Man.
Think coach made a mistake to help sink us too by unnecessarily getting cute with the Hack-a-Noah with 2:10 left after we had just taken the lead. We had momentum, were playing decent defense, every chance we get energized and stop the Knicks. Instead coach gets cute, Noah hits both, and we lose the tempii for the rest of the game. Let 'em play it out coach.
Link to Boxscore
Starters
35min 13pts (4-15 0-5 5-6) 5reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0To
Gay ( F ) -- horrid on both ends as Melo lit him up, and his offense was forced, rhythmless, and random. Missed shot after shot down the stretch to help seal the loss.
36min 28pts (9-25 0-6 10-12) 12reb 6ast 3stl 1blk 3To
Cousins ( C+ ) -- if not for Rudy's horrible night you could say this loss was on Cuz, who offensively at least just did not have it all night, looked frustrated and too into it with the refs (although that eventually paid off when he got them to call a T on Melo). Didn't want to shoot the three, but teammates kept forcing it back to him. Blew a needed layup in the final seconds. On the other hand, really got into Porzingis on D again, and was the only guy to suck it up and start snatching boards. Tying heave at the buzzer rimmed out.
14min 4pts (2-2 0-0 0-0) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1To
Koufos ( D ) -- might be a kind D. Whole team felt off, but Kosta was so far off he was basically deemed unplayable. Reaction speed was shot. unable to react on boards, unable to catch passes. Unplayable.
Featured Grade 22min 10pts (4-7 2-2 0-0) 4reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( B- ) -- Ben had a very nice first stint tonight. He was cutting, he was grabbing seemingly every rebound on the floor, he was setting screens to get Cousins open, and he held Lee (and anybody else he happened to get switched off onto) to zero points. But once Temple came in and doubled down on Ben's effort, he was a lot less animated at the end of the second quarter and to open the third. He did get the steal and breakaway when Jennings inexplicably threw the ball to him, but he also missed two layups (both of which he did a good job to create) and his D was less on point. Once he was rested in the third (quite a bit earlier than after his first stint) he didn't make it back to the floor. He actually played pretty well, but Temple showed him up tonight. --Capt.
30min 14pts (5-11 1-2 3-3) 3reb 3ast 2stl 0blk 0To
Collison ( C ) -- started off the game angling for a fugly grade as he let Jennings go wherever he wanted, but got that settled, and DC then settled in as just totally ineffective for the bulk of the game. Finally woke up, and saved this grade, as he realized our Big 2 wasn't so big tonight and needed him to get out and score down the stretch.
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Bench
27min 10pts (4-9 2-6 0-0) 5reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Tolliver ( C ) -- the vet saavy was on display in most productive stint of the season, but so was the lack of talent. Smart player, knew his three point shot was off...unfortunately its all he has. When he kept on passing up threes and trying other things it never worked, and guys like Rudy and Cuz who were off all night were forced to take yet another three. Part of the rebounding problem too, as he's never been good, and he and Willie....
20min 12pts (4-5 1-1 3-3) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Casspi ( B ) -- one of the very few Kings who could hit a shot, and then at a critical late game point refused to do so, passing the ball back to an ice cold Boogie for another brick instead. Doesn't always have touch on his finishes, but tonight he hit several tough ones after contested drives.
12min 0pts (0-2 0-0 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Cauley-Stein ( D ) -- a gentleman's D as the flutterbug returned tip toeing around out there as the big scary men bumped him out of the way.
18min 4pts (1-5 0-2 2-3) 3reb 6ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Lawson ( C ) -- for a while looked like a better option than the invisible Collison, but his lack of offense began to hurt as the Knicks had us well scouted and sloughed off him, and he wasn't generating much for the offense beyond long bricked threes from the talentless bench
26min 5pts (2-6 1-4 0-0) 0reb 1ast 3stl 0blk 0TO
Temple ( B ) -- a rare bright point with more defense and some spectacular hustle steals, but the lack of offense hurt as we were struggling on that end and Garret is not built to provide much relief when that happens.
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