The minute Kyle mentioned that "Strus has a subpar season shooting just 34% from the 3 point line" I knew he would "torch" us in this match. He hit 2 quick threes after missing the 1st one (that caused Kyle's comment) and he was the "catalyst" hitting plenty more later on including those "Alvarado" steals to Sabonis that led to 5 easy points. Btw it looked that in the first steal he stepped out of bounds and Sabonis was convinced that he was fouled in the 2nd one, hard to tell from the replay though.
So many threes, so few foul calls and free throws especially when the margin was small, as someone else pointed out 0 misses from our starters, I don't know if any other team had their starters not going to the line at all during a match this season. And those defensive 3 seconds violation were going on for ever but took 25+ minutes for the refs to "notice" that.
We would probably lose if the "zebras" were fair I guess, but it's disrespectful the way they avoid giving fouls in favor of Fox, Sabonis and Monk when they make drives to the basket, while Davion was also fouled a couple of times as well. Still they managed to cover the gap in the end when everything was decided so looking at the box score wouldn't make it obvious how the whistles went.
Perhaps MB should have tried his last year gimmick and march inside the court to get ejected to turn things around.
Fox wasn't his usual self, he didn't seem calm, in the first timeout called he looked pissed and went straight to his chair avoiding handshakes, Murray started well but disappeared after the 1st quarter. I don't know if it is worrying but "statistically" he looks like Harrison Barnes, not attempting shots, not getting rebounds (had 1) but I assume it's due to him having to guard the opponents' star player that doesn't allow him to crash the boards and burns his energy not letting him "cook" in the offense at the same time. I would like to see both our forwards playing well together offensively at some point.
Kessler was good not sure why he played for such a limited time, Javale on the other hand was a disaster, no clue where his "vocal presence" makes the difference, he is "sloppy" in both sides of the court and for sure that wasn't the worst performance of the season. Will remain a mystery why Len is sidelined, another mystery with Keon that played in garbage time (still he is supposed not to exceed 50 matches as 2 way player, and if I am not wrong he never played with the Stockton Kings this season), will they convert his contract passed the deadline in case there is still a roster spot available? We will find out in 3 days I guess. A bit off topic regarding Len, back in the day in Atlanta he was starting making threes but I don't know if he even made a single one for the Kings the last 3 seasons (he had made one before leaving for Toronto).
Now we need to destroy the Pistons, in this very tricky matchup, not letting them score 50 in the first quarter if possible, in order to face the worst schedule of all time that follows after that match.