After 43 minutes of beautiful team basketball, our "star" player decided that only his individual effort could sustain our lead against the league's best team.  Never mind that our five point lead with five minutes remaining was wholly the result of penetration, ball movement, and finding the open man.  In crunch time the best players take over, regardless of the circumstances, right?  Granted, L.A. needed Kobe to take over.  They were not going to win the game otherwise.  Yet what convinced Ron that he must do the same?

Beginning at 4:56 minutes remaining, Ron started jacking up jump shots.  He had hit a few earlier in the game, but they had come as the result of his teammates finding him inadequately defended.  Yet with the game on the line, he apparently decided that as an "elite" player, he could hit jump shots without unbalancing the opponents defense by moving the ball and that he could continuously hit such shots while entirely guarded.

What happened next?  The L.A. defense tightened a bit and Ron's teammates found it more difficult to get open shots.  Salmon's missed a layup, Ron missed a 5-footer, and then Brad missed an 11-footer.

At this point, with 3:19 remaining and the Kings now down by 3, Ron decided to put his cape on.  Apparently, the Kings are only capable of operating their team offense when the opponent allows them to.  The slightest bit of defensive resistance is enough to render our best efforts entirely futile.  I don't agree with this, but clearly this is how Ron sees it.

So, here we go.  Ron misses a 22-footer; Ron's inability to find an open teammates leads to a shot-clock violation as he dumps of the ball to an entirely guarded Brad and then moments later to an entirely guarded Mikki Moore; Theus tries to run a play for Martin, but he doesn't break the backcourt double team (was he afraid to pass out, thinking he might never see the ball again?); finally, Beno hits a three (notice: zero ball movement on the play.  He got the shot off before Ron could demand the ball); Martin misses an 8-footer, but thankfully Mikki cleaned up.

Now it gets really fun.  There's 0:55 left and we're down by 5.  What's the solution?  Ron misses a three; Beno (without any passing whatsoever) misses a three; Ron misses another three; Ron misses another three, Ron misses a final three.

Ron is utterly incapable of putting a team on his back a la Kobe, McGrady, LeBron, or D. Wade.  Yet that's fine, we don't need him to be that type of player.  He's more than capable of succeeding within a team defense and a team offense.  Why does he refuse to see this and accept it?  Why does the coach perpetuate it?  Does Theus somehow believe that Ron is capable of a Kobe-like performance?  His best attempt came in Houston and even then he came up short.  He's just simply not good enough to win games singlehandedly and as a consequence becomes a huge liability to his team because of his refusal to accept this truth.

Either Theus must be replaced because of his inability to recognize this or Ron must be replaced because of Theus's inability to constrain him.  I'd support the latter because I don't see any other coach doing a better job and I'd rather see John Salmons driving for layups and making free throws (within a team offense) toward the end of the game than continue to witness Ron jacking up  jump shots that are entirely defended.

Was the team in trouble toward the end of the game? Sure.  Would they have won if Ron hadn't tried to take over?  Not necessarily.  Yet we do not have a player capable of single-handedly winning games.  Therefore, our only hope for the future (besides a fortuitous ping-pong ball), is to learn to win as a team.  So long as Ron hinders this, neither Beno, nor Martin, nor any other King will learn how to succeed in crunch situations as a TEAM.