GT: Hornets vs Suns Wed Jan 6 9PM EST

[phillycheese]

If you were ranking the reasons for our 5 game losing streak, where would Kemba rank in that list?

Reason number 1 - injuries to Al, Nic and Lin
Reason number 2 - crappy defense - especially when it comes to helping the helper. giving up on plays and simply space cadet
Reason number 3 - Kemba ball, caused by #1 and 4 and leading to #2
Reason number 4 - Bigs that cannot finish simple bunnies - leading to #3

[TTNN]

Kemba's game has changed the past few games because Batum is out. Kemba needs Batum more than anyone on the team. Batum is the reason I don't really have an issue with Kemba this year. Kemba is a very good, albeit limited player, who needs a Batum type next to him. W/out Batum, Kemba's flaws are magnified.

Also, Offensive/Defensive ratings for one game aren't meaningless in the context of this debate about last night. It shows that while Kemba was in the game, our team offense was better and our team defense was better. It also clearly show that while Lamb and Hawes were in the game our defense was atrocious. That is not to say those guys are solely responsible for the good and bad, but it provides framework. For example, if someone tried to argue that Lamb was good defensively last night, it would make sense to point out that the team with Lamb on the floor was terrible. Whether or not Lamb was directly responsible is up for debate.

agree that Kemba's game changed while Batum was out, but he was able to play with Lin nicely in that Raptor's game when Batum was out too. He was not as ball dominant, and was spending his energy in defense too.

Not sure whether it is Lin's ankle injury, Kemba don't really share the ball with Lin the way he did in that raptor game, he might think he will need to shoulder the work load by himself. He let Lin play in the first Q of the game, and totally take it over in the second half.

He shoot better this season, so I don't mind him shooting, but I still don't like he hold the ball that long, and went to offense without looking for his teammates. Also, what I really don't like is because he shoulder that much in offensive side, that he simply could not keep the same intensity in the defensive end. He sometimes would cheat by stop fighting through screens, give up a play earlier than he should, got stuck on a screen, not trying to recover, and not really switching either. This team do help defense, and help the helper, but an elite team continue to pass the ball and eventually the team help defense will mess up and will give up an open shot.

This was extremely obvious in that GSW game, unfortunately, our coach was pretty happy with the team play, I was so disappointed after I hear coach's post game interview. I think the coaches might think the way they play is not enough to beat GSW, but is enough to beat Suns. Which, turns out not to be the case.