champs99and04 said:
Kemba missed his last five shots but still finished with 28 points, 7 assists, and just 1 turnover on 11-21 from the field and 4 of 7 from three. Hornets completely gave the game way on Memphis' final possession of overtime. They were up three with ten seconds left, and for some reason, Gerald Henderson (who, to his credit, kept them alive with a phenomenal play at the end of regulation) jumped out at Marc Gasol and left Vince Carter wide open in the corner.
I think Kemba maybe ran out of gas a bit - not so much the 48 minutes, but they were hard minutes. Memphis made him work hard on both ends and he just couldn't do much of anything late - always a second defender running at him hard off screens, and always running Conley off of screens at the other end. He did set up Zeller and Jefferson with wide, wide open shots from straight out in OT2, but they both missed. He had two drives blocked by Gasol and an end of shot clock brick (frankly a bad kickout pass fromJefferson made him rush it). Disappointing ending, because he was 11-17 at the end of regulation and was playing some great ball, but any momentum he might have been able to carry over to next game might be gone now. He could have used that 11-17. He did play his balls off, but that's usually not been an issue with him. Efficiency is.
Also interesting that Stephenson was buried on the bench throughout crunch time and both OTs. Henderson and Neal played in his stead. Stephenson would have le Kemba go off the ball for a possession or two, but they can't really do that with Henderson or Neal. Zeller still can't make his open 18 footers, MKG and Biyombo are still defensive specialist/role players. They're basically just Kemba and free agents now. Bad drafting has killed them. They had opportunities for Beal, Thompson and McLemore (who has shot well for Sac when I've watched) - any one of them would be great for shooting/floor spacing.
Drummond with 23 and 14 as Pistons end 13 game losing streak at Phoenix. Stan Van Gundy inexplicably kept Josh Smith on the floor up 3 with 20 seconds left and Phoenix needing to foul, when he subbed out Drummond for FT shooting (wisely). Smith is a 49 percent foul shooter himself. Missed both. Phoenix cut it to one on a drive, Meeks made both. Then Drummond goes back in for defensive rebounding with four seconds left in case Phoenix missed the second on purpose. They make it and Smith then inbounds the ball to him up one. He misses the first, and makes the second - Phoenix was out of timeouts so he would have been better off missing, but I have a feeling if they told Drummond to miss on purpose, it would either go in or kill a cheerleader.
