Christie has a lot of work to do.
The Kings got pulverized in the paint - 50 Orlando points allowed in three quarters. After that it was easy peezy for Orlando to hoist the 3s with impunity and kill the Kings. First came the body punches, then the right cross, uppercut and KO followed. It does breed confidence when you know you own the paint.
Lavine is a talent, no doubt, but his insertion at mid-season is bringing not just the challenge of getting used to the offense and defense and his teammates comfortable with him. Unless this game is a short term anomaly, he has changed the pecking order. Murray did not touch the ball once on offense in the first quarter. No exaggeration. His production in this 1st quarter compared to the last game's first quarter were total opposites. When he got to feel the ball a couple of times after the first quarter he was so thirsty he hoisted it no matter what. And then when he was passed the ball by DDR in the 2nd half he was so surprised someone passed him the ball (Who, me?) he wasn't ready for it and it resulted in a turnover. Out of pity Christie devised a play for him at the beginning of the 4th, which Murray promptly hit.
As they were saying on the broadcast, the schedule doesn't allow for practice over the next several games, so I guess Christie is going to have them look at film on the plane or something. These next few games could be a challenge until the All Star break and they get some practice time. Hopefully, Valanciunas can help them out somewhat in interior defense.
It is only one game so I'm still hopeful DC and the team will figure it out, but that was my concern bringing in Lavine.
Our best starting 5 has been Monk, Keon, DDR, Murray, Sabonis. With Keon and Keegan together it helps us set the tone defensively and not let the other team get in a rhythm easily, but we won't go with it because of egos/salaries.
So after swapping Fox for Lavine, we have a starting lineup with 1 good defender with 4 guys almost incapable of playing defense. As a result, you got the other team getting hot early and building confidence from the tipoff and it carries into the rest of the night. We saw the magic switching Keegan off of whoever and then the coaches will have Keegan shadow and try to defend 2 people at once, running all over.
The other thing I like about the Keon starting lineup is that it no longer forces Keegan to be relegated to the 5th scoring option playing with 4 other guys that want to get a lot of touches and shots.
Curious to see what Christie does here. I just feel like we are at our best with Keon starting, if we could somehow convince Lavine or DDR to be the 6th man, because I don't think they are suddenly going to start being reliable defenders.