Re: Oh what a beautiful morning...

[opi@unesco.org]

Last night Adrian Griffin guarded and outscored Vince Carter 14-12 and in the
process made a lot of high-priced veterans (Eric Williams and Cal Cheaney) look
kind of redundant, although no doubt Eric and Cal will have big games down the
road too.

Tonight poses a new dilemma, since the Wiz start big Juwaan Howard and Michael
Smith (9 rebounds) at forward. The following game, we'll likely see both Mason
and Coleman (if he's not suspended).

I suppose Paul Pierce and Antoine will handle the forwards with Griffin at
guard, but I won't be shocked if Battie replaces Griffin in the starting lineup
for these matchups or gets major minutes at forward (barring foul trouble) now
that Pervis has shown he can play backup center fulltime for awhile. Pitino
needs to get Battie jumpstarted, but I love the 7 assists and 0 turnovers by
Griffin and I'm realizing it can be invaluable thing to have a second guy with
solid basketball fundamentals in the starting lineup with Paul Pierce to help
settle down Walker & Co. and bring out his natural passing skills. Walker will
be more devastating if he learns to kick out as well as pass inside off his
drives to the hoop, and it sounds like Griffin set a good example last night.