Francisco Garcia typically makes one silly play on offense per game. Usually a charge, occasionally a bad pass into a defender's chest or the third row.
Last night, he tried morph the game into a soccer match with a minute to go in the fourth. It didn't work, and frankly, the Kings could not win a soccer match against the Spurs. I heard Beno Udrih has a live left foot.
Garcia's bad offensive play usually comes in the second quarter, since that's where much of his playing time is. Tonight, though, he played a flawless second quarter. Could he make it through the night with a painful turnover? Could we remember his performance solely for his twitchy energy, his mosquitoesque defense, his Kidd-like rebounding acumen from the backcourt?
Nope. And we couldn't remember solely good things about any of the other youngsters either.
John Salmons had some ugly turnovers and some ugly driving shots. Kevin Martin had a couple of yip passes which missed their target completely. This was not a model of delicious and clean basketball.
Nineteen turnovers in a slowpace (95 possessions) game. Decidedly unglorious. So many of those mistakes came deep in the fourth quarter, which makes it slightly infuriating that the Kings were still in it with 56 seconds to go. But with 55 seconds left – well, that's when Francisco learned how hard it is to dribble with your ankle.
Now, some anger:
What did it take to get Bruce Bowen called for a foul? He had to throw Mike Bibby into the backcourt off a screen. How a player that physical and handsy who was grabbing, pushing, grabbing, jabbing, and grabbing Martin every time down can get to the third quarter without one freaking foul called on him is abhorrent. Isiah Thomas, Ray Allen – they're right. Bruce Bowen is an asshole.
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