DaleyBlind wrote:Imagine blaming Booker for this loss

Exactly! Booker did everything he could to set up our guys for wide open shots and they kept blowing them. In the 4th it came down to Booker scoring like 10 points in a row. In overtime once again Booker tried setting up teammates who kept blowing it, so i dont fault Booker at all for not trusting his teammates and putting the team on his back and trying to win it all by himself. We just dont have to players around him. We have what is probably the worst starting PG in the league (One that would be considered a 3rd stringer on half the teams in the league). Sure he stepped it up tonight, but that doesnt really mean much. You have Ayton who can be a beast, but cant get the damn ball, therefore all he is able to do is stick around in the paint calling for the ball and trying to grab an offensive rebound when his calls get ignored and instead someone bricks a bad shot. PF? Ariza hit a few thees tonight, gotta give him credit for that, but otherwise he was a non factor. Warren did Warren, bulldoze the paint and throw it up at the rim before hitting the floor. Very solid game from Warren tonight, those early 1st half 3's really helped, but i noticed he didnt shoot any 3's in the 2nd half, which was kinda weird.
Simple solution to fix this, get us a PG who can play-make, shoot the ball reliably, and most important GET AYTON THE DAMN BALL AND LET HIM DO WHAT HE DOMINATES AT! Besides that, grab a legit PF. Find me a defensive PF to play next to Ayton. I dont care about "Oh we need a stretch 4 to spread the floor and give Ayton room in the paint" because thats basically what we are doing now and its not working and Ayton cant even utilizes that space in the paint.
And i hate to say it, but i do put this loss on Igor. It was his decision to slow the game down with 6 minutes to go, have our players kill the clock for 20 seconds, then try to hit a jumper. That came from the coach, that was 100% his strategy to hold the lead, and it was a very bad call to start doing that so early. 3 minutes i could see. 2 minutes is very normal. But over 6 minutes left to start killing the clock is absolutely what did us in.
Frustrating loss, but encouraging to see us dominate the East's 3rd best team, one stocked with stars, and doing everything we could to shut them down in the 1st half. We showed more out there tonight than we really have seen all season from our team.