[Grades] Grades v. Bulls 11/27/10

[Bricklayer]

Sigh. This was going to start out with a "what a difference 48 hours makes" and instead ends up starting with "what a difference a half makes".

And you know what pisses me off? We had a starting lineup that worked very well for most of the game. That lineup was Evans, Head, Greene, Thompson and Dalembert, and as far as I remember our genius coach did not play that lineup ONCE for the entire 4th quarter, a quarter in which we got waxed 27-9, and instead opted to run Casspi at SF and Green at PF, to have Beno at PG doing less than nothing, and to bring in a struggling Cousins for key minutes. Moronic.

Alright, there have been calls for girls, but I don't want to get into a pattern too exclusionary of the females reading this board so early, and so while there will be girls, this one will be approached in a more inclusive manner that can interest everybody. Hence the topic is: Guess the Child Starlet

Greene ( B ) -- a important piece to the early puzzle where we had our success. Was working well with Reke spotting up. Not hitting the threes of course, but defensive glue, moving the ball, and when Korver came in aggressively overwhelmed him to the hoop. Led the break and threw an oop to Daly. In the disastrous 4th got moved to PF as Westphal moved to match the Bulls' smallball rather than continue to exploit our size advantage, and did little.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Scarlett Johannsen

Thompson ( A- ) -- this started out as a huge bounceback game for Jason, but then the Bulls figured out the one man who could stop him -- his coach. Got the start with Landry ailing...at least that is what I thought the story was until Landry checked in later? Made the most of it and worked really well with the big defensive lineup that is starting to establish itself now (Daly, Greene, Reke, and yes even Head). Was aggressive in the post, although not converting. Liked the flow better with him out there as he was operating as a significant ball mover for us, and of course brought enthusiastic hustle. Worked well with Reke in the late second, both setting him up, and being set up. Things tightened up after hald as the Bulls squeezed and we crumbled. Made great hustle play racing downcourt to save a Rose open court hoop with a block from behind. But then was mysteriously forgotten about right through the heart of the 4th as we collapsed. The mystery being that The Bulls shifted Deng to PF, and our coach, who a week ago had decided Jason was a SF, all of sudden did not think he could match with one at PF, and went smallball instead. Hence the big Daly/Thompson/Greene/Reke/Head lineup who had keyed our early success never got a single minute of action together as Westphal's replacements scored a grand total of 9 points.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Elisha Cuthbert

 

[Bricklayer]

Dalembert ( B ) -- pretty much our version of old reliable right now, came up with another defensive gem, although this time with more offense but critically without the rebounding. Was battling with Noah early, and came up with a handful of spectacular blocks. Great block in the open court to save a Deng layup attempt and key a break the opther way. Started the third blocking Gibson at the rim. Made a beautioful pass from up top to a cutting Greene. Amd for maybe the first time this season that little jumper was on, and he just kept on turning and splashing in little 12 ot 15 footers. Of course was a sign of the offense breaking down that we ended up wiht that shot more and more as the game went along. Out of a timeourt in the late third we tried to go to the Daly high post pass to Greene again, and Noah just jumped in the air and snatched it. Not able to keep Noah off the boards late, which was critical because our coach had neutered our size advantage to matchup smallball with the Bulls, and Daly (and Cousins when he was in) were left mano a mano with Noah. With Daly unable to control the glass late, there was no PF to pick up the slack.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Eliza Dushku

Head ( D ) -- and so the magic spell of Head's defense was broken -- after slowing Harris, Deron, and CP3 in the last two weeks he struggled against Eric Gordon on Thanksgiving, and could not contain Derrick Rose tonight. Let's hope this isn't the back to a pumpkin moment experienced by Darnell a few weeks back. I should note here that I seem to have a mistake in my notes, as I have him down for basically two highlights -- once in the early game when he got Rose to foul him on a made 3pt shot that would have been a 4pt play if we could hit a damn FT. And once in the third when my notes say he hit a three on a kickout from Reke. Boxscore says he only got the one hoop though, so that second play must have been to somebody else. Was also trying to create havoc on the defensive end in the early 3rd, which is actually what we more need him for anyway. This grade begins the "rest of the grades section for us -- based on those first three grades you would never know we lost. Based on the rest, you would have no doubt as to why. Getting waxed in your main matchup 30-7-7 to 3-2-0 will have a tendency to do things like this to your gade. Of course its not fair to ask Luther Head to match Derrick Rose, but if we are starting him and playng him 30min intentionally to make that mathcup its fair to ask for a lot more. Should be noted BTW that in the first half Reke finally stepped bakc up and took over, which was very good for our offense, but possibly not so good for Head's numbers as we went away from the ealry game genius of our Head/Daly 1-2 punch offense.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Alyssa Milano

 

[Bricklayer]

Evans ( C+ ) -- this was a just damn performance. For a half we had our fullback (American football power runner) of a PG back. For a half he was quick, strong, aggressive, and dueled with a hot Derrick Rose to a near standstill. And the team responded with its best first half of the season -- 15 games in and we had our first halftime lead. And then the 2nd half rolled around, and while there was some scrappiness in the third, and a brief burst after being brought back in in the 4th to try to save us, it was mostly right back to that same tentative, dribble around the perimeter, settle for jumpers nothingness that has been so alarming the last two weeks. Was aggressive right from the opening bell here, and had two nice takes to start the game,. He missed both finishes and still was alittle shaky there, but immediately grabbed a steal in open court and got the one +1 to get on the board. Was really working in the post without Landry, and Bogans wasn't able to contend with him either inside or out. And when not slashing to the hoop he was setting people up as the offense hummed along. The whole game just felt aggressive and muscular and very much like the Reke we have known. He and rose had some memorable matchups too, once when Reke came back in in the 2nd and got surprisingly overpowered by Rose in the post. Two other times when Rose tried to run past him and Reke used that great length to block his shots. Maybe the first sign of weakness came on the last possesion of the first half where we went with the Tyreke iso up top, he didn't look sure of how he wanted to attack, and he picked up the offensive foul. And then we went to halftime, where Musselman was apparently brought in as a motivatinal speaker/drugged kool aid distributor, and it all changed. The lanes closed off, there were several turnobers of the drive and kick to nobody variety, adn Reke started settling for that jumper again, which has become a symptom not of tactical choice or punsihing weapon, but rather of confusion and settling. Annoyed me once too not running back on the break after he got picked up top, leaving Head to have to defend a 3 on 1 alone. Came back in in the 4th after the various reserve mixes Westphal conducted had blown the entire lead, and briefly restored order with a couple of aggressive plays. But then settled for a jumnper, and then a floater, rather than keeping it at the hoop, and was never effective on offense the rest fo the way as he just settled outside and threw up bricks while we floundered. Given that we had already sacrificed our size advantage to matchup with Deng in the 4th, have no idea how/why Reke ended up guarding him so much in that quarter, but he stood his ground in their pretty well against the bigger player and came up with a few stops along the way.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Thora Birch

Bench
Landry ( C- ) -- I was confused by the circumstances surrounding this outing. Originally I thought I heard Landry would not be available because of a back problem. Then I hear, post game, that he did not start because he overslept for shootaround or some such. then there was always the possibility Westphal was just tinkering again. Then he ends up only playing 9 minutes on the night, which seems more like bad back then oversleep, although maybe it was tinker given Westphals from starter straight to 12th man philosophy. And then after the game, despite JT playing verl well, us getting off to our best start of the season, and Carl struggling, Westphal says he still likes Carl as the starter. As a bencher this time thoguht Carl was better than the numbers but still not very effective. Came in firing off the bench. But it was firing and missing, with his only hit a little top of the key jumper on a set up from Reke. Started to go inside, but still unable to finsih. Thing I was happiest to see was him making a couple of nice hustling defensive plays at the end of the third, blocking both Rose and Noah. In the end though, on a night when our bench was completely punchless, so was Carl in his limited minutes, and Thibodeau's brilliant use Deng to fool the opposing coach into destroying his own lineups strategy left him out of the mix in the 4th.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Amanda Bynes

 

[Bricklayer]

Cousins ( D ) -- this was another messy game for Cousins, and while his development is an absolute must for us, spotting him in on an ineffective night late in this game contributed to our pathetic finish. Came in and struggled from the beginning, missing his shots, picking up cheap fouls on defense. Stayed in long enough to catcha second wind and give us a hoop form inside and a jumper from out, but it was shaky, and he seemed flatfooted (moreso than normal) on the glass. As mentioned got a lot of 4th quarter minutes, and he really didn't earn them as we scored a grand total of 9 points. Got mushed by something like 4 Bulls simultaneously on a post attempt in the mid 4th, and that lack of lift remains a problem -- not a fatal one mind you. When's the last time you saw Duncan sky? But he's going to have to adjust to bigger NBA athletes who can get to straight forward moves. Worse, was, along wiht Daly, not getting the job done in the 4th on the glass as the lone big, and started racking up fouls left and right down the stretch and giving them FTs. Brought in, stupidly I night add, with 3:00 to go because the coach had screwed up and we were fading offensively. Promptly tried a spin move and turned it over to seal our fate. So bad game. Maybe my biggest concern with it is just how an immture guy deals wiht this adversity. Hopefully its toughen up and grow up rather than blow up.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Christina Applegate

Wright ( INC ) -- good defense on Korver after coming in, and pretty good defense on the perimeter overall in his minutes, which is of course why he's here. Also chunked up a shot after Beno gave him no choice (Beno has developed an odd fascination with trying to make scorers out of non-offensive weapons like Wright and Daly this year), and showed why he's not in the rotation.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Christina Ricci

 

[Bricklayer]

Udrih ( F ) -- ok, this was just painfully, mysteriously bad. I don't know what was going on, but from the very beginning of this one Beno took Tyreke's tentativeness and just multiplied it by 10. It looked like he had no idea of what we were running, or what he wanted to do. If you did not see thae game...I don't even know how to describe it. There was hesitation on everything. After a very shaky start where he passed up open shots, didn't seem to get into sets, and missed open guys, he settled in, and for a few minutes began to hit little pops and run the team. Even came up with a little steal. There was still a lack of confidence though, and he looked all kinds of shaky after returning late in the 3rd, and his shaky play was a major help to the Bulls as they made their comeback. You could almost feel his unsteadiness bleed over into teamwide confusion. When the PG doesn't seem to know the plays, keeps picking up the ball, passing up shots he should take, resulting in forces and 24 second violations, occasionally randomly forcing a drive and missing...I mean what hope do the kids he is supposed ot be leading have? Nonetheless with Head doing little and Reke needing rest we played this Beno imposter huge minutes in the 4th despite me not being able to remember a single thing he did right for the entire period. Was going to work this into some sort of D, but I felt this really bled over to the rest of the team and really helped us fall apart, and so F we go. I hope to never see this sort of game from him again, and am just mystified as to what happened here. Guys have bad shooting nights, but this was like he was 15 again and just feeling his way along. It was a bizarre game for him.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Diane Lane

Casspi ( C ) -- hit a three from up top to keep us ahead in the early 2nd (note BTW, almost all of his threes of late have been coming from up top, while Cisco's have largely been in the corners. Given how often Omri seems to brick those corner threes on Reke drive and kicks, could he actually be more comfortable shooting them from further out?). Was playing better defense as well, enough to keep him on the floor for the bulk of the 2nd. Did throw up a forced airballed three to start a Bulls break with a couple of minutes to go before half that appeared to cause us to call an immediate timeout, but came back out of the timeout and hit a redemption three from Reke. It was a pretty good first half for him, and late in the third for all you Omri 'tude watcers he exploded up off the bench after the Bulls called a timeout wavig a towel and yelling encouragement. His biggest negatives on the night were actually not really of his own causing. Namely Westphal got trapped into playing the smallball matchup game, and played Omi most of the way in the 4th despite getting no productivity out of him, alongside Donte Greene. It kept Thompson pinned to the bench, who had had an excellent game. It also kept us from suing Carl as any sort of instant offense in that period. Instead we got a whole quarter of Beno demonstrating Chapter 1 of Basketball fro Dummies, and Omri standing around doing nothing. And the coach apparently thought scoring 9 points this was was preferable to the horrors of playing a smallballing team fullsized and trying to pound them inside.

Guess who this grew up to be?

Spoiler

Fairuza Balk

Jeter ( INC ) -- in for the last minute and a half of what was essentially garbagetime.

 

[Tetsujin]

Beno: F. Whatever he was doing surely wasn't basketball.

 

[PurpleHaze]

Coach Westphal said that he did not use JT as much down the stretch because of Deng - this after Gibson went out injured. So he went with Greene at 4 and Casspi at 3 to try to slow him down and get some more offensive punch as the well had gone completely dry for Kings. He also had a subtle dig at Evans when coach seemed to blame him for a lot of the offensive problems (5 TOs) plus remarked, "he was not as quick in second half as he had been in the first." Coach W did not elaborate why he thought that was the case even though it was a rather obvious elephant in room kind of observation.

 

[Asaf]

If I was lost at sea on a small rowboat with two of my friends for 2 months I would still get a new coach...

Also: I'M ON A BOAT MOTHA****A!

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

F for !*#% that was ugly. And on a night when Thompson, Greene, and Dalembert all have good games too. What a freaking waste. I turned it off with 3:30 to go because I don't really have the money for a new remote right now.

 

[JoMama]

Been a Kings fan since 1985. Never, ever, has there been a Kings team this inept. Fans should not feel humiliated game after game after game after....

 

[gunks]

Eh, Evans played like crap in the 2nd half. It is still way too early to worry about the kid, but I'm not as wowed watching him play this year, as I was wowed by looking at his boxscore results last season. We'll see if he adjusts in his 3rd season. The second year is a hump for a lot of young stars, hopefully Reke has what it takes to get over it. Oh, and I dont care if he got 9 assists tonight, he isnt a PG. If Reke is a PG than so is Arenas, so is Iverson.

JT was great. I've been singing the JT>>>Landry song since last season. He just brings so much more to the table. Better D, rebounding, passing, goes inside more. I doubt this kind of game is the norm for JT offensively, but he did have a couple long stretches of averaging 50% from the field last season. Westphal keeps him on a pretty short leash though. But... His 18/9/4 trumps anything "Man"dry has done this season.

Cuz has a ways to go.

Greene continues to rebound the ball better than ever, had a couple blocks and made a few 3s.

Dally is the best goalie we've had...Ever. I hope the torch gets passed to M.I.A. Whiteside.


As far as the coaching this game? See sig.

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

Is it just me or did I hear booing from the fans in the 4th on those two possessions where they kept passing up open shots?

 

[ReinadelosReys]

Been a Kings fan since 1985. Never, ever, has there been a Kings team this inept. Fans should not feel humiliated game after game after game after....

Humilated? No, that would be the 17 win season. Frustraded? As all heck. I want to blow my savings account buy season tickets right behind the Kings bench, call in subsitutions, call out plays and yell at players for missed defensive assignments.

 

[gunks]

^^^
That would probably be an improvement over Westphail

 

[Asaf]

Humilated? No, that would be the 17 win season. Frustraded? As all heck. I want to blow my savings account buy season tickets right behind the Kings bench, call in subsitutions, call out plays and yell at players for missed defensive assignments.

I'm not sure we will have 17 wins this season..

 

[Megalodon]

Girls?


girl time brick


I want girls, you want girls


we all want girls


girls?

 

[Megalodon]

Girls?


girl time brick


I want girls, you want girls


we all want girls


girls?

Hi there kind sir, I to agree girls are nice.


There better be girls.

 

[Kingster]

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

It's all about decision-making with this team. Not shooting when they are open; throwing the ball into a guy in the post with two players, not one, around him; doing a needless offensive foul; performing a piroquet to nowhere. No, it's not Westphal making these decisions on the court, it's the players. And whether its from lack of poise, from trying to do too much, from selfishness, or just plain idiocy, they are doing it to themselves. The only consolation is that they earn instant feedback from their collective foolishness - another loss.

 

[ReinadelosReys]

Girls?


girl time brick


I want girls, you want girls


we all want girls


girls?

Speak for yourself!

 

[SacTownKid]

Sigh. This was going to start out with a "what a difference 48 hours makes" and instead ends up starting with "what a difference a half makes".

And you know what pisses me off? We had a starting lineup that worked very well for most of the game. That lineup was Evans, Head, Greene, Thompson and Dalembert, and as far as I remember our genius coach did not play that lineup ONCE for the entire 4th quarter, a quarter in which we got waxed 27-9, and instead opted to run Casspi at SF and Green at PF, to have Beno at PG doing less than nothing, and to bring in a struggling Cousins for key minutes. Moronic.

placeholder...

Kind of a good reason for that too. That unit was destroying in the 1st half but once the Bulls pulled out the "STOP" sign and made us play half court basketball, that team was about as effective as a one legged man in a you get the idea.

This team has no system in the half court, plain and simple. They need to start basing a half court system around Cousins. Good for him, good for us. This coaching staff is making Cousins look really bad out there because they either don't know how to use him, or they don't want to use him. Same with Tyreke. It's either high pick and roll or the highway and with that kind of diversity in your arsenal teams are going to smash you on a nightly basis. And what do you know! They are.

 

[Section 101]

Coach Westphal said that he did not use JT as much down the stretch because of Deng - this after Gibson went out injured. So he went with Greene at 4 and Casspi at 3 to try to slow him down and get some more offensive punch as the well had gone completely dry for Kings. He also had a subtle dig at Evans when coach seemed to blame him for a lot of the offensive problems (5 TOs) plus remarked, "he was not as quick in second half as he had been in the first." Coach W did not elaborate why he thought that was the case even though it was a rather obvious elephant in room kind of observation.

Dunno why he didnt go with JT at center with Greene and Casspi.

 

[SacTownKid]

Eh, Evans played like crap in the 2nd half. It is still way too early to worry about the kid, but I'm not as wowed watching him play this year, as I was wowed by looking at his boxscore results last season. We'll see if he adjusts in his 3rd season. The second year is a hump for a lot of young stars, hopefully Reke has what it takes to get over it. Oh, and I dont care if he got 9 assists tonight, he isnt a PG. If Reke is a PG than so is Arenas, so is Iverson.

JT was great. I've been singing the JT>>>Landry song since last season. He just brings so much more to the table. Better D, rebounding, passing, goes inside more. I doubt this kind of game is the norm for JT offensively, but he did have a couple long stretches of averaging 50% from the field last season. Westphal keeps him on a pretty short leash though. But... His 18/9/4 trumps anything "Man"dry has done this season.

Cuz has a ways to go.

Greene continues to rebound the ball better than ever, had a couple blocks and made a few 3s.

Dally is the best goalie we've had...Ever. I hope the torch gets passed to M.I.A. Whiteside.


As far as the coaching this game? See sig.

JT was great when we were running. Once we had to put the breaks on he looked pretty average. If we could forge Carl Landry and Jason Thompson together we might have our perfect PF. Man, seems like we've been saying that about our PF for a loooong time.

 

[Section 101]

Is it just me or did I hear booing from the fans in the 4th on those two possessions where they kept passing up open shots?

Any booing was for shot clock violations and lack of offensive flow by the entire team.

 

[captain bill]

Big positives out of this game are JT and Dalembert- these two looked great on the floor together. Landry needs to be off the bench, Cuz should be glued to the bench except in garbage time/ sparing minutes in the middle of the 2nd and 3rd. Landry is an energy/spark guy, not someone you want to be playing huge minutes in the rotation. Cuz makes boneheaded plays 4/5 times he touches the ball on offense, doesn't play a lick of defense, and is a subpar rebounder.

Coach continues to make head-scratching moves. We finally see some ball movement and *actual plays* and- surprise!- the offense looks fluid and we score against a good defensive team. Coach decides in the 4th we should run a bunch of iso plays to Cuz and take out the hot hands. This could have been a job-saving night; instead its that much clearer that wet-rag Westphal needs to go.

Oh and anyone else having flashbacks to draft night '07? Noah continues to be one of my favorite young players in the league...oh if only we could have lost one more game...

 

[bajaden]

I'll start by saying that if I ever see Beno pass up a shot, and then dribble the ball around, and then, cover his own a$$ by passing the ball into JT, which he did twice or any other big with 2 to 3 seconds left on the shot clock, I'll pull what little hair I have left out. The entire blame for this loss goes to the guards. They didn't do anything in the second half that they did in the first half. And don't give me this nonsense that they were forced to play a halfcourt game in the second half. Go back and watch the friggin game. The played a halfcourt game in the first half too. The only difference is the Bulls played a zone on occasion in the second half.

The blame goes on all the guards. Tyreke was as bad in the second half as he was good in the first half. Beno, except for a couple of nice passes, stunk up the place all night. He got lost on defense, and passed up open shots all night. Head passed up wide open shots in the second half. There was nothing wrong with Thompson or Dalembert in the second half. Our guards simply didn't run anything. They just stood around the perimiter and dribbled the ball.

That aside, it was a rough night for Cousins. Noah is quicker and simply has more experience. But hey, I remember Noah's first couple of years in the league. They were less than stellar, and I'm being kind. I've got to say that he may have the ugliest shot in the league. Just goes to show that if you practice something enough times you can make it work. Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I was really upset with Beno tonight. He was just terrible. I know he can play better than that.

 

[Sluggah]

Beno's -17 pretty much sums up that game.

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

and is a subpar rebounder.

.

He's averaging 7 rebounds in 23 minutes. By what measure is that sub-par?

 

[pshn80]

Is it just me or did I hear booing from the fans in the 4th on those two possessions where they kept passing up open shots?

My son who was sitting with me, and a few others booed as you describe. I didn't but I understood why they were doing it. When Chicago put on the screws on defense the Kings screwed up right, left and in the middle. Also they got the spirit or whatever or life knocked out of them. The best thing we could have done in the last ten minutes was take Tyreke out of the game and leave him out.

 

[DesertFox]

They really look like they don't know what to do out there, like they were just looking for someone to save them on offense.
JT played great, but he should not have to take that many jump shots. The rest of the team just flailed.

 

[King-Da-Yah]

I was flipping between the game and X-Mas specials for my 17 month old. When he fell asleep I turned the game back on and whaddaya know, we are down by 2.

I am going to stop right there, girls please. For the love of all that is good in the world, girls please.