Anyone notice Langhi: 4-14 for 9 points in 25 minutes. Ouch. He took as many shots as Francis in 11 fewer minutes.
Why are we so inconsistent? Up against one team, down against another. This blow out stuff from the get go - who's fault is that?
No doubt about it.... Rudy is tanking by creatively playing players that are not known to "get the job done". If he really wanted the win, I believe that they could have come close tonight. No offense to the "scrubs" at all, but Rudy has other agendas more important than trying to win the rest of the games. Trying to make Langhi , Collier , Morris, Tierre and Torres trade worthy seems to be his concern right now. I guess this season is over, and at least Rudy will try to make the best of it somehow. I hope Sactown beats the Lakers in the playoffs, if nothing else good happens this season. Not that I like them that much, but they probably can beat them , and the Lakers need a good loss. Bring on next season!! RockS
That's probably the most annoying aspect of this team. They are very inconsistent. It seems like they play up to the level of the top teams and down against the bad teams, except for tonight. I don't get that. They're not exactly in position to choose who they want to play against.
Yeah, Langhi looked pretty bad tonight, but this had to be the worst I have ever seen Walt Williams play. He was moving very slowly on defense, and lost several uncontested rebounds out of bounds. It was painful to watch. But I have to say, despite the awful play, horrid shooting and overal lackluster effort, I am the MOST pissed about having to see Vlade "I'm ugly AND I flop" Divac drive the FULL LENGTH of the court and hit a layup over Kelvin Cato. Cato had a decent game, but the fact he was the reason I was subjected that painful bit of basketball watching made me hate him for this game.
It's a good thing those guys got to play. Torres sucked though. So did everyone else. Anyone else notice we're getting good minutes out of T-Mo suddenly? If he was a tiny bit quicker on his feet, he could be our SF full time.
I agree. His faulty outside jumper is something that could be overlooked if he were to provide help in other areas (rebounding, defense). But the biggest problem I see with Morris is that he is made to look the fool by small forwards who have even the smallest amount of quickness. On the plus side, that block he had of Gerald Wallace at the end of the game tonight put a HUGE smile on my face.
When TMo is playing along side Langhi and Collier, its easy for him to look good. Collier has to be the worst. He has no vertical, absolutely none.
I didn't get to see much of the game last night, but I, unfortunately, did see this play. It wasn't too long after that play that I turned off the TV and went to bed.
Yeah, I couldn't bare it any longer. Now that I'm on the east coast, those 10:30 start times suck!!! ...but they don't suck quite as bad as Creed and Kid Rock.
I get the sense that it isn't tanking as much as giving guys some rest. Mobley still has sore ankles even though they are better. Williams still has the ankle problem. Moochie's feet are so bad, he has to soak them throughout the game. Francis has bumps and bruises to go along with his headaches. KT has the thigh problem. EG has the ankle problem. Cato's wrist still needs mending after the season. It all comes from playing lots of minutes to make up for players out with injuries. IMO, they know this season is lost and they aren't going to push anyone because the health of the players, at this point, is more important than winning.
Even beyond that I get the sense that Rudy is jsut getting pissed that he can never get anything through. He's on record as saying that earlier int he season he couldn't yell, get angry as much cause everyone was injured and they had little to no practice time. But we already know about the Raptors halftime outburst, and I'd assume he was pretty mad at halftime against the Clips yesterday (hence their good defense and offensive play for most of the third quarter). I imagine yesterday he just said screw it, if you guys don't want to play like you mean it, than you'll be benched a bit longer than usual.
Jay, That is EXACTLY what he should do, but he should do it in the 1st QUARTER. Langhi looked good to me last night, he was rusty on his shot, but hell he hasn't had a SNIFF of the floor all year. At least he was hustling and rebounding well, which is more then I can say for Francis....his defense is the worst defense I have ever seen from a guard, he makes Kenny Smith look like T.R. Dunn. DaDakota
I usually stand up for Francis defensively, but after last night I don't know if I can do it anymore. He was consistently getting crossed up by weaker guards. It is just pathetic, especially given he has the physical talent to be one of the best. My summer wish: Have Francis spend all summer learning defense from Gary Payton.
Langhi has three problems: 1. He can't shoot in game situations. Put him in a shootaround and he's fine but make him spot up against a defender or take someone off the dribble and he's in trouble. 2. He gets out of control too easily. He still thinks he can crossover and spin move on guys that are much quicker than him. 3. He isn't quick enough for the NBA at this point. He just doesn't have the speed other players do and he hasn't learned how to play without it as some shooters have. He hustles his ass off and wants to play, so I give him credit for effort, but his struggles aren't new. He probably needs a year or two in Europe or even the NBDL to get some confidence and experience before he is ready for the NBA.
