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Message: [QUOTE="Gurleyman, post: 4483077, member: 175"] Even in the win streak, it’s stood out to me at times as a problem to be exploited. And today it was a big one. X guards and wings made a lot of shots going downhill - including a few and ones to take Karaban out of the game and render our third scorer a non-factor. I think we made one shot going downhill (Diarra) and it was a tough one. We never forced them to make tough decisions on rotations defensively. We know Jackson can’t really finish unless it’s a dunk - he’s looking to pass. Which is ok if you have the right personnel around him. Hawkins sometimes can do it if he gets a lane, but it’s his third option after the 3 and the midrange pullup. Newton has been puzzlingly terrible at it - can’t finish and makes a lot of bad decisions (even the alley oop tip in by Sanogo that worked was an awful pass). So has Alleyne. Calcaterra has maybe the best flair for creative scoring around the rim, but we don’t trust him on D enough to play in crunch time. I look at Newton and Jackson out there together in crunch time and we are too easy to guard. Load up on Hawkins, bring help on Sanogo - take your chances. If Newton doesn’t take his game to another level in the second half of the season - we are going to get stuck in some grinders where we’ll have to hope Hawkins can make really tough shots (he’s been taken out of the game by tight D in the second half by Arcidiacano and by Kunkel all day today), or Jackson hits open looks. I’m honestly not seeing it from Newton to this point - but somewhere in there is a nearly 20 ppg scorer, and maybe we have to figure out how to unlock more of his strengths. Otherwise, Calcaterra’s ability to not be a liability on D might be the biggest factor in our hopes for a deep run. Didn’t think I’d be saying that in October. [/QUOTE]

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