Could be dead legs. His first back to back. And he went OT last night. Everyone was bad down the stretch. He's obviously still a little rough around the edges, though I think he'll be better with less scrubs on the floor with him to take some ball-handling pressure off.

Good game. Both sides played their starters extensively in the first and 3rd quarters. It was the benches in the 2nd and 4th. We got a good look at Mejia and Samb too.

Saunders has been mixing and matching as far as which guard plays with who. Tonight, Stuckey came in for Rip so we saw Stuckey and Billups paired up. Not so sure this will work since Stuckey does not have a reliable outside shot. Stuckey impressed my buddy quite a few time driving to the basket. This was the first time he had seen Stuckey, and he could see why all the hype. But again, Stuckey impresses with his drives in, and his ability to make free throws after the other team is forced to foul. Stuckey impresses not at all as an outside shooter.

Lots of foul trouble on our front line. Sheed continues to set a poor tone as far at techs. Hey, its just a preseason game. Calm down already. Anyway, we again got boost in the score with JMAX and Sheed together in that first quarter. This was after Dyess suffered some kind of injury. As far as I could tell, he went down for a loose ball and maybe someone kicked him? He came back though by the end of the quarter. Dyess made some jumpers, got lots of rebounds on both ends, and even scored on a post up move. It does irk me though that he does not do more post up moves. I know he is capable of it.

Samb had a nice block. His guy tried to make a post move on him. Sure, it was easy to get near the basket against Samb, but when the shot went up, so did a sky rocket named Cheickh Samb (not sure of the spelling). Samb has some serious ups, and definitely bothers shots around the basket. His rebounding seemed pretty weak for quite a while in this game, but then seemed to steamroll a bit after he snagged his first one.

We got a pretty good lead in the first half, but Williams got hot for Utah in the 2nd half with Stuckey and Afflalo powerless to do anything about it. Thats where Mejia came in. To stop the guy. And he did. Mejia is a couple nothces better at defense vs. Stuckey and Afflalo. If only Mejia could score like the other two. But hey, Mejia definitely has a place on this team with that kind of D.

More on Samb. He shoots confidently and accurately, and with extended range. Further, he just shoots right over people, and there is little anyone can do about it. Kind of like Sheed, only more so. Despite his inexperience, I still like him as part of the rotation - just to give the other team something to think about when they put a shot up.

Flip Murray played in the first half. Flip showed he can make an uncontested outside shot. Good skill to have indeed. But we don't need most of the shots he takes, and no, he does not need to try and finish a fast break against two well prepared defenders. And when he tried to pass finally instead of shoot, yep, a turn. Not impressive.

Hayes hit some shots. But he also missed some where he tried a bit too much. And he is slow on defense. I would like to see Mejia get a shot at backup small forward. He would add more ball handling than Hayes, as good or better rebounding, and much more active D. Now, Hayes did some good stuff tonight. Good movement without the ball leading to easy scores for him. Finishing plays thru contact. Smart player. I like him. I just like good solid defenders better.

Our starters all look great. Sheed rising over people, Billups nailing shots, Rip concentrating on going inside more. Tay hit one shot early but did not do too much shooting after that. Enough about the starters.

Mohammed did not play. I believe he has a calf muscle injury. I have not heard how serious it is. No Hunter. Dupree got to play after Samb fouled out. Pretty ugly stuff. I can't believe he will stay on the roster much further. We did not have to put Dupree in this game, as Hayes could have moved over to power forward, and we could have used Mejia as the small forward and had Afflalo and Stuckey in the backcourt. I think what is happening is they are giving Dupree a good solid chance to show something. I just think its not worth the time. Let the guy go so he can move on.

No Amir. I guess an article quotes Saunders as saying Amir will be out a week yet. (I remember reading that before the game, I don't remember the source. I think it was detnews.com.

Maxiell was not too impressive for much of the game. Good fourth quarter where he hit some shots. But he did not get to double digits until a meaningless bucket at the end of the game. He got a dunk after Stuckey missed a shot, then fought for the rebound, allowing Maxiell to grab the ball to dunk it.

Samb ain't quick, yet he gets down the floor well in transition. He has a whole lot of length to make up for a lot of that lack of quickness. Getting past him is not enough. You got to get past that reach. Not easy to do.

Maybe Sheeds getting all his tech/ejections out of the way now LOL

Thanks for the writeup Lee.

Did Dyess return?

Maybe having 3 frontcourt guys down with a possible 4th in Sheeds foul trouble is kind of sign to beef up the frontcourt a bit.

we still have amir. Sheed gets tossed, amir gets more pt. We lose more games and they look for a replacement coach. We try to deal sheed but nobody wil want him for a decent value so we keep him. sheed's got a cunning plan

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Amir is hurt as well right now, hence my sublte hint to bring Cwebb back. Then again its very rare to have 3 frontcourt guys down.

Good writeup by Lee.

I was there too and enjoyed watching the young fellas. Samb showed a nice shooting touch and hustled and was very into the game. I kept my eye on him and between plays a couple of times it looked like he was all worked up and talking to himself. He was energetic and animated..kind of the opposite of a Darko-type player. I was impressed.

Lee,

Very nice summary.

Do you know if the rooks will get to play much once the regular season begins? Not SHOULD they, but WILL they? If so, how much?

I'm particularly curious about the times alloted to Amir, Max, and Stuckey...and what the realistic predictions for their production are.

Uh-Oh. Did you actually see the game or have you surmised this from (a) the box scores and (b) Delfino's performance?

Chauncey does though (have a reliable shot).