I used to think Mike James could be their guy but not anymore. They lose all these close games because they have no guy to take shots at end consistently and score. That really hurts. A lot of teams have this type of guy, the Raps have nothing close to that.
A lot of their games shouldn't even come down to whether or not they have clutch players. But there weak defense, turnover problems, and stagnant offense always lets teams back into it. Also, our starters wear out down the stretch, since we don't have any bench players to give them a significant rest.
I've noticed in the past few games that mo pete has really been stepping his game in the clutch. He might not have the buzzer beater highlights to prove it, but in a close game he's usually good for at least a couple threes down the stretch.
Mo said it best himself. If he asserts himself on the offensive end, then the other team's best guard doesn't get to rest on either end of the court, and it makes it easier on the rest of the team.
I don't think it's as much of a lack of clutch players as it is for poor play-calling and defensive execution down the stretch. In the last minute of any close game, Sam doesn't trust his plays and only calls either Iso for Bosh or James, or Pick n' Roll. Eventually, we got figured out. Now on defence ....
inexperience at crunch time maybe? look at the last cleveland game... there's no reason for Mike James to leave Damon Jones at the 3 pt line to help with LeBron driving the lane.. a. Bosh had already come over to help Mo Pete b. Raps were up by 2, so giving up a 2 would mean OT, giving up a 3 would mean a loss Terrible decision making down the stretch of close games..
Defending in the clutch would be more important to the team than scoring, scoring really isn't the problem, the problem is that the other team scores more.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">inexperience at crunch time maybe? look at the last cleveland game... there's no reason for Mike James to leave Damon Jones at the 3 pt line to help with LeBron driving the lane..</div> If you haven't heard, im just correcting you so im not meaning to offend you. Mike James tripped while going to defend Jones, it was supposed to be man to man defence, but they doubled Lebron anyways. So don't blame Mitchell too.