Lion Face/Lemon Face 11.10.09

See our earlier entries for clarification on what this is all about.

Lion Face: Dwyane WAAAAAAAADE

I wonder if it comes from Gilbert’s whole “No one ever believed in me, I’m gonna show the haters thing.” Maybe that’s why Wade always annihilates the Wizards. Even though Gil came first, Wade feels like it’s his birthright. I do have to say there were a few times in his 14 point fourth quarter where I became angry at the Wizards for just leaving him open. I mean, I understand it’s a fast break and you’re trying to keep an eye on everyone, but seriously, priority numbero uno should be “SWARM DWYANE WADE LIKE YOU SWINE FLU ON A KANSAN SCHOOL DISTRICT! SWARM! SWARM!” I would be very concerned, middle Eastern Conference. The Heat are playing like they like one another. And a team that likes itself who no one really believes in? That’s Wade’s special spicy sauce, right there. That’s his go juice. Somebody needs to either injure them or make the media start hyping them before it’s too late and they go Nova as a team. Because Wade’s already there.

Lemon Face: The Washington Wizards

12 Turnovers, Zero. 12. If you were a real secret agent, that means that you somehow handed the bad guys the Queen’s diamonds, the secret nuclear passcodes, the gold shipment, and the name of your contact. But far worse than the turnovers was the way that Washington just melted down the stretch. A 19-3 run ended it for them, during which they had no flow on offense, no discipline on defense, couldn’t lock down a body, couldn’t target a pass, it was like they were curling up in panic attacks. As someone that suffers from panic attacks, I can tell you they’re not fun. But Good God, pull yourself together, men! I went back and looked at Arena’s blown cross-court pass to Blatche, and it gets more horrifying the more I watched it. I watched it frame by frame and it was an exercise is Good Idea, HORRIFIC EXECUTION. Bullets Forever is staying calm.

Lion Face: Nuggets Just Getting It Done

It’s not just that I’m becoming more and more of a Bulls fan every day, I noticed a ton of things wrong with Denver in this game. Basically here’s their offense. High pick and roll or pinch post with Billups. If elect roll, throw up ball over defender, tap back in. If open, take jumper. If both options denied, swing to Melo. If open, shoot jumper. If not open, shoot jumper over defender. The end. That’s pretty much it. I saw a ton of contested jumpers fall. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a testament to their ability that they can knock those down. But in the long run, you want to work for open shots, not work a little bit for bad ones. I’d praise their defense, but the Bulls’ offense sucks and they still gave up a higher eFG% than they themselves scored. If it hadn’t been for their offensive rebounding and free throw shooting, they would have lost the Four Factors. But they didn’t, and they won the game, and they’re looking like a top three seed in the West.  This is probably going to come off as a backhanded compliment, but it’s not. Winning when things aren’t working for you? That’s the mark of a great team. Anyone can win when they’re shooting the lights out and the energy is easy to come by and they can create good looks against a terrible defense. But Denver’s winning by outworking and outclutching good teams. And if it holds, they’re going to be right there at the end, getting blown away by the Lakers again.

Lion Face Bonus: Bulls Defense

There was a point in the fourth where Billups ran that same high pick and roll with Melo. Billups usually drifts around it, using the time not as a launching point, but to buy time to make the right decision, shoot, pass, reset.  This time, though, he jetted. It was one of those obvious, burn off the screen, push back to the screener, suck in the defense, catch and shoot from the corner. Could see it coming a mile away. He raced around Melo and then whipped it back. Only a funny thing happened. Usually in that scenario, the rookie forward out trying to contain the ball immediately freaks out and runs screaming back to the lynchpin (Melo), especially when it’s, you know, Melo. But he didn’t. He trusted his teammates, who stuck well enough on Melo to prevent the shot and suggested but didn’t bring help to discourage the drive, forcing Melo to pass it back to what should have been a wide open three. Except it wasn’t. Gibson stayed right where he needed to be, 18 feet out, between Billups and Melo. Able to close off the wing if Melo went left, able to close off baseline if Billups tried to drive, and able to get a hand up if Billups got his finger on the trigger. The possession resulted in turnover, points for the Bulls. And it’s built around not only effort, which is there, but discipline.

A lot of teams can bring those weakside blocks, can stay in front of their man and get a hand up. It takes more to be able to effectively swarm to wherever the offense is attacking and dissuade them. And the Bulls do it, constantly. Every rebound opportunity is a battle. And you’ll get them, they’re not a great rebounding team yet, despite having a great rebounder in Noah. But they’ll make you work. Everyone knows their role and is willing to do it. That’s not something you’ve seen in Chicago in two years.

Lemon Face: Refs-not really.

First off, I went off on Twitter last night about the last shot, but obviously I was just showing preference towards the Bulls. While I think you can argue it was close enough to warrant a “keep it as good since that’s what we called,” there’s just as many reasons to believe it was no good on Miller’s shot. But for the story of the game, here’s what we could have had. Melo or Billups attempting a game winner, OR Brad Miller hitting a perfect, beautiful, ridiculous shot to win the game. Here’s what we got instead. Free throws put the Nuggets up one, and instant replay nullifies the best game winner of the season so far. Seriously, guys. Have some sense of drama! (Kidding)

Lion Face: Turnarounds

The Mavericks were completely lost for a half. This thing was over. David Anderson… David Freaking Anderson was abusing them in the post. Then the Mavericks turned it on, and just blew past the Rockets. It sucks because you’re going to see so much of that this year. The Rockets come out, hustle, burn, kill themselves, and then talent just drives them to the alleyways and pounds them. They need so much to go right all the time. Meanwhile, the Mavs really only need for everything to not go wrong. As long as they get a majority of what they want to occur, their talent will take care of the rest.

Lemon Face: Effort Teams’ O

The Bulls and Bobcats should be fun to watch. Derrick Rose. D.J. Augustin. Boris Diaw, Joakim Noah. Luol Deng, Gerald Wallace. But their offenses are just wretched. Props to both of them for pushing their opponents last night (the Bulls moreso than the Cats), but someone, somewhere, is going to have to negotiate some offense. It’s bizarre, we criticize teams that are focused around one guy so much, but both of those teams specifically lack that one guy. They’re trying so hard in fundamentals, defense, work ethic that no one is stepping up to get his.

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