More of the same

by Mike Prada on Mar 12, 2008 2:56 PM EDT in Recaps

Box score.
Game flow.
Post recap.
Times recap.
Brew Hoop.
Live blog.

Highest plus/minus: Nick Young (+21).
Lowest plus/minus: Darius Songaila (-11).

The eight-point victory doesn't seem like much, but I think the way this game was won is extremely encouraging.

As has happened more frequently recently, it was the much-maligned bench that was the difference. We know about Nick Young, but it wasn't just him. Andray Blatche dropped 15 and 7 in just 23 minutes, continuing a really strong recent stretch. This wasn't one of Dominic McGuire's best games, but he still grabbed 3 rebounds. As far as the "Young 3" (Pech doesn't count because he didn't play), this was overwhelmingly a positive performance.

But the one guy who will be overlooked tonight is Roger Mason, a guy I've never particularly liked, but has played outstanding recently. When the Wizards pulled away in the fourth, they did so with Mason and Young playing the guard positions. My biggest beef with Mason has always been his poor shot selection, but last night, he was very under control, shooting just four shots and feeding Young in good positions to score. Too often, we've seen the reserve unit struggle running the Princeton, and the result is bad shots, mostly from Young and Mason. This time, the two worked well together, and both had better chances at scoring.

Granted, we're talking about Milwaukee, one of the league's worst defensive teams with one of the league's worst benches, but we're starting to see the end results of Eddie being forced to put his bench in the game during key situations. Once our stars getting healthy, this can only make us more dangerous, provided, of course, that Eddie continues to make use of his bench.

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mason

i feel mason's contributions, especially the last 2 months or so, have been sorely underrated. I'm constantly having to defend him to my roommates, who still judge him based on the less than great reputation he had coming in to the year, which i have to admit was deserved. But this year, mason has really brought scoring from the bench on a consistent basis, and while he'll never have great assist numbers, with the ball in his hands hes at least been steady and has avoided turnovers, at the minimum he's been able to bring it up court. And while yes he often does have poor shot selection, he is also a great 3pt shooter and very consistent, so ill take the forces as long as he keeps making the gimmes and can occasionally nail the hard ones. I think his 'clutchness' has been overlooked also, hes become similar to what jamison was last year, in that maybe he doesnt hit the buzzer beater to win the game but he does hit the long 3 with a minute and a half left when youre down 3 or the other team is making a run, so it only shows up in the stat sheet as 3pts but if you watch the game you realize it was a big 3pts.

by Wooz on Mar 12, 2008 3:21 PM EDT reply actions

I don't know about that last point

"Clutchness" means nothing to me. It's a nice way to say that someone shoots too much, because invariably, a shot will go in, and you'll hear praises about a guy's fearlessness. I call it the "Brett Favre conundrum."

But yes, he has played well this year, on the whole. And while we're pretty set at guard going forward, I wouldn't mind having him for the next few years, so long as it's for a relatively cheap price.

Predicting how this squad is going to perform is like trying to solve trig problems with pen and paper. -sierradave.

by Mike Prada on Mar 12, 2008 3:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Why Would You Think That?

Once our stars getting healthy, this can only make us more dangerous, provided, of course, that Eddie continues to make use of his bench.

So now, we're all expecting Eddie to make good use of his bench when the Big 3 return to health? I suppose I could see why you think that, since Eddie has made such brilliant substitutions in clutch moments of games past.

"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier

by cuppettcj on Mar 13, 2008 9:06 AM EDT reply actions