Post#16 » by nate33 » Sat Mar 9, 2024 3:40 pm
Watched the game this morning.
I thought the Wizards actually looked a lot better than the score. They missed an unbelievable number of wide open looks from 3-point range from good shooters (mostly Kispert and Poole). If they hit anywhere close to their average on those shots, this would have been a blowout. To be fair, Charlotte missed a bunch of threes too, but I don't think they had nearly as many wide open catch-and-shoots.
With Poole starting to look somewhat competent on offense, I was much happier with Tyus off the court during crunch time. Let's face it, in crunch time, the offense goes through Kuzma (and sometimes Poole) anyhow, so what's the point of having Tyus out there as a defensive liability? It was way better having Kispert on the court. Kispert spreads the court better and he allows the defense to switch more easily.
Coulibaly had one of his better games statistically, but he was still a liability out there. Charlotte simply was not guarding him at all, allowing them to clog the paint on defense. I'm fine with him continuing to play lots of minutes for the purposes of development, but Keefe needs to get him off the floor in crunch time in the future. The absence of Coulibaly was a key factor in our 4th quarter comeback.
I kinda liked that 2nd quarter lineup of Poole plus a bunch of defenders: Davis, Avdija, Omoruyi and Kispert. The theory of it makes sense. Let Poole cook against second unit defenses while everyone else defends. They had a not-so-great -6 net rating when on the court, but that was because Kispert uncharacteristically missed 3 wide open catch-and-shoot looks from 3.
Holmes played with a lot of energy and hustle. One of the good things about sucking so bad as a team is that forgotten guys like Bagley and Holmes come here and get playing time. They see this as their last opportunity to turn their career around and try and earn a new contract. We get really good energy out of guys like that, who will hopefully play themselves into being tradeable.