We're playing hard, and we're playing mostly well. But the road thing has passed monkey stage at this point and will be swinging off of the Empire State Building soon. We need a breakthrough win out there before it becomes a mental thing.
Boxscore
Nocioni ( D- ) -- lost in the Spencer, uh, "fireworks" was the fact that Noc did absolutely nothing out there for us either. Had that one good game for us against the Wolves, otherwise just a struggle for weeks now. Did nothing early and played all of about 7 minutes in the first half. Did come back in the third to hit a big three in the early minutes to stop the bleeding after the Blazers had come roaring back and we could not score. That's actually the whole reason for any grade at all here. Showed a lack of poise in the late going taking shots he should not have, and too quick in the clock. Not exactly the veteran leadership you are looking for in that situation. PLayed all of 17minutes on the night, gave us 5pts 2rebs on 2-7 shooting, and just generally was no help at all.
Thompson ( B- ) -- did not get involved offensively in the early going here, but Aldridge really did nothing back the other way in the first half so the sluggish start was not that damaging. Played nice defense on the switch against Roy though, and after returning in the mid-2nd dropped in a couple of nice in control post moves, then got fouled on a cut after the Blazers tried to double Reke and left Jaosn with the clear path to the hoop. Came up with a faceup 3pt play in the third as we clawed to stay in things, and had a decent second half offensively. Problems were 2 fold 1) while Jason had a decent 2nd half offensively, Aldridge had a huge one. Little of that could be attributed to Jason though because we just wouldn't let him play LaMarcus for whatever reason. So we hid Jason off on Pryzbilla while our other bigs got torched. And 2) Json's 4th quarter decisionamking was just schoolyard pickup game terrible. Grabbed a d-board in the mid 4th and threw an incredibly dumb oulet pass ahead to...Spencer Hawes on the leak that just had no chance to be comkpleted, and that Spencer would have had no chcance to hit even if it had been completed. Hit a jumper, but made some critical errors down the stretch. Took a bad long jumper, got an offensive foul running into Pryz, blew a chippee layup when he got an off rebound, then got trapped in the corner on offense and wasted our shotclock leaving Reke to throw up a desperation three at the buzzer. Just bad stuff, and a lot of it, as for the night at least the question of whether Reke should ahve the ball more in the crunch was a definitive "damn right he should" because the rest of the guys were being idiots.
Hawes ( F ) -- and here it is, the long awaited and much anticipated Spencer Hawes "F" game. There have been people urging it all season, panicking at the site of every 7pt 4reb 3-11 shooting night and wanting to annoint such relative mediocrity an "F". But I had confidence in Spencer. I knew he was capable of worse yet and did not want to cheapen the grade when it came. And so I saved this grade for a performance like tonight's. Was whisper soft from the beginning of this one, and that should shock nobody who has watched him play against these Blazers bigs over the last 3 seasons. Even with Spencer boogeyman Oden out, Wiltzilla still loomed, and I thnk much of tonight's performance can be explained by Spencer having soiled himself. Was invisible early as Wiltzilla celebrated the 6th consecutive year of soft Sacto centers padding his career stats. Came back in for what was effectively his game highlight, aggressively going at Pryzbilla in the 2nd quarter and thowing up wild hook shots. Was quick to the glass to follow one of them up too, to account for half of his points and rebounds on the night on one play. Was on Aldridge to start the third and quickly got torched. Responded back the other way by picking up an offensive foul on the break and bricking a hook. By the early 4th we were hiding him from Aldridge as well as Pryz, and quickly inserted him when neither guy was out there. But problem is that when those guys came back, one is 6'11" and the other is 7'1", and Brockman and Thomas looked silly trying to guard that kind of size. So Westphal stuck with Spencer. And Spencer responded like a ch*mp (I'll let you decide whether the missing letter is an a or a u (or possibly an i). Just did nothing at all for us, no scoring, no rebounding, every shot was a soft flip that bounced off the rim, every pick and roll a seemingly unsolvable puzzle on defense. And on a critical play in the final minutes he reacted slowly to penetration, and rather than smacking the guy just slapped him for the +1 to really put us in the hole. I've mentioned before that I think Spencer has a lot of tealent. I've also mentioned before that I don't think you can teach toughness, that you just either are or not. And tonight Spencer was most certainly not. 28min 4pts 2rebs on 2-7 shooting from your starting center. I mean, WTH?
Greene ( C- ) -- aggressive and wild to start, and am having a hard time figuring exactly who has told hime that he's a primary option while he is out there. Got up more shots in 14 minutes than Reke did the whole game. When we fell behind early was quickly swapped out. Was back in for the final defensive play of the first half and did a nice job defending Roy on the switch. Dumb forced drive to start the 3rd quarter, right into Pryzbilla. Would repeat that mistake again later in the game. Note Donte: Pryz is a shotblocker. Was surprisingly in the game down the stretch and did a solid job disrupting Roy on defense. Agian made a wild drive at the 1:00 mark that went from oh no! to oh yeah! as he threw himself inside, hit the layup and drew the foul. MIssed the damn free throw thgouh as boht he nad Reke missed late ones that dented our chances. Would say was teetering on the verge of our of control in this one, but fact is he was over the ledge. Chill dude!
Evans ( A- ) -- nifty drives to start as always, was defensively active for steals as well but got into quick foul trouble diving down to try to rip one away from Pryzbilla. Had to sit a long stretch adn did not return until the mid second quarter. Was aggressive again after returning, slashing to the hoop, beating double teams with the pass, and again creaitng havoc defensively. Got on the boards down the stretch of the half. Was working Miller in the post to start the second half and causing the Blazers problems. Missed his only true jump shot of the game (there was later a desperatin three which he had to throw up of balance against the shot clock violation) when he kind of just randomly pulled up and clunked a long J, but got back on the subsequent Blazers break for a big block to temporarily save the hoop (Blazers got it back and converted). Killed the Blazers in the late thrid just slashing inside again and again, including debuting a driving hook shot that could be deadly, and bulling us back out to a nice lead entering the 4th. Never missed on a drive for the entire game, and the power & body control on some of those drives left me thinking there might only be 4 guys in the world could have pulled off -- Bron, Kobe, Wade & this kid. Was playing strong defense on Miller in the 3rd as well, cutting him pff at every pass. At that point it was a short night, but it would have been a straight A night. Kid was putting on a show. But it was too little Reke late. And much of that is not his fault -- we held him out for the first 4-5 minutes of the 4th while our Sergio/Beno combo struggled and gave away the lead, and then late we were being too cute, too democratic, for a team that could not score. It was too much Beno handling, too much JT making decisions, too much lesser lights -- you don't win in the NBA on Benos or JTs, you win with stars. And facing in a packed in defense Reke was being too unselfish there by the end, and the consequence was the lesser lights faioled, and we only scored 14 points in the 4th. Sometimes when you are the star you just have to take over because you are the only one who can. Stepped up briefly at the 2:00 mark to give us a last kick -- playing great defense on Roy and forcing the turnover, and then driving, drawing the foul on Pryz, and almost, almsot the +1 to keep us close. But it rolled halfway down and then popped out, Reke missed 1 of the 2 FTs, and instead of a 3pt play to get us back within 1 it ended up only being a 1pt play and we never caught back up. Finished with a ridiculously efficeint 19pts 7rebs 3ast 2stl night on 7-9 shooting (with 1 of those 2 misses being the desperation heave). He hit everything he took basically. But with the offense collapsing late we needed him to get a little selfish and take some more. Fine line there, but "taking what the defense gives you" is not actually always the best policy. Not when you are a star. There is a reason they are giving it to you, and the very value of a star is that they can sometimes take what they want from the defense, rather than just settling for what the defense wants them to take.
Boxscore
Nocioni ( D- ) -- lost in the Spencer, uh, "fireworks" was the fact that Noc did absolutely nothing out there for us either. Had that one good game for us against the Wolves, otherwise just a struggle for weeks now. Did nothing early and played all of about 7 minutes in the first half. Did come back in the third to hit a big three in the early minutes to stop the bleeding after the Blazers had come roaring back and we could not score. That's actually the whole reason for any grade at all here. Showed a lack of poise in the late going taking shots he should not have, and too quick in the clock. Not exactly the veteran leadership you are looking for in that situation. PLayed all of 17minutes on the night, gave us 5pts 2rebs on 2-7 shooting, and just generally was no help at all.
Thompson ( B- ) -- did not get involved offensively in the early going here, but Aldridge really did nothing back the other way in the first half so the sluggish start was not that damaging. Played nice defense on the switch against Roy though, and after returning in the mid-2nd dropped in a couple of nice in control post moves, then got fouled on a cut after the Blazers tried to double Reke and left Jaosn with the clear path to the hoop. Came up with a faceup 3pt play in the third as we clawed to stay in things, and had a decent second half offensively. Problems were 2 fold 1) while Jason had a decent 2nd half offensively, Aldridge had a huge one. Little of that could be attributed to Jason though because we just wouldn't let him play LaMarcus for whatever reason. So we hid Jason off on Pryzbilla while our other bigs got torched. And 2) Json's 4th quarter decisionamking was just schoolyard pickup game terrible. Grabbed a d-board in the mid 4th and threw an incredibly dumb oulet pass ahead to...Spencer Hawes on the leak that just had no chance to be comkpleted, and that Spencer would have had no chcance to hit even if it had been completed. Hit a jumper, but made some critical errors down the stretch. Took a bad long jumper, got an offensive foul running into Pryz, blew a chippee layup when he got an off rebound, then got trapped in the corner on offense and wasted our shotclock leaving Reke to throw up a desperation three at the buzzer. Just bad stuff, and a lot of it, as for the night at least the question of whether Reke should ahve the ball more in the crunch was a definitive "damn right he should" because the rest of the guys were being idiots.
Hawes ( F ) -- and here it is, the long awaited and much anticipated Spencer Hawes "F" game. There have been people urging it all season, panicking at the site of every 7pt 4reb 3-11 shooting night and wanting to annoint such relative mediocrity an "F". But I had confidence in Spencer. I knew he was capable of worse yet and did not want to cheapen the grade when it came. And so I saved this grade for a performance like tonight's. Was whisper soft from the beginning of this one, and that should shock nobody who has watched him play against these Blazers bigs over the last 3 seasons. Even with Spencer boogeyman Oden out, Wiltzilla still loomed, and I thnk much of tonight's performance can be explained by Spencer having soiled himself. Was invisible early as Wiltzilla celebrated the 6th consecutive year of soft Sacto centers padding his career stats. Came back in for what was effectively his game highlight, aggressively going at Pryzbilla in the 2nd quarter and thowing up wild hook shots. Was quick to the glass to follow one of them up too, to account for half of his points and rebounds on the night on one play. Was on Aldridge to start the third and quickly got torched. Responded back the other way by picking up an offensive foul on the break and bricking a hook. By the early 4th we were hiding him from Aldridge as well as Pryz, and quickly inserted him when neither guy was out there. But problem is that when those guys came back, one is 6'11" and the other is 7'1", and Brockman and Thomas looked silly trying to guard that kind of size. So Westphal stuck with Spencer. And Spencer responded like a ch*mp (I'll let you decide whether the missing letter is an a or a u (or possibly an i). Just did nothing at all for us, no scoring, no rebounding, every shot was a soft flip that bounced off the rim, every pick and roll a seemingly unsolvable puzzle on defense. And on a critical play in the final minutes he reacted slowly to penetration, and rather than smacking the guy just slapped him for the +1 to really put us in the hole. I've mentioned before that I think Spencer has a lot of tealent. I've also mentioned before that I don't think you can teach toughness, that you just either are or not. And tonight Spencer was most certainly not. 28min 4pts 2rebs on 2-7 shooting from your starting center. I mean, WTH?
Greene ( C- ) -- aggressive and wild to start, and am having a hard time figuring exactly who has told hime that he's a primary option while he is out there. Got up more shots in 14 minutes than Reke did the whole game. When we fell behind early was quickly swapped out. Was back in for the final defensive play of the first half and did a nice job defending Roy on the switch. Dumb forced drive to start the 3rd quarter, right into Pryzbilla. Would repeat that mistake again later in the game. Note Donte: Pryz is a shotblocker. Was surprisingly in the game down the stretch and did a solid job disrupting Roy on defense. Agian made a wild drive at the 1:00 mark that went from oh no! to oh yeah! as he threw himself inside, hit the layup and drew the foul. MIssed the damn free throw thgouh as boht he nad Reke missed late ones that dented our chances. Would say was teetering on the verge of our of control in this one, but fact is he was over the ledge. Chill dude!
Evans ( A- ) -- nifty drives to start as always, was defensively active for steals as well but got into quick foul trouble diving down to try to rip one away from Pryzbilla. Had to sit a long stretch adn did not return until the mid second quarter. Was aggressive again after returning, slashing to the hoop, beating double teams with the pass, and again creaitng havoc defensively. Got on the boards down the stretch of the half. Was working Miller in the post to start the second half and causing the Blazers problems. Missed his only true jump shot of the game (there was later a desperatin three which he had to throw up of balance against the shot clock violation) when he kind of just randomly pulled up and clunked a long J, but got back on the subsequent Blazers break for a big block to temporarily save the hoop (Blazers got it back and converted). Killed the Blazers in the late thrid just slashing inside again and again, including debuting a driving hook shot that could be deadly, and bulling us back out to a nice lead entering the 4th. Never missed on a drive for the entire game, and the power & body control on some of those drives left me thinking there might only be 4 guys in the world could have pulled off -- Bron, Kobe, Wade & this kid. Was playing strong defense on Miller in the 3rd as well, cutting him pff at every pass. At that point it was a short night, but it would have been a straight A night. Kid was putting on a show. But it was too little Reke late. And much of that is not his fault -- we held him out for the first 4-5 minutes of the 4th while our Sergio/Beno combo struggled and gave away the lead, and then late we were being too cute, too democratic, for a team that could not score. It was too much Beno handling, too much JT making decisions, too much lesser lights -- you don't win in the NBA on Benos or JTs, you win with stars. And facing in a packed in defense Reke was being too unselfish there by the end, and the consequence was the lesser lights faioled, and we only scored 14 points in the 4th. Sometimes when you are the star you just have to take over because you are the only one who can. Stepped up briefly at the 2:00 mark to give us a last kick -- playing great defense on Roy and forcing the turnover, and then driving, drawing the foul on Pryz, and almost, almsot the +1 to keep us close. But it rolled halfway down and then popped out, Reke missed 1 of the 2 FTs, and instead of a 3pt play to get us back within 1 it ended up only being a 1pt play and we never caught back up. Finished with a ridiculously efficeint 19pts 7rebs 3ast 2stl night on 7-9 shooting (with 1 of those 2 misses being the desperation heave). He hit everything he took basically. But with the offense collapsing late we needed him to get a little selfish and take some more. Fine line there, but "taking what the defense gives you" is not actually always the best policy. Not when you are a star. There is a reason they are giving it to you, and the very value of a star is that they can sometimes take what they want from the defense, rather than just settling for what the defense wants them to take.
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