The turnovers were a massive problem but the problems began before that.
About seven minutes in, we were up 14 and kind of screwed up three or four consecutive possessions while still defending exceptionally well. We had the opportunity to make it a 25 point game ten minutes in and let that completely slip away.
I still don't know what Alex did that got called for a foul less than a minute in (there were a ton of contested shots far more physical than that throughout the game that didn't get called) but once he went out with his second (not a good play on his part), we had no on-court leadership for the final ten minutes of the first half. That played an enormous role in their comeback.
Those two items let them back in the game far earlier than what should have been possible.
Additionally, Mahaney had no confidence at all last night. There were three instances where he was very open, with the ball behind the arc but instead of shooting (which would have been a much better shot than what we had most of the night) he would dribble into traffic and pass the ball.
There were a couple plays over the final six minutes where Richmond pump faked from about 12-15 foot out, used the defender (Reed once, I think Stewart the other time) to get past him and dribble into the lane. I know instinct will have the defender contest the fake but with that guy the best move is to let him take that shot.
It's only one game. Granted, there have been too many where we've come up on the wrong end of games like that one this season but if this is part of the growing pains that this team needs, so be it. Our expectations, especially after factoring in what we lost from last season were obvioulsy too high and we appear to be somewhat snakebitten with injuries this year. All we can do is enjoy this season for what it is and realize that we can't just dominate everyone the way we did last season. We may never see a team that good again.
