Here Comes The Cavalry

All I could think of in the first quarter was, I can't wait till the second unit comes in. House and Hart were hitting everything in sight and our first unit looked flat. Then in comes the cavalry and they are off and running (to Tommy's delight).

Speaking of Tommy, I believe he's found a replacement in his heart for Waltah. If Al Jefferson blew his nose, dropped the tissue, and slipped on the tissue, Tommy would rave about his nasal instincts, give him a Tommy Point for effort, and run to get him an ice pack for his butt. Not that I can blame him. I'd be doing the exact same thing.

Still, you know who I'm starting to develop a real affection for that you might not think of right away: Mark Blount. Yes, he's got his faults and limitations. But I love his attitude. He plays hard defense every night, does a number of little things well, and before our very eyes, he's become a veteran leader. Someone made the point the other day that other teams would give up a lot for a quality big man like Mark because they are rare. Count me happy we've got him locked up for a while.

Back to the second unit. We saw a potential worst case senario start to develop when the basket looked 5 feet wide for the Cats and 4 inches small to our starting unit. It happens. Our team last year or the year before may have never pulled out of that. But that second unit pumped us up tonight. They did more than regain the lead, they regained the momentum and set the pace for the game. When the starters came in, they picked up on that energy and matched it. It's a great feeling knowing that we've got that bench ready to run when we need it.

Not all was rosey tonight. Once again, vertically challenged opponents burned us from the outside. I couldn't pinpoint if it was Paul's D in particular that was lacking, but clearly we'll have to figure out what is going wrong there. Still, when Paul scores only 10 and we still win by 18, its hard to feel too bad about anything. Oh yeah, and nice game by Ricky too. Good, solid win.