80sballboy wrote:Illmatic12 wrote:Loss is on Wall. Utah's defense was in his head all night and he couldn't adjust his game
Also put this one on Brooks for not figuring out better lineups.
I'm not a Brooks' hater like some on this board but this was not one of his better moments. It started with going small with Kieff against Gobert at center? Really? I wouldn't have done that with the February Kieff when he could actually make 3-pointers. That would be fine if Withey was in. But Gobert one this game with his defense and Hayward won as the closer after not playing well early. Otto had a nice stretch on offense for about 3 minutes and that was it. When he's not hustling and getting loose balls, he can't just go on his talent. Brooks needed to get Oubre in late for D and Mahinimi as well. Taking them out was fine but not bringing them back in a few minutes later was idiotic.
Utah is the one team that can match our starters head to head and completely stonewall them, not even Cleveland or GS plays us this well. They get benefit of the doubt from refs too because of their playing style, they've really got that whole "physical defensive team" archetype down pat.
Brooks was clearly at a loss and just throwing stuff out there.
