Photo: AP/Jason DeCrow
Bojan Bogdanović has officially started to get groomed into a bench role. As Brooklyn tries to adjust with Brook Lopez injured yet again, they’ve continued to struggle against good teams. The week started with a 105-89 loss to the first place Toronto Raptors. Toronto shot 51 percent and received 41 points from their bench. Bogdanović struggled in shooting just one for five in 17 minutes of action. His struggles have been evident over the past few weeks. Star big man Nikola Vučević remains confident in Bogdanović’s ability. The Orlando Magic center was adamant (Link) on how difficult the transition can be from playing in Europe to the NBA.
Bogdanović continued to be an afterthought in a 95-91 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. As new starting shooting guard Sergey Karasev was having his most productive game, Bogdanović rode the bench throughout the game. Lionel Hollins decide to play him for a grand total of two minutes in what was a season-low for him. Bojan remains upbeat in stating that “even he was surprised that he was playing a lot” . Now it’s important for him to continue to adapt and help the team win, regardless of his reduced role.
His goal in continuing to adapt was on display in a 110-105 win against the abysmal Detroit Pistons. Bogdanović played for 14 minutes and managed to score 14 points in that short time. Bojan shot four for seven from the field, which includes three for four from three-point range. His quick release gave Detroit fits in trying to close him down. From the brief highlights, you can see him slowly asserting himself more. A nice block on Brandon Jennings ended in what was his most productive game in quite some time.
Bogdanović 14 Points Full Highlights (12/21/2014)
The solid play didn’t last very long. Bogdanović was back to his struggling ways in shooting two for seven in 13 minutes of action last night. Brooklyn came back to win 102-96 over the Denver Nuggets led by Joe Johnson. Once again, Bojan seemed too reliant in shooting from three-point range in a one for four effort. It may be his specialty; but eventually people want to see more growth out a player. Lionel Hollins is one of the truest tough-minded coaches in the league. He’ll want to see more assertiveness from Bogdanović before deciding to give him major minutes again.
Brooklyn plays their next four games in a five-day span in the upcoming week. It starts with an away game against the Boston Celtics on Friday afternoon. That follows up with a game against Damjan Rudež and the Indiana Pacers on Saturday. Despite both players playing bench roles, this can be considered as a “dream matchup”. A home game against the surprising Sacramento Kings on Monday will be a stern test. The week finishes off with an away game against the Chicago Bulls. It’ll be important for Brooklyn to go 3-1 to end the year as close to 500. as possible.
Photo:AP/David Zalubowski
It has been a rough past few weeks for Damjan Rudež. His minutes continue to decline substantially. Rudež received just one minute of action against the Los Angeles Clippers. In a game that was attended by our very own staff, Damjan was mainly used to foul DeAndre Jordan. It was a highly competitive game that Indiana nearly won in the end. They ended up losing 102-100.
The losses continued in an ugly 76-73 defeat to the Denver Nuggets. With C.J Watson out, Rudež actually received 14 minutes and scored five points on two of five shooting. Indiana shot 30 percent from the field in easily their worst offensive showing of the year. Their offensive limitations continue to be exposed without Paul George. Rudež has been simply far too inconsistent in trying to be a consistent spark-plug off the bench. Indiana bounced back nicely in a 100-96 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Rudež received just five minutes and failed to get on the stat sheet. To make matter worse, Damjan suffered an upper respiratory infection that kept him out of Indiana’s 96-84 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. There hasn’t been any update of the extent of this particular infection.
Indiana has a few winnable road games coming up. They play the lowly Detroit Pistons on Friday, who seem to be in shambles after releasing Josh Smith. On Saturday, a quick trip to Brooklyn to take on the Nets in the aforementioned “dream matchup” for the Croatians may take place depending on Rudež’s health. They end the week with a tough home game against the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday. A 2-1 week is possible for an Indiana team that has lost ten out of their last thirteen games.
It was announced last week that Andrew Bogut was out indefinitely. Until there is any other update, we’ll have to wait and see to talk about the star center. Bogut should be back at some point in January. Golden State remains as the number one seed at 23-4.
~Written by Allen Strk
Twitter: @Allen_Strk
My toronto raptors are a team to be reckoned with, go raptors!!