Jackson 0 for 7. Thomas 0 for 2
Jackson having 7 shots is just such a waste.
We should have gone with Pritchard, Davison, Hauser, Vonleh & Kabengele. These two are doodoo
Jackson looks to be trying too hard to make the team, pushing shots rather than letting the game come to him. Probably he thinks he should be the go to guy in the absence of the regular rotation.
We probably could have won the game if Joe Mazz decided to put a better lineup out there...but I'm ok with the lineup he used to end the game. They probably want to know if those guys have what it takes to pull it out of the fire against a similar level of competition. Jackson's probably someone he wanted to have a look at. Unfortunately for him he laid an egg, but fortunately for us it was the preseason 
I'm not really okay with it. We were up by 19 when Nurse waved the white flag and put in his bench. Then, miraculously, their bench blows ours out, and we are in OT (and then losing). Wins are good for morale and losing a game like this - although meaningless - doesn't help with that. I am definitely not saying to pound the starters into the ground, but making sure you pull out the the W at the end of regulation should have been easy enough.
Totally understandable...losing sucks no matter what context. Losing a winnable game even more so. But I feel there's value in knowing who is going to be up to it in a tight game vs who isn't. I'm less worried in the actual results of these games than in finding out who can be relied on and who can't. Especially in a game where they have to feel actual pressure, which a tight game that leads to overtime does - you can't replicate that level of pressure in a practice scrimmage. Players who can't be relied on to take care of business with a 20 point lead shouldn't be entrusted with team contracts, and I think this gave us some insights on who those players are. E.g. Jackson was 0-5 in the 4th quarter and 0-3 in the OT period, when they needed to make shots to save and win the game.
We already know that our starters are very solid. We know Malcolm and GWill could easily start too. We don't need to bring them back to save a game because we know that if we did we would probably win. We know Pritchard can deliver, and we're pleasantly surprised with Kabe and Hauser, at least when they are playing supporting roles. With Timelord that's 11 players. Now we want to know who can work around Kabe, Pritchard and Hauser if they have to be the main options. Griffin we've signed, he has a long body of work in the league. So that's 12. Davidson is a 2 way, so that's 13 (11 if you want to keep roster spots separate from 2 ways). The question marks on the tail end of the roster are really centered around Vonleh, Jackson, Thomas, Layman, Kornet and Samanic. Assuming Brad wants to keep a roster spot open (unless he wants to sign someone to a non guaranteed and cut them later) they would be looking to fit 3-4 players into those remaining spots. Who's up to it? If we keep playing the people we already know are good, we won't find out too much about the ones that may need to be the fillers.
Now in reality most of these filler roles will not be playing at all come season start - they're there to have a positive attitude on the bench and to work hard in practice on 5v5 drills. But I don't really see the results of these games as important in the context of our season. I do see the individual performance of players as important, and I think Joe Mazz gained some insights as to who to include in his circle of trust for season start.
Topic: Raptors (1-0) at Celtics (1-0) Preseason Game #2 10/5/22 (Read 15321 times)