sasquatchBob wrote:bwgood77 wrote:That is so weird, and I'm sure there are some who would put that on Ayton, but watching games it's as clear as day that it's intentional the team goes to him early and starts to go less and less.
Still hard to tell if this is due to big defensive adjustments. Seems like he had 14-16 pts early, maybe by around 14 by the half...he was very efficient overall, yet we took jump shot after jump shot. He also had a few interesting moves and took it at people including a spin move to the rim.
Hopefully this trend changes.
I think it's because of his fatigue. During stopped plays you see him with his hands on his knees. Besides pick n roll, Ayton isn't really being fed, so he earns a lot of his baskets himself from his rebounding. If you're tired it happens less.
He should be fine coming back in, in the 3rd though, after halftime rest...and perhaps take a little longer break. He plays about as many minutes as anyone, only about 40 seconds less per game on avg than Booker and Bridges and almost 2 minutes more than the next guy (Paul). 2.5 more than Crowder but more than 11 minutes more than CamJ or anyone else, so it's probably expected, especially when he guards the mobile bigs like AD where he didn't shoot well (though rebounded well) and then on the b2b against Portland where he was low in pts and boards.
Of course with more rest he came out with a lot more points and rebounds. He should also have more energy in the next one with rest and may need it battling multiple bigs. Will be interesting how we counter this.
I can't imagine we would try to start Ayton and McGee.
I'd rather make Mobley or Allen and Lauri chase around Crowder and Bridges than try to match up with them.
But I bet we play Kaminsky a bit despite Crowder playing better D than Frank by a long shot.
