h2thaizzo wrote:
That lineup with about 7 minutes left pissed me off.
Mavs
Kidd
Terry
Marion
Thomas (hot hand)
Dampier
Cavs
Mo
Gibson
West
James
Varejao
So you have a guy in there in Gibson, who isn't a good defender, you have West, our second best defender, going against a guy thats got about 5 inches on him, I just don't get it. The coaching gameplan is shit, the coaching period, is shit. You take a team thats near unbeatable when they put up 100+ points, yet CONSTANTLY put them in positions like this game, where they are held under that number, and lose. This is why the Lakers are so good, and why Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, etc. are going to go down as legendary coaches, and Mike Brown will just be a shadow in our memories, because they know exactly how to win basketball games, and he doesn't. The Lakers know that if they score 105, and the Kings score 101, they still win the game. Thats how they play, score as much as possible, and defend well enough to win. I'm tired of this defense wins championships bullshit we keep getting fed. We have two guys that average nearly 50 per night, and have a team that just managed to score less than 100 against Dallas, who didn't even have their best player in the game. We play our best basketball when we are active and moving offensively, yet about every other game we suck at working the ball offensively. Tonight we get 17 assists. We stand around, running out the shot clock, not looking for the best shot, which is just stupid, and when the plan isn't working, our coach does absolutely nothing to adjust the plan.
I think Brown was trying to invigorate the offense with that lineup, as it kind of did as they put up 28 in the 4th but the defense definitely suffered because of it. I can't really blame him for wanting to put a spark in the offense as they only put up 17 in the 3rd. Just couldn't find the balance tonight. Also, have to give credit to Dallas, they shot lights out from the free throw line and were very careful with the ball as they only had 6 turnovers.