Arron Afflalo
Arron Afflalo
Arron Agustin Afflalois an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for UCLA. As a junior, he was named a consensus NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans and was voted the player of the year in the Pac-12 Conference. After electing to forgo his senior year in college, Afflalo was selected in the first round of the 2007 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons with the 27th overall pick...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth15 October 1985
CityLos Angeles, CA
Defensively, he's just long. You know, he has the ability to change shots if he's not blocking them. He plays with a lot of energy.
It does feel good, at least for a half. But the thing was, at halftime, I really wasn't worried about me scoring. I had two points, but I'm maturing in a sense I'm not going to force shots like I did the past weekend. That's part of being a team player. I don't want to be passive, but I'm not going to go out hunting shots anymore.
I knew I couldn't relax for a second against him. I couldn't let him get open for a 3 or drive for a dunk, because I knew that would ignite their whole team.
It was great to start out like that. When you get the crowd behind you and you start like that, it tears the other team's heart out.
I knew all along this team could be at the top and remain at the top, because we definitely have the personnel. If we put our mind to it, play 'D' and do all the right things, play for each other, we shouldn't lose.
It was longer than four or five minutes, that's for sure. It seemed more like four or five hours. But it was well worth it. It's one of the primary reasons we're still playing right now.
It was kind of frustrating watching him bring his team back into it. He was doing a lot of moving and he had three guys screening for him. He was running free wherever he likes.
We just played with a lot of energy at the end. Obviously, it was desperation time. We were very fortunate tonight.
We just needed to execute. We were getting good shots. We were just missing them. What changed was on the defensive end.
This team is still very good, despite all the injuries, despite all the unfortunate circumstances and obstacles we've had to overcome. I still think we can win. All these injuries are tough, but all you can do is laugh at them, get in rehab and recover.
We have different personnel than the '95 team. We have tough, tough guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to win.
Being turnover-free and rebounding, those are coach's two main things. And he's definitely a defensive-minded coach.
We knew if we played at that pace, we weren't going to win. We're a pretty dominant defensive team right now.
What was tough for (Belmont) is that we generally don't let up. Our defensive pressure started to take a toll, and we fought for every bucket.