Lonzo Ball is not good for this team. Yes he can make a spectacular assist and has great vision- but he is a very poor FT shooter and is an unreliable scorer. They need a point guard that can score the ball and hit FTs in crunch time. I have not been impressed with his play in the bubble.
Alvin Gentry’s substitution pattern reminds me a lot of a certain septuagenarian down the road. Nonsensical.
“Coach said no 3s.” - Zion on The Block
Despite JJ’s heroics, the Pels D was weak and Zion is just so clearly not in shape (he seems less explosive). The Spurs are going to eliminate NO and end JJ’s streak of playoff appearances.
RIP Pels.
Hope they keep key pieces for next year and Zion can play closer to 30 plus minutes.
Really a banner day for the Duke South players individually, but the Pels as a team, ugh.
Zion scored 25 but had a -21, JJ scored 31 but had a -6, Ingram had a +1 to go with his 17pts.
Gary Trent Jr finally cooled off hitting just 1 3FG, but Grayson continues his prolific offensive output with 20pts on 4-10 3FG.
Jayson Tatum also had a big day, scoring 29, but Gordo scored 31 on a super efficient night shooting. Austin Rivers in the middle of a superb game with no sight of Westbrook.
Yup, another day, another great showing from Duke players in the bubble.
Austin Rivers was absolutely on fire, scoring a career-high 41 points on just 20 shots from the field (14-20 fg, 6-11 3pt, and 7-8 ft). And as is his want, he used an impressive array of fancy dribble moves to set up those shots. He threw in 6 rebounds and 4 assists for good measure in a win over the Kings.
In the same game, Jabari Parker had his best game with the Kings so far (sample size: 4 games), scoring 12 points and adding 4 rebounds. Harry Giles had just 2 points and 3 rebounds.
Going by my eyeballs -- sorry, stats guys -- the Pels are just not that well-coached. Whether they are not responding en masse to what Gentry is telling them, or he isn't giving them the direction they need, we don't know and it doesn't ultimately matter.
Their defense has been consistently mediocre to atrocious -- sometimes painful to watch. On offense, they have some excellent pieces, but they lack coherence. Would a great PG help, no doubt.
One of the most fun things about watching the NBA games so far has been their intensity. Most teams are going at it full blast, with playoff focus and energy. The Pels? On and off.
Gentry comes across as a good, positive person. But it seems to me the Pels need a coaching change.
“I love it. Coach, when we came here, we had a three-hour meeting about the core values. If you really represent the core values, it means diving on the floor, sacrificing your body for your teammates, no matter how much you’re up by or how much you’re down by, always playing hard.” -- Zion
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013