THIS IS PAINFUL

JB

Well it was nice to have a great record with the injured players. But now that they have some of those injured guys back, they're paying the price of the injuries.

I guess I thought that it would be tough without Bibby and Peja, but getting them back has been tougher and has set the team back to training camp. This is probably going to take a few weeks to get sorted out, so expect more losses in that time. They have to get this defensive rebounding issue sorted out pronto. The turnovers and odd substitution patterns need to get ironed out.

I think they will go on a good long win streak, it just might be in the second half of January before it gets going. They have a lot of practice time coming up before and after the Laker game and that may help. But knowing Adelman, he won't settle on a rotation until he's seen all the different combinations on the floor in a game situation. That's going to take a few games. I'm not going to get down on them unless February rolls around and they're still playing like this.

It could be worse. We could be Garry St.Jean's shoes and have to explain why he skipped over Amare Stoudemire with the 3rd pick. That guy seems to get better every time I see him. He just put very good back to back games against 2 of the best PF in the west, Elton Brand and Chris Webber. Not bad for a high school player. He's going to be a star in the not so distant future.