Flashback a week and a half to the Vipers’ 44-point beat down of the Maine Red Claws if you want to find one of the Vipers’ best defensive efforts of the season. Flashback less than 24 hours if you want to find one of the worst.

At no point during the Vipers’ 138-119 loss to the Iowa Energy last night did their shooting percentage dip underneath 50%. Heck, it barely dipped underneath 60%! The Vipers sure didn’t look like a team on a 10-game winning streak.

If thoughts of a second banner raising ceremony were going through my head for the last month, is it fair for them to all disappear after one loss? Absolutely not.

The Vipers weren’t going to win every remaining game, and I doubt any team could sweep Iowa in a four-game series.

Yes, this is a different team than the one that just won 10-straight. That team had an established point guard. This team doesn’t. This team tied a franchise-record by committing 28 turnovers. The defacto point guard, Jerel McNeal, committed a franchise-record ten on his own. So, yes, the Vipers had an impressive shooting percentage (53.6%), but what that really means is, if they’d just taken better care of the ball or gotten more stops, they would’ve won the game.

McNeal isn’t going to commit 10 turnovers every night. It might have simply been the jitters of playing that first game as the starting point guard. Maybe it was great preparation by the Energy. But McNeal will adjust. Remember, to become an established point guard you have to establish yourself, and that can’t be done in one game.

One big problem was Marqus Blakely. He hit all 10 of his shots, mostly flying dunks that would make Dwight Howard blush. Why the Bakersfield Jam, who are very much in contention, were willing to give him up for a 2011 first round draft back is beyond me (especially since they already had the maximum number: two). The Jam’s loss is the Energy’s gain, and also the Vipers’ problem. No one seemed able to guard Blakely, who is now 26-for-38 (68.4%) in his career from the field against the Vipers.

Anther big problem was the incredible depth of this Energy team. They have nine guys who could start in this league. NINE! That’s out of the 11 players on their roster (includes Chicago Bulls-assignee James Johnson). The Vipers have nine total players on their team right now, and even that’s in doubt with Stanley Asumnu dealing with a left ankle injury suffered during the second quarter of last night’s game.

Certainly adjustments will be needed for the Vipers to bounce back tonight, but anchored by maybe the best coaching staff in the league, that not only seems likely, but probable.