Well, that was almost too interesting. Like the Talking Heads song says, “Some good points, whole lotta bad points…but it all works…I’m just a little freaked out’. Let’s dig in.
1) No injuries man, come one! While it was great to see KCP back after his rolled ankle and Alex Caruso back after suffering a minor back contusion it was not great at all to see Anthony Davis walking off the court holding the eye that got poked. That prompted many a story on the Spectrum broadcast from James “Big Game” Worthy about how he adopted goggles at the behest of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after suffering an extremely serious eye injury that took 2 weeks to heal properly. We don’t have that kind of time in the Bubble so it was good to see AD back on the bench late in the game joking with teammates.
2) Big lead slipped away. Didn’t like this much, either. We went up by 19 in the first quarter and let the Magic all the way back into the game behind a ton of silly fouls, poor passing and forced shots. Yes, these are games akin to preseason. No, they don’t matter. But that’s still a very bad habit that needs to be snuffed out ASAP.
3) Playing defense for 48 minutes. Hasn’t happened yet, this is where we miss Avery Bradley. We’ll score buckets in a variety of ways, that’s a guarantee, but can the coaching staff put together a rotation of the old and new faces that can sustain a high-level defensive effort for 48 minutes? Feels doubtful right now…
4) Happy birthday Kyle Kuzma. At least for one game we got a glimpse of the young player who dominated summer league a few years back, who took the league by storm in his rookie campaign in addition to the things he’s worked on to improve his overall game (defensive effort, passing to the open man). But can Kuz keep this up for more than the occasional effort here or there? That definitely remains to be seen…
5) New guys incorporated more into the regular rotation. While it was nice to see J.R. Smith and Dion Waiters playing more, especially when they got to share the court with LeBron for some spot minutes the results are still very mixed. Especially on defense where there just isn’t enough time to get these guys up to speed. Of the two Waiters seems more ready to contribute at a high level. Smith passed up wide open looks early and over-compensated by repeatedly driving the ball into defense and coughing it up or putting the offense in a bad spot. Stick with your MO, J.R.: when you’re open, shoot it like the gunner you are. Waiters has a solid overall game, like his aggressiveness when he’s defended by smaller/lighter players and bullying them in the paint but they both are going to go through some big time growing pains on defense. Here’s hoping those growing pains don’t result in losses, especially come playoff time.
Happy Sunday y’all!