These quotes make me look good. From the Trib,
Raja Bell on Gordon Hayward: "I thought he was great tonight. It looked like he stopped thinking and just played. It was fun to watch."
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Hayward acknowledged that he had been thinking too much and pushing too hard. Tonight, he stopped thinking, played and had "fun."
Hayward: "A game like tonight just gives you a little confidence. The thing is, you can have a night like this, then turn around and have a game like when I just started [and had] two points. It's a learning process, and I have a lot to learn from this game. I'm already thinking about what I should have done; what I could have done. It was fun out there tonight. Go out there and play hard. Don't think about it, and let your instincts take over."
Here are my remarks from Friday's DB (yes, I'm quoting myself. I could have said, "Here's what BBJ said"),
Is Hayward thinking too much instead of just playing?
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It's best for him to get these things done in the pre-season but with previous mentions about how he seems down on himself, it seems like he's over-thinking. The pre-season can be looked at as a glorified scrimmage/practice in some cases but you have to practice hard and smart and then just go out an play. That's why Sloan's practices are so intense and so repetitive so that when you play, you don't have to think, you just do it.
There's a first (and possibly last) time for everything. It could also be that he reads SLC Dunk. Right.
There were plenty of naysayers when Hayward's name was called on draft night, me included. I also had this sarcastic tweet (though I look smart there if you don't know about the sarcasm).
Hayward looks like he's finally coming into his own. He's not going to shoot 8/10 from the field every night and he'll be the first to tell you that he need to develop more, but he's looking like he's going to be part of the rotation this season.
The biggest issue I've felt when playing the Lakers has been mentality. The Lakers may have had more skill overall anyway, but we've seen guys like Brewer and Boozer that seemed intimidated against them.
That was not the case last night. They were attacking LA on both ends and didn't hang their heads when LA was making their comeback. That's the first step in being able to beat them.
Last night's win, though in the pre-season, was a big boost. We'll see how they do on Tuesday.
Several guys got DNP-CDs last night. Nichols, Jeffers, and Gaines all got that designation. I guessed that we would start to see cuts right after the team gets back from LA Tuesday night. Not being in the rotation this late in the pre-season give us a good indicator. They'll likely get their last shots on Tuesday.
If it wasn't for Hayward's break-out game, I think the main story would have been Big Al on Gasol. Gasol has killed us on both ends of the floor. Last night though, Al was disrupting shots and getting shots off against him. We haven't had that before.
Gasol finished the game off stronger but I like this match-up in a one-on-one scernario.
As great as it is to win in LA anytime, it will be hard to judge this team until we see them against a full Lakers squad. We saw what Kobe can do when he brought the Lakers back in the third quarter. He played just 20 minutes. They're also without Bynum right now who will pose a few more issues when he's back.On the flip side, we were without Deron and without Memo.
So was this a true indicator that we're going to be able to win in LA? I don't think we'll know until we see them in the regular season, but this is certainly the right step.