JohnWallace44 wrote:After the Toronto game on Wednesday, we have increasingly tough games in terms of size and defensive ability. Washington has the size to matchup with us all over the floor like no other teams have during this stretch, but they don't have much defensive ability, so hopefully we can get by them with out BBIQ and skill.
Denver has the size of course and the player in Melo to go head to head with Amare. That will be a real test given that our last game vs Denver was the last before the 10-1 stretch.
Boston is the top of the mountain.
Now, we've been doing much better than just getting by with this small lineup with Wilson at the 4 and STAT at the 5, but I can say with some certainty that the fun is about to end.
There is no way on god's green earth that the small lineup is going to work against these teams as we go up in size and class.
Someone out of Mozgov, Turiaf, Randolph is going to have to step up and be able to come out on the plus side for 20 min a game during this stretch against varsity lineups. I hope that it doesn't take D'Antoni too long to realize this.
It would require career nights from Wilson, Gallo, Fields and Williams to get past the big contenders in the East without size. I hope MikeD doesn't take that gamble.
let me buck the trend and say I have similar concerns. First and foremost Amare's scoring has been otherworldly (last 5 games 35ppg, 60% FGs) and he knows it and he's very tentative on defense and collecting fouls. If you have any kind of bigman who can score they are going to go right at him. Look at how Min started this game. Every team is going to take note and attack Amare in the post. We can recover that kind of start against the Wolves because we are simply too talented for them to deal with for 48 minutes, but the Heat, Celtics, Hawks, Magic and Bulls (the teams ahead of us) we wont have that luxury.
I'm still in favor of starting a center, whether its Turiaf or even Mosgov. If Mosgov picks up 2 fouls in 8 minutes starting against Darko then fine... at least he's not getting pushed around because we cant let our main scorer pick up fouls.
I'm not so down on the small lineup, mostly because its not that small. Fields at 6'7 is the NBA's best rebounding guard (another 10 last night). Gallo is 6'10+, Amare is 6'10 and Chandler is 6'8 but very powerful and an elite athlete.
This is just part of seeing what we have. I think the Knicks showed a weakness last night that other teams will attack, they also adjusted very well and decided to play defense in the 2nd half. Once that happened the Wolves had no shot
"winning is more fun... then fun is fun" -Thibs
thinks a small lineup can win us games I sure as hell hope he employs it. when he needs to go big I hope he does. there is a structural roster flaw that will get fixed as this is in no way, shape, or form a finished roster. that said, the direction we're headed si good and I applaud the direction