re: Who gets credit for this team’s grit

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Who gets credit for this team’s grit

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Do not mistake lack of halfassery for grit. While they did play harder in the 2nd half, this team is winning by out talenting bad teams right now, not out playing them.

2 offensive rebounds on missed FTs at the end, one by AD and one by Boogie perfectly illustrates just what it means to have 2 stars. In years past you just get the one star play from AD at the end and there's a reasonable chance Indy goes down and ties it up to go into overtime at home where in the past the Pels likely lose. But now that DC has joined AD you get twice the number of star plays so you can get another offensive rebound on a choked FT to put the game away.

Also with AD/DC on the court together the Pels have a top 5 defense. When it's just one of them they are playing the kind of defense that lets a team score 75 in a half. Last night Cousins got into foul trouble in the first, only played 5 minutes which basically made him and AD stagger most of the first half. On top of that Jrue was in foul trouble as well and only played 9 minutes in the entire 1st half. Again, the difference in the 2 halves wasn't grit, it was talent.

Everyone is happy to be 6-5 instead of 1-10 for once, but if they don't find a way to get better when AD/DC aren't together, we're probably looking at a .500ish team that just misses the playoffs. I really think Rondo will help with that and the reason people were so down on Miller is because he looked like he had the same problem he had last time he failed out of the league. The last 3 games he's made 3 3s each game shooting 56%. If he's turned a corner that would be huge.