Well, we got back Kevin's scoring this road trip, but lost everybody else.
Some stats:
Record with Kevin this year: 1-6
PPG with Kevin this year: 97.3ppg (104ppg without)
Philly Opp Pts this season: 101.2 (we scored 86)
Washington Opp Pts this season: 103.6 (we score 86)
We have got to figure out how to play with him if he's going to be around.
Casspi ( D+ ) -- still AWOL as we basically played this one 2 on 5 and could not find that third scorer. Poked away a ball that created a steal for us in the early going, but in general was having problems with Butler early and was soon replaced by Donte. Missed a corner three to start the 2nd. Got out on the break for a dunk, added a steal in the mid-quarter, but airballed another three as his shot was nowhere to be found. Lost his starting spot in the third, and was not even the first SF off the bench when donte got in foul toruble (that was Udoka). After finally returning began to help a little with some boardwork, but other than a side pop in the early 4th remained punchless on his way to a 6pt 6reb on 3-9 shooting night.
Thompson ( D+ ) -- well so much for the big game in Philly breaking him out of his slump. Turned out to be a 1 game friend and family bump. Missed his first jumper, then hit 1 of 2 FTs as he was at least involved early. Blew a dunk in the early 2nd, but came back with a block to start a break. Traveled in the third after passing on a jumper, but struggled to life thereafter, getting on the glass, finally getting a jumper to fall for his only shot, and at least making a contribution. Disappeared, literally, for the 4th, as Westphal finally got tired of waiting for him, and just threw Brockman in instead to keep it simple (helps too of course that Peaches does not need the ball to score). Finshed with an uninvolved 1-5 shooting, 7pt 6reb night that basically was not starting PF quality.
Hawes ( C ) -- well the one guy who has seemed to benefit from the Reke/Kevin pairing so far has been Spencer, if you take benefit to mean gets to throw up a lot more soft fluttery shots than he did before. Started off well, getting an alley oop on the break via Reke, got his hands on several inside power moves by Haywood. but no boards and overpowered to need those blocks. In the second came up with a nice under hook, but then followed with back to back weak attempts. Picked up an offensive foul to cost us a possession just before half. In the third Passed on an interior attempt to drop an ill advised pass to Reke in abad spot. Next time down shot the hook instead. Made several good pases moving the ball around. Hit a corner three in the mid 4th to make it a 1pt game. But then followed on the next possession with an ill advised heat check three that of course bricked. Added a bad drive and turnover at the 2:20 mark. Shot 5-13 on the night, which somehow seems about right for Spencer. Added 5 TOs. But at least was aggressive out there on a night when so many of our guys seemed confused and knocked into passivity.
Martin ( B- ) -- so the man at the heart of the firestorm until a late disappearing act again looked suspiciously like innocuous little Kevin Martin (actually the disappearing act looked familiar too). Hit an early three, then missed his next two, tried to draw a foul that the refs did not go for, but picked up the carom and knocked in the baseline jumper. Picked up his game and aggressiveness once Reke left near the end of the first, doing the draw the foul thing as soon as Reke came out. Got unnecessarily fouled (dumb play by the Wizars) with a few seconds to go in the first and knocked down both FTs to put us up 1 at the end of 1. Started the 2nd with a quick drive, but got the but shot blocked by McGee (and BTW, after this performance I am a beleiver and on the get McGee bandwagon). Hit a three when the Wizards got silly and left him open in the corner in their zone defense, but then came back and airballed one. Nice kickout to Greene for a three just before half, but also had back to back threes dropped in his face by Stevensen. Back to back quick shots to open the third, one a hit, one a miss. Forced an off balance three. Hit a three but then missed a shot on a play out of the timeout. Silly Washington foul sent him to the line at the end of the 3rd. Missed 2 big jumpers down the stretch, and missed the corner three we had to have at the 1 minute mark as well. Added a late turnover. Kevin has disappeared late in games before, but this was also the 2nd of a back to back during his first two games back. Shooting never did quite nudge up over .500, and the late fade dropped it to a perhaps uglier than it really was 6-17. Rest of the game again looked like Kevin. Did drop in 4 assists, but given the complete disappearance of most of our contributors from the last couple of months it wasn't nearly enough to keep us from our back to back lowest point totals of the season.
Evans ( B ) -- okay, let's start this off with this -- Reke collected 21pts 6rebs and 7ast tonight on 9-19 shooting. This "let's claim that Tyreke had a bad game tongiht to take the heat off of Kevin" line is complete B.S. But that said, it wasn't a GREAT game, and obviously not a great enough game. What it may have shown is that Tyreke at least may be able to take care of himself now even with Kevin back. Whether he can simultaneously take care of the rest of the team while doing so is an open question. Started 0-2 again, but then settled and exploded to the hoop for three straight moves to the hoop, including one with a beautiful fullspeed behind the back dribble. Then dropped in the jumper, which for a while looked good, but which would becoem a bit of a problme late. Back in to start the 2nd and missed a layup when he hesitaed in the face of the shotblocker McGee, had a ball poked away from behind by Boynkins, and really did not dominate that matchup the way you would think he would when it was out there (Booynkins was largely shadowing Beano's minutes thoguh to avoid it). Steal and setup of Keivin for teh layup in the mid 2nd. And overall did a nice job of setting people up in the first half, finishing with 6 assists. Drive into traffic, got it swatted and fell down but had the rebound come right back into his chest on the ground, form where he passed it over to Hawes, who promptly blew the layup. Nice alley oop pass to Greene in the final minute of the half. Knocked down a standstill three in the early 3rd. Berautiful take and drop off pass to JT that did not result in an assist when JT was fouled. Several good open court takes, but then threw up an ill advised pull up three off of the dribble. Took several other threes as well, although of the standstill they are leaving me wide open variety. Only hit 1 on the night. Still not his shot. When it is you can add about 6 points to his total every night. Not a great final quarter, with too many jumpers and not enough effectiveness around the hoop. Got his shot blocked on the drive at the 1:15 mark, but grabbed the board and brought it back out. Added a meaningless drive at the buzzer. Defense seemed a little sluggish tonight -- hope Kevin is not beleding on over rather than vice versa. Of course we are all whiners. Our 20 years old ROY just gave us 21pts 6reb 7ast, pretty much his standard on the season, and all we can do is complain.
Some stats:
Record with Kevin this year: 1-6
PPG with Kevin this year: 97.3ppg (104ppg without)
Philly Opp Pts this season: 101.2 (we scored 86)
Washington Opp Pts this season: 103.6 (we score 86)
We have got to figure out how to play with him if he's going to be around.
Casspi ( D+ ) -- still AWOL as we basically played this one 2 on 5 and could not find that third scorer. Poked away a ball that created a steal for us in the early going, but in general was having problems with Butler early and was soon replaced by Donte. Missed a corner three to start the 2nd. Got out on the break for a dunk, added a steal in the mid-quarter, but airballed another three as his shot was nowhere to be found. Lost his starting spot in the third, and was not even the first SF off the bench when donte got in foul toruble (that was Udoka). After finally returning began to help a little with some boardwork, but other than a side pop in the early 4th remained punchless on his way to a 6pt 6reb on 3-9 shooting night.
Thompson ( D+ ) -- well so much for the big game in Philly breaking him out of his slump. Turned out to be a 1 game friend and family bump. Missed his first jumper, then hit 1 of 2 FTs as he was at least involved early. Blew a dunk in the early 2nd, but came back with a block to start a break. Traveled in the third after passing on a jumper, but struggled to life thereafter, getting on the glass, finally getting a jumper to fall for his only shot, and at least making a contribution. Disappeared, literally, for the 4th, as Westphal finally got tired of waiting for him, and just threw Brockman in instead to keep it simple (helps too of course that Peaches does not need the ball to score). Finshed with an uninvolved 1-5 shooting, 7pt 6reb night that basically was not starting PF quality.
Hawes ( C ) -- well the one guy who has seemed to benefit from the Reke/Kevin pairing so far has been Spencer, if you take benefit to mean gets to throw up a lot more soft fluttery shots than he did before. Started off well, getting an alley oop on the break via Reke, got his hands on several inside power moves by Haywood. but no boards and overpowered to need those blocks. In the second came up with a nice under hook, but then followed with back to back weak attempts. Picked up an offensive foul to cost us a possession just before half. In the third Passed on an interior attempt to drop an ill advised pass to Reke in abad spot. Next time down shot the hook instead. Made several good pases moving the ball around. Hit a corner three in the mid 4th to make it a 1pt game. But then followed on the next possession with an ill advised heat check three that of course bricked. Added a bad drive and turnover at the 2:20 mark. Shot 5-13 on the night, which somehow seems about right for Spencer. Added 5 TOs. But at least was aggressive out there on a night when so many of our guys seemed confused and knocked into passivity.
Martin ( B- ) -- so the man at the heart of the firestorm until a late disappearing act again looked suspiciously like innocuous little Kevin Martin (actually the disappearing act looked familiar too). Hit an early three, then missed his next two, tried to draw a foul that the refs did not go for, but picked up the carom and knocked in the baseline jumper. Picked up his game and aggressiveness once Reke left near the end of the first, doing the draw the foul thing as soon as Reke came out. Got unnecessarily fouled (dumb play by the Wizars) with a few seconds to go in the first and knocked down both FTs to put us up 1 at the end of 1. Started the 2nd with a quick drive, but got the but shot blocked by McGee (and BTW, after this performance I am a beleiver and on the get McGee bandwagon). Hit a three when the Wizards got silly and left him open in the corner in their zone defense, but then came back and airballed one. Nice kickout to Greene for a three just before half, but also had back to back threes dropped in his face by Stevensen. Back to back quick shots to open the third, one a hit, one a miss. Forced an off balance three. Hit a three but then missed a shot on a play out of the timeout. Silly Washington foul sent him to the line at the end of the 3rd. Missed 2 big jumpers down the stretch, and missed the corner three we had to have at the 1 minute mark as well. Added a late turnover. Kevin has disappeared late in games before, but this was also the 2nd of a back to back during his first two games back. Shooting never did quite nudge up over .500, and the late fade dropped it to a perhaps uglier than it really was 6-17. Rest of the game again looked like Kevin. Did drop in 4 assists, but given the complete disappearance of most of our contributors from the last couple of months it wasn't nearly enough to keep us from our back to back lowest point totals of the season.
Evans ( B ) -- okay, let's start this off with this -- Reke collected 21pts 6rebs and 7ast tonight on 9-19 shooting. This "let's claim that Tyreke had a bad game tongiht to take the heat off of Kevin" line is complete B.S. But that said, it wasn't a GREAT game, and obviously not a great enough game. What it may have shown is that Tyreke at least may be able to take care of himself now even with Kevin back. Whether he can simultaneously take care of the rest of the team while doing so is an open question. Started 0-2 again, but then settled and exploded to the hoop for three straight moves to the hoop, including one with a beautiful fullspeed behind the back dribble. Then dropped in the jumper, which for a while looked good, but which would becoem a bit of a problme late. Back in to start the 2nd and missed a layup when he hesitaed in the face of the shotblocker McGee, had a ball poked away from behind by Boynkins, and really did not dominate that matchup the way you would think he would when it was out there (Booynkins was largely shadowing Beano's minutes thoguh to avoid it). Steal and setup of Keivin for teh layup in the mid 2nd. And overall did a nice job of setting people up in the first half, finishing with 6 assists. Drive into traffic, got it swatted and fell down but had the rebound come right back into his chest on the ground, form where he passed it over to Hawes, who promptly blew the layup. Nice alley oop pass to Greene in the final minute of the half. Knocked down a standstill three in the early 3rd. Berautiful take and drop off pass to JT that did not result in an assist when JT was fouled. Several good open court takes, but then threw up an ill advised pull up three off of the dribble. Took several other threes as well, although of the standstill they are leaving me wide open variety. Only hit 1 on the night. Still not his shot. When it is you can add about 6 points to his total every night. Not a great final quarter, with too many jumpers and not enough effectiveness around the hoop. Got his shot blocked on the drive at the 1:15 mark, but grabbed the board and brought it back out. Added a meaningless drive at the buzzer. Defense seemed a little sluggish tonight -- hope Kevin is not beleding on over rather than vice versa. Of course we are all whiners. Our 20 years old ROY just gave us 21pts 6reb 7ast, pretty much his standard on the season, and all we can do is complain.
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