My observation is that Rush was lacking intensity and focus in several games.
In the Oakland game, I think he was losing focus. It looked like he was not focusing on the play when he missed those two free throws (as if he was going through the motion just to toss them towards the basket).
Coming off the timeout of our possession with us down 1 and inbounding the ball to have a chance to win the game with the last shot, he didn’t focus to make sure that he could pass the ball to his teammate. Oakland didn’t even pressure him on the inbound. He just casually tossed the ball to Thompson who was closely guarded with plenty of time left of the 5 seconds limit. Oakland made the layoff to go up by 3.
I really think lacking focus, for whatever reason, was part of his problems this year.
I think you're spot on. I've noticed it myself in several games this year, you can almost see the lack of intensity and maybe it occurs when he doesn't knock down shots, I'm not sure. He was so good last year too at attacking the rim and it seems he struggles with that this year.
His FG% last year was 47.8%, this year is just 37.9%. His 3% is down from 38% to 31%. And his ppg is down from 13.9 to 12.7. Last year he only had 9 games under double figures with 5 of them scoring 8 or 9 points. He already has 8 games under double figures this year including 3 of the last 4 and 4 of the last 6, which is concerning. In the league, Rush is avg just 10.4 and his 3% is under 30%
In the 2 games against Oakland, he's only totaled 11 points.
