Martin Luther King Day Comeback
The most emotional game in this season so far?
It is the 17th game I have come to the Forum this season. I am sure today’s game IS the most emotional, dramatic, and impressive one. It is not even close. I have watched us beat Orlando Magic in the season home opener. I watched us beat Giannis-Damian Lillard Bucks in the Halloween. I have watched us battle with ridiculous refs and Sacramento Kings, then fight back. I have watched our heartbreaking loss to the Houston Rockets… Not like today.
Is it because it is MLK Day? Is it because everybody can not wait to watch GG’s season debut? Is it because it is our first home game on national TV(not including NBA TV)? Is it because the refs gave Ant-man a whistle for his every layup and body contact? Is it because we missed too many easy wide-open and defensive rebounds?
For me, it should be the last reason. There are so many fans all over the world giving us credit because of our body advantage. We are one of the rare teams who use two bigs in the starting lineup. Jaren is 6’11, Zach is a giant. Stevo, BC, We are usually good at offensive rebounds for years… On the other side, we struggled on defensive rebounds in the last three seasons: 72.6%(21st), 72.1%(24th), and 71.9%(20th)1. Similar scenes happened again and again, especially when we faced the teams like to shoot three (Warriors).
Why we can not protect the rebounds? In my opinion, Ja is a 6’2 skinny guard; Des is a 6’5 wing with short arms, Jaylen Wells is a wing body type forward with short arms (former small forward Dillon Brooks has the same problem). If your backcourt players like that, you can not control the long-rebound easily.
Today’s game was another copy. We have 8 or 9 times faced “stop them in this possession, we can reverse and take the lead,” and we failed every time. Naz Reid killed us beyond the arc for times, the only thing over 17,000 fans can do is watch as the ball flew into the basket from the corner.
I was excited in the first half but became quiet when we came into the clutch time. The first home loss faced the Chicago Bulls, loss to the Brooklyn Nets, and loss to the Rockets. Bad memories came to my mind. Checking the box score, Ja struggled in shooting and free throws, Jaren was quiet in the first three quarters, Santi disappeared tonight, GG is not ready… The only one we can rely on is Des. I love Des, but when we need Des to save us we are already standing on the edge of a cliff.
Deep Breath…
In the last 4 minutes of the game, Taylor Jenkins finally remembered how we beat Minnesota in the 2022 playoffs. He used Santi as 4, Jake as 4, GG as 4, Jay Huff, Zach “I can’t dunk-in” Edey, nobody worked.
Brandon’s name was called. He was like fresh air through the main entrance to the court, letting every yelling, depressed, frustrated, angry fan calm down. We not only can protect the defensive rebounds, we can even grab offensive rebounds in the final 4 minutes. Des grabbed a big rebound, and Ja flew and grabbed a big rebound. We hold the lead to the end.
I want to give credit to Jaren. He is the All-Star and All-NBA level player right now. No matter who he played with, he could give you 20 points and elite defense performance. He dominated Julius Randle and was unstoppable in the paint in the early 4th quarter.
Ja played too many 1-on-1 iso in the first half, disappointed when he did not get the whistle. He was more aggressive in the second half and finally found himself.
Des carried us to move on for a while.
I like Jaylen Wells for his defense on Edwards. Minnesota got 2 or 3 offense fouls on moving screen because of him. You can not dump him easily, even if you are Anthony Edwards. He got 18 free throws, but most of them were not 100% clear.
GG is back! He is the first NBA player who talked to me in reality and gave me an autograph. I have been waiting for today for 12 months. He still needs more games to find his rhythm. Do you remember the isolation using the screen-euro step-layup and the cutting-two-hand slam? His movement looked good. I do not worry about him.
It is the first time I have written a post-game review article in English. Maybe not as good as in Chinese, but I think it is like the first stool created by Einstein. I will keep writing.
according to Cleaning the Glass.