Great recaps Lee and Sandhu!

Here's my quick thoughts:
Flip Saunders just showed backbone tonight by sticking with Amir and Maxiell down the stretch. It's not like I don't want to see Sheed and Dyess finish games, but it is really nice to know that Flip has the guts to stick with the younger players when the game is in serious doubt in the 4th quarter. Not only that, but he trusted Amir on a decisive possession with a pick and roll call.

And those guys really came through. The epitome was the fast break by Seattle where Tay (or Billups) bothered the initial shot. Amir hustled all the way down the court to bother the put back. Then Maxiell swatted the 2nd put back out of bounds. Extreme hustle and some good old fashion pride in not letting the other team score on their watch.

Just since I'm on the subject, this pattern of going on runs with Amir Johnson in the game is getting beyond the point of coincidence. After scoring 41 points in the first quarter, Seattle scored 1 point in almost 7 minutes with Amir in the game in the 2nd quarter. As soon as he left the game with his 3rd BS foul, Seattle scored 8 points in about 50 seconds. It's uncanny.

Still, to give credit to the guys who we take for granted, Tay had a great game and Chauncey had a spectacular game. CB- 20 points on only 9 shots. 8 free throws, 9 assists, and 5 steals! Also, his 4th quarter play was once again a thing of beauty. Hamilton turned an ugly night into a decent night by keeping at it. Unbelievably, Durant actually looked like he was bothering Rip with his defense.

The overall story of this game though was Flip Saunders. On the night before a big match up, he chose to limit the minutes of our bigs, give our youth a huge shot of confidence, and still keep the momentum with a win. Nice job.

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"Defense fuels your offense. No mystery about that." AA