We just honestly need the regular season to be over. Hope that the week off till the first round opener refreshes the team and they can figure out some form of offense.
This ending has been an absolute train wreck.
Regular season games are really never must wins unless somehow if you win or lose determines if you make the playoffs or not, but this home game vs. the Heat Wednesday is as close to a must win game as you can get. If we lose then there is one game separating us and Miami and we have to go there to play the following week. Anyone feel confident that we can go there and get a win? Me neither.
In reading the post game thread I am at least happy to see that most people are not making excuses for the team. The last thing I wanted to see tonight is how we were tired or any other form of excuse. We are playing a team that has been decimated by injuries and a lopsided trade that sent away their best player not to mention that most nights they go 7 or 8 deep so their starters play more min a game than ours for the most part.
No, we just got beat.
As normal we will salute the Bulls, they were ready for us and they just flat out beat us. They hustled more, they were mentally prepared and what has been a common theme here recently they were just plain tougher than we were. Tom Thibodeau is the coach of the year IMO.
Let’s talk about us and this won’t take long.
What has been my one overall theme since I’ve returned? We have no one who will/can night in and night out hit an open jump shot from outside the paint. What happened once again in this game? We have no one who can hit a shot from outside the paint and once again we allowed a great interior defensive team to pack the paint and just dare us to score, which of course we couldn’t.
Our team shot 37% from the field however if you just go with George, West, Hibbert & Stephenson they combined to go 31% from the field. You are not going to beat any NBA team if 4 of your 5 starters shoot 31% from the field.
I can’t put it any more plainly than this, if we can’t get someone to hit a face up jumper or to hit a curl screen jumper we are just dead in the water.
Sure we would all agree with Roy that we need to look inside first however the problem is that team are just doubling the ball in the paint because the do not fear anyone on our team on a consistent basis to burn them.
I don’t know how to fix this btw, I am beginning to think we are cursed and have offended some form of ancient deity because whoever comes to our team loses the ability over time to shoot. David West missed what, the first 50 shots he took tonight before he finally got one to drop and this guy was known as the 17’ assassin before he got here.
Paul George is as consistent as an epileptic chicken, Roy Hibbert is Roy Hibbert, Lance is steady but obviously there is chemistry issues with him and the other players and George Hill actually decided to show up tonight but he can’t be counted on every night.
Missing C.J. Watson hurts (not nearly as much as missing Derrick Rose does for the Bulls so this is zero excuse for this game) as he is a guard who can moderately be counted on to hit a shot.
Scola obviously used his entire payload on Friday and that’s about it.
Look guys our defense for the most part is fine. Our offense is beyond a joke.
So to wrap up this portion of our program let me just reiterate. Luis Scola hits outside shots on Friday vs. the Bulls and it opens up the floor and we win. Nobody can hit any form of outside shot with consistency tonight and we basically lost this game in the first 2 min. of the 3rd quarter.
BTW, Taj Gibson for the most part, owns us. He had a horrible night Friday (thanks mostly to Luis making him move on defense) but he ruled with an iron fist tonight.
Also whatever happened to us being a tough physical team? Those days are so long gone that I don’t even remember them.
While I’m pondering let me ponder this, and this really goes into Uncle Bucks thoughts and I know you are still reading this (you know who you are) but I wonder if trading Danny Granger didn’t disrupt team chemistry more than it helped the on court production? Don’t get me wrong on the floor there have been times where Turner has far outplayed what Danny brought & by no means am I naïve enough to believe that he would have been a game changer because our struggles started when he was still here. But I wonder if he wasn’t more of a glue guy in the locker room who could get along with anyone?
What this team could use now more than his outside shot (if it ever falls again) is an injection of the old Danny Granger fire and passion where he wanted to fight whoever was on the opposite side of the court. These guys are all now friendly and soft.
Bah, let’s just do grades and be done with this.
Paul George: C
That’s being generous in my opinion. Look even the great ones have bad games but the truly great ones do not go on 1-2 month slumps. Honestly I just want to see him get angry at something (well besides the referee’s) and then do something about it. Reggie Miller played at a whole other level when he got mad, Danny Granger played at another level when he got mad. Paul George on the other hand just flows like a twig on the shoulders of a mighty stream. Nothing ever bothering him, other than a referee
David West: C
Finally started hitting but by that time it was to late. Left several good looks on the floor at the beginning of the game and it cost us several chances to build on an early lead. Just got worked by Gibson all night long. To his credit he did at least try and battle inside and got no help from anyone.
Roy Hibbert: F
Soft as a baby’s @ss.
Lance Stephenson: D
Was not effective on offense tonight and had a horrible defensive game. When you get worked by Mike Dunleavy you need to re-evaluate your game.
George Hill: B
Well at least he showed up tonight, however I’m not feeling generous or the need to dispense needless compliments so I’ll just say he managed to defend DJ Augustine very well.
I can’t go on
The bench as a whole is just going to get a collective D.
I know things look bleak, and they are don’t kid yourself. But if for some reason we can just manage to hold onto the # 1 spot we can at least assure ourselves to face the Hawks and have home court throughout, which may not be beyond the second round if things don’t change.
It’s not time to throw in the towel but if you aren’t at least concerned with the play then you need to go into motivational speaking.
This team doesn’t deserve any form of manly music so I’m just giving you the only thing I think that fits both Paul & Roy's game right now. In fact that opening dance sequence with the resulting laughter made me think of Roy's game tonight with both Noah & Gibson reaction to him.
This ending has been an absolute train wreck.
Regular season games are really never must wins unless somehow if you win or lose determines if you make the playoffs or not, but this home game vs. the Heat Wednesday is as close to a must win game as you can get. If we lose then there is one game separating us and Miami and we have to go there to play the following week. Anyone feel confident that we can go there and get a win? Me neither.
In reading the post game thread I am at least happy to see that most people are not making excuses for the team. The last thing I wanted to see tonight is how we were tired or any other form of excuse. We are playing a team that has been decimated by injuries and a lopsided trade that sent away their best player not to mention that most nights they go 7 or 8 deep so their starters play more min a game than ours for the most part.
No, we just got beat.
As normal we will salute the Bulls, they were ready for us and they just flat out beat us. They hustled more, they were mentally prepared and what has been a common theme here recently they were just plain tougher than we were. Tom Thibodeau is the coach of the year IMO.
Let’s talk about us and this won’t take long.
What has been my one overall theme since I’ve returned? We have no one who will/can night in and night out hit an open jump shot from outside the paint. What happened once again in this game? We have no one who can hit a shot from outside the paint and once again we allowed a great interior defensive team to pack the paint and just dare us to score, which of course we couldn’t.
Our team shot 37% from the field however if you just go with George, West, Hibbert & Stephenson they combined to go 31% from the field. You are not going to beat any NBA team if 4 of your 5 starters shoot 31% from the field.
I can’t put it any more plainly than this, if we can’t get someone to hit a face up jumper or to hit a curl screen jumper we are just dead in the water.
Sure we would all agree with Roy that we need to look inside first however the problem is that team are just doubling the ball in the paint because the do not fear anyone on our team on a consistent basis to burn them.
I don’t know how to fix this btw, I am beginning to think we are cursed and have offended some form of ancient deity because whoever comes to our team loses the ability over time to shoot. David West missed what, the first 50 shots he took tonight before he finally got one to drop and this guy was known as the 17’ assassin before he got here.
Paul George is as consistent as an epileptic chicken, Roy Hibbert is Roy Hibbert, Lance is steady but obviously there is chemistry issues with him and the other players and George Hill actually decided to show up tonight but he can’t be counted on every night.
Missing C.J. Watson hurts (not nearly as much as missing Derrick Rose does for the Bulls so this is zero excuse for this game) as he is a guard who can moderately be counted on to hit a shot.
Scola obviously used his entire payload on Friday and that’s about it.
Look guys our defense for the most part is fine. Our offense is beyond a joke.
So to wrap up this portion of our program let me just reiterate. Luis Scola hits outside shots on Friday vs. the Bulls and it opens up the floor and we win. Nobody can hit any form of outside shot with consistency tonight and we basically lost this game in the first 2 min. of the 3rd quarter.
BTW, Taj Gibson for the most part, owns us. He had a horrible night Friday (thanks mostly to Luis making him move on defense) but he ruled with an iron fist tonight.
Also whatever happened to us being a tough physical team? Those days are so long gone that I don’t even remember them.
While I’m pondering let me ponder this, and this really goes into Uncle Bucks thoughts and I know you are still reading this (you know who you are) but I wonder if trading Danny Granger didn’t disrupt team chemistry more than it helped the on court production? Don’t get me wrong on the floor there have been times where Turner has far outplayed what Danny brought & by no means am I naïve enough to believe that he would have been a game changer because our struggles started when he was still here. But I wonder if he wasn’t more of a glue guy in the locker room who could get along with anyone?
What this team could use now more than his outside shot (if it ever falls again) is an injection of the old Danny Granger fire and passion where he wanted to fight whoever was on the opposite side of the court. These guys are all now friendly and soft.
Bah, let’s just do grades and be done with this.
Paul George: C
That’s being generous in my opinion. Look even the great ones have bad games but the truly great ones do not go on 1-2 month slumps. Honestly I just want to see him get angry at something (well besides the referee’s) and then do something about it. Reggie Miller played at a whole other level when he got mad, Danny Granger played at another level when he got mad. Paul George on the other hand just flows like a twig on the shoulders of a mighty stream. Nothing ever bothering him, other than a referee
David West: C
Finally started hitting but by that time it was to late. Left several good looks on the floor at the beginning of the game and it cost us several chances to build on an early lead. Just got worked by Gibson all night long. To his credit he did at least try and battle inside and got no help from anyone.
Roy Hibbert: F
Soft as a baby’s @ss.
Lance Stephenson: D
Was not effective on offense tonight and had a horrible defensive game. When you get worked by Mike Dunleavy you need to re-evaluate your game.
George Hill: B
Well at least he showed up tonight, however I’m not feeling generous or the need to dispense needless compliments so I’ll just say he managed to defend DJ Augustine very well.
I can’t go on
The bench as a whole is just going to get a collective D.
I know things look bleak, and they are don’t kid yourself. But if for some reason we can just manage to hold onto the # 1 spot we can at least assure ourselves to face the Hawks and have home court throughout, which may not be beyond the second round if things don’t change.
It’s not time to throw in the towel but if you aren’t at least concerned with the play then you need to go into motivational speaking.
This team doesn’t deserve any form of manly music so I’m just giving you the only thing I think that fits both Paul & Roy's game right now. In fact that opening dance sequence with the resulting laughter made me think of Roy's game tonight with both Noah & Gibson reaction to him.
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