Back-to-back good games from Kris vs the Clippers and a good game from Scoot tonight. Plus we made them sweat a little at the end there, lol.
skulkingskeleton
Scoot believers we back baby
i_am_sooo_tired
Back on the Scoot copium boys. I can’t quit him.
Piano9717
Here are my thoughts on today’s game:
Positives:
* Moses Brown actually looked like an NBA player tonight for probably the first time this season. I thought it was a pretty good decision by Chauncey to exclusively play zone defense while he was on the court so he didn’t have to guard in space defensively, and he had a nice spin layup and a bunch of offensive rebounds offensively. I don’t think I’ve said a single nice thing about Moses all season so here we go. * I thought Scoot played much better than he’d played in any game since he came back from injury. He looked quick, bursty, and consistently got to the rim and got some FTs. I also thought he made a bunch of pretty nice kickout passes (but that’s probably one of the strongest aspects of his game right now, so I wasn’t too surprised by that). His finishing is still an adventure — he lets himself get walled up way too easily, he doesn’t know how to use his body to bump off shot blockers or protect the ball, and he has no left hand (there was a play in the third quarter where he made a great cut, and contorted his body like a pretzel to use his right hand to try to finish around Zubac on the left side of the rim instead of taking a relatively simple left handed layup. He got fouled so the results were fine, but the process is still pretty ugly sometimes. But finishing is something that can be fixed a lot easier than being able to get to your spots – and I thought Scoot did a great job getting to his spots today offensively. He also looked pretty electric in transition, which is one thing I really want to see more – pushing the ball off missed shots and turnovers can really help a young guard like Scoot play out of structure, as opposed to having to grind everything out in a halfcourt offense. * Kris Murray is such a smart player. He’s a rookie, but he plays like an 8 year vet – he’s always making the right cut on offense, or the right rotations on defense. I really like his game, and I’m glad he’s starting to make some open shots – if he can consistently do that he’s going to have a great career. * Toumani’s defense is absolutely incredible. He’s so disciplined, has great help instincts, and seems to always be disruptive without gambling excessively. I really love it. * I thought our matchup zone defense looked pretty sharp tonight. No guarding empty spaces like in a traditional 2-3 – we were pretty good about matching up to the nearest player which I liked.
* I’m really liking what Banton has been doing the last few games. Felt like the first few games he was here, he was putting up big numbers while he was dominating the ball because we didn’t have any other PG or shot creator options – really not playing winning basketball at all. But the last few games, I really think he’s been playing good and smart basketball – picking his spots in transition, making catch and shoot jumpers, cutting off the ball, and playing PG when needed. If he can keep shooting like this, I feel pretty good about him being a rotation player next year. One thing that we haven’t seen that I’d like to see is using him as a screener – he seems like a pretty good decision maker, and if he’s on the floor with Ant (who usually commands a double team coming off a screen) maybe Banton can do some interesting things in the short roll. Ayton is usually fine in this area and so is Reath, but the offense didn’t look so good when we had Moses screening for Ant – I’d be curious to see what happened if we used Banton in that role, just like how we used Justise winslow last year. * Jabari showed some interesting looking things on offense that we haven’t seen consistently before.
Negatives:
* Ant was questionable for today with a left knee injury, and he ended up aggravating it and went to the locker room in a lot of pain. For such a shitty team we sure love rushing guys back from injuries when they really shouldn’t be playing – just look at what happened to Sharpe earlier this season. It’s not like we are in some do-or-die playoff race where every game matters – if guys aren’t healthy enough to play then they really don’t have to play. Hope he’s not seriously hurt but it’s really frustrating seeing guys get hurt unnecessarily trying to play through injuries. Also, this isn’t a negative per se but while I’m talking about Ant – it was very noticeable that he was pretty much playing entirely off the ball when Scoot was on the floor, and let Scoot run the offense. I’m not sure if this is because his knee was sore and he was trying to rest it, or if this is coming from him, the front office, or Chauncey (or if he felt like he couldn’t get open against Kawhi and PG) but it was very obvious that he was letting Scoot do his thing and not being too aggressive hunting his shots. I don’t think it’s very good for winning games because Ant is best when he’s aggressive and getting buckets, but I think it could be good for Scoot’s development, so kinda nice to see Ant being a good teammate in that regard. * I really like what Reath provides on offense – the spacing is so much better when he’s on the floor and he’s a pretty good decision maker in the short roll. However, he’s a walking layup line on defense and it’s pretty hard to watch sometimes. * Trial by fire for Rupert having to guard Kawhi, lol. The results were pretty predictable. * Some of Kris’ misses are so incredibly ugly. I try to be optimistic about him as a shooter, but man some of the misses he puts up are HORRENDOUS.
versace_nick
lol at the records in this post’s title
TubbzMcGee
Props to Ant for letting Scoot be the primary guy tonight. 6 shot attempts and 6 assists is a pretty unusual line for him.
bassicallyinsane
That half court shot from Rayan was incredible, shame it was a tiny bit late
Oops95
Anyone see that under the basket layup Sc00t finished with his left hand in the 2nd half? Beautiful. He can do that more often.
EscapingTheBubble
Missed the game – did it look bad for Ant or just aggravation?
9 Comments
Back-to-back good games from Kris vs the Clippers and a good game from Scoot tonight. Plus we made them sweat a little at the end there, lol.
Scoot believers we back baby
Back on the Scoot copium boys. I can’t quit him.
Here are my thoughts on today’s game:
Positives:
* Moses Brown actually looked like an NBA player tonight for probably the first time this season. I thought it was a pretty good decision by Chauncey to exclusively play zone defense while he was on the court so he didn’t have to guard in space defensively, and he had a nice spin layup and a bunch of offensive rebounds offensively. I don’t think I’ve said a single nice thing about Moses all season so here we go.
* I thought Scoot played much better than he’d played in any game since he came back from injury. He looked quick, bursty, and consistently got to the rim and got some FTs. I also thought he made a bunch of pretty nice kickout passes (but that’s probably one of the strongest aspects of his game right now, so I wasn’t too surprised by that). His finishing is still an adventure — he lets himself get walled up way too easily, he doesn’t know how to use his body to bump off shot blockers or protect the ball, and he has no left hand (there was a play in the third quarter where he made a great cut, and contorted his body like a pretzel to use his right hand to try to finish around Zubac on the left side of the rim instead of taking a relatively simple left handed layup. He got fouled so the results were fine, but the process is still pretty ugly sometimes. But finishing is something that can be fixed a lot easier than being able to get to your spots – and I thought Scoot did a great job getting to his spots today offensively. He also looked pretty electric in transition, which is one thing I really want to see more – pushing the ball off missed shots and turnovers can really help a young guard like Scoot play out of structure, as opposed to having to grind everything out in a halfcourt offense.
* Kris Murray is such a smart player. He’s a rookie, but he plays like an 8 year vet – he’s always making the right cut on offense, or the right rotations on defense. I really like his game, and I’m glad he’s starting to make some open shots – if he can consistently do that he’s going to have a great career.
* Toumani’s defense is absolutely incredible. He’s so disciplined, has great help instincts, and seems to always be disruptive without gambling excessively. I really love it.
* I thought our matchup zone defense looked pretty sharp tonight. No guarding empty spaces like in a traditional 2-3 – we were pretty good about matching up to the nearest player which I liked.
* I’m really liking what Banton has been doing the last few games. Felt like the first few games he was here, he was putting up big numbers while he was dominating the ball because we didn’t have any other PG or shot creator options – really not playing winning basketball at all. But the last few games, I really think he’s been playing good and smart basketball – picking his spots in transition, making catch and shoot jumpers, cutting off the ball, and playing PG when needed. If he can keep shooting like this, I feel pretty good about him being a rotation player next year. One thing that we haven’t seen that I’d like to see is using him as a screener – he seems like a pretty good decision maker, and if he’s on the floor with Ant (who usually commands a double team coming off a screen) maybe Banton can do some interesting things in the short roll. Ayton is usually fine in this area and so is Reath, but the offense didn’t look so good when we had Moses screening for Ant – I’d be curious to see what happened if we used Banton in that role, just like how we used Justise winslow last year.
* Jabari showed some interesting looking things on offense that we haven’t seen consistently before.
Negatives:
* Ant was questionable for today with a left knee injury, and he ended up aggravating it and went to the locker room in a lot of pain. For such a shitty team we sure love rushing guys back from injuries when they really shouldn’t be playing – just look at what happened to Sharpe earlier this season. It’s not like we are in some do-or-die playoff race where every game matters – if guys aren’t healthy enough to play then they really don’t have to play. Hope he’s not seriously hurt but it’s really frustrating seeing guys get hurt unnecessarily trying to play through injuries. Also, this isn’t a negative per se but while I’m talking about Ant – it was very noticeable that he was pretty much playing entirely off the ball when Scoot was on the floor, and let Scoot run the offense. I’m not sure if this is because his knee was sore and he was trying to rest it, or if this is coming from him, the front office, or Chauncey (or if he felt like he couldn’t get open against Kawhi and PG) but it was very obvious that he was letting Scoot do his thing and not being too aggressive hunting his shots. I don’t think it’s very good for winning games because Ant is best when he’s aggressive and getting buckets, but I think it could be good for Scoot’s development, so kinda nice to see Ant being a good teammate in that regard.
* I really like what Reath provides on offense – the spacing is so much better when he’s on the floor and he’s a pretty good decision maker in the short roll. However, he’s a walking layup line on defense and it’s pretty hard to watch sometimes.
* Trial by fire for Rupert having to guard Kawhi, lol. The results were pretty predictable.
* Some of Kris’ misses are so incredibly ugly. I try to be optimistic about him as a shooter, but man some of the misses he puts up are HORRENDOUS.
lol at the records in this post’s title
Props to Ant for letting Scoot be the primary guy tonight. 6 shot attempts and 6 assists is a pretty unusual line for him.
That half court shot from Rayan was incredible, shame it was a tiny bit late
Anyone see that under the basket layup Sc00t finished with his left hand in the 2nd half? Beautiful. He can do that more often.
Missed the game – did it look bad for Ant or just aggravation?