I'll agree with this. You can just see it in their legs. Gordon still looks relatively good, but Deng hasn't made his way back yet, and Rose looks like he's lost a half step. Gooden looks the worst out of all of them. He's flinging his shots, without the strength coming from his core. Right about now is when the Skiles Bulls used to make huge runs. I've complemented Vinny in the past for shortening the rotation, but I'm beginning to think I'm wrong. Skiles never was able to cut the rotation going into the playoffs, to our detriment, but at this time of the season, developing a long bench is an asset.
I wonder if Rose's knee is bothering him again. They are in a brutal stretch of 6 games in 9 days, but they haven't played since Saturday, so being tired shouldn't have been a factor. Rose looked hesitant and his defense on the perimeter was as bad as BG's tonight. Both Augustin and Felton were getting whatever they wanted, but Felton's poor shot selection kept the bulls in it.
Interesting commentary from a Bobcats Blogger (via Blogabull) He also noted that Noc is "precipitously aging". All I could see is that he made Matt Carroll's eyes light up like my 3 year old seeing Santa last weekend.
Gordon probably should have been pissed. We didn't start consistently running Gordon off screens until the fourth quarter, despite it working in the Memphis and New Jersey games. Gordon was especially pissed after the final play of regulation, but he had every right to be. Rose got selfish and didn't run the play, and tried to be the hero, instead of waiting for the Gordon screen and pop out.
No, but according to one guy on RealGM, it is highly suspicious that Derrick got stabbed with an apple knife, and he suspects that one of Derrick's teammates did it, and Ben would be included in the pool of potential teammates.
Throw in BG giving up the ball at the end of the half to Rose when BG was clearly getting ready to run one of his patented end of the quarter flails. Rose ended up getting the ball to TT for a wide open 15 footer, but that's not much better than BG shooting a fadeaway. And I will continue to wonder why Vinnie puts Noc in those situations. Noc can only matchup against the slowest PF's. Anybody else is going to be able to get theirs offensively against him. Noc must be one hell of a worker in practice and an incredibly positive voice in the lockerroom (or they are showcasing him for a trade) because he doesn't warrant that much PT, especially not at the 2 or 3.
