TA and the officiating

[Kim Malo]

At 12:42 PM 5/3/2008, Ryan W wrote:
>Doc's playing Ray too many minutes, and our offense
>didn't give Ray many good looks.  Either we play
>Cassell and Rondo together to give Ray rest, or we
>play Tony Allen for a five minute stretch.  Ray is not
>giving us what we need on the road, and I think
>limiting his minutes is one way to get him going
>again.

I don't wholly disagree with you on this, but I think the reason he 
doesn't do this has more to do with ripple effect and things other 
than shooting. No one's going to call Ray a defensive force but he 
still plays better D than Cassell, actually much better than I 
thought he could, while the ball just moves better with him in there. 
It's not just that Sam's shooting too much, it's that most of the 
other time all he does is just stand outside and dribble as the clock 
runs down. No flow whatsoever and you can see the sand getting into 
the gears the moment he comes on the court. Ray at least moves around 
and attempts to penetrate and test the defense (giving them something 
other than KG to worry about), especially if the outside shot isn't 
falling,  and gets the ball out of his own hands more. While I think 
with Pierce out in foul trouble so much last night, that was the real 
either / or - Doc felt he had to play Ray because he couldn't play 
Pierce. And I'm not averse to playing Tony for a 5 minute stretch so 
long as it doesn't look like leading to 5 turnovers and 4 open shots 
the other way, and agree that I probably would have played him more 
last night (although JJ didn't really beat us - one clutch basket, 
yes, but Posey guarded him well and his whole game stats weren't the 
difference maker as they have been in the other losses) but he's even 
less help and more harm on offense than Cassell these days, based on 
the end of the season. And I've got to assume that hasn't changed 
much in practice or he'd be playing.

I just still can't believe Ray took that last shot last night. It 
wasn't the fact that he missed it so much as that he took it with 10 
+ seconds left on the clock even if he made it, and Ray's always been 
a smart player.

>Re: Pierce--of all the terrible calls in the 4th
>quarter, his 6th was the worst BY FAR.  I don't think
>I've seen a cheaper 6th foul against a superstar
>player in my lifetime.

Yeah, that was exactly my thought. Was there a foul? Sure if you want 
to call one, just like a bunch of others where they didn't. But 
players like Pierce never get it called on them, and while I never 
buy into the refs costing us a game (it's one more thing you have to 
fight past, like injuries), I don't mind refs getting things wrong so 
much as I mind them getting them inconsistently wrong where they call 
things against one team they don't call against the other. And that 
was a real problem, as you point out in some stuff I snipped for length.

>Taking it to the hoop is one thing, but you can't MAKE
>them blow the whistle.

The man speaks wisdom.  We also have to make a better % of the ones 
we do get. It's not just the Hawks getting more, but all series long 
it's been them making more of what they get. Our losses have been 
close enough that that alone could have gotten us a win or two - making FT.

Kim