You can almost hear a receding cackling voice "haters gonna hate...muhahahaha...".
Here's what the new floor/pregame lights show looks like btw:
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 40pts (13-19, 3-4, 11-13) 8reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Gay ( A+ ) -- after a fugly Game 1 that had half the fanbase calling for his outright release, Rudy responded n about the best way possible, with one of the best games of his 8 year career. It got started early in the first quarter with a series of smooth little takes along the left baseline, and the attack never really let up as he started spreading the assault and hitting shots from all over. The thing about Rudy is that he is part of a very small elite class who hits bad analytics shots at a high rate. His game has always had something of the 1970's in it, and along with Durant, Melo, Kobe and maybe one or two others he consistently takes and makes (which is the trick) little midrange jumpers, short pull arounds, midrange turnarounds in the post etc. The key tonight wasn't just that he was hitting them, but that they were coming relatively quick. There were no dribble for 8 seconds and settle for a 20 foot fallaway things. It was quick, in rhythm, and he just worked Batum and whoever else they put on him. Think he had 13 at half, which was good, he was on the glass, Batum did almost nothing against him the other way, and in a complete reversal from the first game, he did all this with nary a force the whole game, which is how you score 40 points and end up with 0 turnovers. Then after half we called the first play out of the break for him (or possibly for Boogie but Boogie didn't roll, and he threw up a little floating half hook and sunk it, kinda laughed about it, and REALLY took over the third quarter, which became doubly important when Cuz took himself out of the game with a burst of temper and stupid foul. He even started hitting threes from the left angle at key moments, which is not normally a great shot for him. But he was hot the whole game, and everything was going to fall. Rudy has had dozens of 30pt game sin his career, but the reason he is Rudy Gay, fringe 20pt scorer and fringe all star candidate rather than Carmelo Anthony career 27pt scorer and perennial All Star is that normally he starts to peter out in the early 30s. He has over his career had a hard time completing the truly superstar game thought and will eventually tires and score 32 or 33 or whatever. But not this game, as he was just right there until the end, and may have even capped the game with his first and only assist in the game with an alley oop to Ben on the break that got the crowd on their feet as we went up 9 with 3min to go. Great stuff..
Stats: 23min 2pts (1-5, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( C+ ) -- so how DO you assess JT's game tonight? Maybe you can just sum it up this way: he tried. He came out and gave a real solid effort on Aldridge from the beginning. You can only do so much with Aldridge since a major component of his game is turnaround jumpers from 18 feet or so, and that's kind of a shot you would normally like to force guys to take. But JT did force him to take those, he gave him nothing easy, and while he didn't obviously block or smother any of those shots, he was there to challenge them and is about the same size as Aldridge, so that actually means something. And defensively he did not really have a lull. He slowed Aldridge early, and when he came back out for the third he was part of an early run we put on as he again was right in LMA's grill. Everything else...not so much. It was an indifferent 4 rebounds, although he did use his size to step back in there and grab several Cuz could not in the early going. Offensively it was nothing again, as he got an early inside take, but later flat airballed a baseline jumper. When Cuz went out in the mid third, we started to really struggle to score, and on the few plays when JT tried to step up and fill that offensive void inside he displayed his normal sterling touch, which is to say nothing fell. One of the big turnarounds this game though was that JT also had 0 turnovers, as guys just weren't forcing like they were the first time. So...I don't think I can call this a good grade exactly, because there just isn't much here. 2pts 4reb on 1-5 shooting? But on the other hand if his roleplayer's role is to focus in on MLA and try to keep him from killing us, well JT filled that role and made a contribution. So...C+ I say.
Stats: 31min 17pts (6-16, 0-0, 5-6) 9reb 1ast 1stl 2blk 2TO
Cousins ( C ) -- this grade has a big u in its middle. The overall effect is that it wasn;t jsut the first game, Cuz did not look entirely comfortable in this one either. But he's such a massive talent that despite this being Rudy's game, Cuz was the pivotal player out there. He had a +28 in this game and you could simply feel it when he took himself out of the game for a while we nearly had it slip away. He came out n this one trying to be smart and take what he was given, which is to say hi jumper, by Lopez. And he was hitting them for the most part. But of course taking what is given when its a jumper is also passive and so while Cuz was playing wingman to Rudy, he was never dominant. And thing was he was still having issues on the glass too, where for the second game in a row he started off the game having a taller guy getting over his back to knock away boards. So he was going alright, but it felt a little soft, certainly not dominant. But at multiple points in the game we got little bits of that extra oomph. When he returned to the game in the second there was a burst of star play, but then he seemed like he wasn't working hard enough or early enough against Kaman on defense. When he came out in the third it was with an interesting attitude, as for the first few minutes of the quarter he turned himself into a passing post, not even really looking to shoot until he got a nice finish off a pick and roll, and after a couple of misses he was under .500 on the night, and in the game's critical moment, he lost his cool over a call he disagreed with, forced a bad drive trying to force the refs to call a foul, didn't get hat either, and so did the flail frustration foul thing for his 4th foul to take him out of the game. It damn near sunk us, as we were in control to that point, and immediately momentum switched and our 9-10 point lead evaporated. His outburst have often hurt us of course, but rarely was it so stark as here. Wasn't even an outburst, just a spot of temper causing hi to get a foul and get out of the game. But we were playing really well as a team, and we suddenly lost our lynchpin. So his grade took a dive. But we managed to barely hang in there and stop the spiral before another disheartening 2nd half collapse, and when Cuz returned his grade shot back up the "U" the other way. He returned with Rudy, and immediately we were the better team and began opening the lead up against the Blazers. Rudy was still the offensive weapon, but the Cuz who came back late was the guy you would have liked to have seen all game. He got big and strong on the glass and began gobbling defensive rebounds, he played great defense and at the pivotal moment of the game came up with back to back blocks on consecutive possessions to close down the Blazers. And so for a second game in a row this was not a great Cuz game, but he hung in there and found a way to make a big contribution. In fact as that +/- shows (nobody else was above +14) he was really the key guy in a lot of ways. When he was on the floor we were much better than the Blazers. When he wasn't...we were +28 in his 31min on the floor, -19 in the 17min he wasn't on the floor. A lesson: stay on the floor big guy.
Stats: 32min 7pts (2-5, 1-2, 2-2) 4reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( C+ ) -- okay, reversing the order of discussion here, the good: Ben played reasonable defense again. I think this silly narrative that he is playing great defense is just that, silly. But he has not been a liability, he's not blowing assignments. He did get overpowered by Matthews in the post, but then when you look at Ben you see a runner and jumper not a power athlete. And he got on the floor. In fact his offense was completely putrid again in the early going but he tried to do something at least by diving on the floor for several loose balls. So I think there is some sort of semi-solid play backing behind the rest of his game. Offensively...well here. In the early going he continued to just be horrendous missing all those shots you need him to make as a shooting guard. Open shots, shots in the offense shots on kicks...he hasn't hit one yet this season. His first points on the season came when he leaked out on the break and got fouled and hit the FTs. But that's not really offense. But in the second half he finally broke through in ridiculous fashion as he was up against the shotclock dribbling away from the hoop, and pulled up for a falling away 27 foot three from beyond the top of the circle. Almost semi-desperation, but it fell in t the crowd's delight. Did that lead to anything? No it didn't. In fact soon thereafter you could see him visibly not even looking at the hoop but just quickly moving the ball on several possessions (a correct decision btw but denoting no confidence). And so there we have 5pts, 2 FTs on a leak out, and a desperation heave 3. The final 2pts came though on a huge play for us. Again not really offense per se, but Ben using his athleticism, as on the biggest play of the game Rudy and Ben got out on the break (quite possibly after one of Cuz's blocks) and Rudy hit him for a huge alley oop that not only put Portland down 9 with a little over 3min to go but threw the crowd into a frenzy. And so we win, both of Ben's hoops are of the spectacular variety, but in most ways there really is no sign of sustainable life on offense yet. Desperation heaves and leakouts. But he was defensively solid and with Rudy being so prolific, the lack of scoring from his spot did not hurt us that badly tonight. It is progress of a sort. It is. Last year Ben was an active drain on our fortunes. He lost games for us. In this one he was just there, staying out of the way and trying not to get beat on defense. Tonight it was enough.
Stats: 38min 17pts (6-14, 0-3, 5-6) 8reb 8ast 3stl 0blk 3TO
Collison ( A- ) -- I don't think Darren Collison is this good, but if he is...we have a chance. For the second game in a row he looked like he very much belonged on the floor with an All Star PG, and in fact in this one he flat outplayed Lillard. He got it going immediately with a spectacular if not terribly well conceived spinning drive through traffic to start things off, and finished with 4 first quarter assists of the nice solid run the offense variety. You're staring to get a feel for what he wants to do on offense too as he repeatedly dribbled to the elbow and pulled up for little jumpers that are kind of his bread and butter. There will be nights when those don't fall and they'll look just as bad as when IT or Salmons did that, but it's DC's favorite shot, and he hit them consistently tonight. He was active up top defensively again, and hounded Lillard around the perimeter. The only drawback there was that his lack of bulk/strength was exploited several times by Blazers taking him into the post and knocking him back deep into the paint before soring over him. Used his quickness to dart around for boards, and lost in Rudy's 40pt game is the fact that Darren Collison was threatening a triple double on the night with 17-8-8. At several key moments in the third got those little pullups to go to just keep us that far ahead, and is getting the ball to guys who need the ball. In part to spotlight Rudy's effort I am going to cautiously call this an A- since I haven't seen enough of him to know if he can do even better. But this was a great game by Collison, and right now he's the third steady piece alongside the two up and down stars.
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