Hoops

Game 2: Boomers vs Lithuania

Thanks for the response GWB. I can tell you are passionate about the Boomers and frustrated at their seeming lack of progress. I am too, but I guess I'm not so negative about Lemanis at this stage. So addressing some of your points:

- Assuming Mills wanted to just play against NZ, I agree that an exception should probably have been made to allow him to skip the European tour. He has proven his commitment to the team over a long period and his shooting is absolutely crucial for us.
- I just watched the game today and I saw us playing plenty of full-court defence up-tempo offence.
- Apart from too many poor turnovers, I thought our offence was very effective. We shot 52% overall and 47% from three, while racking up 85 points. For many years, they were numbers we could only dream of for the Boomers.
- I actually saw plenty of good plays on offence. Early on, the team was clearly trying to get the ball inside to Bogut and Motum and did a good job of finding Motum on some nice cuts. Bogut was very effective and knows his role on both ends. As the game wore on, I saw lots of good open looks created for Broekhoff and Goulding, including running some nice plays off screens.
- I thought most players who hit the floor knew their roles and tried to play to their strengths. Newley sought to attack the basket, Martin played tough D and distributed the ball, Broekhoff played good D, rebounded and gave us good floor-spacing on offence, Bogut protected the basket well and was being utilised as a passer and screener near the 3 pt line, etc

For me, the reasons we lost that game were turnovers and a very poor period from the end of the 1st quarter into the 2nd, when our starters had come out and Jawai, Dellavedova and Andersen played very poorly.

I don't think it's time for panic stations yet. Dellavedova will run the team a lot better once he gets into a groove and if Exum plays the way he did against Boston in Summer League, he can make a big difference to this team.

Goulding didn't have a great shooting game today, but he is getting plenty of good looks and I think he will start knocking them down soon.

I'll agree our defence needs to improve, because 92 points is too much against that Lithuanian team. But I would expect Bogut to play more like 30 mins against NZ, so that will be 10 mins less of Jawai/ Andersen getting killed on the pick and roll.

Just watched the first quarter and we were very uptempo. Athletically, I thought we were dominating them, with even Broekhoff and Bogut able to bring the ball up the floor and attack their defence before it was set!

Up until Lemanis brought Jawai, Andersen and Dellavedova in, we were owning them. Bogut was dominant in the paint and Motum was very effective in finding ways to score. We needed to do a better job of getting Goulding some good looks, but Broekhoff got some good shots off penetration and ball movement.

I thought the defence from the starting five was good. Even Goulding was working hard to fight over screens and Martin was very good hounding their point guard. Broekhoff does a great job of holding his own against larger opponents on the block too.

Judging by that boxscore, the only real problem for the Boomers was turnovers. We shot the ball extremely well.

Some positive stats there for Bogut, Andersen and Motum. I too would like to see a boxscore for both Lithuania games.

How has Exum been going? He looked great against Marcus Smart in the first game of Summer League before he rolled his ankle, so I was hoping he would show something for the Boomers.

GWB, I'm curious as to the specific things Lemanis is doing to hinder rather than help the Boomers chances?

Just because a coach is successful in the NBL does not make them a great coach internationally, just look at Phil Smyth as an example, at the time highly successful in the NBL but sucked ass as the Boomers coach.
We need to chose a proven international coach for the boomers, look what NZ did with their program under the previous coach (Serbian who's name escapes me)

ESPN: http://linky.com.au/kguef

Va'Shaundya O'Neal filed for legal separation with intent to divorce Monday in Los Angeles. She cited irreconcilable differences.

Married, 6 years and 11 months.

Wonder how this will effect the big fella and his on-court game?