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LOL. True. But honestly at the end of close games they’ve not been moving the ball well all season. Something Mosley mentioned in his last press conference really resonated with me. In response to a question about turnovers, he said that when they drive into the paint and things get start to get crowded, they should not make the extra dribble and should pass the ball out sooner. If they follow that advice at the end of close games, we will be much better off.

Excellent post.

Magic playing another tanking team tonight with half their players out per the injury report. I expect another easy win. I just hope the Magic don’t get used to this level of (non) competition. NBA really should do something about this. People pay good money to go to these games. The game last Saturday, which I attended, fortunately as a guest, was so ridiculous that most people in my suite stopped paying attention midway through the second quarter. I left before the end of the third. Again I didn’t pay anything to go, but would have been upset if I did. Imagine paying big $$ for a Broadway show and having a high school acting group show up to give the performance.

Thank you for putting that all together.

Very good post.

The suite is really nice though :)

Just be careful not to take too much away from this game, as I said a few messages ago. Memphis clearly going through the motions and wishing the season was already over

This game so far is almost like watching the Globetrotters beating up on whoever the other team is. Even Fultz just hit a three.

29-11 near end of first quarter. Too bad we can’t play this version of the Grizzlies every game.

We will win easily tonight. We better. I’m in a suite for the first time ever

Well, I think one obvious answer is that other teams are giving both Franz and Paulo a lot more attention than they were earlier in the season. They figured out that if you double team either of them when they have the ball, sometimes they’ll continue to attack anyway and turn the ball over. Or they may wind up forcing a bad shot. I think that’s at least part of it. Doesn’t explain everything, such as the drop in his three point shooting.

I expect us to win tonight against the grizzlies, and we’re favored by 13 1/2 points. At this point, I expect the grizzlies are probably in tanking mode. From the injury report, it looks like they’re sitting about 10 players tonight. We should not take undo confidence from whatever collection of G league players we beat up on in this game.

This seems to be our methodology in the last couple of minutes in close games, no matter who we’re playing against. Dribble it slowly up the court, give the ball to either Paulo or Franz at the top of the key, clear out the area and let them go one versus the other team. That method has cost us the last three games, and others during the season.

We tighten up and stop moving the ball at the end of close games. It’s so glaringly obvious and yet it happens again and again.

Banchero turns it over again when trying to pass after doing a lot of dribbling. This kind of offense won’t work against better teams.

So Paulo is the only one touching the ball last two possessions. Scored on the first one. Second one they triple teamed him and he lost the ball. We just have to be smarter and move the ball.

Last 2 minutes, close game. Will we move the ball or have just one guy touch it each possession?

It worked until the last couple of minutes when everyone, including Cole, started to play hero ball. I don’t fault Cole anymore than the rest of them. His turnaround fadeaway near air ball with under a minute left kind of sealed the loss for us, though.

Last night game against GS not encouraging as the first game of those 11. Let’s see if they can get back on track after two very disappointing games, or if their shortcomings will be revealed causing them to wilt in higher intensity games.

It was also one guy dribbling the ball until the clock had nearly expired before he passed it.

Even with all of that, it was a two point game with about two minutes left. At that point all the guys who want to win the game by themselves started to go one on however many and take bad shots. It’s at the end of close games when passing is most important that we just stop. No one trusts their teammates apparently. It’s happened repeatedly. It’s very aggravating.

They just won’t move the ball in crunch time. It’s all one on one

We’re actually shooting the three ball better than Golden State, although that’s not saying much. Golden State 3-18 from three, we’re 4-17. Its shots closer to the basket that we’re inexplicably missing tonight. Might be partly due to the layoff. Whole team looks sluggish.

Starters back in and GS goes on 8-0 run. Believe it or not, our starters are 4-24 with less than 4 minutes left in first half.

We have returned to life! I forgot we’re always bad to start off after we’ve been off a few days.