I was thinking (hoping) that after the all star snub Lillard was going to light up the Hawk, but he was mediocre. His last 5 games are horrible ! Are defensive figuring him out? Is he not being aggressive enough?
Did you even watch the game last night? They absolutely smothered him like he has yet to see in this league. It was openly talked about around Atlanta and the coaching staff to the team to be aware of Lillard. they came into the game with a mindset to stop Lillard at all costs. See how open LMA was? its because they were tossing two and three guys at Lillards every move. Yes, Lillard is in a bit of a shooting slump, but last night is not a good assessment of it. I thought Lillard actually did pretty good considering what Atlanta did defensively on him. He has never had that much attention. Plus, Lillard isnt a one game and done attitude man. The Allstar snubb will ride him through the season. I see Dame opening up big time soon, especially when the bigs are back. Dame is going to scorch the league the second half.
Its good to have the alternative in Dame. Lillard will recover and two players will be a great tactic Stotts could take advantage of
For most of the season Lillard has had splints on two of his fingers, last night he only had a splint on one finger. Being less injured is always good but it probably messed with his shot a little.
Him missing the ASG is great. He gets to heal up for 9 days. Starting Feb. 20, I hope to see the old dame.
WTF! Good defense does not make a guy go 1 for 9 jacking up the three ball. Piss poor shot selection does.
Okay, I take that back. They're the worst coached team in the NBA. Winning 17 games in a row is just luck.
Dame knows he's in a slump. Fact is that teams HAVE pressured him more in January with our injury bug. If anything, he's tired. He carried us to a lot of wins. Nico and Wes are also in slumps. It's not that rare around the allstar break. Lamarcus cannot beat teams like the Hawks by himself even though he gave it a hell of a try. I think the Hawks are top tier defensively. They are very, very well coached. The Spurs of the east this season. Everytime we lose a game it's not necessarily the failure of 1 player, but the failure of the team. It's also a credit to the Hawks that they won. We won ugly games early but we're losing some close ones when we're not clicking on all cylinders. What matters most is how we're playing in the post season
Naw, his assist average should be about what he did against AtL, not the high water mark. And I mean overt assist, bone fide setups not trash ball. I couldn't see the game so I had to take Wheels word for it. I heard no pick n roll with Aldridge, Kaman, or Leonard. As a matter of fact, near as I could tell Lillard did not even pass the ball to Leonard. Hell, he ought to set that lad up often, say every time the bug bites his ass, goading him into another three point shot. Geez, what a turn around in the result, that would be!! Now maybe you can tell what will make me happy. I would say that if Damian's stats were 18/11.5,5 he would be on the All Star team, the Blazers wiould lead the west and oh yes, his shooting percentage would be much higher just from improved direction. Oh, I don't think for a minute that he is not capable of performing this role either.
Chris Paul doesn't average those numbers(17/9), hell, damn is only 3.4 assists away and scores more points than CP. John wall is 17/10, RW is 25/5. Kyrie is 22/5. Curry is 23/8. Teague is 16/7. Lowry is 19/7. Dame is 21/6.3. So, I don't really know what to tell you. All those others are the all star PGS. Seems to me he stacks up well to them, if you ask me. If he was in the east, he's an all star, puts up better numbers than Kyrie, Lowry, and Teague. But, he's not. He's just the odd man out. But to tell him to do something that no other all star PG is doing is asinine, and you're only setting yourself up for disappointment. As they say, "Expectation is a resentment waiting to happen."
First of all I think the change needs to come from his coach. I think he is has been given the wrong role. He looks to get he own shot far too often and as a result misses too many shots. He is 4th in three point attempts in the league and is not even in the top 20 in shooting percentage on the long ball. His two point percentage is not bad, just not great. More effort should go into creating for other shooters, he has better shooters out there with him than he is. so his skills deployed to get them good shots would produce better results. Perhaps not the spectacular light he seeks, but better for the team.
Is it just me or has Dame been in a slump since his shoes where released? could there some sales pressure on the back of his mind?
