Alright, let's just pretend the Nuggets game didn't happen, and call this a continuation of the rebirth momentum here. Different set of actors, different star kid doing the work late, but same result against a quality opponent.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( A- ) -- as a shooter Cisco failed just as grandly tonight as he did last night, missing all 4 of his 3ptrs and setting himself up for nice goat status after he choked 2 late FTs. The difference was that this time Cisco finally said, well if I'm going to shoot like Bricklayer I'd damn well do something else. And so he did, delivering a whole slew of scrappy plays and grabbing 11 rebounds, on1 off his career high. Nice work with Reke to start, getting a block from behind that bounced to Reke, then running the floor with him and getting rewarded. Worked well with the Kings other young star too, both making and taking interior passes from Cousins all night long. Bricked and bricked and bricked jumpers in the early going as we carried over our awful offense right up until the moment that Boogie decided he'd had enough of this nonsense. One reason for the big boarding night may have been a switch in our rotations -- off of Pooh's terrible night in Denver we gave Omri Pooh's minutes, swinging Cisco down to the SG rather than a PG over to that spot. Worked, although in the late 3rd with the Reke/Cisco/Casspi lineup on the floor Cisco drew Nash and had no chance. Following the two choked FTs at the 5:00 mark of the 4th made up for it the next possession by grabbing an o-reb and following it to cut it to 8. Then hit a following jumper to cut it to 3 as basiclaly everbody on the floor in that late lineup was making clutch plays. Was thinking B+ here, but I would nto be surprised if this was Cisco's first career 20-10 game, and he was unquestionably the main perimeter help for Boogie on a night that Reke and Beno were AWOL, so A- it is. If Beno's knee keeps him out of next game perhaps starting lineup #2137 of this season with Reke, Cousins, JT, and our two best shooters Cisco and Casspi to provide spacing?
Thompson ( C ) -- showing his lack of touch around the hoop early as he again got off to an ineffective start. Got burned by a technical foul in the 2nd after it loooked like the refs realized they should have called a technical on Nash, and then they decided to do a makeup call...on us! Afterwards made a bad error taking a d-bosrd and throwing the outlet up sloppily right to the Suns. Was a little better after half but still seemed back in his hyper gerbil mode, and never settled down to really punish the Suns inside for their lack of size when he was at PF, and when at center (Dalembert could only give us a few minutes again) struggled with Gortat's physicality (the Polish Hammer nickname did not come about by accident). Gave way to Landry for the fun stuff down the stretch.
Cousins ( A+ ) -- In 25 years in Sacramento KIngs fans have never had a chance to experience what has always remained the greatest weapon in basketball -- the franchise center. Actually you push that back to the very beginngings of the franchise -- in 60 years the Kings/Royals have never had a dominant pivot. Tonight we got a taste of what its like to have one. Of course DeMarcus was not getting much chance to exploit his size against the Suns early and had to content himself with garbage type work as the guards were playing keepaway. Was making nice passes to Cisco in particular from the beginning but not being rewarded as everybody was blowing shots. Really powered our comeback in the early second with great passing and post play. Lost his focus somewhere in the late 2nd and made a couppem of loose plays to start the 3rd, the first a goaltend, the second netting him his 4th foul and forcing him to the bench before he could help is. But he gathered himself impressively over there, and simply dominated the game after returning, and really seemed to pick up all his teammates with his play. Canned the long jumper from Reke to end the 3rd and cut it to 8. About the only King playing well and with power in the early 4th when we actually used him. Power play kept us close enough that Nash had to return in the mid 4th, while I'm sure the Suns were hoping that we would just go away as usual and let their old men rest some. Nash couldn''t save them though. DeMarcus found Casspi for a three to beat a double to cut it 5 with 4:00 to go, scored on a tough tough 3pt play coming out of the timeout at the 2:00 mark and tied the game when he hit the +1 FT. Then grabbed the board on the Suns next missed three, got fouled and knocked down both clutch Fts. My criteria for A+s are pretty stringent. I only give out a few every year, mostly for career games (probably check here) and for major players, nopt only does it have to be a dominant performance (check), but it has to clearly be a team carrying poerformance (check), and a clutch performance with big play when it matters (check). So welcome Boogie to your first A+.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( A- ) -- as a shooter Cisco failed just as grandly tonight as he did last night, missing all 4 of his 3ptrs and setting himself up for nice goat status after he choked 2 late FTs. The difference was that this time Cisco finally said, well if I'm going to shoot like Bricklayer I'd damn well do something else. And so he did, delivering a whole slew of scrappy plays and grabbing 11 rebounds, on1 off his career high. Nice work with Reke to start, getting a block from behind that bounced to Reke, then running the floor with him and getting rewarded. Worked well with the Kings other young star too, both making and taking interior passes from Cousins all night long. Bricked and bricked and bricked jumpers in the early going as we carried over our awful offense right up until the moment that Boogie decided he'd had enough of this nonsense. One reason for the big boarding night may have been a switch in our rotations -- off of Pooh's terrible night in Denver we gave Omri Pooh's minutes, swinging Cisco down to the SG rather than a PG over to that spot. Worked, although in the late 3rd with the Reke/Cisco/Casspi lineup on the floor Cisco drew Nash and had no chance. Following the two choked FTs at the 5:00 mark of the 4th made up for it the next possession by grabbing an o-reb and following it to cut it to 8. Then hit a following jumper to cut it to 3 as basiclaly everbody on the floor in that late lineup was making clutch plays. Was thinking B+ here, but I would nto be surprised if this was Cisco's first career 20-10 game, and he was unquestionably the main perimeter help for Boogie on a night that Reke and Beno were AWOL, so A- it is. If Beno's knee keeps him out of next game perhaps starting lineup #2137 of this season with Reke, Cousins, JT, and our two best shooters Cisco and Casspi to provide spacing?
Thompson ( C ) -- showing his lack of touch around the hoop early as he again got off to an ineffective start. Got burned by a technical foul in the 2nd after it loooked like the refs realized they should have called a technical on Nash, and then they decided to do a makeup call...on us! Afterwards made a bad error taking a d-bosrd and throwing the outlet up sloppily right to the Suns. Was a little better after half but still seemed back in his hyper gerbil mode, and never settled down to really punish the Suns inside for their lack of size when he was at PF, and when at center (Dalembert could only give us a few minutes again) struggled with Gortat's physicality (the Polish Hammer nickname did not come about by accident). Gave way to Landry for the fun stuff down the stretch.
Cousins ( A+ ) -- In 25 years in Sacramento KIngs fans have never had a chance to experience what has always remained the greatest weapon in basketball -- the franchise center. Actually you push that back to the very beginngings of the franchise -- in 60 years the Kings/Royals have never had a dominant pivot. Tonight we got a taste of what its like to have one. Of course DeMarcus was not getting much chance to exploit his size against the Suns early and had to content himself with garbage type work as the guards were playing keepaway. Was making nice passes to Cisco in particular from the beginning but not being rewarded as everybody was blowing shots. Really powered our comeback in the early second with great passing and post play. Lost his focus somewhere in the late 2nd and made a couppem of loose plays to start the 3rd, the first a goaltend, the second netting him his 4th foul and forcing him to the bench before he could help is. But he gathered himself impressively over there, and simply dominated the game after returning, and really seemed to pick up all his teammates with his play. Canned the long jumper from Reke to end the 3rd and cut it to 8. About the only King playing well and with power in the early 4th when we actually used him. Power play kept us close enough that Nash had to return in the mid 4th, while I'm sure the Suns were hoping that we would just go away as usual and let their old men rest some. Nash couldn''t save them though. DeMarcus found Casspi for a three to beat a double to cut it 5 with 4:00 to go, scored on a tough tough 3pt play coming out of the timeout at the 2:00 mark and tied the game when he hit the +1 FT. Then grabbed the board on the Suns next missed three, got fouled and knocked down both clutch Fts. My criteria for A+s are pretty stringent. I only give out a few every year, mostly for career games (probably check here) and for major players, nopt only does it have to be a dominant performance (check), but it has to clearly be a team carrying poerformance (check), and a clutch performance with big play when it matters (check). So welcome Boogie to your first A+.
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