WMC 24-25: Seasonal Highs And Lows!

Feb is safe.

Here's why I think that: there's only 12 games and there's excuses they'll use for several of them (deadline, back-to-backs, measuring stick against the league's best, players ready for the all star break to rest due to such extensive travel...like they're traveling to these games via horse and carriage)
-We'll lose to Boston and NY, that's 4 straight.
-Beat Charlotte, that'll break up the losing streak.
-Lose to Denver but it's trade day. We'll do something, probably on the margins, and that excuses that shorthanded loss and buys time...can't judge the roster until they've had time to...
-Pelicans game I can see going either way. They had their revenge game, so who knows.
-Beat Detroit. We have 4 days to rest and prep for this one.
-Jazz is a loss. Back to back. Someone will be gimpy and it's in Utah. Does Bron even bother making the trip or start all star break early? After that we don't play again until the 22nd. If we sit Bron and AD in that one, they get over a week's worth of rest.
-22nd vs GS is a win. Bron likes beating Steph and unless they make a big deadline deal they're one of the couple of teams worse than us.
-Spurs the next night (23rd) is a loss. We'll empty the clip against GS again and Pop hates us, that's his championship.
-Suns is a loss on the 25th.
-Clipps on 28th is a loss. They're not going to let us take the season series 3-1.
-Wiz to close out the month is a win.

5-7 for the month. Close enough to 6-6 and .500 ball.



March is where it could get dicey. We very well could drop the first 6 that month.
Denver
OKC
Kings
Bucks
Wolves
Kings

If that happens, I think that's the only firing window. If he survives that, he survives until the summer.

 

Beating the C-Bags In BOS would make this painful season a lot less horrible, but I don't see it.

I fear it's gonna be ugly. (Yea yea, I know, I know: just being in BOS is ugly.)

 

I need to see that kind of effort every night. We’ve got several more wins right now if we just play like we care.

 

yeah, it's weird that this win in boston sort of made me mad. just another example of the kind of basketball we could be seeing instead of things like the hawks game, which has been most of the season.

lebron, AD, and ham all need to think about why this game looked like this and others don't. and yes, certainly the C Bags took the game lightly and had an off night (very rare for an opponent of ours), but that wasn't the whole story. a lot of it was that we played with more energy on both sides of the ball from start to finish.

 

Despite Ham's best efforts to keep him down, with LeBron and AD out, he had to start Vando. And Vando along with Reaves set the tone, which continued throughout the game. Austin said it after the game, with their 2 best players out, the other players themselves were motivated to play their hardest and show what they could do. No credit to coach. DLo said he does better when he's not being yanked around and it showed, despite poor shooting, he still contributed in a lot of ways.

So some people might blame LeBron not being able to hustle on defense every night at 39 (although he's been a net positive on defense overall, with opponents doing poorly against him), but more than that - the coach yanked the team around and de-motivated them and continues to with terrible lineups. They openly snub him, lol at him, laugh at his play calling, ignore him, etc. But when the players themselves get motivated despite the coach, like tonight or during the IST, they crush it. Change the coach, and we get effort like this more often than not.

 

i agree it's mostly ham, but i don't think it's fully a coincidence it happened with the stars out.

 

I agree, because yes, LeBron still takes plays off on defense. But much more of it has to do with starting Vando imo. And the tone he helped start is gonna continue even when he goes down, when you're unexpectedly up against Boston and trying to hold on to win.

We saw how engaged the team and stars were in the GSW game when playing Vando with the starters instead of Prince. If a healthy LeBron and AD were starting this game instead of Prince and Hayes, I think we still get the same energy. But I guess we'll never know, if Ham never starts Vando with the rest of the regular starters instead of Prince.

 

LeBron sets the tone for the team. AD too, but LeBron not bringing the energy weighs the team down in a way that its tough for any other player (including AD) to get around. His body language throws guys off and makes them feel worse about their mistakes.

Even with Ham doing bad rotations, there's still ways to get the guys pumped up and playing with energy.

 

Agreed. Team played with high energy and wanted to send a message to all three that they can play if given the opportunity.

 

Yes, but that's on Ham. It's literally the coach's job to get guys pumped up and playing with energy. Despite whatever energy a 39 year old has for every play. And LeBron generally plays pumped up and energetic next to Vando anyway. Anyway, you're literally describing the coach's job, and Ham's not doing it.

 

Disagree. Players on the floor can definitely impact energy too.

Ham plays a part as I have acknowledged a number of times. But I'm not going to slam him on every post particularly when I see things the players could be doing better.

 

Back to back wins after the worst losses of the season. Hopefully the light bulb has finally switched on for good now and we will see this level of effort for the rest of the season.

 

Well Bron posted the empty hourglass emoji, so everyone knows they are out of time and need to get their ish together.

he’s very inspirational in that way

 

Not bad old man

 

Wrong thread … or you wanted MOAR out of the old fart?

 

blown out by houston. beat boston at the garden without lebron/AD. beat the knicks at MSG

this team is so goddamn bipolar

 

today I feel like watching a game, and there isn't one.

But that's just me procrastinating starting work vs actually wanting to watch them play. Sorry, but two games doesn’t convince me.

 

Fine don't watch .... you wanting us to talk you into it?