You have to know which side your bread is buttered on. Muss does not appear to do so. There is a way to handle that. And pulling Kevin is fine. Its the never putting him back in the entire rest of the way and humilaiting him that is not. Especially in light of his replacement's less than stellar effort. The correct ego play is you play Salmons through the end of the 3rd, talk to Kevin at the break and say you need him to match John's defensive intensity, then insert him maybe 2 minutes into the 4th and see what happens. It gives him a shot at redemption. If he fails, gets lit up again, you can then pull him realtively quickly and teach your "lesson" with minimal damage. You gave Kevin his "respect", his shot at redemption, and he simply failed it. If he succeeds then you play him most/all of the rest of the way, lesson learned and better for the team. But now benching your #1 scorer halfway through the third in a close game and never letting him sniff the court again in favor of a guy who had more turnovers than points...that's a slap in the face. And one that leaves the guy you benched frustrated. He has no chance to correct the mistake. And he's apparently being given no respect at all for his acheivements thus far on the season. Would have been really bad if we had lost it. As is winning will mute complaints. But these things are not forgotten.