Bam had a monster game Tuesday night: 32 points on a team-high 17 shots (do not ever remember Bam Bam leading the team in shots), 13 of those makes, 11 rebounds in 35'.
Jimmy played a team-high 40' but couldn't shoot, 3/10 (0/3) 10/10 free throws, 8 rebbes, 12 asts to 3 t.o.'s, a sparkling 4-1 ratio. Gabe, the nominal PG, had only 2 asts and 1 t.o. in only 25'. He couldn't shoot either, nor could Duncan who has reverted from Swish Robinson to Donut. Both were 1/6 from the floor, Gabe 1/4 from range, Donut 1/5. Donut played 15' before being yanked by Spo. Expect Donut to be traded by the deadline a week from now. The Composer (33') and the Hero (29') saw more p.t. than two of the starters. The former had 9 pnts on 3/7 (3/7), the latter, also playing the point, had 18 on 7/12 (2/5), 5 asts but 3 t.o.'s. As a team we shot well (48.7%), just not from range (26.7%) and that's where the game was lost. Toronto shot 46.2% behind the arc. It's obvious that Spoelstra went to his only consistent scoring option, and when that is your workhorse center on a team of shooters, that is opportunistic but with some desperation admixed.Take away Bam's shots and makes and we converted .410, which isn't shooting well. We couldn't stop Gary Trent Jr. Tuesday. A shooting guard he went off for 33 on 11/20 (6/10). It looks like Spo had no one to turn to to defend Trent. Probably just about everybody was tried, including Jimmy and Caleb, our second-best open-court defender, but Caleb played only 14' and was a -14 for the game. Our SG counterparts, Donut, played only 15' and was a +/-0 and the Composer did play enough to be plausible defender and was only -2 for the game. Whoever tried, nothing worked on Gary Trent.
I'm not surprised Jimmy is questionable tonight, not only because he's Jimmy but because he played 40' and in the 3OT loss to this same team last Friday night he played 52' and missed the next game. If we lose tonight we have our new season losing streak. We don't have enough folks, not to contend for a championship, not even to beat these four ~.500 teams. One other ominous note. We have gotten blown out in each game we have played against two of the teams on our tails. Ninth-place Beans beat us by 17 at home on Nov. 4 and then by 30 in the Massacre up there Monday night. Fifth-place Cleve beat us by 26 at Bang Bus on Dec. 1 and by 11 (actually not a blow out but a double-digit loss) on Lake Mistake on Dec. 13.
