Saturday Recap

CAVS/WIZARDS:

- I guess the concern about Lebron having no playoff experience really came to fruition

- Arenas---7 for 20 from the field, 1 for 7 from 3pt, 3/3 ast/to, tons of ill-advised shots, pretty standard stuff for Gil

- The Cavs outrebounded the Wiz by 16, Cavs got 20 offensive rebounds

- Both teams didn't shoot the ball particularly well, but I thought the Wiz's defense was rather bad & dribble penetration was killing them--they really should consider some zone & try to make the Cavs jumpshooters, especially Bron


SPURS/KINGS:

- Not much to add, the Spurs looked like the Spurs we thought we see at the start of the year

- Sacto' D was awful, Bibby was his usual self---Parker slashing all over the place


HEAT/BULLS:

- Surprisingly good game, the Bulls played their hearts out, Skiles is a flat-out great coach

- The Bulls played pretty good defense even though they gave up 48 % from the floor---that had alot to do with no answer for Shaq (just like every other team), you take Shaq's 11 for 16 away, the rest of the Heat were held to 42.6 % from
the field

- I thought Hinrich did a great job on Wade for most of the game, Wade was just too tough down the stretch though

- Gordon is one of the best pure scorers in the league, that's basically all he does, but he does it real well
His shot is tough to stop even though he's only 6-2 at the 2guard--it's a combo of his long arms & high arc

- Shaq showed some surprising energy on the defensive end when the game was tight, showing me his defensive acumen has more to do with his motivation than all this overhyped loss of physical ability


- Bulls' youth did seem to get the better of themselves at the end--too many bad shots & bad turnovers. Although they were not helped by the zebras making some home-field calls for Miami


CLIPPS/NUGS:

- Even though it was a close game, it was not that well-played of a game--a few too many lulls offensively for both
teams

- Denver shot 38.5 % from the field, 1 for 6 from 3 pt--no big surprise there

- Denver really needs transition points to be competitve, which is not a good sign in the playoffs

- I always said if you want to play Boykins, the opposing team has to make the Nugs pay at the other end and post him all the time. I don't care if your point has no post game--every person in the league should be able to post up Earl. Dunleavy did a good job of this in the 2nd quarter

- Also in the 2nd quarter, Dunleavy did a good job going to zone for a little while & Denver missed some shots, why he did not stay with it, I am not sure

- But Dunleavy pretty much washed away this good coaching in the 1st half with his major mismanagement at the end

- Why in the world did Cassell not have the ball in his hands at the end of the 4th? Why was he setting screens & moving to the other side of the court away from the ball??? Dunleavy was making some mighty boneheaded decisions

- Cassell has to have the ball in his hands, that what he lives for-- he usually makes great decisions and had been great with the ball all game long--I don't have that big of problem with running some post-ups for Brand, but let Cassell run the two-man game with him, let Sam make the reads and have him handle the ball, he could even call for high pick/rolls with Brand if Sam felt that was a better option--he's a coach on the floor