What a stinker...

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

Nine games into the season and we're talking draft?  Wow.  Anyway. that's 
not nearly as surprising as the lackluster, pathetic effort we saw last 
night from the team.  I think that Kestas was right when he said the team 
just wanted this game too much, they came out tight and stiff, not loose, 
as players ought to be.  *And* they made some of the same mistakes as the 
last game with the Hawks (bad, bad defensive rotation) which really 
charred my hide.

Which is why I didn't post last night.  Figured the list would object to 
the sheer amount of profanity I would likely have spouted.  But it's the 
next day and I've taken my medicine, so you can call off the suicide watch 
(for me, at least).  The team is still over .500 -- of course, not for 
long if they keep playing this way, but that could change.  5-4 is not bad,
  especially if you just forget about the schedule, but 7-2 would have been 
far, far better.  Time for more medicine.

As for Shareef vs. Walker, I'll take the latter anyday, though Kestas has 
a good point re: the doing one thing very well vs. many things fairly well.
   I can't argue with that -- it seems sound to me, but I think many views 
of Shareef are clouded by the fact that most of us only see him against 
the Celtics.  I watched a few Grizzlies games last year (were on at a 
convenient time to watch games) and Shareef is a good player, but while he 
*can* be a "stud scorer", he often falls short of what you might expect 
when seeing him play against the C's.  He eats Antoine Walker for his 
post-dusk meal it seems.  He must have been hungry because of Ramadan last 
night, because he sure ate his fill.  As for Walker getting stuffed, 
turkey-style it happened (many times) last night and was disappointing.  
It's a live and die with it kind of thing, though.  Walker just doesn't 
have it in him or hasn't learned yet (?!) to move his body and the ball 
under the hoop to avoid that sort of thing.  It may be part of his whole 
shooting style: you know, throw it up, beat the defender with speed, get 
the ball up over the rim as-quick-as-possible.  Saw one where Nazr just 
stood there and moved his hand (not his arm, just his hand) to swat the 
ball.  Then again, a few players would have still gotten the foul call.

But let's not just blame Walker.  Pierce isn't going to help the team with 
many 16 and 10 performances.  That's not bad if Walker and say JJ are 
scoring, but more times than not, the team will need Pierce to score 25 
points.  (Of course, the Hawks were playing what amounted to a zone 
against him, but he's going to need to figure out how to be effective 
against that, as many teams will likely do that to him.)  More live and 
die things: three pointers.  I don't have as much a problem with them as 
many here do, but against the Hawks, we needed to penetrate and move 
without the ball to create openings, but the team settled for spotting up 
for the three.

I don't mind losing our share of games if we played according to the plan 
(run of offense, tough defense) and with effort.  They'll make it exciting 
and worth watching to the end.  But last night's dismal lack of effort to 
find something that worked just won't cut it.  Here's hoping they bounce 
back before the next game (don't even know when that is -- too irritated 
to go find out, though I probably will after sending this).  Positive 
things?  I guess Kenny had a good game.  Thought Battie was pretty 
effective.  Not much else at all ... .

Happy Turkey & American Manifest Destiny Day to all.  Due to many 
illnesses around here, the gluttony is being postponed for a few days 
until we all feel better, or else I'd be drowning myself in the 
traditional foodstuffs even as I write.

(The Celtic "Tird")

P.S. Looks like the new-found good feeling for V (with accompanying 
minutes) has fallen by the wayside again, as Blount again got the majority 
of minutes at backup center.  Seems as if everyone on the list brings this 
up (and with good reason).  What with no EWill and McCarty getting 
end-of-quarter minutes, this is about the most glaring example of 
screwed-up distribution of playing time that I can think of.

P.P.S. I hate to pick on Wallah (really!), but he was in at the end of 
some quarter last night, got the inbounds pass with very few seconds on 
the clock, at almost the half-court line, waved te ball around for a while,
  looked around for someone to pass to, and the clock (of course) ran out.  
McCarty doesn't even have the barest clue about what is going on on the 
court.  He just jumps around, poster boy for Pitinoball.  If we're lucky 
he's in the right place at the right time for a rebound.  If we're unlucky,
  well, you know the drill.