Let's say, for example, that during the great housing bubble you took one crazy loan after another and then after fat 6 years you had a great fall when the housing bubble went out pretty quickly in, let's say, 6 months? Was the problem the deals in these 6 months or was it the fact that you were getting loans that you could not really sustain during these 6 years? During the last 100 seconds we made two big mistakes, one - we lost the ball (Blake did it) - and two - we allowed them to trap Brandon and not helped bail him out (Outlaw and to a degree Rudy - remember, it was his defender that was helping the trap). On top of this the Magic made 3 3 point shots ("bad luck") and we lost it. But - if we took better shots (not miss 4 layups by Sergio, not shoot so many 3s when we are not hitting them) during the entire game - we would have been up by 12 points and these mistakes would not have cost us. Would it have been better if we did not make these mistakes? No doubt. Would we have been able to retain some of our "wealth" if we sold the houses at the start of the housing bubble? Yes - but if we did not take stupid risks with stupid loans we could not cover (falling in love with the 3, not defending the 3 well all night long) - we would not be in position to lose it all. Outlaw made a mistake, so did Blake - but while these were big mistakes - if we played well the entire game - these mistakes would not have the disastrous results they had.
Re: Outlaw takes blame for Orlando loss Brandon was 3-4 from the FT line in the 4th quarter, so that was not at all the culprit of us losing our lead.
as for analogies, I'll throw one out about the end of game scenarios. Let's say you bring your closing pitcher in in a tie game. Bottom of the 9th. he strikes out the first two batters, and then gives up a game winning HR. Would you say he lost the game? Or would you start with a string of excuses how, well, 2/3 of his performance was great, where he was striking those first two batters out, so let's not say he necessarily lost the game. And furthermore, what if your team would have been able to score another run, then it would have only been tied, etc. Sure, you can make those excuses about missed opportunities in the previous 8.5 innings. Or you can take an easy look and say well, that pitcher gave up the game winning HR. The team lost, but the majority falls on him and his bad pitch. Only in this game, we had Blake and Outlaw both as our closers. It's like we had a one run lead, where one came in and gave up a game tying HR, and then he got pulled, and the next one gave up the game winner. Brandon striking out in the top of the 7th with the bases empty hurt, but wasn't as detrimental to us losing the game.
The only problem with the assertion that the first two minutes of a game are no different from the last two is that there is a definite psychological component in pressure to perform that is just plain different from the start of the game (or whatever random sample of minutes you choose to look at) There's a reason they call it crunch time; when the pressure's on who is able to maintain focus and composure gets called "clutch" or a star, and guys that fold up or break down get called a "choker." The only thing I'm going to add to this conversation is that there's not much argue about, Travis said it himself that he fucked up, Nate said that he fucked up, and he contributed in a big way to this one individual loss. Does this mean I hate Travis or want to see him traded immediately? No, not really. It just means that Travis has been in the league for 5 or 6 years now and he's probably going to be what he is right now, not great, not terrible, a somewhat erratic (good games followed by bad, questionable shot selection at times), but prolific, bench scorer.
From the explanation it seems like Rudy should have cut, not Travis, But we lost the game before that anyway, IMO. I'm shocked that there was no mention of or from Steve Blake about his bumbleheaded moves, or Roy saying he shouldn't have let the double push him into the far corner. They used to do that lead by example thing. Tired of it maybe.
by it's very definition. They lost the game by one point. All sorts of things happened during the game that cost the team one single point. Missed FTs, TO's, bad D... you are just choosing to define things in a way that allows you to scapegoat the guy that you always do... hence you are choosing to live in a vacuum. Get it? STOMP
Scapegoat the guy I always do...thanks for the crappy generalization that allows you to trivialize my point. You the man, stomp.
Travis's assignment was to cut, it doesn't matter if it was Shard or Turk that was guarding him. Nate specifically told Travis to cut, not that the cutter should be the player being guarded by Turk (Or Shard, I forgot). It's Travis's fault, and Rudy shouldn't have to bail Outlaw out of Outlaw's assignment just because they mixed up the defenses a bit. Outlaw fucked up. Nate knows it, the players know it, and Outlaw knows it. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, since we lost anyways, but you move on, because that's all you can do.
I wish it was that easy. You misuse "living in a vacuum" (having a limited range of life experiences and unable to see another's perspective) , and throw it out there as if to say "neener, I win". You didn't try to respond to any of the "facts". I blamed in multiple posts on this thread Travis AND Blake. I said that I wouldn't even mind if you blamed Roy and Nate, though I would tend to disagree. I pointed out how Travis specifically made 4 specific mental mistakes (not one, and not just missing a shot or committing a foul or something) in the last couple of minutes. Others brought up the analogy of the baseball closer, but you chose to no respond to that, but to my post by saying I live in a vacuum and write crappy posts. Your boy had multiple brainfarts, which is and has been his MO, though you and many others seem to want to gloss over the bad in your Travis defense of being "clutch". You seem to be unable to concede one time when his "unclutch" actions directly contributed to our team blowing an 8 point lead in 100 seconds. I can see now that you are either unable or unwilling to even engage in debate based on reality, so you win. Have a great night.
