Thirteen freaking rebounds by Fox. Absolutely great defense. He finally seems to be realizing his amazing potential. Is it Brown? McNair with the Sabonis deal? The passage of time? Maturity? Marriage? All of the above? I just love what I'm seeing from him. His play has truly been great. Just stay healthy, De'Aaron, and keep playing with this effort and you're headed to
a lot of All Star games.
In the presser Brown made mention of four players, all deserving. The first one was Lyles. I was so glad he mentioned him, and particularly he mentioned him diving on the floor for that key loose ball in the final two minutes. I hope very much Brown awards Lyle some consistent minutes going forward. Rewarding toughness begets more toughness.
Barnes played tough. Literally. He got crushed by a crack-back block, promptly got up to the free throw line, made two throws, then got the ball on the possession and drove in the paint and shoved another two points up where Miami doesn't shine. Absolutely loved it. (Murray and Heurter are also deserving of a lot of praise, but I don't want to make this post too long).
Now, the player that I find disappointing so far this year is Mitchell. I'm disappointed because I really expected he would take a step forward and be even better than last year, which I thought was pretty darn good. What I don't understand, and I think Mitchell is 1000% more frustrated than I am on this, is how his jump shot got all screwed up. You know that he took 1,000 shots a day and probably 1,000 shots a night in his dreams over the off-season. But instead of a tight, efficient, quick, confident shot I see a long wind-up of a shot, almost like he's in slow motion, like he's taking out his surveyor's gear to triangulate before he hoists it up. This needs to change, pronto. Is this wind-up of a shot what he's been practicing over the off-season?
Or has he had a recent crisis of confidence that has destroyed his shot motion? Whatever it is, I hope the coaches can rectify the situation and get him on the right track.