re: Terrible Effort Tonight. Ridiculous for a Tourney Game

quote:

---

I don’t think that’s fair. It was 59-54 and a couple nba 3’s won it for them. We were better for sure, but the kids played hard. They were handed a shite fricking sandwich and they showed effort. But it was impossible adversity to overcome

---

Man I really don’t agree. I’m not going to say any of the players flat out didn’t try (I think they did), but I look at effort and energy differently. Defensively and on the glass they reacted to the ball with hustle, but on offense things seemed listless. And then our press was not nearly as aggressive as it normally is. We didn’t do well in situations where we needed to initiate the action. To me, that’s an energy issue. The team played like their mind was preoccupied (not like this would be a surprise) and they were a step slow.

I think that’s an area that Wade did really well at- his teams almost always seemed motivated, and even if they weren’t to start the game, he would get them ready to roll shortly. Plus he was great at preparation and sometimes great preparation makes you move faster on the court because you’re more sure of yourself. We were missing that tonight.