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| The Big Nose Seeks Offensive Rebounds, The Ears Hear Defenders' Hesitation |
I watched the two overtimes
from the Portland game and here’s what I saw.
OT 1
This is the overtime of one
vs. one. Jeremy Pargo hits one
three and then jacks up another three the next possession. Anderson Varejao gets the o-board and sends it to
Dion Waiters who makes a three.
This is the Cavs curse.
Whenver someone makes a three, they feel like they have a freebie to
shoot next time down the court rather than make the right play.
Waiters proves this when he
just dribbles for twenty seconds and then drives in for a layup after he hit a
three the previous possession.
This Cavs team needs to
remember that every possession is a new one. Nothing carries over that makes new rules: a bad selfish
play is just as selfish even if you make a three before doing it.
It drives me nuts that
Waiters and Pargo don’t utilize Varejao or Tyler Zeller during this OT. These big men know what to do when they
touch the ball. Zeller can make
the twenty footer everyone leaves him open for, and Varejao usually gets a great
pass to a runner on the baseline or kicks out to the open man. WHY NOT USE IT?
The defense centered around
doubling Damian Lillard. Read on
to find out his skills.
OT 2
Portland moves the ball
really well. Damien Lillard is
amazing to watch. It seems like
everytime he touches the ball the defense shades over towards him which gives
someone an open chance. Damien
Lillard, unlike our guards, finds that man and takes advantage of it. Although, this overtime we did better
with finding people. Pargo had a
nice assist to Gee right when he got back into the game. Then he followed that up with the
hockey assist to Gee to Zeller for the 20 foot shot.
Tyler Zeller is the driver
de la Fuck Truck tonight. In just
these two overtimes, he’s gone bonkers. He had two, possibly three offensive rebounds this
2nd OT (the third potetional one should have been a foul shot, but instead they called him for a travel after he was mauled putting up his shot). He knows where he needs to be
at all times. On the pick and
roll, he gets to the spots on the floor where he can make a shot, but he will drive
it in if he sees an opportunity.
He knows how to fake the shot and keep his defender on edge and going
past him; this was shown perfectly on the baseline dunk at 4:24 off of the Pargo assist.
He even plays great defense,
which we saw this OT when he forced Damian out of bounds. He knows how far he can come out and
help before his assignment will be comepletely open. He must be religious because his moderation is perfect. On
offensive boards, he has become relentless.
He doesn’t seem hesitant at all like he did in the
beginning of the year. When the
ball is launched, he runs to get it.
He even stays on it to get blocks like at the end of the game when he
blocked JJ Hickson by the hoop.
I won’t mention the end of
the game. We were beat. It was luck and must have been destiny
because the three that did it was a one every fifty tries type shot.
** Dion Waiter’s injury is
terrible. However, I was happy it
was driving rather than taking a contested jumpshot. It’s even better that it happened while he was trying to get
an offensive board. I don’t like
that he got hurt, but it’s a positive how it happened, I guess.
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