I try to stay away from making post game threads, those are reserved for the Peck's, Tbird's and UB's of the digest, but I sit right behind the Pacers bench when they come to Chicago, so I'd like to share some things.
I haven't really read much of anyone's post game stuff. I saw a little bit of complaining about Rick, and obviously about the rebounding but that's it.
First of all, I don't understand why anyone can blame Rick for this game. I think he had a good strategy for this game, and I don't have a huge issue with his late game substitutions. When he took Danny out in the 4th quarter I was confused, and I didn't think that was the right move, but he's far from the person that's to blame here, and I'm someone who wanted Rick fired this offseason. Rick can't box out for Jeff, Jermaine and Al. Those guys all played well on one side of the court but let the team down on the other. We simply have to box people out. We have rebounding ability, we just don't work for it some nights like other teams do. I can already see that this team will go as far as it will rebound. It really was a simple matter of finding a guy and boxing him out too. There were so many plays where we would just watch the ball go up, and then try and jump for the rebound only to have Wallace, Brown or Hinrich for god sakes come through and take it right from us. They outhustled us in that aspect, and that's why we got beat.
On the other hand, I'm not really very bothered by this loss. Our offense looked really really good up untill the 4th quarter, and our defensive intensity was great. This game looked like 2 contenders battling, and unfortunately our team lost. This game actually proved to me that we are a very good team, and that we will win some tough games this year and have a sucessfull season if we can just REBOUND.
Jamaal looked great yesterday. He ran the offense to perfection, and make the best pass to make on every fast break. Boy was he wheelin and dealin. The fans sitting behind me were convinced that Jamaal was an all-star, and the Pacers second best player (behind Al). He looked calm, cool and under control, played a solid game.
Stephen Jackson was also very good. He hit his open shots for the most part and played good defense on Hinrich. Hinrich just made some very tough shots with Jack in his face. Jack also rebounded well and was a working part in our offense, which is so important for him to do. However, Jack did not put in the full 48 minutes of work, so he failed last night. It was 2 plays at the end that ruined the whole game for him. When Danny hit the 3 to cut it to a one point game, then Hinrich hit the 3 to put the Bulls back out 4, Jack barely even tried to get a hand up at Hinrich. He seemed like he was out of gas, and just hoping that Kirk would miss it. Then of course that ridiculous 3 out of a timeout. I bet this is how the convsersation went:
Rick: OK Jamaal, you inbound it. Jack and Darrell set picks for Sarunas to pop out and get this 3, it will be similar to plays we used to run for Reggie.
Jamaal: Can't I just take the shot from out of bounds? There probably won't be many people guarding me.
Jermaine: I've been working on my 3 point shot...
Jack: Why are we giving the ball to Sarunas, I'm the best shooter on the team!
Rick: OK Fine, new play, Jamaal, give it to Jack, Jack, shoot it as soon as possible, if it doesn't go in, let's tackle the living hell out of whoever gets the ball, then argue. Sounds good?
Boy oh Boy, how about Danny. If he shoots like this all season we are going to be TOUGH!! What a big clutch shot he hit at the end. With better defensive execution on the play that led to the Hinrich three, we win the game.
Marquis wasn't that good, but the thing about Marquis is that he never will make plays that hurt the team. When he's out there, he may not be a huge plus, but even when he's having a tough time he won't impact the game in a negative way, and he always passes well. I'm still very glad we have him on this team, he's miles better then Fred Jones.
So is this what we're going to see David Harrison wise? He's going to rot on the bench? If we don't use David against the Bulls weak post defense, we aren't going to use him much at all. It may be time to ship him out while he's still considered a player with potential.
All in all, bad loss because we could have and should have won, but I think we showed that we are going to be a good team, I'm still very optimistic. This can't be reiterated enough; this was a road game on the back side of a double header and we were playing a team that many people had winning the East.
I haven't really read much of anyone's post game stuff. I saw a little bit of complaining about Rick, and obviously about the rebounding but that's it.
First of all, I don't understand why anyone can blame Rick for this game. I think he had a good strategy for this game, and I don't have a huge issue with his late game substitutions. When he took Danny out in the 4th quarter I was confused, and I didn't think that was the right move, but he's far from the person that's to blame here, and I'm someone who wanted Rick fired this offseason. Rick can't box out for Jeff, Jermaine and Al. Those guys all played well on one side of the court but let the team down on the other. We simply have to box people out. We have rebounding ability, we just don't work for it some nights like other teams do. I can already see that this team will go as far as it will rebound. It really was a simple matter of finding a guy and boxing him out too. There were so many plays where we would just watch the ball go up, and then try and jump for the rebound only to have Wallace, Brown or Hinrich for god sakes come through and take it right from us. They outhustled us in that aspect, and that's why we got beat.
On the other hand, I'm not really very bothered by this loss. Our offense looked really really good up untill the 4th quarter, and our defensive intensity was great. This game looked like 2 contenders battling, and unfortunately our team lost. This game actually proved to me that we are a very good team, and that we will win some tough games this year and have a sucessfull season if we can just REBOUND.
Jamaal looked great yesterday. He ran the offense to perfection, and make the best pass to make on every fast break. Boy was he wheelin and dealin. The fans sitting behind me were convinced that Jamaal was an all-star, and the Pacers second best player (behind Al). He looked calm, cool and under control, played a solid game.
Stephen Jackson was also very good. He hit his open shots for the most part and played good defense on Hinrich. Hinrich just made some very tough shots with Jack in his face. Jack also rebounded well and was a working part in our offense, which is so important for him to do. However, Jack did not put in the full 48 minutes of work, so he failed last night. It was 2 plays at the end that ruined the whole game for him. When Danny hit the 3 to cut it to a one point game, then Hinrich hit the 3 to put the Bulls back out 4, Jack barely even tried to get a hand up at Hinrich. He seemed like he was out of gas, and just hoping that Kirk would miss it. Then of course that ridiculous 3 out of a timeout. I bet this is how the convsersation went:
Rick: OK Jamaal, you inbound it. Jack and Darrell set picks for Sarunas to pop out and get this 3, it will be similar to plays we used to run for Reggie.
Jamaal: Can't I just take the shot from out of bounds? There probably won't be many people guarding me.
Jermaine: I've been working on my 3 point shot...
Jack: Why are we giving the ball to Sarunas, I'm the best shooter on the team!
Rick: OK Fine, new play, Jamaal, give it to Jack, Jack, shoot it as soon as possible, if it doesn't go in, let's tackle the living hell out of whoever gets the ball, then argue. Sounds good?
Boy oh Boy, how about Danny. If he shoots like this all season we are going to be TOUGH!! What a big clutch shot he hit at the end. With better defensive execution on the play that led to the Hinrich three, we win the game.
Marquis wasn't that good, but the thing about Marquis is that he never will make plays that hurt the team. When he's out there, he may not be a huge plus, but even when he's having a tough time he won't impact the game in a negative way, and he always passes well. I'm still very glad we have him on this team, he's miles better then Fred Jones.
So is this what we're going to see David Harrison wise? He's going to rot on the bench? If we don't use David against the Bulls weak post defense, we aren't going to use him much at all. It may be time to ship him out while he's still considered a player with potential.
All in all, bad loss because we could have and should have won, but I think we showed that we are going to be a good team, I'm still very optimistic. This can't be reiterated enough; this was a road game on the back side of a double header and we were playing a team that many people had winning the East.
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