It was exciting to see all the guys out there, the new faces, and the old alike. The season has nearly begun and I am pumped! It is going to be a long season if the referees are going to call games that tight this year. There were a lot of ticky tack fouls and hand checks. They even called Steve for a palming violation. UGH!! Anyway, my take on the game: Our interior defense was poor, really poor. Cato nearly fouled out, quick. Hakeem seemed to be running ok, had a few steals. But seemed to have a hard time catching the ball and bobbled a few rebounds. Rudy went with a small line up for a good portion of the second half. Moochie and Steve played well, but Stevie had a bunch of errant passes that were stolen or bobbled leading to TO's. Taylor looked good on the boards early. But Najera looked equally as good and grabbed a handful of offensive boards for easy put backs. He also played the pick and roll well with Nash, and on one play had a nice dunk....uncontested I might add. Langhi didn't play much. He had one nice long range jumper. Collier looked lost. He had a nice 18 footer, but a few plays later decided to take it in on Sean Bradley, and called for an offensive foul. The play of the night was a play that didn't count. Francis and Cuttino were on a fast break, and Steve lofted it to Cat, and Cat went up high, threw it in for a pretty alley....but the whistle had blown shortly before as a foul was called. No one really stood out last night. But I will say this, the interior defense was piss poor last night. The Mavs were penetrating at will and scoring a lot down low. We shot terrible on the line down the stretch. ONE GOOD NOTE! Finley was contained by a combination of Shandon and Cat. They both stifled him on offense, and several times stripped him of the ball cleanly. Shandon looked pretty good out there on the defensive end. I thought Stevie was going to win it with the last second bank shot, but it went in, rolled around the rim, and back out! To sum up, it looked like the the team lacked some chemistry. No big deal, there is time. ------------------ There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." [This message has been edited by HOOP-T (edited October 11, 2000).]
