That was a MAMMOTH choke job by the Nets. Pathetic to blow that lead against the T-Wolves, especially when Big Al was off his game. Johnny Flynn for Rookie of the Year? He was fearless down the stretch.
Coach Frank made a mistake giving up size for a prolonged period in the early 4th quarter. He should have brought Yi back to the game earlier. Al Jefferson played like he did not care anything until the last quarter. There's a sequence where he drew 3 consecutive fouls that initiated the comeback.
For the Nets, Yi and Lopez combined for 44 pts, 27 rbs, and 7 blks in a losing effort. Man if both bigs can become consistent, throw in Devin Harris who played out of his mind last season, the Nets can be a playoff team in the East. Lopez is definitely turning out to be a formidable center; the jury on Yi is still out, but we've heard plenty of boos.
Just looked at the box score of Cavs at Raptors. Shaq's +/- was -25 in 25 minutes. The Cavs lost by only 10. He must have just killed them. The Cavs might need to borrow an idea and limit Shaq's minutes in back-to-back games. A question for the stat guys out there: Is minus 25 in 25 minutes when your team loses by only 10 as bad as I'm thinking? Does it get any worse than that? If it does, give me an example.
So it means they were -25 with him on the floor, and +15 with him off the floor. I don't think you can say definitively from those numbers that Shaq killed them. But if you had to analyze where the Cavs lost the game, focus on the lineups he was a part of. For example, it wouldn't make sense for someone to argue that Shaq's backup cost them the game. Clearly.
Maybe the league will finally stop believing they can bring in 100 year old centers to win championships. Didn't see the game but Bargnani is a Shaq nightmare, Shaq will never come out to guard him when he takes that outside jumper and we know how he defends the pick and roll.
Shaq will only make the paint more crowded and less room for LBJ to operate. Until Shaq or LBJ develops a mid-range game, it will not work.
Gotcha. I didn't watch enough of the game, which I now regret. I saw bits and pieces of the 3rd quarter where the Cavs chopped an 18-point halftime deficit to zero in about 8 mins, but it didn't stick. I can't even remember if Shaq was in the game at the time.
Bargnani was amazing in the first half , if it wasnt for foul trouble......he easily coudlve got 40..
