On the flip side, Papanikolaou had some interesting situations last night that teams without multiple bigs may see more. With Papanikolaou at the 4, Miami was scrambling to cover Papanikolaou following Harden and Dwight PnR. Harden isn't taking it hard to the hoop in these situations to create room between him and Dwight as he keeps SG behind him. PF is picking up Dwight in the post as center can't let Harden go free. PG and SF have to decide between leaving Ariza or Beverley one pass away alone on the corner to cover Papanikolaou or pray center can rotate from Harden and cover Papanikolaou.
Although we've played bad teams, we've played only 1 home game to 4 road games, and held a Heat team that was averaging 109ppg in 3 games to 91 points.
Some thoughts player by player Howard - More explosive than last year. Needs a little more alley oop chemistry for optimum domination. Harden - MVP, Seriously, this guy is beasting right now. Ariza - Speaking of beasting, can't say enough about his 3 and D game. Papanikolaou - Better than advertised, Best passer on the team, 6th man candidate. Jones - Playing like a man possessed, Sometimes that energy hurts more than it helps, But not often. Beverley - Same D with an improved 3 point shot, cant ask for more. Terry - Filling role perfectly, I'm begrudgingly becoming a fan. DMo - Completely dissapointing, took several steps back Canaan - Stepping up nicely, Bringing a little bit to the table without taking anything away. Black/Dorsey - Just stay healthy and hungry, try not to foul so much. Hopefully Troy Daniels can get some playing time this season. However, that is a pretty solid 11 man rotation. It's early but this team is creeping up on the 22 game win streak team as a favorite of mine.
Joey Dorsey and Dmo would fall into my terribly disappointed column. Joey playing creates a 4 on 5 mismatch.
