CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Tonight Plus 1

[Coolbreeze44]

Whoa, what a finish. Who else believed that we were going to pull that game out? I'll take that shot from Love any day at the end of a game. He just never had his 3 point stroke tonight. Oh well, at least we showed some good character in coming almost all the way back. Here is the first 2 + 1 after a loss this year:

1) Did Ricky work on his shot at all this offseason? We don't need him to score 15 points every night, but he has to look better on offense than that. I didn't have any problem with JJ being in there at end tonight with the way Ricky was going. Of course Ricky was his usual disruptive self on defense, but he needs to find some measure of consistency on the offensive end.

2) Through 3 quarters I'm not exactly sure what we were playing, but it sure wasn't called defense. We all know we are not going to be a top 10 defense in the league, but our effort better be a hell of a lot better than that. It was embarrassing to see the lack of energy on that end of the floor. Defense is all about hustle and effort. You saw that out of Ricky and Corey. Too bad the rest of the team didn't catch on until the 4th quarter. Maybe we just didn't have the legs tonight. That would be somewhat understandable, but still, we have to be better to be an elite team.

Plus 1 - A lot of positives again tonight in the loss. Martin's continued good shooting. A nice effort from Derrick who looked like he belonged in the game at the end. And of course the comeback. But my Plus 1 for the night can be summed up in one word - COBREW! He was everywhere in the 4th quarter and continues to demonstrate how valuable he is going to be to this team.

And that's CoolBreeze's 2 things I didn't like tonight Plus 1.

[markkbu [enjin:6588958]]

Cool, I have to agree with most everything that you said here.

It was a great comeback and I'm glad that the last shot was Love. Right now he is the MAN on this team, we have to win or lose with him. I happen to be happy with that.

Over the past 2 games, Rubio has shot 3-19 and 0-6 from 3 point range. When he is shooting so bad, we are not a playoff team. Other teams will adjust to this and play us differently.

Most of our D was bad tonight........we go out rebounded about 1,000,000 to 3 in the first half and Love (and Pek to a large extent) just can not let that happen. Especially with Turiaf out.

Brewer seems to insist on being one of the bright spots for the Wolves. He bothers to produce every game. We've needed someone like him for a long time.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Yeah, great finish and a testament to the competitors we have on this squad. We could have very easily rolled over and thrown in the towel.

Couldn't agree with you more on #1. Adelman did the right thing because he needed offensive punch and Rubio literally made nothing tonight (except his free throws). Barea and Corey Brewer were instrumental to helping us claw back into this game.

While I agree we didn't defend that well in the first couple of quarters, at the end of the day, we created our fair share of turnovers and made enough stops to hold the Cavs to under 100 points. The real issue is that we were 5-28 from 3. It just wasn't our night from beyond the arc.

By the way, WTF is the deal with CJ Miles against us!? He's like a career 34% 3-point shooter, yet against us he's Ray freakin' Allen! Man, that guy just kills us!

[worldK]

I agree with pretty much what you said cool.

I was a skeptic of brewer starting. But i have to say, he has played very well the first 4 games and earned the starting sf spot. His play in the 4th tonight was outstanding. All out hustle,effort and energy.

Dw has a very good 4th quarter as well. He has some acrobatic finishes and made a nice backdoor cut and reverse layup finish off a nice dish from love. Plays like that are encouraging for williams. I remember adelman saying williams is the key for us, and that is true. Hope he can continue to have nice games off the bench.

Ricky has got to get better at scoring to be able to become an all star level pg in the league. We compare him to rondo and kidd, but rondo is a great athlete capable of throwing it down. and kidd has great strength and used to post up opposing pgs in his peak years to get points. Rubio needs to develop his mid range shot. Thats a shot he could get off easily off picks and it would make him much harder to guard in pick and rolls. His defense and effort are always there but he needs to improve his shot.

[Coolbreeze44]

Q, one reason Miles lit us up tonight is because he had so many uncontested shots. In fact there was uncontested shots all over the place. It wasn't until the 4th that we started contesting everything like we should.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I don't know Cool. He made some tough ones too. Meanwhile, we had a bunch of uncontested 3's too and missed every one of them that Kevin Martin didn't take!

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

I thought Rubio regressed to his worst shooting form tonight: slow, flat, and almost like he was pushing it, not shooting it. Also, there is never a reason for him to take a long three point shot other than the shot clock is about to run out.

He needs to get back to looking for the midrange shot and actually stepping into a shot like he means it. When he had a decent shooting run going this summer in the Eurocup he was taking a lot of jumpshots and gettign more arc.

A bigger problem right now though is who is going to backup the 2 guard? Shved is horrendous. For whatever reason he showed promise for about half of his rookie season and since then he has looked lost. Getting Bud back will help but even so I hope we are looking to pick someone up in the meantime.

[thedoper]

I really liked Williams game tonight. I thought he might get the final shot when he set the pick for Barea but then JJ bobbled the ball. As for Ricky, I keep cringing every time he shoots. The other night when he made the 2 threes I was shocked. Unfortunately, I think he is going to be a poor shooter. I know this was put in another thread, but I like the idea of giving Bazz a shot behind Martin. Shved looks likes he has lost all of his confidence.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Good comeback against a mediocre team.

But, I have to say... I don't like the 3 point look from Love. The Wolves were down only 1. Get something going TOWARD the basket. (I know Barea was losing control, but it seemed like the play called for Love to be 23 feet away.)

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Just finished watching the replay of the game. I read a book through most of the game until Austin Carr (doing the color for the Cavs) woke me up. Man, what a fun last five minutes! Williams was great, Love was a warrior on the boards (despite dead legs), and what can you say about Brewer. He played 38 minutes in the second of a back to back, and still was all over the court in the 4th...I have a lot of respect for him.

Two observations:

1) Every Wolf not named Kevin Martin were 0-20 on threes. Just make one, and we win the game.

2) I'm not usually a ref whiner, but Love was fouled on a three attempt with 1:25 left. If the refs make the call, we win the game.

Gutty performance. Should be a fun game Wednesday against G.S.