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[DallasMaverick]

Epic choke job by Embiid and Maxey. Embiid with 9 turnovers, at least 4 in the fourth quarter. Maxey did a lot of great things, but missed all three free throws in last quarter (until the last minute) and also lost a key ball.

Game not finished yet, though

Okay, this isn't a shot at you, but just a general question about how our fan brains and emotions work.

At this particular moment, you were very negative about Maxey - even going so far as to call it an "epic choke job".  But here's ESPN's evaluation of his game:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/4006...win-knicks

So, because of (1) his heroics, and (2) a 76er victory, we pretty much completely forget about a couple of missed free throws.  But you can be certain that, if the Sixers had lost, fandom would be pillorying him for his "epic choke job".

What do we learn?

1. Our evaluation of players, coaches, front offices swings wildly back and forth based on whether our team has recently won or lost.  This is pretty obvious here on this board.

2. When our team loses, we seek a single factor to blame.  A single player. A single play, even.  The coach. The owner. If we could have just changed that ONE thing, our team would have won. Powell.  Hardaway.  Kidd. Nico. Cuban. 

3. There's a marked difference when our team wins.  Occasionally, an outstanding player performance will garner all the post-victory praise and attention, but we tend to be more generous in spreading the credit around.  We notice small contributions that don't show up in the box score, for example.

Perhaps we would be better served not to ride the roller coaster of emotion, either up or down, when we evaluate players and coaches. It's the same principle as not going grocery shopping when you're starving.  You'll end up buying stuff you probably shouldn't, and not buying stuff you probably should.