[Grades] Grades v. Grizzlies 1/17/2014
- Thread starter Bricklayer
- Start date
At 3 min left in game, we could see the inevitable coming. IT hogging the ball, the team playing not to lose rather than to win, no sharing the ball. Then 2 IT T0's and the game was down the drain. The finger points once again to IT for losing or at Minny almost losing a game. But would Jimmer have been the right choice? Who should the ball handlers be to prevent such an embarrassment? Why can't the Kings share the ball in crucial times at end of games? They or rather IT lapses back into the ego trip of one-on-one ball. That stinks. IT to bench as before where he could be 6th man or team development goes down the drain. 
Actually I wasn't at all unhappy with his defense. Outside of that streak at the beginning of the second half where Gasol rattled off four straight against him, he allowed two buckets the remainder of the night. I didn't mention it in the writeup, but in my notes I have 13 instances of help defense I thought were worthy of mentioning - resulting in 3 makes, 7 misses, 1 foul, and 2 stops forcing the ball to be passed back out - and I didn't note any instances where I thought he should have stepped in to help but didn't (granted I had a lot of split attention covering Gray/Acy as well). I figure 3-10, a foul and two stops is about as much as you can ask for from help D. Throw in the rebounds and 22 points because of 10 FTs and I almost felt bad dropping him down to a C+. But then again, 6-20. So you strike a balance.
After sleeping on it I still say the refs let the Grizz get away with way too many fouls. They were constantly slapping at the ball hitting the Kings players arms and few calls were made. I expect this with Freddette But c'mon refs at least respect Rudy Gay, DeMarcus Cousins and Isaiah Thomas. The Grizz did rack up 23 fouls compared to 16 for the Kings. But the Grizzlies reputation as a "Defensive" team buys them a lot of room to slap at the ball. Take Gasol for an example, how many times did he just blatantly whack DMC???
Sure the Kings could have played better or Coach could have had a better scheme, that is a given considering the last play. What led up to that was poor officiating.
KB
PS Durant went off for 54 and the Kings face him Sunday. Lace them up tight Fellas.
Sure the Kings could have played better or Coach could have had a better scheme, that is a given considering the last play. What led up to that was poor officiating.
KB
PS Durant went off for 54 and the Kings face him Sunday. Lace them up tight Fellas.
My problem with the refs last night was no so much the jump ball call but the loose ball could when gasol had cousins right arm bared when gay tipped it to cuz gasol had his arm and pulling him away from the ball. It's a foul the other 47 min. I have never liked the fact that refs don't want to dictate the game by letting players get away with murder in the final seconds
to all those complaining that this was an ugly game and that most everybody played badly: huh? this is what defensive games look like and I for one was tremendously entertained. Boogie and JT did precisely what they were supposed to do, defensively. JT by shutting down Randolph, seriously, kudos, great game Mr. Thompson, and Cuz by clogging the paint in p'n'r and only shading those. he had some less than optimal instances of man defence against Gasol in the third, but overall it was a really decent defensive game. none of their guards outside of Conley did any significant damage and they responded when things got tough. liked this game a lot better than all those losses where they let another team score 100+ points on them. winning these kinds of games, winning with defence is the next step they have to take, if they want to get to the playoffs.
the end of the fourth quarter last night was a pretty good example of how problematic it can be to feature three ball dominant 20 ppg scorers in the starting lineup. except, unlike the win against minnesota, rudy was part of that problem rather than the bail out. when you have three scorers forcing the issue to "get theirs" against a tough defense at the end of a close game, easy baskets are gonna be hard to come by. but i actually thought DMC's defensive effort is much of what kept the kings in the game down the stretch. it's too bad he threw up so much junk inside on offense...
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I feel you. I am not a fan of the whistle swallowing that goes on at the end of quarters and games. Some people love it, not me though. What do you think is worse, making a call that isn't there or missing one that is? I havnt thought about it too much but I think the nba prefers missing a call than making one. Tough job and i am glad i don't do it.
I don't have a big problem with the grade and would trust your notes much more the "feel" I had of his defense but it seemed to me that he just kind of ran out of steam on the defensive end as the game went on and his offense was so inefficient that he was hurting the team on that end. He does have higher expectations of being a force than other players so because he has been so good this year.
At 3 min left in game, we could see the inevitable coming. IT hogging the ball, the team playing not to lose rather than to win, no sharing the ball. Then 2 IT T0's and the game was down the drain. The finger points once again to IT for losing or at Minny almost losing a game. But would Jimmer have been the right choice? Who should the ball handlers be to prevent such an embarrassment? Why can't the Kings share the ball in crucial times at end of games? They or rather IT lapses back into the ego trip of one-on-one ball. That stinks. IT to bench as before where he could be 6th man or team development goes down the drain.
I just love all or nothing guys like you. Someone's either great, or they totally stink. Just so you know, if you had watched closely, the majority of Cousins offensive rebounds came off missed shots by one of his teammates. Yes, he missed quite a few shots in the post, but in fact, really didn't get many of his boards off his own misses, which he usually does. To say that because Gasol had a good offensive game is a result of Cousins playing poor defense makes me wonder if you watched the game. There were many times in the game when Cousins had excellent defensive position on Gasol, but Gasol still scored. You can only do so much, aside from tackling a player. Gasol is a very good basketball player, and the Kings decided to let Cousins go one on one with him for most of the night. The opposite wasn't true at the other end, where Cousins was doubled almost every time he touched the ball. And too many times when he got the ball in the high post, everyone else on the team just stood around and watched, leaving Cousins no choice but to force something to happen with the shot clock running down. This was a team failure, where one failure can lead to multiple failures.
Its hard to call a player selfish when he didn't take a shot in the game until there was 6 minutes left in the first half. He ended up taking just 4 shots in the half making two of them. In the second half, and particularly going into the 4th quarter, he was one of the few players that was scoring, so they kept feeding him. He wasn't doing anything different than he did in other games other than just not getting his shots to fall. I think I pointed out that Prince wasn't much of an offensive threat. But that's not Gay's fault! The Grizz played very good defense on Gay and Cousins. Can't say I blame them, and that's what I would have done. Hey, great defense on Conley by IT tonight, don't you think? Great shooting too, oh wait, he actually shot worse than Gay. Sorry I brought it up! But at least he didn't turn the ball over like Gay, oh wait, he was second on the team in turnovers with 3.
Look, I'm not trying to justify a bad game by Gay by pointing out that IT wasn't great either. I'm trying to say it was a team loss and very few players played a good game. Gay's usual grade since coming to the team has been an A of some sort. So on a night when his shot wasn't dropping, I think a C+ is just fine. I'm certainly not going to give him a D just because he had a poor shooting night. I doubt his poor performance had anything to do with playing in Memphis. The Grizz announcers pointed out that the last time Gay played there with the Raptors he laid 40 points on them, and that the Grizz were determinded to make sure it didn't happen again. And they did! It wasn't like this was his first game back there since being traded by them.
Look, I'm not trying to justify a bad game by Gay by pointing out that IT wasn't great either. I'm trying to say it was a team loss and very few players played a good game. Gay's usual grade since coming to the team has been an A of some sort. So on a night when his shot wasn't dropping, I think a C+ is just fine. I'm certainly not going to give him a D just because he had a poor shooting night. I doubt his poor performance had anything to do with playing in Memphis. The Grizz announcers pointed out that the last time Gay played there with the Raptors he laid 40 points on them, and that the Grizz were determinded to make sure it didn't happen again. And they did! It wasn't like this was his first game back there since being traded by them.
I think the fans on this forum have been fairly even handed about this game. It seems like every player has been criticized as we hunt about for the person to blame. What is lacking is the respect for the defense thrown at them by the Griz and especially Gasol. I note 6 of Cousins' shots were blocked. Perhaps that's just the way calls were made this game. I wouldn't tell Boogie to stop trying to make those shots as with his strength, he can usually power through an attempted block. It doesn't work so well against the Griz. I am not disheartened although a win would have been far easier to swallow, of course.
The one glaring problem is at pg and I hate to bring this up because it touches raw nerves on some people. I found myself hoping IT wouldn't have the ball in the last couple minutes as I don't think at this stage of his career he knows what to do. Put in Jimmer? No! We have no one to control the team in a close game at the end unless it is Rudy. I'm not sure what a coach does with this team in this stage of its rebuild. Do you give the ball to IT and hope he learns or give it to someone else and go more for the win with no guarantees, I might add, that a 6'8" guy will be better. IT has to learn so I am satisfied that he had the ball. I wonder at his capacity to learn but we will never know if he doesn't have the ball. Like I said about Jimmer yesterday, we have to put IT in certain situations to see what we does because we have decisions to be made. So far I am not encouraged but we have another half of a season to go.
It was a team loss.
The one glaring problem is at pg and I hate to bring this up because it touches raw nerves on some people. I found myself hoping IT wouldn't have the ball in the last couple minutes as I don't think at this stage of his career he knows what to do. Put in Jimmer? No! We have no one to control the team in a close game at the end unless it is Rudy. I'm not sure what a coach does with this team in this stage of its rebuild. Do you give the ball to IT and hope he learns or give it to someone else and go more for the win with no guarantees, I might add, that a 6'8" guy will be better. IT has to learn so I am satisfied that he had the ball. I wonder at his capacity to learn but we will never know if he doesn't have the ball. Like I said about Jimmer yesterday, we have to put IT in certain situations to see what we does because we have decisions to be made. So far I am not encouraged but we have another half of a season to go.
It was a team loss.
Answer me this, if the team roles were reversed at the end of the game. Kings up one and the Grizz pass the ball into Prince where DMC, Gay and Thornton would start hacking him what would have been the result?
I say Prince would be shooting two from the line.
I'm still PO'ed about the lack of calls. Nick Calathes fouled Freddette on every possession! DMC was treated like a punching bag inside. Randolph almost busts JT's ribs and the refs just stood there!!!
KB
I say Prince would be shooting two from the line.
I'm still PO'ed about the lack of calls. Nick Calathes fouled Freddette on every possession! DMC was treated like a punching bag inside. Randolph almost busts JT's ribs and the refs just stood there!!!
KB
