NYPiston wrote:Games like this during a long season happen when the team just doesn't have the legs so can't be mad at it.
What this team does is fight until the very end and even on nights when they're off, and they were way off for 3 quarters, they still compete. What Cade did in the 4th I'd like to see more of, that assertiveness earlier in the game especially when the other guys aren't going, I feel like I've been saying this his entire career but he could be unstoppable if he was a little more selfish.
It was more than just tired legs. JB was trying out some new defensive schemes (and even a zone for a while) and the guys looked lost. The rotations were just .... non-existent for most of the game. It was essentially a layup line for the whole first quarter and I lost track of how many wide open 3's we gave them. I know curry is just about an impossible guard, but we were just so confused on the switches that he probably had 10 uncontested 3's. It was shocking that he bricked so many of those. And the rebounding! They were obviously quicker to us on every loose ball, but guys were ending up in unfamiliar positions and just didn't seem to know their responsibilities.
Our defense has been dramatically improved this year and I think it's largely because JB really simplified it. We don't typically do a lot of crazy stuff. We play straight up man as much as possible and guys are responsible for fighting around screens and staying connected. Ausar and Holland will get their fair share of steals off their athleticism, but overall, it's a pretty old school "Consistently make them take contested shots" style. Last night, we had guys switching all over and having to make defensive reads on the fly and it was pretty ugly. Duren was a standout there (in a negative way), but the other guys weren't a lot better.