Re: Antoine!

[rwbrooks@teleport.com]

Vinny said:

: GIVE ME MY ANTOINE!  Double/double Antoine!  30 points and 11 rebounds!  It
: sure sounded like Dick Stockton and Hubie Brown were super impressed with
: him tonight!

As Tommy might say: I love Antoine!

In all honesty, I spent the majority of the first half in a pretty-near
state of shock.  I simply cannot believe this is the same player I watched
a year ago.  All the bad stuff I said and thought about Walker (FT
shooting being the exception) I now retract.  We knew he could rebound.
We knew he had nice moves to the basket.  We knew he could drain the 3
with some (ish) consistency.  But the passing!  Oh, the passing!  Again, I
watched with near incredulity as he made pass after pass in the first
half.  And we're not just talking desperation, "damn I've got three guys
on me, I have to pass!", passing, we're talking flow-of-the-game,
make-the-extra-pass, hit-the-open-guy passing.  The Antoine I remember
from his first two seasons would ignore (or not be aware of?) the open man
and make those crazy drives to the hoop, ending in a blown opportunity or
a wild shot.  Or he'd just sit behind the arc and toss up threes like they
were going out of style.  The #8 I saw out there tonight was *a different
player* (the two ill-advised threes towards the end of the 1st half
excepted).  I'm much impressed.  Thank goodness he's our for a good while
to come, I think we're really seeing the start of something quite special
here.  Walker-Pierce-Mercer...makes me shiver just thinking about it.

- Rob