HoopDreams said:
Christmas parties and no TV meant I couldn't watch any of game and only listened to last 15 minutes of first half
Announcer said we played a lot of 2-3 zone during the minutes they were hitting everything
So for people watching the game, how much zone did we play in this game?
A fair amount; maybe at least a third or even half the game. To me it looked more like a 1-3-1 than a 2-3. And I agree with the post that said it looked like we were still learning it: sometimes no one on a shooter, other times two guys desperately closing out on the same shooter while leaving the next guy over unguarded (and no further rotation), some easy dribble penetration, not seeing/anticipating the back screen on our big man (leaving no one to rotate to the corner 3), and some offensive rebounds, etc. As bad as that sounds, it didn't look as horrible as all that, but there were some clear lapses. The biggest issue was their 3-point shooting.
On the other end, their interior 7'5" guy gave FA some trouble. Fardaws is clearly not used to playing someone much taller than him. But that guy also disrupted some other early attempts, where we missed otherwise easy finishes at the rim (Tyson), or didn't take a shot at the rim for fear of getting blocked (KK).
Our offense never had much flow or organization in this game. And Tyson, while doing a lot of good things, had his usual 3 or so TOs due to careless/casual passes. Those things dug the early hole and prevented coming back in the first half. Midway through H2, they just wore us down.
The final score does not reflect how this game really went. It was a solid 20ish point lead through much of H2 before we made a bit of a wild run in the last couple minutes. That said, we actually very nearly made it even closer in the final minute. We had cut the deficit to 7 and then got a steal and an open 3. Had we made that 3-pointer, I believe the score would have been down to 4 points with about 40 seconds remaining (still down two possessions with less than two possessions of time, so not yet able to play straight up without fouling, but crazy to be that close after being down 20 just a few minutes prior). Unfortunately, that three didn't go down, then they made their ensuing free throws and that was the end of the run.