It seems like that whenever Norris Cole has a good enough game where I get to make highlights, he does all of his damage in the first quarter. Usually he has something like thirteen points and four assists after the first twelve minutes. Then he totally disappears and doesn’t do much of anything for the rest of the game other than maybe miss some jumpers and commit some turnovers.
Starting him at shooting guard (or was Holiday the SG? Who knows) in this game didn’t fix the problem. He dropped a cool 14/3 in quarter one and then his production shriveled up like a raisin under a heat lamp. Does he just get tired or what? Maybe Anthony Davis takes control for the final three quarters after letting the scrubs play with the ball for the first? Or do opposing defenses say to themselves after getting torched by Norris Cole of all people, “we need to close out on his pullup jumpers?” There has to be some reason.