Good points all over the place.
Yep. You guys have convinced me to change my position on this subject.
I think the important thing here is that we all agree the only prudent thing to do in the Blue Conference is to run at the salary floor and make mad money this season since we've got one team actively looking to go down, one team that's now already a bot and another team that is starting to look like they'll turn bot. The odds are good that the only team that is active and not wanting to demote that still will is whoever finishes 8th in the Red Conference.
As far as the actual game, yeah, patient looks for the best "mismatch" but focuses on jumpers and perimeter shots, with less emphasis on driving and very little emphasis on actual inside shots (unless, of course, you have an outside shooter at C against a big man in a man to man offense, at which point all he wants to do is shoot inside shots, not that I'm bitter or anything).
Combine that with the defense not being good enough compared to the opponent's offense, and the deficiency in ball handling (1:1 Assist:TO ratio), it's not that much of a surprise that it turned out like that.