Earlier today, in this week's SB Nation Power Rankings, I tried to define seven different levels of tanking. There's really nothing wrong with tanking, as long as we don't take the phrase to literally mean "throwing games." Obviously, it has to be in degrees. Level one was doing nothing, level two was making a salary dump, level three is elevating a guy you want to evaluate for next year into the rotation (like with Shaun Livingston), level four is playing the young guys, level five is playing some random veteran over a clearly superior player, level six is holding out players with "injuries" and level seven is actually intentionally losing. (Sorry, long sentence). I'm fine with levels one through four, iffy with level five and not cool with six and seven.
Why do I bring this up? This loss smelled a bit like a Level Five job. Earl Boykins had no business being in this game, and frankly, it's odd that Shaun Livingston barely played in the second half. When Livingston went out, things really became problematic. Nobody ran the offense, and the guys who needed to get involved got involved. I can't believe I'm saying this, but screw the knee - Livingston needs to be out there more often than he has been. We have no other way to figure out what we have when our other nominal point guards dribble the hell out of the ball.
Honestly, they probably would have lost anyway, but considering how well they played early on, it's distressing to see it all fall apart late. Even if it's totally understandable.
On the bright side, Alonzo Gee played well. So there's that.