Ok...the good news:
1) Big Cuz held up his end. He looked as nervous as I was to start the game, struggled to figure out the length or get settled, but given some time to think about it at half, he came out in an epic third quarter and put up 19pts 10rebs...in a quarter! against Roy Hibbert. Point made and received big guy.
2) sdballer is gracing us with his grading expertise. And the lucky guy got to watch the PG debacle tonight too.
3) Girls. There will be girls.
The bad news? Everyone not named Cousins looked completely out of their league and stunk the place up. Cousins showed up, but he was all alone, and while he showed off for the nation, our team as a whole got spanked and sent home by a superior group.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Bajaden
sdballer
Henkel
MassachusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 30min 12pts (6-14, 0-1, 0-0) 0reb 2ast 3stl 0blk 2TO
Gay ( D+ ) -- Tonight was supposed to be a big matchup between Cousins and Hibbert, and Gay and George. I think we can safely say that Cuz won his matchup. Not so with Gay. He was completely out played by George tonight. It appeared to me that the Pacer's game plan was to try and stop Cousins and Gay, and see if the rest of our team could beat them. They did contain Cousins for a while, but in the third quarter he decided enough was enough, and picked up the team and put them on his back. Gay wasn't so lucky, and I say lucky, because he did have quite a few good shots. He simply couldn't get them to drop tonight. And I could excuse it as just one of those nights. Every player has them. But he didn't pull down one itsy bitsy rebound. Not one! And that's why I'm giving him a D+. He did work hard on the defensive end, but the Pacers are very clever with their screens and he was constantly rubbed off. He did have 2 assists and 3 steals, and unfortunately, 2 turnovers. So maybe it was just jet lag, or he ate too many breaded fillets at the arena. I don't want to make too big a deal out of this. He's been terrific since his arrival, and he's certainly entitled to have a bad game. I just wish it hadn't been on national TV. Fortunately, he can easily blend in with the rest of the team, that in general, with only a couple exceptions, was downright terrible. No play by play tonight. I have no desire to revisit it. The sooner forgotten the better. --Baja
Phoebe Tonkin
Stats: 19min 1pts (0-4, 0-0, 1-2) 2reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( F ) -- JT was unable to continue his recent hot streak with a ugly performance tonight. A non factor early as he managed to pick up his second foul not even four minutes into this one, which forced him to sit for much of the first half. Got back in mid way through the second and was unproductive. Quickly replaced with the more active body in Acy for the final two minutes of the half. Even less productive minutes in third considering his only two rebounds on the night came in the first half. Tried to get more involved offensively but Hibbert was able to bother both his shot attempts around the basket. Missed that inconsistent jumper of his, which is a shot that at one point appeared to be a major asset for him but strangely never improved. Had a few decent moments on the defensive end in the third, but has some bad moments as well. The Pacers tough front line gives a lot of big guys trouble but Jason looked completely outmatched tonight. --Henkel
Allison Brie
Stats: 30min 31pts (12-21, 0-0, 7-7) 13reb 2ast 2stl 1blk 4TO
Cousins ( A ) -- my apologies at the delay in posting the only ray of light to be found in this set of grades. one does get so caught up in the administration of the whole circus that you sometimes forget about that actual grading part of it. So, big showdown. Grading breakdown is something like this: maybe C or C- first half, A+++!!! 3rd quarter, and a +/half grade at least for who he did it against. You just don't see that done against the Pacers very often. Boogie's 31 was the third highest total of the season against the Pacers (Wade had 32 once, and Durant 36), and he did it in three quarters. In the early going of this one he actually looked overamped, threw several bad passes for turnovers, and we had to take a quick timeout as we quickly found ourselves down 11-2. He was a little more settled after the timeout, but you could see him struggling to figure out Hibbert's length, and looking for the refs to help him do so as he repeatedly forced drives right into the big guy's chest, which is not bright. After he returned in the second he began to settle in and start going to war, finally went to a half hook inside, was playing very stout man defense in there, and generally you could see him amping up to the Pacers level, something none of his teammates were able to do. he only had 3 first half rebounds, but legitimately it was mostly a case fo the ball just not coming toward the centers at all. Hibbert only had 2 during the same time. Every rebound just seemed to kick long or the other side of the hoop. So with Cousins sputtering to life, we raggedly made up some ground and closed the first half still breathing. Not by much, but still alive. And then the 3rd happened and just...wow. He blew up against a guy favored to win DPOY to the tune of 19pts 10rebs...in a quarter. He had one great full court rumble past Hibbert for the dunk on the break, but much of the damage came from either he or the coaching staff figuring something out: tyring to power through or over a 7'2" man is nearly impossible. BUT, what if instead you lurk, wait until your teammate drives and the 7'2" man goes over to crush them, and then slash to the boards and overpower all those non-7'2" players for putbacks and finishes at the rim? And so again and again and again Boogie powered inside grabbed our misses, and finished them before the 7'2" wall could get back into the play. It was quite spectacular, but he was out there alone. Nobody else came online. Not even a I'll just sputter to semi-life as your Robin sort of thing. Basically Cuz singlehandedly kept us in the game. Our defense sucked again, they scored again and again, and then Cuz would counter. Then their turn, then his etc. But he battled, and several times in the quarter we got it down under double digits. But we could never get the stops, everybody else stubbornly refused to make even simple basketball plays, and so we could never get over the hump. And then when we sat Cuz to start the 4th the Pacers pounced and turned it into a rout so quickly that Malone opted to just give Cuz the rest of the night off so he'd be fresher to pace Pekovic tommorow. So, we lost. predictable. But as the Cousins grader and a chief proponent of Cousins for All Star, all was not lost as the big guy showed his quality on semi-national TV thanks to the efforts fo Slim and others. --Brick
Tena Desae
Stats: 28min 7pts (3-7, 1-2, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thornton ( D ) -- Marcus Thornton wasn’t very good tonight, and watching this teams shooting guard crew fail night after night is getting old. His only two offensive highlights were a strong transition drive to the basket and a transition 3 from a pass by DeMarcus Cousins. His defense on Lance Stephenson wasn’t very good, but it wasn’t horrible. He didn’t get torched, so that’s something. The larger point is that Marcus Thornton continues to give this team nothing in the 30 minutes per game he’s been getting since returning to the starting lineup. You can afford this kind of production when you’re facing the Magic or the Cavaliers, but when you’re playing the Indiana Pacers is has to be all hands on deck. You have to get a positive performance out of most of your players, and tonight Thornton let the team down like he’s been doing all season. I still don’t know what happened to this guy. I really don’t. He used to have irrational confidence, and now he has one. I wish I had more to say about Thornton’s performance tonight, but I hardly have any notes to begin with. He’s just not making any plays worth remembering, and unfortunately for the Kings their first round draft pick shooting guard isn’t playing any better. I wonder how close Malone is to throwing traditional positions out the window and starting Derrick Williams over these underachievers. --Mass
Emma Watson -- one nice bonus of letting the Consortium choose their own girls this season is I've been able to repost faves without feeling that I am repeating myself. Hermione done grew up
Stats: 27min 7pts (3-9, 1-2, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Thomas ( F+ ) -- Almost went with the low D but besides his negative impact on D and O, his effort and body language were extremely poor tonight. From the start, IT looked like he was playing through the flu tonight. On offense, he did little to set up his teammates and even seemed to struggle getting his own against the Pacers D. A starting PG that handles the ball as much as he does should never give you 1 assist and 3 TO's. The few shots he did hit weren't especially forced, so I guess that's something. The other offensive issue for me with IT today is that our superstar talent had 19 points in the 3rd quarter and only one of those baskets were due to a pass from IT. In regards to his D, it was its usual blahness. He wasn't dealing with a real threat across from him but his inability to fight through screens, rotate intelligently and stop the ball in transition caused us problems. I know our Pg depth is weak but there is no reason IT should ever allow two straight easy fast breaks due to not wanting to pick up a 3rd foul in the late 1st half. He wasn't the reason we lost the game but he sure didn't help. --sdballer
Margot Robbie -- my selection, not baller's. Everybody is talking about her after Wolf of Wall Street, so so should we.
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Free throws and ruining jimmer's dishes. He should have had about 8.
