DanH wrote:
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Now that was a fun game! Started off terribly, everyone looked bad - DeRozan getting beat off cuts, not boxing out (seriously, how many times did DD lose Porter to let him slide in for an offensive board?), trying to isolate instead of using screens; Lowry playing hesitantly and then goes out with that cut on his brow and misses a huge chunk of time, JV looking totally lost on both ends, Siakam looking very much like a rookie (but how about those 20 foot jumpers? If he can hit that consistently...). Just rough.
But bench energy to the rescue! Lowry goes to the dressing room and doesn't come back for a while and we get our first real Powell time. And he won himself some minutes in this one - I don't know what happened to Carroll (was he hurt? I had the second half on the Wizards feed) but he got no minutes later on and Powell got them all, even over Ross late in the game. Great job by him to defend Wall capably. Casey smartly kept throwing guys at him until something stuck and Powell stuck. Poeltl was fun, if problematic at times - by the end I was glad he fouled out, but he provided real value around the middle of the game. Patterson and CoJo of course broug their usual stuff, and Ross came in and caught fire to bring the team back in it in the first half. Nice job by the bench guys.
And then second half, flip the script. JV suddenly grabbing boards and, well, less lost defensively. Made some nice passes too, with three assists in the night plus a gorgeous pass to a cutting Siakam who blew the easy layup. Mostly his physicality made a difference, I'll come back to this point. Lowry stepped up and was really aggressive on both ends, hit some back breaking threes off the bounce and found his way inside more. And DeMar. What to even say. Guy is killing it, and doing it smartly - getting to the line, getting deep into the paint, and getting wide open jumpers. He's hitting a few tough ones too, but those are gravy with all the good looks he's getting. And everyone seemed to decide to care defensively. Suddenly the only offence the Wiz got was when Wall could take advantage in the PnR one on one. No one else could do anything. Speaking of which, how hilariously bad is the Wiz all-bench unit? Reminds of the Pacers series last year - just throw the lead away. Was happy to see it, of course.
Speaking of wide open jumpers, even though JV struggled in this one, there's one area of his game that I think has improved this year - he just sets bone crunching screen after bone crunching screen and DeMar is using him to full effect to get some beautiful looks, and also to take advantage of guys chasing him late to draw fouls. 10 screen assists in this one, and you don't get a screen assist for setting up a foul. Poeltl was fantastic for a stretch as well (very aggressive with his screening, eventually fouled out on one where he didn't get away with it - I like that he lives on that edge) with 7 screen assist in only 17 minutes, plus 12 contested shots - very active, definitely effective in short bursts. Anyway, JV is second in the league in screen assists per game this year, at 6.5, just behind Gortat (who averages 38 MPG, 6 more than JV). Part of why any possession where no screen is set (there are surprisingly several each game) pisses me off - DeRozan is great off screens (Lowry too) and JV is getting to be elite at setting them. Use what you have!
Anyway, all in all a very positive game! We're seeing this team have rough patches and overcome them to win anyway. Sign of a simply superior team. Any road win is a good one, and this one was pretty enjoyable.
But bench energy to the rescue! Lowry goes to the dressing room and doesn't come back for a while and we get our first real Powell time. And he won himself some minutes in this one - I don't know what happened to Carroll (was he hurt? I had the second half on the Wizards feed) but he got no minutes later on and Powell got them all, even over Ross late in the game. Great job by him to defend Wall capably. Casey smartly kept throwing guys at him until something stuck and Powell stuck. Poeltl was fun, if problematic at times - by the end I was glad he fouled out, but he provided real value around the middle of the game. Patterson and CoJo of course broug their usual stuff, and Ross came in and caught fire to bring the team back in it in the first half. Nice job by the bench guys.
And then second half, flip the script. JV suddenly grabbing boards and, well, less lost defensively. Made some nice passes too, with three assists in the night plus a gorgeous pass to a cutting Siakam who blew the easy layup. Mostly his physicality made a difference, I'll come back to this point. Lowry stepped up and was really aggressive on both ends, hit some back breaking threes off the bounce and found his way inside more. And DeMar. What to even say. Guy is killing it, and doing it smartly - getting to the line, getting deep into the paint, and getting wide open jumpers. He's hitting a few tough ones too, but those are gravy with all the good looks he's getting. And everyone seemed to decide to care defensively. Suddenly the only offence the Wiz got was when Wall could take advantage in the PnR one on one. No one else could do anything. Speaking of which, how hilariously bad is the Wiz all-bench unit? Reminds of the Pacers series last year - just throw the lead away. Was happy to see it, of course.
Speaking of wide open jumpers, even though JV struggled in this one, there's one area of his game that I think has improved this year - he just sets bone crunching screen after bone crunching screen and DeMar is using him to full effect to get some beautiful looks, and also to take advantage of guys chasing him late to draw fouls. 10 screen assists in this one, and you don't get a screen assist for setting up a foul. Poeltl was fantastic for a stretch as well (very aggressive with his screening, eventually fouled out on one where he didn't get away with it - I like that he lives on that edge) with 7 screen assist in only 17 minutes, plus 12 contested shots - very active, definitely effective in short bursts. Anyway, JV is second in the league in screen assists per game this year, at 6.5, just behind Gortat (who averages 38 MPG, 6 more than JV). Part of why any possession where no screen is set (there are surprisingly several each game) pisses me off - DeRozan is great off screens (Lowry too) and JV is getting to be elite at setting them. Use what you have!
Anyway, all in all a very positive game! We're seeing this team have rough patches and overcome them to win anyway. Sign of a simply superior team. Any road win is a good one, and this one was pretty enjoyable.
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