FanPost

Winning streak, rookie walls and others. Another week in Grand Rapids Drive season perpetuated on film

In last week action Grand Rapids Drive went perfect and won three games. Thus they extended their winning streak to five games. They were led by usual suspects of their "big three", namely Jordan Bone, Sekou Doumbouya and Louis King. Some significant contribution was provided by Donta Hall, who looks comfortable in Drives (Pistons) schemes and had a game with statline of 25 pts on 13 shoots (including a triple) with 16 boards (here’s his highlights from this game).

Although the three Pistons’ players were leading the way, there were some difficulties. The situation was most evident in the case of Jordan. In the second game of the week (the second of two in a raw home meetings with Westchester Knicks), the Tennessee alum scored only 9 points on 16 shoots. But that wasn’t all. What was more bothering was the fact that there were players who were looking faster than Jordan. We know from the last post, that he has problems with bigger players. Last week it turned out that he could also have some defensive problems with bulkier guards. But it’s one thing that Jordan is overpowered, but it’s another that somebody outruns him on a basketball court. According to Newton’s fourth low of motion, in normal circumstances the latter is impossible. So there must be something wrong here. My diagnosis is that Jordan drove into a rookie wall. What treatment do I recommend: surgical incision. Ok, I’m kidding, Jordan should just play through it. And it seems that he did. In the game he scored only 9 points, Jordan had also 10 rebounds, 13 assists, 2 steals and was +19. In two games he showed that he can defend against bulkier players. In general, in all three games he showed that he can play some good defense, both on and off the ball. Even when he made some mistakes, he often successfully tried to correct himself. On offensive end of the floor we should mention his off screen pullup jumpers, some nice looking off the dribble threes, drives (this time mostly finished with floaters) and bunch of handsome passes, in which this time we’re particularly pleased with versatile ways he can facilitate off of P&Rs.

Overall Jordan’s week wasn’t that bad, he averaged 15,7 PPG, 6,3 RPG and 6,3 APGon 43,6 FG% with 40 3P%. But, except for rebounds (and lower number of TOs, that is 3,3), it was quite inferior to his previous week.

Also Sekou had his close encounters of the third kind with rookie wall. For him it also started in the second game of the week. In that games he scored only 13 points. He was efficient from the floor but his three ball wasn’t working. The three ball struggles continued into the third game. However, despite going 2 for 7 in the last two games of the week from behind the arc and scoring only 13 points in one game, Sekou scored more points last week than in previous week, averaging 21,3 PPG. He tried to get them in variety of ways: on drives, on pullups, in transition, and in the post (where he showed some advanced footwork). In the three point department, he showed that he can make threes running from somewhere inside the arc to the three point line. In discussed week, Sekou was also more active on boards, averaging 6,3 RPG. On defensive end of the floor he showed some not bad on ball defense (though he looks a little less mobile now - probably another indication that he might be a little bit tired), some hustle, good awareness in crunch time and some help-side rim protection. However, it did not go without some shortcomings: this is not like a rim protector should position himself against the drive. And yes, he still exhibit that lack of determination.

Was Louis bothered by any brick walls last week? Well he definitely bricked some shots. And yes, it was in the same game in which Jordan and Sekou met with rookie wall. But it was the first game of the week for him. As I was writing in the last post, Louis twisted his ankle in last game of the previous week and didn’t play in first game of last week. And I think it was the reason of his poor efficiency. He was better in final game of discussed week going for 16 points by making half of his 16 shots (even though he missed all of his four triples), to go along with 8 boards and 4 assists. He displayed nice hustle on offensive glass, made his portion of drives showing variety of ways he can finish around the basket. He again showed that he can pass (he has upped a little his assists average if you still dare to wonder if he can). And he made some jumpers. It’s obvious that he displayed some good stuff on defense, but his one game absence left its mark on his defense, too.

From other news, we have to note another instance of Drive’s handsome ball movement. Next, once again we have to praise Donta for promoting himself as someone who fulfill the tasks of Pistons big with this bunch of plays. We also need to record some great defensive and offensive plays by double-edged Sword and the awakening of Todd Withers, who hadn’t played bad but was rather invisible. Finally, we need to acclaim coach Donnie Tyndall’s dealing with Jordan shooting woes by playing him off the ball and allowing to contribute to the game in other than his usual ways.

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