Ok, well, this is one of those where its too bad people are drifting away. The last game out, a "win", was pretty terrible basketball. This game, a loss, was really quite well played. It was the sort of tough hard fought defensive battle that you hope the Kings will be playing a lot more of in future years, because its what the playoffs look like. And if we are not ready to win these yet, we competed and played hard throughout, on both ends. It was good game to watch.
Cuz played big, but had all he could handle with Noah playing out of his mind. IT scored more through persistence than brilliance, but did rack up numbers. Reggie Evans (back in the starting lineup) gave us some board hustle and neutralized Boozer, but JT might have been more impressive with his defensive hustle off the bench. Ben had some more moments where he made professional looking moves, but my lord, he cannot shoot and it was just a killer as the Bulls doubled Cuz and time and again Ben was the outlet guy and just... cannot shoot. 0-7 tonight, and he's shooting .314 from 3pt land now. Tyreke last year shot .338 from out there. Most of all though, we brought effort on defense and the glass, where we dominated. Its just the details which we do not have and will not have until next year. Too few assists, a few loose turnovers, missed FTs etc. But it was a good tight game worthy of a watch.
We are going Consortiumless tonight. And we'll do a quick theme given the game tomorrow. My mom sent me some spectacular weather photos a couple of days ago, that'll do. So theme = Weather.
P.S. And no, Jimmer did not get to play.
Boxscore
Stats: 31min 13pts (5-12, 0-1, 3-4) 5reb 3ast 1stl 2blk 1TO
Gay ( C ) -- in the first half, might have been the best of the big three, but was boxed up and put away by the Bulls after half. what he did do on the night was often brilliant. But he just did not do enough. Made a brilliant early alley oop pass to McLemore in the first few minutes, and his first scpre was a nice slice to the hoop off a good Cousins pass out of a double. Got into a little rhythm after returning in the 2nd. Made a nice save of a loose ball which he turned into a bucket with a spinning pullup, and that got him into a little rhythm as our most consistent first half offensive weapon. After a pretty drive to tie the game back up at 52 in the third, got very quiet. Was repeatedly late feeding Demacus in the post, and I couldn't even see what he was looking at. Didn't seem to be trying to get his own, just would enter the pass 2 seconds too late each time letting the defense recover. Did not score again until the 4:40 mark, when, following a great block from behind on Butler to save a hoop, Rudy came down the other way and after two selfish looking takes finally got to the line, where he split a pair. And that was it. Was involved in a near turnover on an out of bounds pay, that was not. Passed the ball to an 0-6 McLemore for yet another three attempt with 24 seconds to go that moved the need to 0-7 and finished us. But was not clear if that was what we drew up and that was on Malone throwing more bad money after the bad money we had already thrown after the good money with Ben, or whether it was Rudy not being aware of who was hot. In any case, not terrible, but 13pts 5reb was not enough, and in the second half it was 3pts.
Lightning Over the Grand Canyon -- I would have thought that was a painting, instead its a pretty amazing photograph from last August.
Stats: 24min 5pts (2-4, 0-0, 1-2) 8reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Evans ( B- ) -- in trying to figure out where this grade fell I have eventually settled on this: he did his job out there. He wasn't brilliant, but he did what it is that he is supposed to do, and notably his counterpart, who sometimes is and sometimes isn't a major factor for the Bulls, wasn't. In the early going actually was not as much on the boards as you would have thought. Mostly just mixing it up with Boozer, and even got a technical for some sort of in your face scream at him after a hoop (Boozer has been known to chatter to go along with his elbows). And that was kind of the early contribution -- with Cuz drawing attention, Reggie slipped in there for a few hoops, and Boozer never got going. Began to get some of those hustle offensive boards against Gibson late in the half, and kept the rebounding going into the third, when he and Cuz were actually fighting over them in there. But he was also getting beat on defense a few times in there, and once JT returned and brought some major defensive hustle, that was it for Reggie's night. 8rebs in 24min is strong work for most guys, for Reggie its almost just average. A solid game and a contributor, but not a major impact game this time.
Supercell in Texas -- from last June. Something bad could happen there.
Stats: 38min 25pts (10-21, 0-0, 5-7) 14reb 2ast 4stl 1blk 5TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- well this was certainly the highlight matchup of the game, and it didn't disappoint. I thought Cousins had good energy from the start of this one, and while he wasn't in A+ mode, he was all set up to have a strong start...but Joakim Noah has just been going nuts and flat took it from him early. Wasn't that Cuz was bad. Was that Noah's been on some sort of high now for a month, and he came out in this one the same way and just hit everything early, was there on every challenge. Aside from several more bad pass turnovers, including an egregious overpassing one where he tried to do something for IT that IT might not for him and slip the ball to Isaiah for the layup on the break, only to get the pay broken up, most of what Boogie was trying to do was right. Give Noah that fugly jumper. Oh, oops. Ok, close on him. Oh, oops. Hammer inside, oh oops. Cuz was playing well, and he's the best center in the game, but tonight Noah started off playing better. He held his temper though, and he came out in the second half and turned the matchup, scored 7 quick points inside and out to begin the half and draw us back even, and we were in the game the entire rest of the way. Tied up Noah for a jumpball, won the tip. Was doing a good job of reading the Bulls doubles and hitting open guys...unfortunately too often that open guy was Ben, and you might as well just throw the ball out of bounds at that point. Yeah, he got two assists, but he could have had about 8. Another thing he started doing a real nice job of was freeing IT up top with screens. I would bet at least half of IT's jumpers came directly off of him getting open behind Cuz screens up top. Came up big down the stretch too, really on the boards, and scoring inside, even through saavy Chicago doubles (Noah would shade his left shoulder, Gibson would run over to take away that dropstep baseline). But Noah, with some B.S. help from the refs on some flat bad and VERY late calls, answered back, and good as Cuz was after half, in the end Noah probably still won the matchup. But it was a heavyweight duel worthy of the name. I'm not going to blame Cuz for getting narrowly outpointed by the hottest center in the league while putting up 25pts 14reb, just not. On the other hand its hard to call it an A when your opponent nearly puts up a monster triple double of his own. So B+. As an aside, a grade and game that once again shows the gulf between Cuz and just normal humans. 25 and 14 is a career night for half the NBA. A season highlight for most of the rest. For Cuz, "good game". Against the withering Chicago defensive pressure, you could see he was the guy with the talent to shrug it off.
Waterspouts in Lake Michigan -- off the coast of Wisconsin in September.
Stats: 36min 6pts (3-12, 0-7, 0-0) 6reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( D ) -- to grade Ben McLemore is to feel like you are beating up on Ben McLemore, but then again he's been beating up on us all season so turnabout is fair play. Fortunately in this one there were a few good things, mostly early, to provide some sort of offset. Missed his first jumper, wide open (which would be a recurring theme), but ran the court and took an alley oop pass from Gay in the open court for a quick slick slam. And later in the quarter finally made a good play on the break, looking off his defender faking it to Cuz, then calmly pulling up and hitting a little jumper. Was a perfectly professional looking move, something that you can rarely say about his open court adventures this year. And made a great play to close the first half, coming across the top of the key to get a blindside steal on Butler, then racing out the other way for a dunk to close the gap back to 5 as we went to intermission. So there were some things. 3 or 4 professional basketball player moves that should be just a given for a lottery pick, but for Ben are marked steps forward. Unfortunately... Austin Rivers drew a lot of negative attention as a flat out megabust last year when he shot .372 from the field and .324 from the 3pt line. Ben is now shooting .367 from the field and .314 from the 3pt line. Which is my way of introducing: he can't shoot. And from the 3rd quarter on that became the dominant theme here. He can't shoot. Cuz was doing a much better job of reading the doubles and kicking the ball out to Ben, who shockingly enough the Bulls often left open, and...can we have Tyreke back as a shooter? How about Salmons? Clank, clank, clank. Open, challenged, did not matter. Thought he was going to make one more nice play at the 5 minute mark when he made a good move along the baseline and was going to swoop in...unfortunately that good move along the baseline included stepping over that baseline, which unfortunately has been deemed illegal. Recent rule change, no more than a century old. Missed ANOTHER wide open three from Cuz kicking the ball out of a double at the 4:00 mark. And then in something I did not understand...we came out of a timeout at the 24 second mark down 4 and Rudy kicked the ball to Ben like it was planned? That was the play we drew up? Give it to the guy who was 0-6 from 3pt land to shoot a three to keep us in it? If that was mind games by Malone it did not work. Maybe it was still cover their asses games by the front office. In which case it also didn't work. On the other hand if it was tanking games by the front office it was brilliant. Anyway, what the hell. Very much over this whole experiment, but know we won't be as a team for another 16 games. So...you soldier on. At least apart from being the worst "shooter" to ever be compared to Ray Allen, Ben has been, and continued today to flash a few more mature basketball plays. And notably his defense was not notable. For much of the season I have considered him quite possibly the very worst defender in the entire NBA. But tonight we played tough on defense, and Ben wasn't badly taken advantage of. So steps I guess.
Roll Cloud, Racine Wisconsin --this is called a roll cloud. intimidating no? Wisconsin gets all the fun weather.
Stats: 42min 26pts (7-18, 2-5, 10-13) 3reb 5ast 0stl 0blk 4TO
Thomas ( B- ) -- game followed a familiar pattern of late. Hit his first jumper on the catch and shoot from Cuz, but there was a lot of physical bumping and mishandles taking place, and IT simply was not able to create for teammates against the tough defense. Seemed to be guessing wrong on defense vs. Hinrich as well, and while the defense was not lackadaisical, it seemed mistake prone. Shading a guy left as he went right. Going under a screen on Augustin and watching him hit a three etc. Got to the foul line a few times so that he had a decent 8pts in the half, but it was just very drab once more. And then things turned a bit after half, and that's where the familiar pattern kicked in. Because what it has been feeling like for some time is this: early on IT tried to play the game like a PG. But its not him. It goes against his instincts, and frankly as a PG he is very mediocre and just doesn't get anything accomplished. Then after half he started to say screw it and play like IT. And ironically even with the gunning that implies, he actually became more effective as a passer too as he quit deferring or worrying about sharing the ball and just started attacking. I think it was a major factor in Rudy's disappearance after half, but IT started working with Cuz, starting the 3rd setting him up with a little dropoff pass for a jumper for just IT's second assist of the game, and starting to work off of big Cuz picks up top to get open for his own jumpers. The game remained physical, and IT began to let's say not fight as hard to avoid hitting the floor, and eventually it led to major foul trouble for the Bulls PGs , which not only let IT begin to score from the line, but further freed him up for shots. There was one bad gunner shot when Hinrich had to leave the game and IT greeted Augustin with an immediate keepaway 1 on 1 hero three point attempt, but really most of what he was doing was taking kicks from Cuz for open threes, working around those Cuz screens up top to find little holes in the Chicago defense to get off his jumpers, etc. When Cuz left he worked well with Acy for a few minutes in the early 4th and set him up at the rim, but made a bad mistake fouling Augustin on a 3pt attempt in the corner. A mistake he would make up for by doing the same thing to Augustin on the other end, leading to IT retying the game at the line. Just flat turned the ball over up top at the 5:30 mark, triggering the Bulls out on the break and putting us back down, and he just never was that hto,a dn sat at 5-15 from the field heading into the stretch run. But down the stretch hit a big three with 1:30 to go to cut the lead back to 3, and at the 30 second mark hit another little jumper working around a Cuz screen to get the lead back to 5. Head scratching moment of the night came a few seconds later, as with us down 3, the Bulls with the ball, and more than 24 seconds on the clock (there were 30 in fact) -- a situation clearly calling for us just to hustle on back, set up the D, try to get a stop, and try to tie the game to send it to OT -- IT instead runs over and intentionally fouls Kurt Hinrich and sen s him to the line to make it a 2 possession game again. The post game presser reveals that wasn't what Malone wanted, and it was the sort of late game brainfart that just kills this team, and has for about 8 years now. Just amazing. Anyway, we went on to lose again, but other than Big Cuz's battle with Noah, and the hustle and defense we got from the PFs, ITs scoring half, his reverting to being IT again, was the third biggest thing keeping us in this.
Blizzard Aftermath, Connecticut -- aftermath of a blizzard in a car dealership in Connecticut, from last winter, although it certainly could have been from this one.
Cuz played big, but had all he could handle with Noah playing out of his mind. IT scored more through persistence than brilliance, but did rack up numbers. Reggie Evans (back in the starting lineup) gave us some board hustle and neutralized Boozer, but JT might have been more impressive with his defensive hustle off the bench. Ben had some more moments where he made professional looking moves, but my lord, he cannot shoot and it was just a killer as the Bulls doubled Cuz and time and again Ben was the outlet guy and just... cannot shoot. 0-7 tonight, and he's shooting .314 from 3pt land now. Tyreke last year shot .338 from out there. Most of all though, we brought effort on defense and the glass, where we dominated. Its just the details which we do not have and will not have until next year. Too few assists, a few loose turnovers, missed FTs etc. But it was a good tight game worthy of a watch.
We are going Consortiumless tonight. And we'll do a quick theme given the game tomorrow. My mom sent me some spectacular weather photos a couple of days ago, that'll do. So theme = Weather.
P.S. And no, Jimmer did not get to play.
Boxscore
Stats: 31min 13pts (5-12, 0-1, 3-4) 5reb 3ast 1stl 2blk 1TO
Gay ( C ) -- in the first half, might have been the best of the big three, but was boxed up and put away by the Bulls after half. what he did do on the night was often brilliant. But he just did not do enough. Made a brilliant early alley oop pass to McLemore in the first few minutes, and his first scpre was a nice slice to the hoop off a good Cousins pass out of a double. Got into a little rhythm after returning in the 2nd. Made a nice save of a loose ball which he turned into a bucket with a spinning pullup, and that got him into a little rhythm as our most consistent first half offensive weapon. After a pretty drive to tie the game back up at 52 in the third, got very quiet. Was repeatedly late feeding Demacus in the post, and I couldn't even see what he was looking at. Didn't seem to be trying to get his own, just would enter the pass 2 seconds too late each time letting the defense recover. Did not score again until the 4:40 mark, when, following a great block from behind on Butler to save a hoop, Rudy came down the other way and after two selfish looking takes finally got to the line, where he split a pair. And that was it. Was involved in a near turnover on an out of bounds pay, that was not. Passed the ball to an 0-6 McLemore for yet another three attempt with 24 seconds to go that moved the need to 0-7 and finished us. But was not clear if that was what we drew up and that was on Malone throwing more bad money after the bad money we had already thrown after the good money with Ben, or whether it was Rudy not being aware of who was hot. In any case, not terrible, but 13pts 5reb was not enough, and in the second half it was 3pts.
Lightning Over the Grand Canyon -- I would have thought that was a painting, instead its a pretty amazing photograph from last August.
Stats: 24min 5pts (2-4, 0-0, 1-2) 8reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Evans ( B- ) -- in trying to figure out where this grade fell I have eventually settled on this: he did his job out there. He wasn't brilliant, but he did what it is that he is supposed to do, and notably his counterpart, who sometimes is and sometimes isn't a major factor for the Bulls, wasn't. In the early going actually was not as much on the boards as you would have thought. Mostly just mixing it up with Boozer, and even got a technical for some sort of in your face scream at him after a hoop (Boozer has been known to chatter to go along with his elbows). And that was kind of the early contribution -- with Cuz drawing attention, Reggie slipped in there for a few hoops, and Boozer never got going. Began to get some of those hustle offensive boards against Gibson late in the half, and kept the rebounding going into the third, when he and Cuz were actually fighting over them in there. But he was also getting beat on defense a few times in there, and once JT returned and brought some major defensive hustle, that was it for Reggie's night. 8rebs in 24min is strong work for most guys, for Reggie its almost just average. A solid game and a contributor, but not a major impact game this time.
Supercell in Texas -- from last June. Something bad could happen there.
Stats: 38min 25pts (10-21, 0-0, 5-7) 14reb 2ast 4stl 1blk 5TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- well this was certainly the highlight matchup of the game, and it didn't disappoint. I thought Cousins had good energy from the start of this one, and while he wasn't in A+ mode, he was all set up to have a strong start...but Joakim Noah has just been going nuts and flat took it from him early. Wasn't that Cuz was bad. Was that Noah's been on some sort of high now for a month, and he came out in this one the same way and just hit everything early, was there on every challenge. Aside from several more bad pass turnovers, including an egregious overpassing one where he tried to do something for IT that IT might not for him and slip the ball to Isaiah for the layup on the break, only to get the pay broken up, most of what Boogie was trying to do was right. Give Noah that fugly jumper. Oh, oops. Ok, close on him. Oh, oops. Hammer inside, oh oops. Cuz was playing well, and he's the best center in the game, but tonight Noah started off playing better. He held his temper though, and he came out in the second half and turned the matchup, scored 7 quick points inside and out to begin the half and draw us back even, and we were in the game the entire rest of the way. Tied up Noah for a jumpball, won the tip. Was doing a good job of reading the Bulls doubles and hitting open guys...unfortunately too often that open guy was Ben, and you might as well just throw the ball out of bounds at that point. Yeah, he got two assists, but he could have had about 8. Another thing he started doing a real nice job of was freeing IT up top with screens. I would bet at least half of IT's jumpers came directly off of him getting open behind Cuz screens up top. Came up big down the stretch too, really on the boards, and scoring inside, even through saavy Chicago doubles (Noah would shade his left shoulder, Gibson would run over to take away that dropstep baseline). But Noah, with some B.S. help from the refs on some flat bad and VERY late calls, answered back, and good as Cuz was after half, in the end Noah probably still won the matchup. But it was a heavyweight duel worthy of the name. I'm not going to blame Cuz for getting narrowly outpointed by the hottest center in the league while putting up 25pts 14reb, just not. On the other hand its hard to call it an A when your opponent nearly puts up a monster triple double of his own. So B+. As an aside, a grade and game that once again shows the gulf between Cuz and just normal humans. 25 and 14 is a career night for half the NBA. A season highlight for most of the rest. For Cuz, "good game". Against the withering Chicago defensive pressure, you could see he was the guy with the talent to shrug it off.
Waterspouts in Lake Michigan -- off the coast of Wisconsin in September.
Stats: 36min 6pts (3-12, 0-7, 0-0) 6reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( D ) -- to grade Ben McLemore is to feel like you are beating up on Ben McLemore, but then again he's been beating up on us all season so turnabout is fair play. Fortunately in this one there were a few good things, mostly early, to provide some sort of offset. Missed his first jumper, wide open (which would be a recurring theme), but ran the court and took an alley oop pass from Gay in the open court for a quick slick slam. And later in the quarter finally made a good play on the break, looking off his defender faking it to Cuz, then calmly pulling up and hitting a little jumper. Was a perfectly professional looking move, something that you can rarely say about his open court adventures this year. And made a great play to close the first half, coming across the top of the key to get a blindside steal on Butler, then racing out the other way for a dunk to close the gap back to 5 as we went to intermission. So there were some things. 3 or 4 professional basketball player moves that should be just a given for a lottery pick, but for Ben are marked steps forward. Unfortunately... Austin Rivers drew a lot of negative attention as a flat out megabust last year when he shot .372 from the field and .324 from the 3pt line. Ben is now shooting .367 from the field and .314 from the 3pt line. Which is my way of introducing: he can't shoot. And from the 3rd quarter on that became the dominant theme here. He can't shoot. Cuz was doing a much better job of reading the doubles and kicking the ball out to Ben, who shockingly enough the Bulls often left open, and...can we have Tyreke back as a shooter? How about Salmons? Clank, clank, clank. Open, challenged, did not matter. Thought he was going to make one more nice play at the 5 minute mark when he made a good move along the baseline and was going to swoop in...unfortunately that good move along the baseline included stepping over that baseline, which unfortunately has been deemed illegal. Recent rule change, no more than a century old. Missed ANOTHER wide open three from Cuz kicking the ball out of a double at the 4:00 mark. And then in something I did not understand...we came out of a timeout at the 24 second mark down 4 and Rudy kicked the ball to Ben like it was planned? That was the play we drew up? Give it to the guy who was 0-6 from 3pt land to shoot a three to keep us in it? If that was mind games by Malone it did not work. Maybe it was still cover their asses games by the front office. In which case it also didn't work. On the other hand if it was tanking games by the front office it was brilliant. Anyway, what the hell. Very much over this whole experiment, but know we won't be as a team for another 16 games. So...you soldier on. At least apart from being the worst "shooter" to ever be compared to Ray Allen, Ben has been, and continued today to flash a few more mature basketball plays. And notably his defense was not notable. For much of the season I have considered him quite possibly the very worst defender in the entire NBA. But tonight we played tough on defense, and Ben wasn't badly taken advantage of. So steps I guess.
Roll Cloud, Racine Wisconsin --this is called a roll cloud. intimidating no? Wisconsin gets all the fun weather.
Stats: 42min 26pts (7-18, 2-5, 10-13) 3reb 5ast 0stl 0blk 4TO
Thomas ( B- ) -- game followed a familiar pattern of late. Hit his first jumper on the catch and shoot from Cuz, but there was a lot of physical bumping and mishandles taking place, and IT simply was not able to create for teammates against the tough defense. Seemed to be guessing wrong on defense vs. Hinrich as well, and while the defense was not lackadaisical, it seemed mistake prone. Shading a guy left as he went right. Going under a screen on Augustin and watching him hit a three etc. Got to the foul line a few times so that he had a decent 8pts in the half, but it was just very drab once more. And then things turned a bit after half, and that's where the familiar pattern kicked in. Because what it has been feeling like for some time is this: early on IT tried to play the game like a PG. But its not him. It goes against his instincts, and frankly as a PG he is very mediocre and just doesn't get anything accomplished. Then after half he started to say screw it and play like IT. And ironically even with the gunning that implies, he actually became more effective as a passer too as he quit deferring or worrying about sharing the ball and just started attacking. I think it was a major factor in Rudy's disappearance after half, but IT started working with Cuz, starting the 3rd setting him up with a little dropoff pass for a jumper for just IT's second assist of the game, and starting to work off of big Cuz picks up top to get open for his own jumpers. The game remained physical, and IT began to let's say not fight as hard to avoid hitting the floor, and eventually it led to major foul trouble for the Bulls PGs , which not only let IT begin to score from the line, but further freed him up for shots. There was one bad gunner shot when Hinrich had to leave the game and IT greeted Augustin with an immediate keepaway 1 on 1 hero three point attempt, but really most of what he was doing was taking kicks from Cuz for open threes, working around those Cuz screens up top to find little holes in the Chicago defense to get off his jumpers, etc. When Cuz left he worked well with Acy for a few minutes in the early 4th and set him up at the rim, but made a bad mistake fouling Augustin on a 3pt attempt in the corner. A mistake he would make up for by doing the same thing to Augustin on the other end, leading to IT retying the game at the line. Just flat turned the ball over up top at the 5:30 mark, triggering the Bulls out on the break and putting us back down, and he just never was that hto,a dn sat at 5-15 from the field heading into the stretch run. But down the stretch hit a big three with 1:30 to go to cut the lead back to 3, and at the 30 second mark hit another little jumper working around a Cuz screen to get the lead back to 5. Head scratching moment of the night came a few seconds later, as with us down 3, the Bulls with the ball, and more than 24 seconds on the clock (there were 30 in fact) -- a situation clearly calling for us just to hustle on back, set up the D, try to get a stop, and try to tie the game to send it to OT -- IT instead runs over and intentionally fouls Kurt Hinrich and sen s him to the line to make it a 2 possession game again. The post game presser reveals that wasn't what Malone wanted, and it was the sort of late game brainfart that just kills this team, and has for about 8 years now. Just amazing. Anyway, we went on to lose again, but other than Big Cuz's battle with Noah, and the hustle and defense we got from the PFs, ITs scoring half, his reverting to being IT again, was the third biggest thing keeping us in this.
Blizzard Aftermath, Connecticut -- aftermath of a blizzard in a car dealership in Connecticut, from last winter, although it certainly could have been from this one.
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