Interesting talk re: seeing the dejection in players’ faces while there was still plenty of time left to play. For whatever reason, that just happens sometimes and players feel like it’s over when it really isn’t close to being over. You have to wonder whether any of that defeatism stemmed from the two OT losses to close out the regular season. I know, guys have to be mentally tough throughout. But, human kids just don’t always work that way.
Kobe’s description of what’s supposed to happen on the FT play is revealing. One guy pinches and the other guy boxes the shooter. Neither guy did anything on that play today. Tarris made zero attempt to box out either, BTW. I agree with Juwan that effort was not an issue today, but on that one play…yikes.