They need a coach on the sideline whose whole job is to watch quietly and, if needed, open a secret compartment in the floor, pull out the glass box inside, enter the code “Orange” to open that box, and push the Melo Button inside that box.
The Melo Button unlocks a set of plays to get Tatum the ball in the post to bully his way to the basket, draw fouls, hit layups, and make easy passes out of double teams to open shooters. Hell against a team like this you might not even have to bully. The fact that they don’t run anything to get him into a mismatch on Young down low is sickening.
It hit me that while he doesn’t take contested midrange shots much anymore, that doesn’t mean Kobeball is dead—he has just extended it out to the 3pt line and increased the degree of difficulty even more.
I know this is not empirically true but I woke up believing in my heart that if he didn’t inanely pull up from the logo in the 2nd quarter during the big run out to a lead, they would have won. Either way that play ended up being a harbinger of doom.
Yeah, still mad.