POSTGAME WASHINGTON - WAY - SERIES 2 - GAME 3

mulcogiseng wrote:I said he needed a new starting lineup and he did. I would have started KO and Horford, Rozier, Bradley, and Brown. Depending on how IT is feeling, I'd start that lineup next or perhaps sub Rozier for Bradley in the starting lineup, giving more punch to the second unit. I'd also ask Mickey and Zeller if they are willing to get down and dirty for the team and then give them an opportunity to do so. The stash are in the wings and waiting for those spots next year.

Brad's got a few small holes in his coaching game that are being exposed in the playoffs. That's what they do, they force you to play your best game when in a best of seven format. And a best of seven series doesn't truly start until the home team loses one.

Just being a little pissy but how much upside does Marcus really have? And what does he have on Stevens that he keeps getting trusted with more responsibility than he can fairly handle? Role and playing time should be based on skill set and match ups. Oh, IMO, of course.

I like the way you think. I like your lineup or just IT/JBrown/Crowder/KO/Horford. Inside out basketball, and let Jaylen attack the rack.

I don't like this line up, who dies KO cover? He can't stay with Morris outside, too slow and clumsy, he can't get near Gortat, he would then kill us even more on the offensive boards. I do like more of Jaylen and agree we need more of him attacking the basket and getting to the line. I loved the defensive line up in at end of game 2 to send it into overtime, Al, Crowder, Jaylen, Smart, AB. I actually wouldn't mind that line up starting, IT will still get 30+ minutes, the offense would have to run thru Smart and Al in the highpost, with some opportunities for Jaylen to attack or back cut without the ball and hopefully AB and Crowder can hit some open looks to help get us off to a good start.....but something needs to be done to make sure Wiz don't go for another 38- 40 point first quarters, and it starts with AB or Smart right in Walls face from the get go.

cowens/oldschool wrote:I don't like this line up, who dies KO cover? He can't stay with Morris outside, too slow and clumsy, he can't get near Gortat, he would then kill us even more on the offensive boards. I do like more of Jaylen and agree we need more of him attacking the basket and getting to the line. I loved the defensive line up in at end of game 2 to send it into overtime, Al, Crowder, Jaylen, Smart, AB. I actually wouldn't mind that line up starting, IT will still get 30+ minutes, the offense would have to run thru Smart and Al in the highpost, with some opportunities for Jaylen to attack or back cut without the ball and hopefully AB and Crowder can hit some open looks to help get us off to a good start.....but something needs to be done to make sure Wiz don't go for another 38- 40 point first quarters, and it starts with AB or Smart right in Walls face from the get go.

BINGO!!!!

I was thinking the very same thing cowens.

Horford on Gortat
Crowder on Morris (the punk)
Jaylen on Porter
Smart on Beal
Bradley on Wall ( like a hound dog man)

Bring IT off the bench, it needs to happen.

Kelly and Rozier the next men up

after them I use Amir and either Green or Jerebko.

kdp59 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:I don't like this line up, who dies KO cover? He can't stay with Morris outside, too slow and clumsy, he can't get near Gortat, he would then kill us even more on the offensive boards. I do like more of Jaylen and agree we need more of him attacking the basket and getting to the line. I loved the defensive line up in at end of game 2 to send it into overtime, Al, Crowder, Jaylen, Smart, AB. I actually wouldn't mind that line up starting, IT will still get 30+ minutes, the offense would have to run thru Smart and Al in the highpost, with some opportunities for Jaylen to attack or back cut without the ball and hopefully AB and Crowder can hit some open looks to help get us off to a good start.....but something needs to be done to make sure Wiz don't go for another 38- 40 point first quarters, and it starts with AB or Smart right in Walls face from the get go.

BINGO!!!!

I was thinking the very same thing cowens.

Horford on Gortat
Crowder on Morris (the punk)
Jaylen on Porter
Smart on Beal
Bradley on Wall ( like a hound dog man)

Bring IT  off the bench, it needs to happen.

Kelly and Rozier the next men up

after them I use Amir and either Green or Jerebko.

No offense on this unit. They might not have a 37 point quarter but we won't score 20.



bob


.

bob that's what I'm afraid of too, but if we run some select plays to get Al or AB off early and Crowder is on, Jaylen is going to have to grow up fast....we could possibly manage some offense, do you really want to see KO and IT on floor together against a freak point like John Wall?

Some here must be watching a different Jaylen Brown than I am watching.
Brad is pulling him out of games early because of his mistakes on both sides of the court.
As an FYI, Jaylen has not hit a free throw in a month.
4/6 was his last free throw made.
If you're expecting him to drive to the basket in the playoffs and get to the free throw line often, it's probably not going to happen.

cowens/oldschool wrote:bob that's what I'm afraid of too, but if we run some select plays to get Al or AB off early and Crowder is on, Jaylen is going to have to grow up fast....we could possibly manage some offense, do you really want to see KO and IT on floor together against a freak point like John Wall?

Cow,

The problem, the bottom line to me, is that we are not stopping Wall's pnr with Gortat.  It doesn't matter if we have Bradley and Horford or IT and Kelly we are just not stopping it.  If we stop it, or at least undermine its efficacy enough to where they aren't torturing us with it, then we can try to tweak who else is on the floor to give us more offense but NO combination we've played has stopped it so far and that means IT and KO is no worse than AB and Al or Smart and fill_in_the_blank.  And if we're not stopping it we're going to have troubles.  How do we offset those troubles?  Some offense of our own.  Keep it close, maybe get some fouls on them and force Brooks to go to the bench sooner than he'd like.  It's a lot easier to get defensive fouls on Wall or Gortat when they are having to play tough defense than getting them to foul when they are on offense.  So, we need to make them play defense and a unit that is inept on offense won't accomplish that.  A unit that forces Gortat, for example, to come away from the rim might help since if he tries to recover to help out he might pick up a foul because he isn't where he normally would be.  

If the Wizard fans are complaining about Kelly being a dirty player because he runs down and bangs Oubre that is, personally, what I want to see.  The sequence where Kelly got decked by Oubre wasn't a smart foul by Kelly on the initial contact but I like that he went out of his way to create contact on Oubre.  He is bigger than Oubre and is trying to impose that upon him.  If he can take that physical aggressiveness and apply it to rebounding that would be a big deal since that would help justify keeping him in the game to create problems for Washington's defense.  If Oubre is on him he posts him up, as he has done many times in this series and in the games throughout the year.  If Gortat is on him he shoots from outside.  If Morris is on him he should drive on him.  That's all good stuff, even if he misses his shots, because he's forcing Washington's defense to make adjustments to their normal defensive schemes.  On the other end of the floor, he has to do that rebounding thing.

The same thing is true with Marcus Smart except in reverse.  He has to take good shots.   He cannot just keep chucking up 3s, he should post up or drive to the rim or do something that forces the defense to adjust or foul and they are not worried in the least about Marcus Smart taking 3s.  His defense is remarkable, as we all know, but he isn't stopping the Wall/Beal/Gortat pnrs either and for him to earn his court time he has to do something positive on the offensive end and that is to do the things that will force the Washington defense to move and adjust just as Kelly has to do something on defense to earn his minutes while doing his thing and taking advantage of mismatches on offense.



bob


.

TJ, I will enjoy the day when Jaylen goes for 30 against your hapless LAkers. That was a cheap shot against him, saying he hasn't hit a frito in the playoffs. He is 0-2. C'mon man. Jaylen will be a great player in time, and he can make serious contributions this series, given a chance. Nuff said.

worcester wrote:TJ, I will enjoy the day when Jaylen goes for 30 against your hapless LAkers. That was a cheap shot against him, saying he hasn't hit a frito in the playoffs. He is 0-2. C'mon man. Jaylen will be a great player in time, and he can make serious contributions this series, given a chance. Nuff said.

I didn't say he hasn't hit a free throw in the playoffs. I said he hasn't hit a free throw in a month.
Jaylen is 0-3 from the line over his last 12 games played.
He averaged about 1 1/2 free throw attempts per game in the regular season.
Some think he's going to all of a sudden become a slasher who gets to the line in the playoffs.
I will believe that when I see it.
He is a very good defender but looks like a lost 20 year old on the offensive end.
Brad knows more about this than we do.
The veteran Green is much more suited to be effective than Brown right now.

0-3 is still not much of a database upon which to draw conclusions. We'll see what happens if he gets minutes. Yes, Gerald is better offensively now, but not defensively. BTW, I do hope the Lakers have a resurgence. What's the fun in having a mismatched rivalry? Also, hats off to Kobe for reaching out to Isaiah and giving him tutorials. I respect him mucho for that.

worcester wrote:0-3 is still not much of a database upon which to draw conclusions. We'll see what happens if he gets minutes. Yes, Gerald is better offensively now, but not defensively. BTW, I do hope the Lakers have a resurgence. What's the fun in having a mismatched rivalry? Also, hats off to Kobe for reaching out to Isaiah and giving him tutorials. I respect him mucho for that.

Kobe would have loved to play with IT.
Kobe respects players who have an internal fire, play with a chip on their shoulder and are fearless.
Even though he wasn't a very talented player, Fisher had those qualities too, which made him a favorite of Kobe.
IT fits that mold and he is very talented.
It's rare for a player to almost be unstoppable.
IT has been in that category all season.

Yes he has. Kobe was often that way too, until his body just gave out, although he scored, what, 61 points in his last game?

There was a time when most rookies were about 22 years old when they entered the nba. Now they enter the league as young as 19 years old - and generally speaking, with fans unrealistically expecting way too much from them - but check their minutes played per game - the coaches are the ones that fully understand the trials and tribulations that go with rookie inexperience and hand out the minutes accordingly.

swish

Wise perspective Swish. Even Kobe had only 15 minutes per game and 7.6 ppg as a rookie. Then he exploded in year two. He was what, 19 as a rookie? Larry had a much bigger year as a rookie, but he was what age then, 35?