In case you all hadn't noticed, we have started the last 3 games god awfully, to much worse teams, and tonight we were not able to make up for it.

Now I am not one to panic after a bad game or two, even after a horrible game tonight, but I think our approach to offense in the first quarter may need shaking up.

Our current plan is to go inside first, to LMA and Oden. I am not an Oden hater, but he does not quite have his offensive moves down pat, I think we can all agree on that. Now Oden is not costing us games, not at all, but he is probably costing us a few extra possessions each first quarter, whether it is from a missed shot, a travel, a turnover or one of those pesky 3-in the keys that he seems to pick up all the time.

LMA usually seems to start a little cold and then get in a rhythm and he is fine. I think these early touches are an important part of LMA having a good game....and that is the reason why I think we need to change up our early game focus.

Roy needs more early looks at the basket, he too seems to start fairly slow, missing a good chunk of his early shots before he gets it together. This seems natural for him and LA to need a few shots under their belt (all though these crappy teams we keep playing seem to hit atleast 80% of their early shots). I think we need to get Roy driving, or taking jumpers more in the first quarter so he can start scoring in the first quarter to keep us close with the opponents. He doesn't need to score much more throughtout the game, but keeping close early on changes the whole dynamic, playing catch-up is no fun.

Here are some #'s I found

Roy pts on the year by quarter

1/2/3/4

5.2/5.0/5.5/7.5

This seems to prove me wrong and just show that Roy is a 4th quarter machine (4th in NBA in 4th quarter points)

I was trying to find a site that had stats broken down by quarter and could not, so maybe my thinking is way off. But our first quarter obviously has not been working of late.

Obviously establishing an inside game is important as well to keep defenders honest, but I don't see why we have to try to stuff that all into the first 5 minutes.