“Well, we got to do a better job taking the one-on-one challenge, first,” Lue said. “Guys are driving us, beating us on the catch, point of entry. But, I mean, a lot of this, if we’re missing 3s and missing shots offensively and turning the basketball over, then we can’t get back in transition. So better offense helps with our defense. Because if we’re scoring, then we can get back and get set. We just got to be better.”
“We’re so much a better team when we’re running back down and the other team’s struggling — not the other way around,” Love said. “We need to change that. A lot of that can be fixed with effort. We have the talent here. That’s obvious. On paper, we look great, but now we need to go out there and kind of be assertive and have our will take care of that for us, but right now, we got to figure it out.”
He had 25 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals that night in a 14-point loss to the Sacramento Kings. On Sunday, he finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two steals in the 19-point loss.
“I played better 14 years ago than I did tonight,” James said.
How long? Well, Peterson made it clear to me this won’t be his last season, and he made it clear this won’t be his last dominant game of the season. The Cards, and a quarterback who’d been getting hit a lot, Carson Palmer, need him to salvage their season. “What the moral of your story?” I asked. “Control your own destiny,” he said. “Don’t let anyone else control it.