Despite my title I am not going to spend an inordinate amount of time beating the referee's to death. Suffice it to say that they treated Devonte Graham as though he were Allen Iverson. That is to say Allen would run into you fully initiating the contact, knock you off of your spot, fall to the ground and the foul was on you. Everybody is going to complain about that last play but the truth is even under review I have a feeling it would not have been overturned because it was a close call. However where I am throwing a fit was the 6th foul on T.J. Leaf. IMO that particular call was crap. But what are you going to do?
Look I'll say this, mostly complaining about officials is a waste of time, more often than not they are right. But there are some games where you do have to question 42 free throws to 7.
That's it, that's all we are going to talk about it here.
Because even with the refereeing, even being super short handed, you still only lost by a bucket in OT. If we didn't have to play tomorrow night it wouldn't be so bad, but we do. You give me Domantas Sabonis in this game and we win by 6 or more.
So knowing we were short handed and all of our big men fouled out I want to say that as bad as I hate to be this way but I have to throw this loss at the feet of Nate McMillan. I understand all of the adversity and if we had just been blown out I wouldn't think two thoughts about it. However not only were were not getting blown out, we were dog stomping them. Then two things happened. They inserted Bismack Biyombo and we put in our entire bench and did not make a change until I believe we had blown a 19 point lead and might have had a 2 or 3 point lead. I know people have to rest, I get that. But having Brogdon, Lamb & Warren all sitting while we could not score was just miserable to watch. But again I know we have a back to back so I can forgive that. What is unforgivable to me is that at the end of regulation and for the final 2-3 min of overtime our offense consisted of spread out hero ball with virtually zero screens or off the ball movement. Now if you have Kobe Bryant in his prime you can get by with that. Believe me I love Brogdon and he can certainly do a lot but by that time they were doubling him and using Bitadze's guy to do it. Thus we had our poor rookie getting caught 25 feet from the basket and it ended often about how you would think it would. But hey to Nate's credit he did try and run Lamb in this offense (if you can call it that) and tragically Aaron Holiday once in it leading to a turn over. Nate just has not shown an ability to run any type of coherent offense when it seems to matter.
Let's just do grades as I don't have ton of time.
T.J. Warren: A could have been an A+ but for some reason took two of the worst shots I've ever seen at the end and did not even come close with either. However other than that all night long he was just lighting them up and they had no answer for him. Nate McMillan was his best defender when he took him out while he was on fire and didn't bring him back in till momentum swung and he didn't score in the 4th quarter till somewhere between the 5-6 min mark.
JaKarr Sampson: B+ He is being graded based on expectations. Dude isn't supposed to be a starter and had done pretty much what he could while he was in there. Got abused by Biyombo but there absolutely is a strength issue there. Solid defense and was an active body. For where he played and where he should have played I'd say this is about right.
Goga Bitadze: A Three games is not a season but I am now pretty much on board blowing the whistle for the Goga train. Dude is for real and I have a feeling if he can stay healthy that in 4 -5 year his name is going to be said as one of the better centers in the NBA. I don't know where at but I'm guessing top 15 for sure if not higher. You can't move him, he is thick and strong already. Once he gets to working with the pro strength trainers he is going to be a beast. Is he really only 20? For as bad as they have done with Leaf and Holiday they may really have struck gold here. I'll say this, he's my type of player and I'll just leave it at that.
Jeremy Lamb: A This guy is a gem. He drops 18 points like its nothing and he is very active on both sides of the floor. Typically he has rebounded very well for us, tonight he was just okay at it. However when we needed baskets at the end of the game Jeremy is the one who came up big when we needed him.
Malcolm Brogodon: A- Had real trouble tonight with double teams and pressure, didn't have the best shot selection down at the end and got beat off of the dribble more than once. That being said he still dropped 31 and 8 on them and if he were allowed to knock people off of their spot he could have had 40 something.
Justin Holiday: B solid unspectacular play, big defensive stand where he drew a charge. However a horrible offensive execution in the last two min where he ended up shooting a wide open shot from about 10 off of the side of the board. Still, I think he is a very valuable asset to have and about crapped every time Nate subbed him out for his brother in OT.
T.J. McConnell: D Good effort, however got played like a Stradivarius by Graham during their comeback. What is is about him that does not allow him to shoot? I mean how do you even be a guard in today's NBA and not have any form of outside shot? Its so bad that Jakaar Sampson has more three point shots in this game than T.J. has all season. Scrappy player but just could not get the offense to run at all tonight.
Aaron Holiday: C- Probably to high for him but for whatever reason Nate decided that during crunch time tonight he would run Aaron Holiday against Graham and it went about as well as you would expect. Hey, he did at least hit a couple of three's tonight. I do see though that he is making more of an effort to move the ball on occasion thus the 4 assists.
T.J. Leaf: D- Pathetic. Now the reason he didn't get an F is because of the aforementioned foul. But beyond that just a total waste of space. However I am going to take this opportunity to complain about Nate again here. In the OT we were running our spread offense (because it was working so well) and we had Leaf positioned on the corner three in front of the Hornets bench. I think it was Lamb but it could have been Brogodon was dribbling towards the middle and Biyombo was all eyes on the ball. He had no more of an idea of where Leaf was than what Holiday knows what a good shot is. All Leaf would have had to do was cut to the rim and he would have had an uncontested dunk/layup or at worst a foul. But he just stood there. Since nobody was moving off of the ball I can only assume that this is Nate's idea. It's a horrible horrible idea.
Doug McDermott: D I wish I would grade by the half because he would probably have gotten a solid C for the first half but he would have gotten and F for the second half. Lost on defense, little to no help on the boards and I believe all of his points came in the first half. He had a stretch of about 2 and 1/2 games where even I had to admit he wasn't the useless vomit sock that I know him to be. But in the second half tonight we were all treated to pure McSuckets.
Good effort, circumstances had a lot to do with this but in the end this is going to be another game at the end of the season that if we are struggling for position we are going to look back and regret this game.
Look I'll say this, mostly complaining about officials is a waste of time, more often than not they are right. But there are some games where you do have to question 42 free throws to 7.
That's it, that's all we are going to talk about it here.
Because even with the refereeing, even being super short handed, you still only lost by a bucket in OT. If we didn't have to play tomorrow night it wouldn't be so bad, but we do. You give me Domantas Sabonis in this game and we win by 6 or more.
So knowing we were short handed and all of our big men fouled out I want to say that as bad as I hate to be this way but I have to throw this loss at the feet of Nate McMillan. I understand all of the adversity and if we had just been blown out I wouldn't think two thoughts about it. However not only were were not getting blown out, we were dog stomping them. Then two things happened. They inserted Bismack Biyombo and we put in our entire bench and did not make a change until I believe we had blown a 19 point lead and might have had a 2 or 3 point lead. I know people have to rest, I get that. But having Brogdon, Lamb & Warren all sitting while we could not score was just miserable to watch. But again I know we have a back to back so I can forgive that. What is unforgivable to me is that at the end of regulation and for the final 2-3 min of overtime our offense consisted of spread out hero ball with virtually zero screens or off the ball movement. Now if you have Kobe Bryant in his prime you can get by with that. Believe me I love Brogdon and he can certainly do a lot but by that time they were doubling him and using Bitadze's guy to do it. Thus we had our poor rookie getting caught 25 feet from the basket and it ended often about how you would think it would. But hey to Nate's credit he did try and run Lamb in this offense (if you can call it that) and tragically Aaron Holiday once in it leading to a turn over. Nate just has not shown an ability to run any type of coherent offense when it seems to matter.
Let's just do grades as I don't have ton of time.
T.J. Warren: A could have been an A+ but for some reason took two of the worst shots I've ever seen at the end and did not even come close with either. However other than that all night long he was just lighting them up and they had no answer for him. Nate McMillan was his best defender when he took him out while he was on fire and didn't bring him back in till momentum swung and he didn't score in the 4th quarter till somewhere between the 5-6 min mark.
JaKarr Sampson: B+ He is being graded based on expectations. Dude isn't supposed to be a starter and had done pretty much what he could while he was in there. Got abused by Biyombo but there absolutely is a strength issue there. Solid defense and was an active body. For where he played and where he should have played I'd say this is about right.
Goga Bitadze: A Three games is not a season but I am now pretty much on board blowing the whistle for the Goga train. Dude is for real and I have a feeling if he can stay healthy that in 4 -5 year his name is going to be said as one of the better centers in the NBA. I don't know where at but I'm guessing top 15 for sure if not higher. You can't move him, he is thick and strong already. Once he gets to working with the pro strength trainers he is going to be a beast. Is he really only 20? For as bad as they have done with Leaf and Holiday they may really have struck gold here. I'll say this, he's my type of player and I'll just leave it at that.
Jeremy Lamb: A This guy is a gem. He drops 18 points like its nothing and he is very active on both sides of the floor. Typically he has rebounded very well for us, tonight he was just okay at it. However when we needed baskets at the end of the game Jeremy is the one who came up big when we needed him.
Malcolm Brogodon: A- Had real trouble tonight with double teams and pressure, didn't have the best shot selection down at the end and got beat off of the dribble more than once. That being said he still dropped 31 and 8 on them and if he were allowed to knock people off of their spot he could have had 40 something.
Justin Holiday: B solid unspectacular play, big defensive stand where he drew a charge. However a horrible offensive execution in the last two min where he ended up shooting a wide open shot from about 10 off of the side of the board. Still, I think he is a very valuable asset to have and about crapped every time Nate subbed him out for his brother in OT.
T.J. McConnell: D Good effort, however got played like a Stradivarius by Graham during their comeback. What is is about him that does not allow him to shoot? I mean how do you even be a guard in today's NBA and not have any form of outside shot? Its so bad that Jakaar Sampson has more three point shots in this game than T.J. has all season. Scrappy player but just could not get the offense to run at all tonight.
Aaron Holiday: C- Probably to high for him but for whatever reason Nate decided that during crunch time tonight he would run Aaron Holiday against Graham and it went about as well as you would expect. Hey, he did at least hit a couple of three's tonight. I do see though that he is making more of an effort to move the ball on occasion thus the 4 assists.
T.J. Leaf: D- Pathetic. Now the reason he didn't get an F is because of the aforementioned foul. But beyond that just a total waste of space. However I am going to take this opportunity to complain about Nate again here. In the OT we were running our spread offense (because it was working so well) and we had Leaf positioned on the corner three in front of the Hornets bench. I think it was Lamb but it could have been Brogodon was dribbling towards the middle and Biyombo was all eyes on the ball. He had no more of an idea of where Leaf was than what Holiday knows what a good shot is. All Leaf would have had to do was cut to the rim and he would have had an uncontested dunk/layup or at worst a foul. But he just stood there. Since nobody was moving off of the ball I can only assume that this is Nate's idea. It's a horrible horrible idea.
Doug McDermott: D I wish I would grade by the half because he would probably have gotten a solid C for the first half but he would have gotten and F for the second half. Lost on defense, little to no help on the boards and I believe all of his points came in the first half. He had a stretch of about 2 and 1/2 games where even I had to admit he wasn't the useless vomit sock that I know him to be. But in the second half tonight we were all treated to pure McSuckets.
Good effort, circumstances had a lot to do with this but in the end this is going to be another game at the end of the season that if we are struggling for position we are going to look back and regret this game.
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