We fell behind quick. A lot of that was Billups and Rip being injured and not being effective. Not to mention Webber, coming off the flu, was giving us absolutely nothing. For the game, Webber did two things. Miss shots. Poor D. Sure he guarded Elson ok, but what center can't? Webber should have sat the last two games out, it would have helped us greatly.

We did not take a 3 until 2 minutes left in the first half. Sheed made one, probably luck as it caught glass and went in. Bad luck, cause a couple of missed 3's in to open the 3rd quarter by Sheed helped trigger a 7-0 run for SA. Later in the 3rd, a couple of missed 3's by Billups helped SA to a 15-2 run. Threes were are enemy for this game. An enemy we chose to invite to the game.

The bench, thats Delfino, Dyess, and Flip Murray, came all the way back in the 2nd quarter to erase a double digit deficit the starters handed them. Sheed did a lot of good work around the basket in the 2nd quarter. Good D too. Still, I question why Sheed played nearly the entire first half. Jason Maxiell and Dale Davis were over on the bench just sitting there.

Flip Murray had a good game, and got a lot of assists. Still does not make him a point guard. He is a guard who can create his won shot, which often bails him out when he can't do a dang thing with the ball otherwise. Flip did manage to get toward the hoop and dish a few times in this game. A few times. Blalock can do more in two minutes in this regard then a game's worth for Murray. Still, a good game for Murray, and the team did very well with him in the game. One thing he did a lot better than Billups, he did not decide to start jacking up a bunch of threes to hand the game to the other team.

Tay had a so so game. He made an outside shot, a few hooks around the basket. But no rebounding. Maybe a bit lazy on D here and there. Still a good game from him but not as good as he could be with some rest. Tay is not built to be the top minutes guy for a team.

Dyess was pretty awesome. Rebounding, defense, and a lot of scoring. Both his inside game and outside shot were working. One thing this recent spout of adversity has done, brought out the best in Dyess.

Delfino just basically played good solid D. He did have the one steal and drive all the way to the basket, but that was it for his offense. They don't exactly run plays for the guy.

Rip has that nasty bruise on his thigh from a couple of games ago. Still affecting his shot, and his defense. In all, our starters are so banged up that they collectively do not hustle on D when in as a unit. If a guy has a wide open shot, you still got to charge out at him, with the arms up. You got to put some pressure on the shot. The subs do this. If a starter or two is in with 3 subs, they are shamed into doing this. Our starters should be leading the way on this, not following. And just maybe they could hand the bench a lead to keep, not a deficit to claw out of.