^^Whiteshoes, I wanted to point out / give you a hat tip that you were correct on the Barber / Lewis situation from earlier in the season.
When the season first started, I disagreed with you to an extent in thinking that Barber and Lewis could (and perhaps should at times) play together at the same time. It became clear rather quickly though that the team is much different with Barber on the floor running the team as opposed to Lewis, and also that Lewis is (or has been) ineffective at the two due to defensive capability and lack of offensive contribution.
This of course is not meant to be disparaging towards Lewis in any way. I thought he did an admirable job Saturday night (and frankly, we could have used a lot more (offensively speaking) out of Barber on this night). We’re very fortunate to have a player of Lewis’ caliber to be a back-up / second point guard.
As for the game itself, even with all that went wrong over the last 10 minutes or so – if Warren doesn’t run completely out of gas we likely still manage to pull out a victory. He put every ounce of energy he had into the game for thirty minutes, and that may mean we need to start finding two to four minute stretches (at least in the first half) for Buckets to conserve some energy. I know a lot of guys play 35 min.+, but I know from experience that when you work as hard as he did on the boards (offensively and defensively) it can zap you quickly.
Speaking of, we have to find better offense when Warren is zapped / out other than Turner forced threes. I like Turner, but someone else mentioned how infuriating it can be watching him play – and I agree. He makes some terrible decisions – mostly shot selection – for a veteran player. In fairness though, if Barber or Lee (when in the game) isn’t driving the basket we don’t have much of an offense to speak of other than someone like Turner taking a three. To his credit, he’s knocked down some big ones over the last few games.
