Knix defense a mess.
4Eva opened with a good defensive possession on Bane, then had trouble with screens and staying on his man. Griz seemed to be going at him early. Maybe trying to make him work and thwart his 1Q fireworks. PLus pick on the weak defenders. RJB did pretty well on Ja early. Who still found ways to score while being defended well. 2Q, Thibs used RJB as the second unit PG.
Transition D:
3:20 left in 1Q. 5 Knix are back. 4 Griz trot slowly upcourt to join them. somehow Burks is down on the left block, while his man is at the right elbow. And cans a wide open 3. How does that happen?
Earlier, mid-1Q, another Memf slow break and Kemba heads to the FT line while his assignment walks to the right elbow 3. Walker runs into and gets screened by Mitch. That's giving up 6 points just due to inattention.
First 2Q possession, 4 Knix back. All 5 Griz bring it up slowly, along with the 5th Knick. Grimes tells ObiT to pick up the Big on the wing, but ObiT prefers to guard the ballhandling guard, thus for no reason offering Memf two mismatches. Even worse, both Grimes and ObiT decide to defend the ball, so Brandon Clarke streaks down the side unguarded, gets an easy pass and dunks. Again 4 Knix were back early and Memf just came downcourt unthreatening at a normal pace.
2 mins into the 2Q, Knix again have 4 guys back, and Griz bring the ball up. This time it's a 5-on-4 as Burks tripped over a baseline cameraman. But somehow 3 Griz are open around the arc. IQ for some reason is in the paint near nobody. ObiT hedges between the two open right side 3 point shooters. Another uncontested 3 in transition.
So Knix gave up 11 points in transition on 4 plays in the first 13 minutes of the game, just by being careless and disorganized. Signs of a bad incohesive team.
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