Finally!
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( B- ) -- a cynic might note that Cisco's offensive contribution again consisted of nothgin but three three point shots, two of which came in the early going here. But the cynic would miss the fact that the third of the threes was a huge one at the 4:00 mark of the game, and that during the long dry spell in between Cisco's contributions were on the other side of the floor, where he spent his energy harasing and slowing RUdy Gay -- the same Rudy Gay who lit us up for 32 and 9 last time around. But even in that earlier game Cisco had shown in limited minutes he could do the best job on Gay for whatever reason, and here he was solid the whole game long. Got his early threes on drive and dishes from Reke, his last on a spectacular open court drive and dish from Beno, and just living that spot up three point shooter role right now. Really got into Gay defensively after half as well. So 9pts 2reb 2ast in 27min = pretty anemic. But this one was a good example of how/what a roleplayer's value is. Not everybody can score 15 or 20, there always have to be guys around who just spot up and create space and do the dirty work, and Cisco did a nice job of that tonight. Should be noted that during the celebration after the shot Reke went to seek him out, so maybe an acknowledgement of that veteran leadership stuff too.
Thompson ( D ) -- not a very complimentary picture, but seemed appropriate for this game. Was back...but not really. Not productive in there against Randolph, and neither able to slow him himself, nor to get anything going offensively where all we got to see were several forced one on one post turnarounds from 16 feet that had no chance. Topped the evening by being in constant foul trouble, and saw us go bgb-big with Dalembert and Cousins out there together almsot as often as he was paired with either one. While I applaud Westphal for actually remembering what an embarrassing slaughter Randolph laid on Landry back in the first game and going with more size instead, hopefully this rusty JT effort won't lose JT the starting spot just that quick to Westphal's happy footed lineup pen.
Dalembert ( C ) -- Samuel Dalembert is a very good post defender in this league. Just a few days ago we saw him get into and slow the Blake Griffin express after the rookie had pummeled us in the first half of the Clippers game. And tonight he was generaly good against Marc Gasol and blocked his normal selection of shots, including a big one on Gay in the 4th. But he wasn't able to do anything to slow Zach Randolph on one of those big night benders he sometimes goes on, and after roughing up Jason, treating Landry like a speedbump, and just ignoring DeMarcus, the little tank worked over Daly for much of the game. And when your defensive specialist isn't able to actually slow a guy much on defense, that's going to hold the grade down a bit. Got his fair share of boards, although it felt like Randolph was getting them all, and displayed the normal offense, which is to say not much, as we again (and here Beno really needs to be slapped alongside the head) seemed to confuse him with DeMarcus at times and ask him to do things he just can't do. Probably had his best minutes when paired next to Cousins in our big Daly/Boogie frontline -- between the two of them they dominated the glass.
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