I give Monta huge respect for the strides he's made in his game, especially defensively, taking on the challenge of guarding the opposing team's best player. However,... ...he's got to work on the TOs, its unacceptable and as shown last night, an absolute killer. He had 2 huge TOs in the last 2 mns and 9 overall. I know he's tired, okay, but the second to last was simply laziness, and the last, the most brutal of all, he looked like he's on my 3rd grade team, he traveled 3 or 4 times on the same play; brain lock. ...and though he's improved on D, he's still reaching, going for steals on the guy he's guarding more than simply staying in front of the guy. That's all about effort. Watch Kobe, he's never going for that reach around steal; Wade, Ginobili, Kidd, they are not as quick but they do not go to the lazy man's defense.
Last nights ending...was a laugher, and I don't mean that with any disrespect for your team, but gosh that was a bad ending for you guys last night.
Yeah tough way to end the game. The replay showed he slipped and lost his balance. I doubt he would have made the shot anyways. This defense lost this game not the one play. Rockets went on a 12-0 run to steal the game. I haven't had a chance to watch the past few games by Ellis, but he's been racking up the TO's. What kind of turnovers are they? Bad passing? forcing shots? Are they all his fault or are his teammates not giving him angles or being in the right position on the court?
I agree on the TOs. Monta is not an all-star though he still could be. I'm not sure if he has what it takes, but it would have been better for his career if he had a coach who cared and developed players. Second, I think he plays too many minutes under Nelson and could have been burned out by the end of game. Compare his MPG vs when Smart was coaching. It's not an excuse for Ellis, but perhaps an explanation for why he slipped on the final play. The ref has a thing for calling last second fouls, too. He was the same one who called a foul against Mikael Pietrus on Gilbert Arenas. It was egregious. The Wizards were down by two with one-tenth of a second remaining when a questionable foul was called against Pietrus. Arenas ended up being awarded three shots -- one a personal foul on Pietrus and a technical foul against Nelson. Arenas canned three FTs and won the game.
Watched the Mavs, Spurs, (not Lakers) Pacers (in person) and Rockets games. The majority of the TOs I see are his fault, overdribbling and failing to catch simple passes. Careless, that's the maddening thing about it.
Monta also had his shot blocked SEVEN times. When is the last time you saw a player get blocked 7 times in one game? I'm not sure I've ever seen it. Why? Because the Rockets figured out the secret to defending Monta Ellis. When he drives you don't go to him, you wait for him at the rim because that's where he's going. I remember a few years ago Elton Brand did this to Ellis. He had 8 blocks in that game, most of them on Ellis if I recall it correctly. Brand just waited right at the rim until Monta got there and easily swatted away shot after shot. I always wondered why no one else picked up on that and used it against him. Houston in this game finally did. If more teams start doing that Monta may need to start pulling up for more midrange jumpers or develop a high teardrop floater like Stephen Curry has.
Essence of Reggettee; Warriors nursing slim (2pt?) lead with under 3 mins left, he gets a pass near 3 pt line at top of the key with over 15 secs. left on the shot clock and he simply decides to launch a jumper from 21. Why? As Rick Barry said over and over again, "you can get that shot anytime, how about working the ball to see if you can get a better shot?"
Rick Adelman said that Battier is their glue guy*. * Glue guy = Player on a team who usually does not receive the recognition that they deserve. The player is not the star of the team, nor is he an eventual Hall of Famer. Yet, without them, their teams would not win as many games or, in some cases, win a championship. Good recognition about Monta getting blocked. I agree he should pull up more often in order to disguise his intentions. Yet, wasn't he doing more of that before his moped accident? Now, it's like Monta is focused on putting the team on his back and forgetting what he used to do.
God, I hate Maggette! I like his overall fg%, his free throw %, his free throw attempts/makes, rebounding are all good most nights. However, the stuff that this guy does that doesn't show up on the stat sheet annoys the hell out of me. He's got the most broken outside shot that he cannot keep teams honest and he doesn't make others better. Still, he insists on taking it when it's a critical point in the game with time left. Why oh why did we sign this guy for that long and that much? Why did we give up Belinelli... I'd rather go all young, if Mags is going to be this crappy of a leader.
Monta had another 9 TOs tonight. Brutal. 2 Assists and 3 rebounds in 48 mins. Those numbers have got to change if he wants to be known as an All-Star/superstar. Even AI, as selfish as he was, did not have numbers that bad.
And this is exactly what the Warriors cannot be. Monta's points need to come within the flow of the game and although I'm not counting, it seems like half his points are from forced shots that are either lucky or he's just really talented, but either way, it's selfish play. He rarely defers to Curry, which worries me.
Monta sure looked good last night, and they said it was an "off night" for him. He slowed things down that allowed him to look for his teammates. He still had 5 TO's, but I didn't notice them as much. Maybe it was the Nets and how much they suck. I love the growth we are seeing in Monta.
