Randolph had only five points and shot 2-for-5 against the Kings before he was ejected for throwing his headband on the court with 1:47 left in the third.
He also knocked over a water bottle that was sitting atop the scorer's table on his way to the locker room, meaning he finished with as many objects thrown on the floor as field goals made. Randolph wasn't on the practice floor when the media were permitted to enter Thursday. The official explanation from the team was that Randolph came down with "flu-like symptoms" during the practice and had to leave the gym.
Flu-like symptoms? I've heard that too many times. I doubt Zach actually had flu-like symptoms, there might be something else going on there. Anyone think that the Blazers' latest run has gotten to his head?
"We're a team that's gone from easily being able to score 100 points to some nights barely getting 75," Thomas said.
Exhibit A has been the pairing of Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph, which even Thomas now admits has been a failure.
The players, who are talking privately about how the addition of Randolph has ruined Curry's production and confidence and sidetracked the offense, see through Thomas' rambling. They know the pairing of Curry and Randolph doesn't work, which provides the real explanation for their tentative play.
I'm starting to get the feeling that though Randolph is the more productive and talented player of the two, the team would rather play with Curry over Randolph in large part because they seem to be more friends with Curry than with Randolph. Rather than blame Curry for his own struggles, they want to blame Randolph for getting in Curry's way?
"If your editor was going to take your pen and laptop out of your hand and your microphone out of your hand if you wrote uninspiring stories, you'd make sure every 't' was crossed and every 'i' was dotted," Malik Rose said. " . . . You would edit them, you would spell- check them, you would do a lot to make sure that it was right, instead of just writing from the heart, writing with what God gave you -- your talent, your ability, your creativity.
"And that's kind of what we're doing here: overthinking it instead of reacting."
What in the world was Malik Rose babbling about exactly?