TheItalianStallion

The 4th game vs Toronto was the formula for us beating them: go small. With Gooden and Harrington having larger roles now than they did even then (was Harrington even back in the lineup yet?), we are better equipped now. Course, it was out of necessity at the time. Sad to say that Wittman probably hasn't learned anything from that game.

Glad to see Beal taking medium range shots instead of long 2s. It allowed him to put up big points despite his outside shot not falling.

Regardless of what maximizes the probability of upgrading our FO, I'm certainly happy for the players.

I don't necessarily think Seraphin should be starting; I'm just baffled as to why he's getting literally zero minutes despite Nene being out of the lineup.

No Excuses: ".........we have no better options [than Booker]" When Seraphin is on, he's a MUCH better option than Booker. Granted, he's an up-and-down player who sometimes gives you 0 points, 2, fouls, 2 TOs in less than 5 mins, but if he starts stinking it up like that, he can just be taken out. OTOH he can give you 15-25 quality mins, which clearly outweighs <5 bad ones. He can't get hot if he doesn't get in, not to mention that he hasn't had a stinker performance in a while. Even if he isn't hot, he's still typically good for a handful or so of points on limited attempts. There's been at least one game in fairly recent memory where he had high single digits at halftime only to not get in during the 2nd half. Honestly I have been SHOCKED at how little playing time he's gotten during the absence of Nene. Granted, some of it is that he was hurt for a while, but he was well enough to start against Portland a week or so back, and he gave a pretty standard performance for him. Seraphin is a rhythm player who needs to be confident to play well, and taking him out quickly even when he isn't stinking it up can't do much for his confidence. More reason to fire Wittman, I guess.

Trevor Booker 0 points on 0-4 shooting. Why is this guy starting again?

Good lord, Beal was awful that game. He wasn't even settling for long 2s. Why the hell does Booker keep starting? What does he do that warrants him being solidly ahead of Seraphin in the rotation? Heck, I'd take Gooden over Booker as well.

Just want to point out that the Nuggets have a winning record against the East, and would be a playoff team here.

Darn. If we'd beaten Charlotte & Sacramento, we'd be tied with Chicago now, and the tie break would go to us. And only half a game behind Toronto.

So does Gooden have to miss the next game as well due to the flagrant 2?

How in the world was that a flagrant 2? How in the world did LA get the ball back when we had possession prior to the dead ball?

Those and-1s by Temple at the end were pretty much the same play our guys were making all night but with no call, and of course no made basket. How many moving screens did they get away with? Wasn't that supposed to be a point of emphasis this year? Could've fooled me; the rate of it being called doesn't seem to have gone up.

This isn't what I had in mind when I said that Seraphin had to get playing time........

Ridiculous that Seraphin didn't get any minutes. He has to be given a chance to get on one of his hot streaks.

New York has won 6 in a row, has leapfrogged Cleveland, and is now breathing down ATL's neck for the #8 seed. Suddenly our remaining game against them doesn't look so easy.

Weren't the 2012 Olympics supposed to be the end of coach K being involved with USA basketball?

We beat Charlotte earlier in the year and still have 2 more games against them, though. If we end up winning the season series 3-1, I think that's good enough. Keep in mind that Charlotte isn't all that far behind us; it's not like we just lost to free-falling ATL. Definitely sucks that we lost to a weaker team, but they're not THAT much weaker, and we'll get a couple more cracks at them.

I take back what I said earlier about the upcoming Chicago game being the most important remaining on our schedule; that honor now lies with Saturday's game vs Brooklyn, with the runners up being the 2 remaining games against Charlotte. Brooklyn has solidified themselves as being in the 2nd tier of the east, right up there with us, Chicago, and Toronto. We did beat Brooklyn twice earlier but that was with Nene owning Garnett. Tough loss tonight but oh well, Wittman & Ernie may get fired yet.

Holy moly, that was one helluva shot by Webster! Not disappointed; this was a house money kind of game, especially since post players like Nene are Miami's Achilles heel this year, but we were without him. Critical stretch coming up, though: Charlotte & Brooklyn coming up soon. Gotta beat 'em to stay ahead of 'em.

^^^2, off the top of my head: this one and our first win against Cleveland. There may be others that I can't recall at the moment. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Glad we won, but..........geez. Yet another game where we allowed an inferior team to put up well over 100 on us. The only positive to take away is that we were able to make plays when we had to.

Seemed like every loose ball bounced their way, and in a position for them to get an assist immediately after picking the ball up. Eh anyway, two very winnable games coming up before Miami. Can't let one close loss to a good team derail our momentum.

Holy crap, Chicago is 9-1 in their last 10 games, and Toronto is 7-3, same as us. Even with this winning streak, we haven't really gained on them much aside from us directly beating Toronto, but IIRC they were one of those 3 teams who beat us, so it evens out. Not sure I like our chances of catching either of them, even with our weak remaining schedule. Our third game against Chicago is probably the most important game remaining for us. Btw does anyone here think Cleveland will catch Atlanta? CLE is only a few games back, and playing much better than ATL right now.

Wasn't Caron Butler's hip (?) injury back in 2007-8 also day-to-day? The one that kept him out for weeks?

What's wrong with Seraphin? When can he start playing again?

Gortat's avgs over last 6 games........... 18.8 ppg 0.594 FG 11.3 reb Just what the doctor ordered with Nene out.