Nice shooting fellas!
Well that was frustrating. Cuz did not have a great game, raw numbers aside, but at least his lack of great game could be explained by the Lakers piling up on him. What was catastrophic was the REASON they were able to pile up on him. If I grabbed a pair of sneakers out of my closet I might have represented a bigger threat to score from the Lakers' perspective than the rest of our team.
By the way: this one is also on Joerger. The team could not score. Not at all. 36 second half points. Long FG droughts. He left in Lawson too long when he was killing spacing and we never recovered momentum it seemed. And then with the team not scoring at all, he never even gave a look at Ben and Omri, both of who at least can shoot. It left Cuz out there alone, not only as our best inside guy, but as our best outside guy too. That's too big a burden for virtually anybody.
So...sucks. Not even sure what lessons can be learned here. Here's a lesson: hit your damn shots. Here's another one: when you have your man down, put your foot on his bleeping throat and finish it. That's a life lesson btw, not just a basketball one. Your average over-talking villain in movies could afford to learn it too.
So now instead of 5-5, its 4-6 and heading into the next rough stretch. Probably doomed tomorrow, but who knows, maybe Lillard can shoot 1-10 for 8pts again and give us a shot to steal it and make up for this one.
Link to Boxscore
Starters
Gay ( D+ ) -- started the game well, but even when going good there was the hint of the selfish one on one thing going on. Made a selfish play just before half that hurt our momentum, and never gave us anything at all after the break against the Lakers kids assigned to him. Got outtoughed down the stretch as we tried to go small on Randle.
Featured Grade
Cousins ( C ) -- Tonight Cousins finally played the way an All-Star Big should play, within himself, no emotional flares, level headed with the refs, showing all aspects of his game. Too bad he only shot 10/25. Several times drove deep into middle to pass out for easier made shots contributing to his 4 assists. Showed nice step back mid-range then 2 3’s in the first quarter. Came back in at 8:30 mark of 2nd mistreating Mozgov at will, nice big 3 step down middle for finger roll, backing in and quick spin for 2. In first half was a man amongst boys against Mozgov and Randle. Defended Mozgov first half not a tough task. Second half he and Randle began their Sac-LA banging dance routine making life a bit tougher for Cousins. Made good pass down low for easy Koufos 2. Cuz was running back on defense all night making Mozgov and Randle unsuccessful to get any breakout buckets. Very nice to see, for a change. Then mid-third Cuz and Kings went stone cold he going 0/4 in third and 3/7 in fourth. Just could not make his normal easy down low buckets. To his credit continued to play team game but with everyone throwing up bricks the game began slipping away in spite of Lakers 21 TO’s. Lakers kept 2-3 defenders on him all second half contributing to poor shooting and his 4 TO’s. --Cruz
Koufos ( C ) -- say what you will about Kostas, but pairing he and Cuz in the early part of this game against Mozgov and Randle worked better than any attempts to stick a smallball PF out there next to Cuz and make him battle 1 on 2.
Afflalo ( C- ) -- gets a little credit for helping on the glass, and most of his misses were quiet. Silent but deadly, as they piled up. Loses points for eventually losing control on defense, and having so little offensive feel that late in the game he was passing up threes we desperately needed to throw it to Boogie for yet another shot. Here! you take it!
Lawson ( D+ ) -- boxscore would be deceptive on Ty. his 4-6 = 2 wide open please ****ign take them threes from Cuz, and 1 layup after a backcourt steal. Forgot the third. But generally he could not and would not shoot, and the Lakers knew it. Created nothing either, with a nifty 1 to 3 A/T ration on the night. Some minor credit for some second scrap when nothing else was working.
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Bench
Tolliver ( D+ ) -- had 1 or 2 good moments of defense inside, and grabbed one board in traffic. but man...you are here to shoot. You are getting open shots. And we desperately needed you to hit them. Instead joined the crowd of offensive nothings.
Barnes ( C ) -- not really fair to ask Matt Barnes, career defensive roleplayer, to carry the offense. but he was out there a lot, and he couldn't hit his shots either. Made a couple of outstanding defensive plays that bumped his grade for me, including my old favorite trick/influence them to throw the ball tot he wrong guy n the break thing, and then steal it.
Cauley-Stein ( C- ) -- had more activity again and got a few open court dunks. But it was shaky work getting beat in various ways, and during his minutes when we first lost control of the game. Grabbed a couple of board though, so hey hey!
Collison ( F ) -- if Darren would like to take another 8 game soff I am about ready for it. has shown no control of pace or decisionmaking since his return, and just missed, and missed, and missed and missed some more in this one. The high assist number is kind of a joke. He and Ty gave us precious little.
Temple ( D ) -- I don't know on this grade. he's obviously not an offensive player, so not hitting the few he took isn't a huge indicator. but didn't make plays on the other end either, and the offensive decisionmaking seemed shaky.
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