Thoughts on Pacers Game

[123together]

it clicked in the 4th quarter, they played defense, wallace attacked the basket AND knocked down some 3s. okafor was steadily producing throughout the game. it was good to see, cuz they looked horrible for 2 straight games.

obviously the home crowd that included 123together, captaincrunch and david lee didn't hurt either

[spectre]

Spectre: You want me to prove my point? OK. McGinnis had 7 assists to Ray's 4. OK. McGinnis. I'm talking MCGINNIS!!!
OK, enough said I would think. If McGinnis can get 7, then Ray can get 8. Valid point made. Just like Keetch said, Felton has much to prove. I beleive he can prove to us by continuing to get better. My whole point is "he aint there yet". If you are totally satisfied with him at this current level, then you are accepting a very good PG rather than wanting a great PG. I want a great PG.

Yeah, Touche' got 7 assists...the first two was after JO and Foster checked out and Harrison and Murphy checked in in the 1st quarter...both were to Mek. He then didn't get another assist until the very end of the 3rd...right after Crash found his jumpshot. In the 4th when everyone was scoring he got 4 and Felton got 3 while playing a combo role.

Touche' didn't do anything in the 2nd or most of the 3rd...because we had no outside shot and they were packing the paint/fouling! Not that he had a lot of burn, but it reinforces (as well as all the FTs we shot) my point about how they were playing us.

So no...I don't think the point is valid. The amount of FTs we attempted can't be ignored, esp. Mek's...which means somebody was feeding him the ball.

I've NEVER said that I was just satisfied...much less TOTALLY satisfied with our PG play. My comment was about nitpicking everything possible about the guy when he's actually playing a pretty decent game.

[x2pacalypse]

i was watching the nba.com highlights from the game and i realized 2 things about gerald wallace

the analyists called him crash, and he was wearing his headband, which i don't remember seeing him wear for a long time

[davcbow]

One thing Ive noticed that when we get fouled alot Felt's assists are low, he dont get an assist if for example he passes to Mek and then Mek gets fouled and goes to the line, thats a lost assist. Now to see what Felts actually does start a new catagory of missed assist attempts and I bet its high for Felts, so I agree with Spectre on this issue. Once we start hitting the free throws every time or close to it, they will stop fouling us in the paint as much and all the assist catagory will go up for Felts....My conclusion is we need a free throw coach.....

[Mustachio]

First of all. Last night was great. We played like an elite team last night. before you call me crazy hear me out.
We couldnt function most of the night it looked bad in the first half even though we were hangin around down by 3. then in the 3rd quarter we let them get up by 10. Anyway good teams can hang around and beat you when it matters. I think thats what we did last night. We amped up and won.

Secondly. Mek was amazing last night. I mentioned to the guys around me that Mek had to at least have 10-12 rebounds.... Then looked at one of the screens and saw he had 21. in the third. to go with 23 points. once we all picked our jaws up off the ground we carried on cheering. great game from him.

now onto the point guard situation. spectre i realize your a tarheel fan and a felton fan but your definetly lookin at Felton with carolina blue glasses on. the bottom line is... IF as you say FELTON has been our best player up to this point. How can you justify that statement when in almost the entire second half McInnis was playing Feltons position? If Felton is our best player up to this point. why isnt he playing his position? Not saying Felton is playing bad at all...not even close. But to say he doesnt have room to improve and that hes been our best player is just wrong. hes still taking too many shots. regardless i too love Felton and believe hes the best option for us at PG... but hes definetly got to get better overall if were gonna push for the playoffs.

[Mustachio]

something else that bothered me last night was Gerald Wallace. At times i feel like hes being a little selfish and kind of getting away from the TEAM aspect that makes this unselfish Bobcats team go. I kind of feel like he is forcing things because of his contract.

case in point last night... gerald creates a turnover... like gerald always does. gerald starts the fast break... like gerald always does. then Jrich goes streaking down the floor for the EASY and i mean EASY alley-oop opportunity. but instead of lobbing it up for the easy two points Gerald charges into the lane and gets fouled while missing the shot. then proceeds to miss both Free throws. wasting an opportunity.

im not freakin out yet and calling him out, just mentioning some things i saw last night that kind of irked me. im sure its not a new trend just maybe me freaking out.
But last night it looked as though Gerald was thinking
"this is MY team" instead of "this is OUR team."

[spectre]

But to say he doesnt have room to improve and that hes been our best player is just wrong.  hes still taking too many shots.

Please point to any post where I said he doesn't have room to improve.

Out of curiosity, what's the rank of who's taken the most shots this year...and what's the rank of the player's field goal %? I don't know, and don't have time to look.

Who's been more consistent throughout the games?  Crash has shot like crap and been a turnover machine, Mek has been a wimp and "out of it" for the most part until last night and JRich sat out the 4th quarter because he hasn't been able to hit the side of a barn the last two games.

BTW, Felts is my 3rd (4th if JRich could ever take off) most favorite player on the team...and unless I'm mistaken none of those guys went to Carolina.

[spectre]

I wanted to clarify on this best player thing...I'm NOT saying he's our best player at all; I'm saying he's played the best CONSISTENTLY so far.

Crash/Mek...JRich......Felton is probably how I'd rank the talent.

Sorry if that's caused confusion.

[ohara831]

First of all. Last night was great. We played like an elite team last night. before you call me crazy hear me out.
We couldnt function most of the night it looked bad in the first half even though we were hangin around down by 3. then in the 3rd quarter we let them get up by 10. Anyway good teams can hang around and beat you when it matters. I think thats what we did last night. We amped up and won.

Secondly. Mek was amazing last night. I mentioned to the guys around me that Mek had to at least have 10-12 rebounds.... Then looked at one of the screens and saw he had 21. in the third. to go with 23 points. once we all picked our jaws up off the ground we carried on cheering. great game from him.

now onto the point guard situation. spectre i realize your a tarheel fan and a felton fan but your definetly lookin at Felton with carolina blue glasses on. the bottom line is... IF as you say FELTON has been our best player up to this point. How can you justify that statement when in almost the entire second half McInnis was playing Feltons position? If Felton is our best player up to this point. why isnt he playing his position? Not saying Felton is playing bad at all...not even close. But to say he doesnt have room to improve and that hes been our best player is just wrong. hes still taking too many shots. regardless i too love Felton and believe hes the best option for us at PG... but hes definetly got to get better overall if were gonna push for the playoffs.

__________________________________________________ _

That is precisely my point. Thank you Mustachio for making my point better than I was able to do. Ray is good, and I believe he can be great. I just want to see MJ and Coach push him to the point where he plays great.

Let me say one think as a compromise. I beleive we ALL at times sometimes lavish too much praise on our guys, sometimes more than they earned. At the same time, we can ALL often be more critical of them, more so than they deserve. In both cases, I think it is because WE ALL love the Bobcats and want them to win EVERY time. Fair enough?

[x2pacalypse]

i think we should stop worrying about specific players and start concentrating on our free throws more, we've been lucky so far and not lost any because of them, but eventually it's going to happen

as for the crash alley oop selfish thing, if i was him i wouldn't alley oop it in a close game either, because what if j-rich missed? then they would both look like assholes for doing it, did u notice when he had a breakaway i think it was 73-71 pacers, he went up for the dunk, but didn't do anything flashy, if he did and missed, wow that would have been bad, but he just did a solid dunk and tied it up at 73, i believe gerald wallace is one of the most selfless players on the team, although its not like any of them are selfish