Quick game thoughts...

[Ryan W <ubiquitous_am_i@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ah, Vinnie...

Mike James came out of a 3 game slumber to turn it on
in the second half (12 points).  His first half was
atrocious though, with many poor passes when
attempting to feed the post.

Blount: Example number 1 why you don't give up on
young talent.  We all knew he had the physical
talents, and now finally Blount is putting them to
use.  He's going to have a Ben Wallace-like ascendency
(without the steriods too!).  

Battie:  Scoring!  

Raef:  Gives the occasional flash, but still not
shooting as well as he can.  Did great on the boards,
and got called for some cheap fouls (the refs weren't
horrible, but there were definitely bad).

Kedrick:  The question of his defense being good or
bad was answered by tonight's game (and if you didn't
think he played a great game on D, they I would
question your perceptive abilities).  Nobody scored
while Kedrick was on guard (that's right, nobody). 
Helped hold reigning Player of the week (seeing his
stats he didn't deserve it) Ron Artest to 8 points. 
Had about 3 or 4 offensive rebounds.  Struggled a bit
on offense (in the first half mainly...but then again
the entire team struggled in the first half on
offense).  Did hit a big three and made a steal on
Harrington that led to a big Pierce three.  All in
all, should have played more in the second half,
though staying with E luckily paid off (Williams
played like 14 straight minutes to finish off the
game).

Williams:  though I would have given him a rest at
about the 6 min mark of the 4th quarter, he still came
thru with 4 huge defensive rebounds (the biggest being
on O'Neal's last shot).  Bar none, the most important
player on the team.

Banks:  Yeah, he's still a rookie.  

Jiri:  Plays with great anticipation and agility,
which almost makes up for his utter lack of
athleticism.  Had about 3 plays where in the beginning
of the play he did something outstanding only to have
it erased later on in the play by some great Indiana
defensive play.  In 2-3 years, he's going to be great
(great I tell you!).

Paul:  Unfortunately, Paul has yet to find his groove.
 Not shooting well, not getting to the line.  His
passing picked up tonight and on a couple of plays it
appeared he knew what would happen before it happened
(always nice).  In particular was the dump down touch
pass to Blount which led to a jam.  Wait until Paul
really gets it going...

Ryan

P.S.  Indiana's announcers can suck a dick! 

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