That move makes zero sense. Why would he do this? Don't get it
This was in response to the point about Malone subbing Thornton in for DWill with 5 minutes to go in the game.
I can answer that question, I think.
At the time the Grizzlies were playing their starting line-up of Conely, Lee, & Prince.
Williams was in charge of guarding Lee.
Though Williams wasn't doing too badly of a job keeping up with Lee, it was clear that Lee was much quicker than Williams and finding open spots out on the floor.
Malone most likely pulled Williams in favor of Thornton because Thornton was doing a better job staying with Lee as Lee moved all over the place.
I was sort of surprised by the timing, since it was right after Williams had his only points in the 2nd half with the fast-break alley-oop slam. And the fact that Lee hadn't actually hurt us yet, meant that Malone was playing things safe. Now, if he had kept Williams in the game and if Lee had found himself open to hit a couple of 3pt shots then we all would have been asking why Malone didn't put someone on Lee who could keep up.
So...the moment the Kings lost, Malone lost regardless of what he might have done. Thornton didn't do anything on the offensive end, but at the same time Lee wasn't a big impact player either...so ultimately I don't think it factored too much in the loss. The key to the loss down the stretch was two-fold:
1.) Our inability to execute some semblance of an offense
2.) Our inability to contain Conley
Had we done either of those two things at even a D+ level, we would have won the game, but we failed on both counts and lost the game by a point.
It was a tough loss to watch, that is for certain.