Ok, now that was frustrating. Memphis is an ugly team. They win ugly, they lose ugly. They made it an ugly game, or maybe they made us make it an ugly game. In any case, none of our big three fought through it, and nobody else was special enough to pick up their slack. Cuz racked up big raw numbers again, but he was forced into inefficiency by the big physical Memphis defense, and just never looked in rhythm all night. He was 6-14 at one point in the third. He finished 6-20 missing everything. He grabbed 17rebs to Gasol's 3 and it wasn't completely obvious he was better tonight. After a terrible first half where he was probably trying way to hard to look good on his old home floor, Rudy went on a run in the second half, was up to 16pts and seemed to be the one guy who had figured it out. Then coach not surprisingly turned to him to be the guy down the stretch, and he missed everything in the final minutes but a little follow under the hoop of a Cuz miss. Then you had Isaiah, who got his butt kicked by Conley for most of the night on both sides of the ball, had one little burst in the late 3rd/early 4th where it looked like he might come alive, and instead he amazingly started to repeat his Minnesota stretch run debacle, taking poor shots and missing them, dribbling into traffic and getting stripped and just generally being as far from a floor general as can be. And so, after blowing a 7pt lead in the final 3 minutes, it came down to a final shot for us, and I gotta tell you, backseat coach that I am, I have no idea who I would have gone to either. Everything was 1 on 1 by that point, nobody was hot, all our main guys were missing everything. And sure enough we bumbled about against a swarming defense, nearly turned it over, Rudy got tied up for a jump ball, and we never even got a shot up, good or bad. We can play with teams at this level now, that's clear. That's also why this was a bad, frustrating loss. Did not have to be. Just any one of our stars steps forward and overcomes, we win. None of them did when it mattered, so we lost.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Bajaden
Capt. Factorial
Rainmaker
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 19pts (7-18, 0-1, 5-5) 4reb 3ast 0stl 0blk 4TO
Gay ( C+ ) -- I thought for moment in the first half that perhaps Gay had gone out and celebrated with some of his old teammates the night before. He started well enough by doing a nice job of sealing JT's defender under the basket so JT could score. But on the next possession, there appeared to be a miss communication between Gay and Cousins as Gay threw the ball out of bounds. He then made a terrible entry pass to Cousins that was stolen. He didn't take his first shot of the game until the 4:41 mark of the 1st quarter, but had it blocked. At the 2:48 mark of the 1st he went to the bench, and returned to the game with 7:44 left in the 2nd. Upon his return he lost the handle on the ball and turned it over. Finally with 5:57 left in the 2nd, he scored his first basket. That sort of primed the pump, because on the next possession he scored off an inbounds pass on a cut to the basket. After posting up and missing a 14 footer, he drove the left baseline, but only to get his shot blocked by Gasol. He liked it so much, a bit later he grabbed an offensive board and had his shot blocked by Gasol again. He started the 3rd quarter with a bad inbounds pass to IT for a turnover. After hitting a 12 foot pullup, he had a very weird play where he appeared to go up for a 20 foot shot, but the ball seemed to fly out of his hands in the opposite direction of the basket for another turnover. He did have a nice player where he just blew by Prince and laid it in. But the rest of the game was pretty much more of the same. He had a good 4th quarter, and did the bulk of the scoring in that quarter. Overall he wasn't terrible, but he certainly didn't have one of his better games. He did manage to score 19 points, but on 7 or 18 shooting. Only 4 boards, but Cuz was grabbing everything in sight. He played decent defense all night long, but then Prince wasn't that much of a threat. --Baja
Stats: 28min 10pts (5-7, 0-0, 0-0) 6reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Thompson ( B+ ) -- JT had himself a good game in this one. His greatest contribution was with his defense on Zach Randolph who was held to just 12 points on 5-12 shooting. JT did a good job being physical with Randolph and an especially good job keeping Randolph out of the paint and denying entry pass angles to Zach. Now Randolph did win some of the encounters, but the fact that JT had 10 points on 7 shots to Randolph’s 12 points on 12 shots shows that JT actually won his match-up. And considering how many times Zach has had his way this this team, it was a very good showing. There were two small blemishes on JT’s game. The first was the rebounding, where though he wasn’t weak, he could have been a bit stronger. The second was his inability to get any scoring in the last 8 minutes of the game when he got back in there. The team never really ran any plays for him, but he had a couple of opportunities where he could have scored, and even a single extra bucket from him could have made the difference. But even with those blemishes, he wasn’t the reason why we lost the game, and in fact his strong play against Randolph is one of the main reasons we should have won this game to begin with.--Uncia
Stats: 40min 22pts (6-20, 0-0, 10-14) 17reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Cousins ( C+ ) -- Welp, the theme of the night was "physicality". DeMarcus spent seemingly the entire game battling Marc Gasol in the post until by the time the fourth quarter rolled around he was just plain worn down. Things started to turn early in the third quarter when Gasol went off on Cousins, getting everything he wanted. He started with a turnaround, followed that up with a baseline drive for a dunk, and then added a 15-foot set shot and a half hook in the lane to put up 8 points on Cousins in the first few minutes of the half. For the entire night, he seemed to face nothing but traffic in the lane. He was fouled 9 times (that were called) on the night and shot only 3-12 in the paint (and one of those was a layup on a fast break). That's a miserable number, and the box score says he was blocked six times. I'm not sure I counted that many, but he was he was just being beaten down all night. And then came the fourth quarter. Right after coming back from a breather, Cousins violently fouled Marc Gasol's elbow with his jaw, but inexplicably the officials called it the wrong way. Clearly they never reviewed the case law on Bibby's face fouling Kobe's elbow. Not too much later, Gasol decided to go for the make-up call and allowed DeMarcus' eyes and nose to foul his fingertips, but again, the officials just would not comply. Still, with all of these questionable calls against Gasol, the officials were determined not to make a mistake like that again, and gave Cousins (and frankly, the Kings) no benefit of the doubt for the remainder of the game. That included refusing to make a call when DeMarcus Cousins found himself wearing his own personal Spaniard backpack on the closing jump ball - one which was expertly tipped to him in position to put in a layup for the win. Trouble is, it's hard to catch the ball when you're getting your spine rearranged by 280 pounds of paella. Hey, seventeen rebounds, though! That was nice! And he did a decent job on defense in the first half, so his night wasn't a complete disaster. But if he could have come through in the lane only one more time... --Capt.
Stats: 25min 5pts (2-4, 1-2, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Thornton ( C ) -- its reached the point now where you get a 5pt effort on 2-4 form your SG and you're thinking "well, that wasn't so bad". Ditto for his backup. As usual only sporadically involved, but showed spurts of life early. Had a nice wrap around pass to Cousins in the early going, but led to nothing. Hit his first open three as well, but it would be the only one. Late in the quarter did a nice job diving down on a double and getting a steal form Randolph, but then led a ragged break and nearly turned it over. On the other end it wasn't a total disaster as only 9 of Lee's points came against Marcus on a variety fo mediocre defender not quite there ways. Did not get back in until after half as McLemore, and then the Gay/Williams combo ate the rest of the first half minutes. Had his last little showing with an aggressive little pullup in the early 3rd, and the only board he had in the whole game he snatched. But then missed the open three from IT on the kick -- kinda our SGs special play, and was never heard from again. Was subbed back into the game for the final strewtch run, but wasn't the reason we lost this one. In fact was wide open in the corner on the final play where Gay got tied up., Was understandable why Gay couldn't see him through the wall of Grizzlies arms, but with the way we play offense anymore would have been questionable f Gay would have passed it to him for the winning attempt anyway. --Brick
Stats: 39min 14pts (5-14, 2-6, 2-3) 3reb 9ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Thomas ( C- ) -- This one was quite a mixed bag for Isaiah. Some good, more bad, decent numbers but they didn't reflect his overall level of play. I thought Isaiah, as he has been for roughly two weeks now, really struggled in balancing when to shot, when to pass, when to be aggressive and when to step back and let others create. He was very hot and cold. He'd change back and forth from a passive facilitator to a "me first" gunner randomly throughout the game. I'm not sure his teammates or even Isaiah himself know what to expect from him on any given trip down the floor. I didn't like the flow of the offense tonight and thought Isaiah's ability to setup, organize and run the offense was simply not good. I didn't like the tone he set early where he came out looking for his shot. He was shaky with the ball. Wasn't getting Boogie and Rudy the ball where they operate best. Forced bad shots and was loose with his handle at times. His defense wasn't good either. This might sound harsh, I realize that and what I did was take a bunch of notes and thought given how the game went it would be best and most insightful to post my notes. Not all mind you as I don't have all evening, but here's the majority of them in chronological order.
-Put up a semi-contested 3 early in the shotclock less than 1 min in
-Instead of reposting JT who had Randolph on his back with plenty of space, immediately took JT's kickout, drove into a contested shot and missed
-Hit a spot up left wing 3
-Hit Thornton for a wing 3
-Going too far under screens on Conley-Conley getting wherever he wants
-Pick & Pop with Cuz for jumper and the foul
-After Cuz hit back to back jumpers above the FT line, looked off a wide open Cuz in that same spot to gun a contested jumper which he missed
-Came down on the break and put up a contested 3 with 19 on shotclock, missed
-Do any stores in Memphis sell rogaine?
-After returning in the 2nd, forced another pullup transition 3 early in shotclock (was 1-5 from the floor at that time), missed
-Last play of half missed a contested runner with Rudy wide open in left corner
2nd half
-Conley blew by him for +1
-Nice find to Cuz rolling into lane for +1
-Ran pick & roll with Cuz, Cuz wide open at top of key, IT takes both men with him and forces contested jumper over both, missed
-Nice closeout on Conley
-Came down in transition, forced up a tough shot over two defenders, scores and the foul. Had Rudy wide open on right wing and Rudy looks pissed. Didn't celebrate, shakes head and walks other way down court
-Dribbled into traffic, lost ball after not waiting for play to develop and screen to be set. Turnover. Lee scores 2 at other end
-Bit on Conley pump-fake straddling 3pt line in Memphis 2 for 1 situation
-Hit Ben curling for jumper
-Bang. Makes tough jumper from up top to close the 3rd
-Nice hesitation to beat Conley to rim for the reverse
-Hits step back right wing 3. Heating up?
-Fastbreak with Rudy wide open again on his right, ignores him again, dribbles into 3 defenders, shot rejected, ball off IT, turnover. Rudy looks even more pissed
-Nice lob to DWill for dunk
-Interesting exchange. Tech called on Memphis, Rudy walks to FT line to shoot it, he and Isaiah have words and he waves Isaiah off. First tech FT Isaiah hasn't taken this yr when on the floor?
Score: 88-81
1st possession-Conley beats IT for runner off glass
2nd possession-Conley beats IT to set up Prince for the layin
3rd possession-Conley loses IT on wing screen, hits floater off glass
Score: 88-87
-Comes down, dribbles all but 2 secs of possession, launches terrible/contested wing 3, missed
4th possession-Fouls Conley off the ball on a backdoor cut. Inbounds, Conley beats IT off the dribble as Cuz sags off to help, Conley pass to Gasol, Cuz tries to recover, Gasol fakes, draws foul.
Score: 88-89
-Great hustle, forces Lee transition miss
-Comes down, tries dribbling through two defenders, picked, Memphis breaks other way and Conley fouled
-Last play, dribble straight into Conley, picks up dribble, Conley gets hand on the ball as IT plays a tough pass to Rudy
----In the game thread someone posted Rudy shouldn't have cut when IT had the ball there and Rudy cut in his way. That's wrong. Rudy stayed wide on the wing while IT attacked and didn't make his cut until after IT picked up his dribble and needed help
I left out a few notes from the 1st half but really, it's an incredibly rocky performance. There's also the defense. I kept close track of who scored on IT. Conley scored 21 of his 25 directly on IT. Lee scored 2 on him. Calathes scored 2. Beyond that, in the 2nd half when IT was having a real tough time trying to stick with Conley, others were sagging off their man to offer help and we were burned a few times as a result as guys couldn't recover in time. Our defense was bending towards helping Isaiah. While 14/9 looks like a decent statline I really can't hand out a good grade for this one. If a C is average, this wasn't average. Far too rocky of an outing. This team is begging for steadiness from the PG position and we currently aren't getting it. It's not just up and down from half to half or quarter to quarter, it's possession to possession. Isaiah is obviously struggling trying to adapt to the new role Malone has for him and I hope both for the team's sake he can start adapting quicker.--Rain
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