This is what I'd like to see from Joe:
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/furious-malone-blasts-nuggets-questions-040254896.html
"Let's talk about effort. This is NBA Finals, we are talking about effort; that's a huge concern of mine," said Malone, who was yelling at his team in the first time-out of the game, after a slow start. ...
"You guys probably thought I was just making up some storyline after game one when I said we didn't play well. We didn't play well," he said.
"We had guys out there that were just whether feeling sorry for themselves for not making shots or thinking they can just turn it on or off, this is not the preseason, this is not the regular season. This is the NBA Finals. That to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing," he said.
"I asked the team, I asked them, you guys tell me why they lost, and they knew the answer. Miami came in here and outworked us, and we were by far our least disciplined game (of the playoffs).
"So many breakdowns. They exploited every one of our breakdowns and scored. If we're going to try to go down there and regain control of this series and get home-court advantage back, we're going to have to outwork Miami, which we didn't do tonight, and our discipline is going to have to be off the charts," he said.
Miami's shooting was far more productive than in the opening game but Malone said he had warned his team that they wouldn't get away with allowing open shots another time.
"As I mentioned after game one, the fact that they got 16 wide-open threes was concerning. They didn't make them. So, we got lucky in game one. Tonight, they made them," he said.
"So, it was definitely a breakdown in communication. It was definitely a breakdown in our game plan, and like I said, we just were not nearly as disciplined as you need to be in the NBA Finals."
"To me the wheels really fell off to start that fourth quarter. They were getting whatever they wanted, threes, layups, and that allowed them once again to sit back in their zone offense, slow the game down, and we had a hard time getting stops, and then we had a hard time getting made baskets on the other end," he said.
"Our defense has to be a hell of a lot better. That's two fourth quarters, game one and game two, where our fourth-quarter defense has been nonexistent".
It's the exact same narrative as our loss, obviously. I just prefer a coach who has some fire, and I trust Malone to make some necessary changes. From what has been reported, nobody called the team out until after Game 3, when Wyc gave them help and the team was "shocked".
It will be interesting to see how the team responds to this. I am not sure it is a good thing for the coach to say all of this in public. I did not see the whole game, but the parts I did watch, I did not feel there was any lack of effort by DEN. Communication breakdowns, yes, lack of discipline, yes, but not lack of effort. In fact there were times that I felt there was overplaying on defense vs. staying with the plan, kind of "hero defense". It hurt the team, but was not a result of lack of physical effort.
The examples that I saw was biting on pump fakes at the 3 point line. You have to stay disciplined, stay in control. If you fly out too wildly, you hustle yourself right out of the play. There were also cases where they got mixed up on switches or not switching, ending up with someone open. Again, scheme and concentration, not effort.
The other key factor was Jokic getting tired. I had posted this in the thread that Jokic had expended a lot of effort at the end of the 3rd that led to DEN reestablishing the lead. He was gassed though and had to be rested to start the 4th. That is when MIA was able to change the momentum. Robinson hit some unlikely shots that was a big part of it but you could see and feel the change.
I think it is fair push players that even if you are missing shots, you need to keep both your heart (effort) and head (concentration, discipline) in the game. To me, it was more the latter than the former but not exclusively. Coaches should always try to get a little more effort out of players but I felt there was enough effort to win the game, they lost due to lapses in concentration and discipline.
Topic: Fire Joe! ... or critique Joe ... or defend Joe... or worry about Joe's coaching (Read 175365 times)