and AJ beta-dogs (instead of alpha dogs)
and giving us a lot more nights where WE have the BEST player on the floor. Then
many of these close losses turn into comfy wins. I'm not sure all the "locks" for the
playoffs in the east are all that locked in right now ie DET, PHL, TOR.

[Ruzious]

Nope. Rasheed hit a couple of tough shots on him early some Tapscott gave him a quick hook. DSong and Blatche did a really good job for the rest of the night so Tapscott never bothered to bring McGee back in.

It wasn't an inexplicable move like in the Chicago game. I think Tapscott just went with what was working. I can live with that. I was surprised that McGee didn't start the 3rd quarter though.

Detroit went to Sheed on every half court possession when McGee was in, and he scored 7 of the first 9 points... of the game - and 9 of Detroit's 1st 11 (making it 11-3) - before Blatche came in to replace McGee. Detroit's plan at the beginning of the game was clearly to get McGee out, and it worked. Little did they know how effective Songaila was going to be. Little did I know, as well.

[nate33]

And DeShawn, yeah he's been suck, no point protecting his consecutive streak, but he has been playing pretty solid D-- made Kobe work anyway. Right now perimeter Defense is what we need to learn more than anything. If Nick Young had the defensive habits and focus that DeShawn shows, there would be no question, DS2 would be out of the league, or off the team anyway. We may get there, but Nick needs to know he'll earn more time the better he is on D.

From what I've seen, Deshawn is clearly a better man-to-man on-the-ball defender than Nick Young. One can easily argue that he is the correct option to use against guys like Kobe, Crawford, Ray Allen, Joe Johnson or other primary-option perimeter scorers who score with the ball in their hands. But I think Nick Young is just as good, if not better at chasing around off-the-ball guards like Rip Hamilton or Ben Gordon. Nick's length allows him to be a second late fighting through the pick and still be able to recover to challenge the shot.

In the matchup last night, I saw no need to bench Nick Young in the 4th quarter when he was playing well offensively and getting the job done defensively. Detroit scored 6 points in a row immediately after Stevenson was brought in for Young. It really looked like we were going to blow another one. I was breaking out my tin foil hat and talking about EG's secret tanking plot for a minute there. Thankfully, Butler got a few key rebounds down the stretch to make sure we didn't lose.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

I was watching the game with my son last night, first time in FOREVER. I never get to do this. The entire fourth quarter I was moaning and groaning, oh, when is the collapse going to come?!?! Then the lead gets cut to four and I was like, oh there it is! And this was immediately after all the "starters" came back in, DS and so on.

[cwb3]

I want whatever dobrojim and CCJ had for breakfast this morning! A good ol cup of optimism from those two, among all of us rooting for the tank.

I have to confess. I listened to the first half on the radio, groaned and moaned thru the first quarter. Cheered our run in the second quarter. Made it home during halftime. . .and did not bother to check back on the game for the 2nd half. I just thought "I've seen this movie before, we will open the 3rd quarter, re-dig the whole, scramble to climb back into it, but fall short in the end.

Now I'm mad I missed it. These are the games we will have to cherish this year. Those games that show people like Blatche and Mcquire making progress, combined by surprise performances by guys like D Song and Dixon. Those rare games where we move the ball well and have good spacing on the floor.

I don't know about tanking, but this season HAS to be about showing our promising but raw youngsters how to play nba caliber TEAM basketball. . .and be about figuring out who among our young and our vets really ought to be here in future seasons. I'd rather our coaching staff work games to that end, trying to win yes, but trying more to develop and evaluate talent. I do NOT want to see either Arenas or Haywood come back anything less than at 100% healed and in shape, just to make a dash at the end of the season for the 8th seed.

[Liqourish]

Man, Detroit is a horribly coached team right now. It's rare to see a team more badly coached then we were under EJ.

QFT

How could Maxiell who absolutely destroys us get a DNP-CD?
Curry better hope that Dumars is on the same page as him with this.

That's what I was thinking. Maxiell could have had his way with us had he played or had they gone inside more. The Pistons are trying to find there way just like we are I-guess.

I don't think forcing a 3 gaurd lineup because the coach doesn't have the balls to bench AI is trying to find his way. The only good thing about losing is that we are only 2 games away from the lottery and then Dumars can really rebuild the team this summer.

But not playing Maxiell/Amir is just inexcusable.

Good luck this season.