Mirotic rebounded from his zero point performance last week with a relatively good game (16 points (6/12 fgs, 2/3 3s, 2/3 fts), 5 reb, 2 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 27 minutes). Real Madrid soundly beat an over matched team from Valladolid. The game isn't on youtube yet but I'll post it when it's up. I get the feeling that the ACB is comprised of teams that are either haves or have nots. There are a few teams that have rosters filled with NBA talent, like Unicaja, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia Basket, Baloncesto Fuenlabrada and Bilbao Basket. The rest don't appear to be close to that level. I'm starting to invest in Real Madrid serving as my surrogate during the lockout. They have NBA talent and are pretty fun to watch. Rudy Fernandez dropped 28 today. As for Mirotic's game, Brad Pitt has a great line in Moneyball where he asks, “If he's such a good hitter why doesn't he hit good?" Mirotic's play today was kind of the reverse of that statement. Mirotic is constantly making rookie-type mistakes, as you would expect. Mirtoic got beat multiple times when he didn't close off the baseline on guards; he's played a stretch four away from the basket on offensive and didn't work into position for offensive rebounds; he rushed his shots and threw himself off balance; there were a couple of instances where he didn't finish with authority around the hoop; and he got beat badly when he turned his head on a back door cut. Yet . . . somehow Mirotic is still pretty darn good. And these faults should be cured by experience. There's less opposing activity going to the hoop when he's in games and his matchup never does well. He doesn't play fully within the flow of the offense but he's put up good numbers on two out of three days. There's a lot to be excited about. Pau Gasol averaged 12.4 points and 5.8 boards in the ACB and 18.1 points and 5.0 boards in Euroleague when he was twenty-one years old, if you're looking for a comparison.
