Nikola Mirotic
Was it just me or did Mirotic look like he understood that he’s losing the battle for the starting spot at power forward?
Mirotic looked like he was playing angry and was quickly frustrated. He took several awful shots where it was clear that he was forcing attempts out of bad situations. He got caught in the middle of nowhere on a defensive assignment in the paint and furiously slapped his hands together while barking at Spencer Dinwiddie about it.
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To make it amusing, if you didn’t see Mirotic play, his stats looked pretty good. He shot 50 percent from the field and was 2-for-2 at the line, scoring 14 points in 25 minutes of play. Of course, that is why stat lines can’t always be trusted.
With Gibson resting and Bobby Portis starting, you can understand why Mirotic was so fired up, it just didn’t translate into great basketball. The good news for Mirotic was that Porits only shot 30 percent from the floor. Bad news – Portis wasn’t yelling at teammates over blown assignments, had 10 rebounds and seven assists.
The power forward battle isn’t over, yet. Right now, it’s pretty clear that the position is Gibson’s to lose.