Before I start digging in I do want to comment about something David said that I disagree with. He said he doesn’t blame Chandler as much for the foul trouble as he blames LB for not using him well around the trouble. Chandler is still averaging almost 26 minutes a game. That’s not too good for a starter, but considering that Chandler has picked up a second foul before the 5 minute mark of the 1st quarter multiple times, it isn’t bad. Add in the fact that Chandler has also managed to pick up fouls in clusters – the next coming less than 2 minutes after snaring the first – and no coach would be able to trust Chandler to stay on the court once the whistles start to blow. It either means that he’s losing his cool after the first call or that the refs are watching him closely after that first whistle and calling him for the least little infraction from that point on. Considering how much Chandler runs his mouth to the refs whenever he gets called, I think it’s a combination of both. Some players never learn that if you piss off the ref it’s gonna cost you. Kevin McHale was famous for it. It’s the rare player (Gerald Wallace seems to have the right touch for it most nights) that can rail on a ref and not get tagged. The whiners of the league also pick up a reputation for it and are automatically scrutinized from the opening whistle in anticipation of trouble. I remember back when Tree Rollins all but bit off Danny Ainge’s finger that one of the refs later said they were so used to Ainge’s complaining it was assumed he was faking until one of the other refs spotted the blood. I think if Brown left Chandler in after he picked up a quick pair of whistles it would only be a matter of seconds before number 3 would get called and he’d play even less minutes than he’s getting now. Brown apparently thinks so too. He pulled Chandler the instant he picked up a second foul even though moments later he let another player stay on the court until a third was called. I’m sure Tyson’s shell-shocked. The other day someone on 5th street whistled for a cab and Chandler walked over and sat down on the curb for 20 minutes.

As to last night’s game itself:

There was a lot to like. As expected, Jackson’s mere presence on the court opened up the floor and gave people better looks at the basket and smoother runs into the passing lanes. Flip and Boris got rewarded handsomely as a result and I’m sure Diaw got the early benefit from already being used to Jackson’s passing patterns from previous experience. Watching things develop further once Jackson has had a chance to actually READ the offensive notes he’s been given and work out with his teammates is going to be a lot of fun. I still think we’ll be able to steal at least one of the next two games on the road. Things look good for us in Philly and Milwaulkee should be quite a bit more anxious about the Friday game as well. It’s going to be interesting to find out if Jackson will bring a badly needed killer instinct to the Cats so that if we break out into a lead we won’t be quite so willing to let the other team back into the game.

We just played one of the better teams in the conference twice in fairly short order and the end results were quite similar. The difference was that in last night’s game the Magic were healthier and on their home court. When the dreaded scoring drought threatened to manifest the Cats fought through it and kept the game close with inside scoring instead of just relying on defensive stops and ridiculous shot selections. Things are definitely looking up.

If things go according to Hoyle (does anyone even remember what that means anymore?) we’ll need a couple of weeks for Jackson to get into the flow of things and for the team to get used to his passes. After that our offensive numbers should be coming up nicely and LB can start working on some of the other smaller but still troublesome problems with the team. In no particular order:

1. Dealing with Felton’s poor shooting – better play execution will help, but it won’t make that situation disappear. Either Felton steps down and plays smarter, or he should lose minutes. We don’t exactly have a shortage of players at his spot.

2. The Chandler situation. It isn’t just the fouls. They put him on the bench and force us to use our reserves to be sure. But that’s just a symptom of the bigger problem. He isn’t playing defense at all. He isn’t boarding as well as he should and he’s obviously not in position to be able to play D correctly. His shooting, which has never been the best in the league in the first place, is nonexistent now. He’s less of an offensive threat than Nazr and I’m still going to make the case that Nazr should be getting starters minutes until Chandler at least steps things back up to his norm.

3. Since I mentioned boarding, our rebounds are on the downslide. It’s been one of our few bright lights this season so it’s obvious we have the skills. We can’t let that aspect of our game continue to slip just because we’re focusing more on other parts of the game.

4. Turnovers – we are showing some glimmers of improvement there but we have to continue to improve and we have to be consistent. One of the ways we’re letting teams get back into the game when we start to pull away is with empty possessions brought on by sudden clusters of turnovers. If we can play one quarter with only a couple of turnovers we should be able to play the next that way as well. Listening to the tv announcers makes it maddening. Far too often we’re hearing, “The Cats only had 2 turnovers in the 2nd but they’ve already given it away 8 times here in the 3rd.”

Those seem to be the biggest issues at the moment, although there are others. I’m hoping that with Jackson on the court the defense will open up and free some space for Wallace to move around in so he can get his mojo back the way he likes it. We have enough players for the backcourt now that we can try several different combinations and perhaps get a look at what Henderson and Law can really do instead of just speculating about it in the blogs. Assuming Jackson is with us at least until the end of the season it isn’t unreasonable to expect us to be in the thick of the fight for the playoffs this year. That means more seats filled at the Cable Box and less stress on the front office. It also means that by the end of the year we’re gonna need to get a bandwagon bigger than a Radio Flyer for a change.

But it doesn’t mean our frustrating nights are over. There are a lot of tough games ahead and just because we should be a better team very soon, I don’t think any of us are naive enough to believe we’re suddenly title contenders. We’re still going to have headaches aplenty, but I for one think I’ll be reaching for the Advil a little less frequently in the coming weeks and that’s a good thing.

I appreciate it. I just talk about what I see. I’ve been a student of the game for close to 40 (holy crap!) years now and I’ve learned a few things along the way.