Things I'm looking for tonight:
1. Defense? After a brief stretch where it looked like we may be turning a corner as a team, defensively, we have taken multiple steps back, ranking 2nd to last in the league in DRTG over the last 10 games and giving up 122.3 PPG in that stretch. Our offense hasn't faltered, there's a +2.0 difference in ORTG in our last 10 vs. our season-long mark and we're putting up 1.6 more PPG, it's been our inability to stop anything at all that's caused us to go 4-6 over this stretch. At some point we need to defend if we want to continue winning, it sounds like a broken record at this point but we cannot get ourselves into a shootout every night. It's just unsustainable.
2. Come prepared. This has all the makings of a trap game, the last matchup took a half court buzzer beater from Fox to get the win and the Magic are rolling as of late, going 10-5 over their last 15 games. The ROTY favorite, Paolo Banchero, and Franz Wagner power this team and defending the forward positions has been especially tough for us this year so we should have our hands full today for sure. We need to be prepared and sharp for this matchup or things can go south very quickly.
3. Keep me out the dog house. Since making the post gloating about being undefeated in the games I created a game thread for, we are a disappointing 6-6. I should have just kept my mouth shut, but like a play-by-player announcer talking during free throws I seem to have jinxed us. I need this keep me above .500 and out of the dog house
. I don't want any concern threads for me going on in here.
