I love the sense of optimism that sprouted from this game! The best part of the game for me was holding the nuggs to under 40% from the field, especially after last season's brutal efforts. Nash looked surprisingly good, Kobe played like Kobe, and Randle looked like a star in the making. Lost behind the big headlines was how our role players really looked better than advertised or vastly improved. Ed Davis and J hill both played well. Boozer was putting in a real effort, especially early, and Wes Johnson's shot looked vastly improved. Also the Shoutbox was awesome, you could feel the positive energy in there throughout the game!
It was sure nice to see these new guys get out there and flash their skills. Every new guy who played showed us something that we can use. Can this become a physically tough, scrappy, hustling team like Chicago? I don't want to get ahead of myself, but there was plenty of encouraging news.
Clarkson needs to develop a stop on the dime mid-range. It's either a drive for a floater or a catch and shoot from the perimeter. He has talent plus plays with no fear. I like that Davis contests shots while Hill just does the dirty work. Even Boozer had some good deny plays defending the paint.
He did one - drive, stop, and shoot - created good space, but he missed the shot iirc. It seemed to look pretty natural, too.
I'm worried about the center position. they're all just so small. mozgov continued his dominance of the lakers. mozgov. this will be an issue, either in the form of fouls, injuries, opponents points in the paint, opponent FTAs, or a complete inability to control the d-glass. Clarkson was a pleasant surprise to me. I didn't think he'd be able to separate and get those floaters against nba defenders, and he did. he caught some bad rolls; those were halfway down and good, under control shots. his standstill jumper is money.
There were a pair of Denver possessions where it looked like they had 15 million offensive rebounds. OK, it was more like five. Still it will be a concern. Lantz mentioned that Scott emphasizes gang rebounding given their lack of size in the paint.
I'm sure they will, but if mozgov's [or insert average nba center here] got your center standing out of bounds, the odds are in their favor. actually, I thought boozer was doing a decent job keeping faried's hands off the ball. would be nice if some of his old defensive rebounding capabilities returned. I think randle will gradually learn how to gobble up boards, too. but the centers are just physically outmatched on a nightly basis. have to get it back on the other end, I guess--d'antoni style!
