Tyler and Duncan started their second game together. As was the case in Salt Lake Duncan shot marvelously tonight, 8/15 (5/12); Tyler, too 9/18 (5/8). Kyle had a very effective point guard game: 11 asts, 3 t.o.'s, 11 pts on 4/9 (1/3). Erik has ditched positionless this season. He just has, there is no getting around facts. You give that stat line to anybody who has ever watched a half dozen basketball games and ask what position the guy with 11 assists played and they'd instantly tell you, "point guard." The guy with 3 blocks, how tall do you figure he is and what position does he play? Three blocks says "center" and Dewayne Dedmon is 7'0". The guys who were a combined 17/33, 10/20 from range? Well, duh. (Tyler is actually listed as playing the point tonight, Kyle too, but those shooting numbers scream shooting guard/small forward, those positions are interchangeable). So, out are the homogonous 6’7”-6’8” guys who allegedly can play 1-5. In is a 6’0” guy who plays the ONE position, and a 7’0” guy who plays the FIVE.
OKC is not a great team, I don't recognize the name of any player who started for them tonight: D. Bazley, actually I think I recognize that name from just recently, did he get into a fight or something? Had never heard of him before. J. Robinson-Earl? L. Dort? S. Gilgeous-Alexand...the name is so long it's cut off in the box score. Whether Alexander or Alexandrosivich, never heard of the man. J. Giddey. That's OKC's starting five, okay? They're not a good team, they're not Cleveland bad but they were 5-7 coming in tonight, obviously 5-8 now. They're in rebuilding mode.
The only point to that exercise is, "was the win and the shooting tonight missing our 2 *'s due to the quality of the opponent?" Tucker, Dedmon, Lowry, Hero, Robinson, to my knowledge, that lineup is recognizably more talented than the "Thunder's." But Utah, our previous victim, has a good record (8-5). They'd have a better record if we hadn't beaten them twice in a week. Jimmy and Bam played in the game in Miami. Kyle had his best game with the "Heat", a 3W; Herro was heroic, game high 29 on 11/18 (6/8) and Duncan BLEW, 3 pts 1/5 (1/5). Jimmy didn 't play in Saturday's win in Utah but Bam did. Bam was quiet Saturday--Oh! he must have gotten dinged in that game. You know, it's funny, Kyle and Tyler are listed as PG's in that one too. Six-foot Kyle had a very good shooting guard's night, 21 8/14 (2/6), a poor point guard's night, 4 asts, 5 t.o.'s. Tyler excelled as a volume shooting guard, 27 10/23 (1/7) but SUCKED, 2 asts 4 t.o.'s as a point guard. Two PG's for 6 asts, 9 t.o.'s. Welp. Jesus Christ,
Duncan's numbers Saturday against Utah were nearly identically sparkly to tonight's! 22 pts on 8/14 (6/11) then, 8/15 (5/12) tonight. Maybe he feels more comfortable without a starting teammate who called him "dumb"? He probably does. Maybe he shoots better with another shooter, Tyler, playing alongside him to take the D's attention off him? Maybe he does but man he got so many wide open looks in the first game of the season against the "Bucks." In any event two games is too small a sample size even to adjudge that Duncan is out of his shooting slump, whatever the cause. 16/29 (11/23), though, wow. Dems some pertty numbers from your shooting guard!
Congratulations Heaters, two in a row without your Big 1 on the road, other guys stepping up.
