The team / staff made a decision that they needed to tweak the offense and tweak the defense and the regular season was the great experiment. They realized that the only thing that mattered was the playoffs. Hence the inconsistent play. Now we are seeing it pay off.
Couple things are apparent:
- Moving Lopez low gives them a bigger presence low and allows Holiday to create. Took some time for guys to learn this roles but if payed off
- Posting up Giannis instead to him getting stuffed by the wall. It’s difficult to double him low and allow Middleton open looks. During the season spacing was an issue, they figured it out.
- Holiday allows them to switch more on defense. He can effectively guard 4 positions. They still get caught on double hand off but it’s night and day better than 2 months ago.
- The bench is better. Upgrades all over and Tucker is so physically and mentally tough
- The presence of Tucker and Holiday make this team physically and mentally tough. Last year it was soft. Even Portis. The offensive rebounds last night were a clinic. Even Middleton got involved.
I know I’m beating a dead horse but this is why the regular season never concerned me. They treated the regular season as an experiment in many ways knowing playoffs are all that matters. If it failed heads will roll. This team and FO learned a big lesson in the bubble last year and they fixed it. So far.
