Game summary: We came out and gave them our best shot in the first 6 minutes (behind a big start by Ben). They weren't impressed and promptly annihilated us, made us quit really. Went on 23-0 run as we didn't score for 8 min. The "Big Three", especially Cuz, deserve some credit for coming out fighting in the third and almost made a game of it a few times, but no. You let teams score 120pts a night on you, and you are pathetic and have no hope unless you play the Sixers every night.
P.S. because I forgot to add in a second post for the bench, and because there is an image limit per any single post, not every player is going to get a girl this time. Sorry. You'll have to make do with Hammer's food porn down below instead.
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 20pts (7-15, 2-5, 4-5) 3reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 4TO
Gay ( C ) -- It actually pains me to give Rudy a decent grade tonight. Why? Because his defense was, for the most part, terrible. He was incredibly lazy in transition, costing us a bucket by missing his assignment in getting back at least three times. Harrison Barnes blew by him on a transition drive once when he WAS in position. He committed a goaltend, he gave up an easy drive to the aged Iguodala, and he had several instances of his patented non-help D, where he takes a step toward an unguarded ball-handler then immediately feints off in anticipation of a pass that never comes, leaving his man an open shot. All in all, he was just giving about zero poopoos in the entire first half, particularly on defense. The second half started similarly, but after a few minutes he actually picked up his game. He had his arms up on defense, he was switching, he was helping...I don't know why he finally decided to care, but he did. Perhaps coincidentally, the third quarter is the one when he went off offensively. He came into the third with only 6 points, but he dropped 14 in the third, including 2-4 shooting from three. He had a really nice dunk on a baseline drive and a nice hook in the post, a jumper, and a couple of free throws to add onto all of that. He had a nicely efficient night with 20 points on 17 shots. And despite having four turnovers, I just can't ignore the push he gave us in the third. So he gets a decent grade, even though for half the game he didn't even try. Infuriating. --Capt.
Jessica Chastain
Stats: 21min 2pts (1-3, 0-0, 0-0) 3reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Williams ( D- ) -- Not much good to say about D Will's performance tonight. He got off to a bad start by backing off Green, who promptly hit and 18 footer. D Will answered back a bit later with a ball fake and then blowing right by Green for a layup. And that my friends was it. He did take two more shots, missing both. I'd like to say that he compensated with stellar defense, but I can't. He had a couple of good moments before the wheels came off, and the Warriors made the Kings look like a bad highschool team. He played 21 minutes and had a grand total of 2 points and 3 rebounds. He was for the most part, invisible. Oh, he also had one turnover. Maybe I should have given him a higher score because he only had the one turnover. Not much more to say. --Baja
Jenna Dewan
Stats: 42min 26pts (10-21, 0-0, 6-7) 11reb 4ast 3stl 4blk 3TO
Cousins ( B- ) -- very active on defense and the glass early as we started this one on a big inspired rush back on our homecourt, wanting to wipe away some of the embarrassment. But Boogie's energy got sapped as returned to the offensive struggle of recent weeks. The jumper was broken again, Bogut was Bogut, when Bogut left the double teams were there, the turnovers were there, and it wasn't long before Cuz was 1-7 from the floor with 3 turnovers and the Warriors had kicked it inot gear and were blowing us out. Then Mo Speights happened, and while Boogie was actually doing a pretty decent job challenging Speights jumpers, this season he's hit them all anyway. By halftime we were being humiliated and had largely quit, and Cuz didn't look to have any answers sitting on top of 7pts 6reb on poor shooting. But for once halftime worked in our favor, and the Cuz that came back after half not only had the early game Cuz's energy, but he had smartened up, quit forcing the broke jumpers, and quickly went to work fouling Bogut off the floor, hitting Ben for another foot set three, and aggressively dominating the non-Bogut's inside physically. Went full court and just macktrucked Speiughts into the stand for the 4th foul...on Spieghts, much to Steve Kerr's dismay. And it was having an effect on the scoreboard as we cut the lead down under 15 and had multiple possessions where maybe we could have got it under 10. I don't know what to say about that one bizarre play discussed below where there was an inbounds, and Cuz was just leaning over with his hands on his knees and did not even twitch as the ball was thrown in to Speights for an easy cut to the hoop, but it didn't fit at all with the rest of what was going on, so I am thinking somehow he just wasn't prepared for the ball to be thrown in. As we closed the gap, Cuz's defense in fact hit a crescendo in a wave of steals and big blocks trying to singlehandedly stop the Warriors since nobody else could. It wasn't enough of course, but with Corbin's decisions to just crapcan the bench and go ironman with the starters, Cuz was out there fighting the good fight in a blowout into the final 5 minutes, ended up with another huge statline, and suddenly this month is routinely capable of playing 42 minutes without fouling out. So poor half, good half. In fact in the good half, never turned the ball over after the early going. But when your bench gets outscored 62- 12 merely singlehandedly outscoring the opponent's entire starting frontcourt isn't enough. --Brick
Supanaree Suttavigitvong
Stats: 40min 18pts (6-9, 4-5, 2-2) 2reb 2ast 3stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( B ) -- while he did get his ass rather badly kicked a few weeks back, Klay's monster explosion against us wasn't all Ben's fault. But you wouldn't have known that from the way he came charging out of the gate in this one determined to chase away all those demons and deliver a little buttkicking of his own. He immediately hit a feet set three to start the game, went down the other way and played some excellent defense on Klay, eventually taking the ball from him for a breakaway. And as we ran out to the early double digit lead, it was Ben leading the charge with 13 first quarter points and several big defensive plays. He wasn't perfect, still was better when he let somebody else create his shot than when he had to do that awkward "dribbling" thing before shooting, but while he remained hot we had the Warriors number. And then...he disappeared. The Warriors were of course paying more attention and have plenty of good backcourt defenders to do so, Ben wasn't going to sustain that energy all game long. But more than any of that I think that Ben is a dependent offensive player -- when we got squeezed, and the ball movement died, Ben just disappeared and never scored again for the rest of the half. Started the third with another feet set three from Cuz for his first points since the early going. Missed another one off his own dribble though, and the second half belonged to the Big Three big threeing, not Ben. Still came up with one of the highlights of the night though as he spun away from traffic along the baseline for a big dunk in the final minute of the 3rd. Not on the floor in the early 4th while the Warriors finished us, and it may have mattered. We have exactly 4 guys who matter. Ray McCalum playing Sg is not one of them. Threw a terrible crosscourt pass with 4min to go in the semi-garbagetime for our 17th turnover, but it was the only one on the night. The contributions here were a huge early explosion, and a contribution in the third as the starters struggled to make a game of it. But still, after the awful January, an encouraging sign that maybe February is turning over a new leaf and November Ben will be back. --Brick
Sharmila Nicollet -- pro golfer
Stats: 37min 18pts (8-15, 1-4, 1-1) 2reb 7ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Collison ( B- ) -- eh...was it a "ditto"? No not quite. But I am kinda tired of grading DC. Sorry Darren, take it as a compliment -- meh and consistent have value. Actually started this game off a little wild. His first shot was a ridiculous prayer he threw up after slamming into a Warrior begging for a call, and the wild fallaway fell. As we fell apart, he was there forcing a dumb drive into the teeth of the Warriors' transition defense -- the "pace" thing seems to have caused him to get out of his comfort zone and force transition sometimes. Invisble out there as the Warriors in the first half started treating this like a Globetrotters/Generals matchup and just having dun. As he settled though, it was mostly on those little elbow pops coming off screens. There was no great run, no inspiring push. Just an occasional little "pop!" and splash. Managed to play a clean game too, with only a single TO. Got shot over by Curry for a 28ft contested three to close the third and put us back down 14, but what are you going to do there. Numbers were more than meh. High meh. Impact...scattered. He's the steady diet. A's are rare. D's are rare. Your range is B+ to C- as a rule. These are the B numbers. We got blown out, so let's call them the B- numbers on the night. --Brick
Chloe Bennett
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(The Very Impressive and Largely Told Their Service Weren't Needed) Bench
Stats: 6min 0pts (0-1, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Miller ( INC ) -- Quincy "Filler" was somewhat inexplicably brought in as the Kings' first sub. He played four minutes and outside of missing a chippy at the basket got absolutely nothing in the box score. Then he got another two minutes and change during garbage time and ran into a rebound and and assist. Yay. Incomplete. --Capt.
Stats: 19min 8pts (2-6, 0-0, 4-4) 8reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Thompson ( C- ) -- I guess if I were grading on a curve, based on what Williams got, then JT should get a B. He played fewer minutes (19) and scored 8 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. However, not to be outdone by anyone else, he managed to turn the ball over 3 times. Well done there. JT came into the game around the 2:45 mark of the 1st quarter, and promptly missed a littel 8 footer. I think he was surprised he was that close to the basket. He came back and hit a little flip shot in the lane. He managed to hit an 19 footer late in the 4th quarter with the game already decided. The rest of his scoring came at the line, where he went, praise the lord, 4 for 4. He also managed to join the elite few who got their shot blocked by Bogut. Not sure why JT didn't play more tonight. He played decent defense when in the game, although he did lose track of Lee a couple of times. I'll bet this isn't the career JT envisioned when he came into the NBA. --Baja
Stats: 5min 1pt (0-2, 0-1, 1-2) 0reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Sessions ( INC ) -- in at the end of the first, made no differnce at all to our
lack of momentum. Drew a foul finally with 9min to go in the 2nd. Ineffective and when Collison left late in the half, we went to McCallum instead.--Brick
Stats: 15min 2pts (1-3, 0-0, 0-1) 3reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Casspi ( D ) -- I hate giving Omri a bad grade tonight. He came out, he gave good effort both in his (very short) first stint and in his second-half stint when the Kings began to make a push. I love seeing him work hard out there. But along with working hard came the mistakes of commission. He turned the ball over three times (twice by losing it on a drive, once by sliding his pivot foot trying to stop his drive). He missed an open dunk. He scored a grand total of two points, while allowing 11 - nine of those on open threes. It's a a shame that the results were so poor, because he's one of the few guys you can point to out there who were actually trying all game long. --Capt.
Stats: 3min 0pts (0-1, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Landry ( INC ) -- Carl played a total of 3 minutes, and managed 1 turnover. I just love the new rotations. --Baja
Stats: 7min 0pts (0-2, 0-1, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
McCallum ( D ) -- short minutes, but managed to hurt us in them in both halves. Dumbassed the final possesion of the half, taking a shot off his dribble with enough time left for the Warriors to sprint the other way and get up an last shot before half. In the game to buy us a few minutes in the early 4th, and missed a three at a critical time. --Brick
Stats: 3min 1pt (0-1, 0-0, 1-2) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Hollins ( INC ) -- Not even the garbagetime benchers could put up cheap garbagetime numbers. --Brick
Stats: 3min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Stauskas ( INC ) -- ditto. --Brick
Last edited: