[Video] Luis Scola’s 20 Points Vs Puerto Rico (08.24.07)

batkins.....yea, mail received.


re: Scola

I finally got around to watching this game last night and several things stood out to me.

first, when Luis gets the ball at the elbow, his move to the basket is pretty damn quick for a big man...the opposing PFs arent gonna have a picnic guarding against that.

That ability gives him three good options when he receives the ball in the high post.....shoot, drive or pass.....all three things he seems good at doing.

second....he doesnt always just stand around waiting on rebounds. In this game he had 8 rebounds before the half....he was actively hunting down the ball in a way I didnt see in the first game.

thats not to say he doesnt need work in that aspect, I did still see several times that he stood in the paint waiting to see where the ball was going, but didnt box out the man by him...allowing a O rebound by his opponent.

he will need to work on that.

last thing that was unexpected.....based on posters comments on the previous game, I was under the impression that his post defense was VERY lacking.

The guys with PR he was guarding down low were damn big, and I thought he did very well holding them off on the low block. HE seems very strong and with some good NBA defensive coaching, I have every confidence he will play good defense on the western bigs he will be facing.

also, on the defensive end, I noticed he was also capable of guarding outside....there were several times that I noticed he switched out to guard onthe perimter and one of his teammates didnt switch over to guard under the basket....allowing a easy PR score down low. Thats one of the problems you see when a team doesnt have a lot of reps together, Ill bet if his regular NT teammates where playing that wouldnt have happened.

overall, I do believe that with a short adjustment period, Luis will have no problem adapting to the NBA. He plays a smart game, and has more quicks than I expected.