Sacramento lost one hundred and sixteen to one hundred and three against the Lakers on Wednesday night. Zach LaVine scored twenty-one points in almost twenty-five minutes, with four rebounds and one assist. I read it on BasketNews, folder open, four-colour pen on the turnovers column.
After the game, he talked about the opposition. He said the Lakers had some bad defenders on their team, “but so do we”. One sentence, two teams. I don’t comment on defenders. I don’t have a column for that.
Then he said this: “I mean, we gotta cut down turnovers. I had a couple of dumb ones, and we had a couple of unfortunate plays, too.”
Noted. In my hall on the Herve plateau, near Verviers, on Saturday at half past eight, nobody comes to the table to count their own turnovers. They come about the possession arrow. They come about the time-out they didn’t get. Turnovers are for me to enter, and it’s always the ball’s fault.
Over there, a player does the table’s job himself, after the game. Two. He doesn’t say three, he doesn’t say one. The number is precise. I respect a precise number.
At our place, anyone who owns up to their turnovers gets a coffee token, mind you.
I don’t hand out anything. I write. Turnovers, LaVine: two, declared by the player. It’s on the sheet.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
