101-97 in Chicago (who are awful this season), but we were made to sweat for it. A big second quarter did the damage, and we were still up eight with a minute to go, but threes from Songaila (what?!?!) and Gordon got it back to a basket, before freethrows iced it. Biggest positive for mine, apart from Petro's contributions (six points, nine rebounds in 31 minutes before fouling out) was the amount of contributions. Rashard top scored with 21, but we had five guys in double figures, as well as Nick with nine, and seven guys logging over 20 minutes (six over 30). I didn't agree with Vlad starting and he took a lot of shots to get his 14 points, but he hit some big shots in the last as well. Nick continues to prove he's our best all-round player. Anyway, Minnesota and Denver both won so we didn't make up any ground, but more importantly we didn't lose any.
Uh, I know I haven't been real active on here lately, but, I have a Q for anyone who might know. Where was Evans? I thought we were trying to improve defensively. Somebody tell me he is injured, because I don't want to hear the Hill doesn't feel he deserves to play.
Haven't watched the game yet, but the fact we held them under 100 is a good sign. I don't agree with Vlad's minutes either, and certainly not the benching of Reg, but I guess when you're 13-17 everything's up for grabs. Nice win for Hill, but we've had wins like this already. I'd like to see some consistency, especially on D.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting odde23:</div><div class="quote_post">Uh, I know I haven't been real active on here lately, but, I have a Q for anyone who might know. Where was Evans? I thought we were trying to improve defensively. Somebody tell me he is injured, because I don't want to hear the Hill doesn't feel he deserves to play.</div> Evans was suited up ready to play as far as I know - Hill just chose not to play him. We've sparred a little on this before Odde, but here is my take on possibly why peppered with comments Calabro made throughout the game about Hill and his philosophies. #1 - Hill sees Radman as somewhat of the missing link offensively - allowing us much more spacing on the floor and making it easier not only for the offense to flow, but on Ray/Shard. Reggie has improved offensively, and has shown he can score effectively out of the post - but his touches down low do nothing for other players because he is rarely ever doubled and the offense grinds to a halt while he operates. #2 - I personally don't think Evans is a good defender - he is a phenomenal rebounder, but is a terrible defensive rotator IMO and often cheats off a shooting man in order to get into rebounding posistion instead of contesting a shot. He can't block shots, rarely even contests shots. He does get under guys skin and is a terrific hustler for loose balls - but I just don't see any kind of lock down D from him on anywhere near a consistent basis. (I'm not saying Rad does either, but if they are similiar defensively, I think Hill will take the offense Rad gives him over what Reggie can bring) #3 - our offense tonight consisted of alot more screens from the bigs than we've seen all year (more reminiscent of last season) - Reggie would be great at this, but the minutes not going to Rad are gonna be Collisons I think, not only because of his more effective offensive play, but because he is a much better passer from the top of the key - or anywhere on the court for that matter. Couple that with being a solid rebounder in his own right, a better man defender, and shot blocker - and Reggie is just the odd man out. I think a DNP-CD is extreme, but I can't really argue with playing the twin teens as much as possible at the C, giving the scraps to Nick and giving Nick the rest of his minutes at the 4. We need a shotblocking presence terribly, and I think Hill views Rad as the better compliment to either of the teens. Nights where Petro/Swift get into foul trouble more quickly, I'm sure you'll see Nick and Reggie on the floor together for extended minutes - but by the time they picked up enough fouls to worry about this game, it was deep into the 4th and Reggie's poor FT shooting wasn't gonna earn him any minutes.
Seeing all those screens was enough to bring a tear to my eye. K-Lab was saying that Hill wanted Ray to start shooting off screens more instead of going one-on-one every time, which is great. Rashard didn't touch the ball nearly enough, but overall things looked a lot better, and we won despite making a lot of little mistakes.
Up until last night the Sonics had not won a game this season with an offensive rating of less than 113 points per 100 possessions. Last night they had a 105.7 rating and still won the game. Perhaps there is a bigger difference in the way they played than I noticed watching the game. They have only had two better defensive games this season, the last Bulls game and the last Jazz game.
