Look at the wizards, did it really surprise anyone that much that they took it so close to the lakers a while ago? People have always said in the nba you have to play hard every night but that may be true this year more than many others.

I just wonder if Deng and co are as good as they were, and as good as they will ever be, its just that their competition is stronger.

Just as an example, looking at the rankings and toronto and indiana are down the bottom! Granted the circumstances have been tough for these teams but when these are the games that are the ‘Gimmes,’ what chance does a team or players have of gaining confidence? Best chance you have is beating one of the big four, but that is almost no chance at all.

Looking back the top dogs in those years never scared or awed me as much as these guys. Celtics can be downright terrifying…

It seems pretty much pointless to say at this point, but the Bulls could really stand to move some of those shoot first guys they have. Gordon can go after that smaller contract they signed him to after he stupidly held out of the summer, but you have to couple a draft pick if you want to get a big man. I get T-Thomas out of there. Occasionally really good, and young, and explosive means you can probably get more than he’s going to end up being worth, not to mention the contract makes him almost no risk.

I probably go to Sac town and try to get Brad Miller. No, I’m kidding, he’s old and mostly useless. I really couldn’t say where to go. I would’ve said three-team featuring Bogut, but his new contract is too rich. I’d say Clips, but they have no need for a shoot first guard and mostly useless T-Time. Any thoughts Bawful?

Gordon seems to be waiting for Noah to make a move to set a pick to pop him out to the wing, but nothing comes, so he then just makes the cut himself.

Rose seems to be sitting at the top waiting for this pick to actually happen, but it never does, so he gets visibly frustrated and screams at Noah. Now Noah comes up and sets a horrific pick for Rose, and Rose drives to the right block.

While this is happening, Noah rolls to the left block. He is covered.

Gordon gets a pick from Noce and is open on the left corner.

Noce is also open a bit on the left wing.

Rose, now beyond frustrated just chucks up a shot instead of hitting Gordon in the corner. Noah and Deng now crash the boards and miss the tip in. The game goes to overtime.

Now, I cannot be sure this is the play they were running, I am just assuming it was based on the movements of players and the frustrations of certain players when things didn’t go their way. So either (a) the players didn’t understand the play or (b) they just didn’t execute it. My guess is (b).

Now as an aside, why would you have Luol Deng as a decoy in the right corner doing nothing, instead of having that be Ben Gordon, because the defender from Gordon would never have sagged into the lane to double Rose on his drive?

I know the team is trying to learn to execute in game closing situations, but their inability to execute is just inexplicable. I know the excuse from the top would be they are all trying to learn to play with Rose, but he doesn’t seem to be the guy that is screwing up and not executing, so that cannot be it. Gordon was a late-game assassin in previous years and now he just seems to get frustrated by people that don’t execute correctly.

So is it that Vinny doesn’t do a good job explaining what he wants done? Does he just draw random Xs and Os on the white board, that don’t actually tell people what to do? Or do the players (specifically the big men, Noce, Noah, and Thomas) just not get the basics of basketball, and thus cannot execute in end of game situations?