Haven't had a chance to stat the game yet, but in the glimpses I've seen, the one glaring bad habit is that we didn't consistently pick up our man. Several times in the final minutes, we lost track of our man and he got open — too open, once by 10 feet — while our defense lost track. It was something only video can really help us with, and we'll continue to work on this aspect of the game at practice tomorrow afternoon.
Ball, man, you. If you can't find the ball and your man, your positioning is off. Getting 100% effort on defense from everybody on the floor is KEY. We can't play our best against the best teams if four guys are playing defense and one loses his man. Defense is work by all five men on the floor. Defense, as the cliche goes, wins championships. If you want a championship, consider giving defense your all, Thunder.
I believe we can and should do it. Everything else that we didn't execute perfectly, from free throws to ballhandling (turnovers), I can actually live with. We learn from those kinds of mistakes, and if professional athletes make those mistakes, a team of 13- and 14-year-olds will make them, too. There hasn't been a 100% free-throw champion ever in the NBA, has there?
Great defense trumps most, if not all, mistakes. Let's have fun getting back to work tomorrow.
* As always, the game video is for us: players and families only.
Enjoy and learn.
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