BonesJones
https://www.youtube.com/c/blazersuprise
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- May 7, 2015
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I'm going to address this point by point:
Opposing superstars always seem to go off against us. It was that way last year with Paul George, Marc Gasol, and a few others that I can't specifically remember going off in crunch time with adequate defensive coverage leading to defeats in games we've won.
That trend HAS NOT CHANGED. In 5 games this year, we've given up 44 points to Giannis Antetokounmpo, 39 to DeMarcus Cousins, and numerous crunch time buckets to Blake Griffin.
It's sad when you have numerous people sitting close to court during the stretch run SCREAMING for double teams on Blake, and the couple times it happens it results in turnovers. Blake Griffin was the only guy that could score on us down the stretch, and we let him. Stotts didn't have an answer to one player, and it's a common thing, and quite ridiculous. I'm getting tired of fans like myself that would know what to do in situations like this.
Game-winning shots against us in the past couple years have been NUMEROUS. We never have the right defensive mindset at the end of games.
When up 2 with six seconds left, you don't want to foul, and you don't want to give up a 3. With 3-5 seconds left, if there's a screen or handoff above the key, the defense should always trap, and scramble for the remaining time. Usually the offense won't have enough time to move the ball to get a 3pt shot off. If they are able to pass out of pressure to a guy that happens to be open for two (which is the worst case scenario), it ends up in Overtime at home.
Instead, we have both guys sagging under the handoff, taking away the driving line from Griffin who ONLY has time to shoot a 3pt shot to beat us. How stupid can it get?
Some of this is on the players, but most of it is on the coach. During the past couple games, I've realized that the defensive improvement has been entirely on the players committing themselves to giving more effort on that end, starting with Damian. They're not being coached any better on that end.
And while we're at it, I've been one of the biggest Dame defenders, but Stotts needs to hold him accountable on shot selection. Contested 27-footers with 10 seconds on the shot clock is AWFUL. His shots where he flails in the key searching for the foul instead of trying to convert a layup almost always works out bad as well. But Stotts allows this to happen...
Summary
I've said many times that Stotts is not the right coach for this team. Situations like this, which we should've won, will hurt as at the end of the season. That's a 2-game swing (plus possibly the swinging of a tiebreaker) against the Clippers. Stotts dropped the ball big time. I've seen it to many fucking times. Just needed to vent about this stuff that I'm sure everyone sees.
Do you agree/disagree/what do you think?
Opposing superstars always seem to go off against us. It was that way last year with Paul George, Marc Gasol, and a few others that I can't specifically remember going off in crunch time with adequate defensive coverage leading to defeats in games we've won.
That trend HAS NOT CHANGED. In 5 games this year, we've given up 44 points to Giannis Antetokounmpo, 39 to DeMarcus Cousins, and numerous crunch time buckets to Blake Griffin.
It's sad when you have numerous people sitting close to court during the stretch run SCREAMING for double teams on Blake, and the couple times it happens it results in turnovers. Blake Griffin was the only guy that could score on us down the stretch, and we let him. Stotts didn't have an answer to one player, and it's a common thing, and quite ridiculous. I'm getting tired of fans like myself that would know what to do in situations like this.
Game-winning shots against us in the past couple years have been NUMEROUS. We never have the right defensive mindset at the end of games.
When up 2 with six seconds left, you don't want to foul, and you don't want to give up a 3. With 3-5 seconds left, if there's a screen or handoff above the key, the defense should always trap, and scramble for the remaining time. Usually the offense won't have enough time to move the ball to get a 3pt shot off. If they are able to pass out of pressure to a guy that happens to be open for two (which is the worst case scenario), it ends up in Overtime at home.
Instead, we have both guys sagging under the handoff, taking away the driving line from Griffin who ONLY has time to shoot a 3pt shot to beat us. How stupid can it get?
Some of this is on the players, but most of it is on the coach. During the past couple games, I've realized that the defensive improvement has been entirely on the players committing themselves to giving more effort on that end, starting with Damian. They're not being coached any better on that end.
And while we're at it, I've been one of the biggest Dame defenders, but Stotts needs to hold him accountable on shot selection. Contested 27-footers with 10 seconds on the shot clock is AWFUL. His shots where he flails in the key searching for the foul instead of trying to convert a layup almost always works out bad as well. But Stotts allows this to happen...
Summary
I've said many times that Stotts is not the right coach for this team. Situations like this, which we should've won, will hurt as at the end of the season. That's a 2-game swing (plus possibly the swinging of a tiebreaker) against the Clippers. Stotts dropped the ball big time. I've seen it to many fucking times. Just needed to vent about this stuff that I'm sure everyone sees.
Do you agree/disagree/what do you think?
