That was one of the best games of the year for the following reasons:

1) Sheed had his best game in my opinion. He got going on the block and rebounded well. 3 dunks for Sheed! It looked like 2004 all over again. He also his a big 3 toward the end. Oh yeah, and he has 3 blocks-- 1 was spectacular and 1 was blocking Diener's final 3-point attempts toward the end, which was huge.

2) Flip was creative with his rotation. He surrounded Stuckey with shooters finally with Rip in and Sheed pulling the big man out of the paint. Stuckey didn't just stand there and dribble because there was finally room to drive. He looked ten times as aggressive once he got going. Later, Flip kept Amir in with CB/Rip/Tay and Sheed. I love that combination.

3) Balanced scoring. Maybe it is a result of 1 and 2, but the FG's and FT's were very spread out on our team. 8 players with 3 FG's or more I believe and all but 1 player with FTA's.

4) That dunk by Amir!!! One-handed hanging in the air and taking it out of the clutches of another player. Dude is freaky.



My only other comment is that I thought that Diener would have been a good pick-up for a lot of teams in the off season. He was sort of the Amir Johnson of Orlando for the past few years. He'd get a sniff of playing time, take full advantage of it, then go into bench hibernation for 10 games. He's definitely undersized (as Sheed proved on his final shot), but he is quick and has one of the more deadly strokes.

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"Will was rolling, wasn't he? I roll with the guy that's hot." MC