We were outscored 68-35 to finish this one. That ladies and gents is how you lose a game.
Theme: You Want the History of Tanks, you get the History of Tanks
Greene ( C- ) -- another day another spot start for Donte, who could not contain Gay in the early going, got into foul trouble, and saw most of his minutes go to a variety of SFs who really didn't earn them either -- we were back in our play every SF on the roster 10 minutes each mode. Got an alley oop dunk from Hawes to start, and that was really the highlight. Overpowered by Thabeet in the post, and while his positioning looked good, Gay was too good early. Added a layup off the cut for his only other score. Short minutes after half, and think his final act may have been getting picked in the open court when he got careless with the ball.
Armored Elephant -- the idea behind the tank has been around for thousands of years. Seige towers were kind of armored tanks of a sort. So were knights with thier horses in barding. Perhaps the closet ancient match would be war elephants, decked out in armor, and with a seige tower (i.e. a "turret") attached up top. Big, heavy, armored, capable of punching through enemy lines,and wiht a firing turret up top? What does that sound like?
Landry ( B+ ) -- interesting game in both the good and bad. Got off to a very slow start, notching only a single layup from Beno before picking up 2 fouls and heading to the bench. Back in at the end of the first and nearly committed his third foul in bumping Haddadi out of the way for his second score. Began the 2nd repeatedly taking advantage of that matchup inside and out. Had a +1, a layup, a long jumper. Added a nice spinning post move over Arthur late in the quarter after the Grizzlies had roared back into it. In the third fouled by Thabeet as the big guy leapt in the air and came down on his head/back. Good block on Gay. Picked up his 4th foul on a missed FT as he and Nocioni combined to pin BOTH of Thabeet's arms to get the d-board. Westphal again id his defy fate thng and let him on and of play through the fouls, and he added a side pop. Hit the side pop. You could say he was deuling with Randolph, except really did most of his damage against others. The Haddadis, Arthurs, etc. And rebonding was a wipeout again (rebounding last 3 games: 2, 6, now 5 -- Zach had 12). With our offense collapsing we continued to zip him in and out n the 4th trying to squeeze every last point we could out of him and got some scatted production, but not enough. A Landry FT at the 6:00 mark was kind of our last hurrah, as is closed the gap to 1. We would get outscored by 16 down the stretch. Again a very effficent night, not taking many more shots, but just hitting a high percentage of them 9-13 on the night. Effectively our goto guy on the night, but at some poont you have to take into account that his opponent more than matched his scoring, and doubled him up on the glass as well.
Da Vinci Tank -- you know, Leonardo da Vinci was one of history's great geniuses -- maybe THE great genius. The dude painted the most famous painting of all time, was an expert in a dozen fields, and ivented the helicopter...in the 15th century. He rocked. But I'm not sure this one would really go up on his wall of fame. Same idea though. Had wheels underneath, and people powered of course (I presume there were holes in the floor to walk around Flintstones style). But its the same tank idea.
Hawes ( C ) -- back at the beginning of the season Memphis came to Sacto, Thabeet came off the bench, and within a minute of entering Spencer was able to upfake and drive by him, at which point Lionel Hollins instantly pulled Thabeet and never returned him to the game. A ridiculous bit of coaching by Hollins to be sure for a rookie top draft pick, but also an indication of the Brad Milleresque way that Spencer could try to attack the giant. But tonight he was never able to sustain any sort of counterattack of that sort, was invisible on the glass, and turned in a pretty middling 13pt (on 6-13 shooting) 4reb performance that was more than countered by Thabeet the other way. Stepped outside for the jumper over Thabeet to begin, got fouled on the cut. Reteated to the three point line ofr his only three and bricked it. Beat everybody down the flloor and dunked. Jumper from Beno after returning in the 2nd. Missed the long jumper on the final shot of the half for us. Did nothing at all in the third before being replaced, and in the 4th other than doing a good job blocking a ball right out of Randolph's hand to start a break (on which he eventually got down the floor for an offensive board and mised follow) it was all misses. Finished by airballing a running hook. The rebs were especially probelmatic thoguh, because frankly Landry cvan't rebound to save his life, and our starting C and PF combined for 9 tonight in starters minutes (compared to 19 for the Grizzlies' duo). Its hard to hang in there with numbers like those.
Simms Motor War Car (1902) -- It wasn't long at all after the invention of the automobile that we humans, fascinated as we always are with new ways of killing each other, quickly saw the possibilities and got the bright idea of hey, what if we wrapped a big sheet of steel around this thing and mounted some guns up top?
Cisco ( D+ ) -- just did not have it tonight. Actually started this one hitting a long three, but the inability to hit anything would eventually be his story tonight. Hit Donte on the cut, intimidated by Thabeet along the baseline and turned it over. Got an o-reb and missed the follow jumper. Nice steal at midcourt and went down for a dunk. Missed the jumper out of the timepout at the 2:30 mark. Started the third with tow more missed jumpers. Came up with a nice defensive play with a block on Mayo after Landry got a block on Gay. Bad pass turnover after turning down the shot. Miscommunicated with McGuire and another bad pass turnover to close the 3rd. MIssed 3 more jumpers to starte the 4th. Blocked a shot by Brewer, got out in the open court, and...picked from behind by Conley. Finally got the give and go layup from Landry after looking unsure how he wanted to proceed. Missed two more threes down the stretch, and watched Mayo explode in his face to blow the game open. Not his night. Get's a little grade for some defensive hustle.
Levavasseur Project (1903) -- and as early as 1903 a French captain had seized upon the idea of using tracks instead of wheels and drew up sketches that look amazingly like modern tanks to this day. Of course like most people ahead of his time, his idea was scuttled by old guys higher up in the pecking order who considered it impractical and preferred to stick to riding horses to battle. Probably the same dudes who built the Maginot line.
Theme: You Want the History of Tanks, you get the History of Tanks
Greene ( C- ) -- another day another spot start for Donte, who could not contain Gay in the early going, got into foul trouble, and saw most of his minutes go to a variety of SFs who really didn't earn them either -- we were back in our play every SF on the roster 10 minutes each mode. Got an alley oop dunk from Hawes to start, and that was really the highlight. Overpowered by Thabeet in the post, and while his positioning looked good, Gay was too good early. Added a layup off the cut for his only other score. Short minutes after half, and think his final act may have been getting picked in the open court when he got careless with the ball.
Armored Elephant -- the idea behind the tank has been around for thousands of years. Seige towers were kind of armored tanks of a sort. So were knights with thier horses in barding. Perhaps the closet ancient match would be war elephants, decked out in armor, and with a seige tower (i.e. a "turret") attached up top. Big, heavy, armored, capable of punching through enemy lines,and wiht a firing turret up top? What does that sound like?
Landry ( B+ ) -- interesting game in both the good and bad. Got off to a very slow start, notching only a single layup from Beno before picking up 2 fouls and heading to the bench. Back in at the end of the first and nearly committed his third foul in bumping Haddadi out of the way for his second score. Began the 2nd repeatedly taking advantage of that matchup inside and out. Had a +1, a layup, a long jumper. Added a nice spinning post move over Arthur late in the quarter after the Grizzlies had roared back into it. In the third fouled by Thabeet as the big guy leapt in the air and came down on his head/back. Good block on Gay. Picked up his 4th foul on a missed FT as he and Nocioni combined to pin BOTH of Thabeet's arms to get the d-board. Westphal again id his defy fate thng and let him on and of play through the fouls, and he added a side pop. Hit the side pop. You could say he was deuling with Randolph, except really did most of his damage against others. The Haddadis, Arthurs, etc. And rebonding was a wipeout again (rebounding last 3 games: 2, 6, now 5 -- Zach had 12). With our offense collapsing we continued to zip him in and out n the 4th trying to squeeze every last point we could out of him and got some scatted production, but not enough. A Landry FT at the 6:00 mark was kind of our last hurrah, as is closed the gap to 1. We would get outscored by 16 down the stretch. Again a very effficent night, not taking many more shots, but just hitting a high percentage of them 9-13 on the night. Effectively our goto guy on the night, but at some poont you have to take into account that his opponent more than matched his scoring, and doubled him up on the glass as well.
Da Vinci Tank -- you know, Leonardo da Vinci was one of history's great geniuses -- maybe THE great genius. The dude painted the most famous painting of all time, was an expert in a dozen fields, and ivented the helicopter...in the 15th century. He rocked. But I'm not sure this one would really go up on his wall of fame. Same idea though. Had wheels underneath, and people powered of course (I presume there were holes in the floor to walk around Flintstones style). But its the same tank idea.
Hawes ( C ) -- back at the beginning of the season Memphis came to Sacto, Thabeet came off the bench, and within a minute of entering Spencer was able to upfake and drive by him, at which point Lionel Hollins instantly pulled Thabeet and never returned him to the game. A ridiculous bit of coaching by Hollins to be sure for a rookie top draft pick, but also an indication of the Brad Milleresque way that Spencer could try to attack the giant. But tonight he was never able to sustain any sort of counterattack of that sort, was invisible on the glass, and turned in a pretty middling 13pt (on 6-13 shooting) 4reb performance that was more than countered by Thabeet the other way. Stepped outside for the jumper over Thabeet to begin, got fouled on the cut. Reteated to the three point line ofr his only three and bricked it. Beat everybody down the flloor and dunked. Jumper from Beno after returning in the 2nd. Missed the long jumper on the final shot of the half for us. Did nothing at all in the third before being replaced, and in the 4th other than doing a good job blocking a ball right out of Randolph's hand to start a break (on which he eventually got down the floor for an offensive board and mised follow) it was all misses. Finished by airballing a running hook. The rebs were especially probelmatic thoguh, because frankly Landry cvan't rebound to save his life, and our starting C and PF combined for 9 tonight in starters minutes (compared to 19 for the Grizzlies' duo). Its hard to hang in there with numbers like those.
Simms Motor War Car (1902) -- It wasn't long at all after the invention of the automobile that we humans, fascinated as we always are with new ways of killing each other, quickly saw the possibilities and got the bright idea of hey, what if we wrapped a big sheet of steel around this thing and mounted some guns up top?
Cisco ( D+ ) -- just did not have it tonight. Actually started this one hitting a long three, but the inability to hit anything would eventually be his story tonight. Hit Donte on the cut, intimidated by Thabeet along the baseline and turned it over. Got an o-reb and missed the follow jumper. Nice steal at midcourt and went down for a dunk. Missed the jumper out of the timepout at the 2:30 mark. Started the third with tow more missed jumpers. Came up with a nice defensive play with a block on Mayo after Landry got a block on Gay. Bad pass turnover after turning down the shot. Miscommunicated with McGuire and another bad pass turnover to close the 3rd. MIssed 3 more jumpers to starte the 4th. Blocked a shot by Brewer, got out in the open court, and...picked from behind by Conley. Finally got the give and go layup from Landry after looking unsure how he wanted to proceed. Missed two more threes down the stretch, and watched Mayo explode in his face to blow the game open. Not his night. Get's a little grade for some defensive hustle.
Levavasseur Project (1903) -- and as early as 1903 a French captain had seized upon the idea of using tracks instead of wheels and drew up sketches that look amazingly like modern tanks to this day. Of course like most people ahead of his time, his idea was scuttled by old guys higher up in the pecking order who considered it impractical and preferred to stick to riding horses to battle. Probably the same dudes who built the Maginot line.
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