We shouldn't have lost this one.
We got big statistical games from our two young studs (that were probably not as impressive as the numbers indicated) a late boost from IT again...but otherwise somebody should be suing for a criminal lack of support. Including the coach as a named party too, as Smart made some curious choices both with personnel and playcalling.
Also follows our normal pattern this year -- we've been blown out a ton, but its almost all been by good teams. Against fellow bottom dwellers we've largely been competitive.
Theme = The Most Absurdly Macho Songs of All Time (mostly rock).
Boxscore
Salmons ( C+ ) -- statistically this was only mildly better than the norm for John. But as far as usefulness it was considerably improved. The reason? Defense. John guarded someone successfully. And who did he guard? Monta Ellis, who is a bit banged up, but still is Monta Ellis. Oh, and BTW, what position does Monta play? SG. And what position should Salmons play? I'll let you figure that one out. In any case combined with Reke to just squish the Ellis/Curry tandem on defense (we hid Jimmer on the SF, Wright). And for the first half we somehow talked him into just doing that and not torturing us with anymore of his constant bricking. Had 0pts on 2 total shots. In the third he struggeld to life offensively as we called his number a few times...and then it looked like he started calling his own number. Got a couple of drives and little finishes. It looks like we have officially given up on the idea of him being able to hit a corner three, which is probably a good idea. We may need to trade to find somebody to do that to create space for Reke and Cousins.
George Thorogood and the Destroyers -- Bad to the Bone
On the day I was born
The nurses all gathered 'round
And they gazed in wide wonder
At the joy they had found
The head nurse spoke up
Said "leave this one alone"
She could tell right away
That I was bad to the bone
http://www.metrolyrics.com/bad-to-the-bone-lyrics-george-thorogood.html
Thompson ( B ) -- doing all the hustle work on the glass early, although was not slowing Lee on defense at all. And while Salmons helped some with the defense, until IT's late heroics Jason was effectively our third gun and sole support for Cousins/Reke. As he often has against the Warriors, had stretches where he just overwhelmed their frontline with size and hustle. Still having trouble getting Smart's respect minutewise as a roleplayer, and had to sit for long minutes while an ineffective Hayes and erratic Hickson worked the power spots. After being reinserted late in the game was less effective against the Warriors energetic bench guys han he had been against the starters.
AC/DC -- T.N.T
I'm dirty, mean and mighty unclean
I'm a Wanted man
Public Enemy Number One
Understand
So lock up your daughter
And lock up your wife
Lock up your back door
And run for your life
The man is back in town
Don't you mess around
http://www.metrolyrics.com/tnt-lyrics-acdc.html
Cousins ( B+ ) -- was a little wild to start this one, notching several turnovers and loose plays in the opening minutes as he was seemingly just chomping at the bit to get at the Warriors frontline. But then got an open court steal against Monta Ellis (yes our center just took the ball from Monta) and took it the other way for the finish, and he was off. Using his power edge early as he often does, and was simply the best player on the floor in the first quarter. Held out for too long in the second, we kept playing the Hayes/Hickson duo despite DeMarcus's early dominance. Now Reke was carrying us through that quarter, and we were hanging right in on the scoreboard, but still it was odd. Why not have both of them out there and try to build a 10+pt halftime lead? Maybe it was still the attempts to keep him out of foul trouble, but as I mentioned a few weeks ago, Cousins just woke up one day and decided to quit fouling, and in this game you could see him playing almost daintily at times, pulling his arm back instead of attempting poekaways etc., and he finshed the game with ONE foul. So that's not much of an excuse for holding him out either. In any case, finally back in for the final few minutes of the half but was nowhere near as effective as he had been in the early going, and really wouldn't be again in this game until the stretch run. A major reason for this was a seeming strategic decision to stop posting him that just...WHY? Was constantly having to catch the ball at the angles or up above the free throw stripe and have to try to work his way into the region of the hoop. Was still a factor, but never dominated the game again, which is how this ends up B+. Late in the game was being outactiviied by a bouncy Udoh until he seemed to reach down and find one more burst of energy (he looked noticeably gassed during a late timeout). Was some factor in the late rush to try to steal the game, coming up with a timely block, and banging inside to get to the line, where he hit 3 of 4 in the last minute. I dunno, this was 21 and 14 with solid stats across the board, and a dominant first quarter. Just didn't feel A-ey to me, but I will say that if he keeps putting up these numbers and Reke wants to threaten a triple double every night we'll be fine sooner rather than later.
Elvis Pressley -- Trouble
If you're looking for trouble
You came to the right place
If you're looking for trouble
Just look right in my face
I was born standing up
And talking back
My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack
Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery
Well I'm evil, so don't you mess around with me
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Trouble-lyrics-Elvis-Presley/981A1848E529381448256874003CED25
Fredette ( D ) -- this was the one we could ill afford as with Thornton out we've been depending on Jimmer to give us some semblance of balanced scoring, and it was just never there tonight. And if Jimmer isn't shooting well, he's not helping, and we went away from him to a lot of I again. got his tow hits, on guess what, a catch and shoot three, and then a nice move to get a layup on the break. But otherwise it was all forces and just not playing within himself. Contiuing to try to do too much of the dribble, and to overpenetrate and get himelf caugt amongst the trees down in the paint. Wish he could figure that latter one out. As in stop doing it. 6'2" guys don't pick up their dribble in the paint in the NBA. Forced attempt to shoot over David Lee messed up the end of the qutrter play, and continues to adopt a puzzled face everytime he gets beat on defense or makes mistakes on offense, constantly turning to our bench like he either wants to explain something or wants something explained. We tried to hide him on defense against Wright whiel reke and Salmons slowed Curry/Ellis, and guess which one of the Warriors 3 smaller guys was the only one to get going. Not a fair matchup of course, but who was he going to guard otherwise?
ZZ Top -- Tush
We got big statistical games from our two young studs (that were probably not as impressive as the numbers indicated) a late boost from IT again...but otherwise somebody should be suing for a criminal lack of support. Including the coach as a named party too, as Smart made some curious choices both with personnel and playcalling.
Also follows our normal pattern this year -- we've been blown out a ton, but its almost all been by good teams. Against fellow bottom dwellers we've largely been competitive.
Theme = The Most Absurdly Macho Songs of All Time (mostly rock).
Boxscore
Salmons ( C+ ) -- statistically this was only mildly better than the norm for John. But as far as usefulness it was considerably improved. The reason? Defense. John guarded someone successfully. And who did he guard? Monta Ellis, who is a bit banged up, but still is Monta Ellis. Oh, and BTW, what position does Monta play? SG. And what position should Salmons play? I'll let you figure that one out. In any case combined with Reke to just squish the Ellis/Curry tandem on defense (we hid Jimmer on the SF, Wright). And for the first half we somehow talked him into just doing that and not torturing us with anymore of his constant bricking. Had 0pts on 2 total shots. In the third he struggeld to life offensively as we called his number a few times...and then it looked like he started calling his own number. Got a couple of drives and little finishes. It looks like we have officially given up on the idea of him being able to hit a corner three, which is probably a good idea. We may need to trade to find somebody to do that to create space for Reke and Cousins.
On the day I was born
The nurses all gathered 'round
And they gazed in wide wonder
At the joy they had found
The head nurse spoke up
Said "leave this one alone"
She could tell right away
That I was bad to the bone
http://www.metrolyrics.com/bad-to-the-bone-lyrics-george-thorogood.html
Thompson ( B ) -- doing all the hustle work on the glass early, although was not slowing Lee on defense at all. And while Salmons helped some with the defense, until IT's late heroics Jason was effectively our third gun and sole support for Cousins/Reke. As he often has against the Warriors, had stretches where he just overwhelmed their frontline with size and hustle. Still having trouble getting Smart's respect minutewise as a roleplayer, and had to sit for long minutes while an ineffective Hayes and erratic Hickson worked the power spots. After being reinserted late in the game was less effective against the Warriors energetic bench guys han he had been against the starters.
I'm dirty, mean and mighty unclean
I'm a Wanted man
Public Enemy Number One
Understand
So lock up your daughter
And lock up your wife
Lock up your back door
And run for your life
The man is back in town
Don't you mess around
http://www.metrolyrics.com/tnt-lyrics-acdc.html
Cousins ( B+ ) -- was a little wild to start this one, notching several turnovers and loose plays in the opening minutes as he was seemingly just chomping at the bit to get at the Warriors frontline. But then got an open court steal against Monta Ellis (yes our center just took the ball from Monta) and took it the other way for the finish, and he was off. Using his power edge early as he often does, and was simply the best player on the floor in the first quarter. Held out for too long in the second, we kept playing the Hayes/Hickson duo despite DeMarcus's early dominance. Now Reke was carrying us through that quarter, and we were hanging right in on the scoreboard, but still it was odd. Why not have both of them out there and try to build a 10+pt halftime lead? Maybe it was still the attempts to keep him out of foul trouble, but as I mentioned a few weeks ago, Cousins just woke up one day and decided to quit fouling, and in this game you could see him playing almost daintily at times, pulling his arm back instead of attempting poekaways etc., and he finshed the game with ONE foul. So that's not much of an excuse for holding him out either. In any case, finally back in for the final few minutes of the half but was nowhere near as effective as he had been in the early going, and really wouldn't be again in this game until the stretch run. A major reason for this was a seeming strategic decision to stop posting him that just...WHY? Was constantly having to catch the ball at the angles or up above the free throw stripe and have to try to work his way into the region of the hoop. Was still a factor, but never dominated the game again, which is how this ends up B+. Late in the game was being outactiviied by a bouncy Udoh until he seemed to reach down and find one more burst of energy (he looked noticeably gassed during a late timeout). Was some factor in the late rush to try to steal the game, coming up with a timely block, and banging inside to get to the line, where he hit 3 of 4 in the last minute. I dunno, this was 21 and 14 with solid stats across the board, and a dominant first quarter. Just didn't feel A-ey to me, but I will say that if he keeps putting up these numbers and Reke wants to threaten a triple double every night we'll be fine sooner rather than later.
If you're looking for trouble
You came to the right place
If you're looking for trouble
Just look right in my face
I was born standing up
And talking back
My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack
Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery
Well I'm evil, so don't you mess around with me
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Trouble-lyrics-Elvis-Presley/981A1848E529381448256874003CED25
Fredette ( D ) -- this was the one we could ill afford as with Thornton out we've been depending on Jimmer to give us some semblance of balanced scoring, and it was just never there tonight. And if Jimmer isn't shooting well, he's not helping, and we went away from him to a lot of I again. got his tow hits, on guess what, a catch and shoot three, and then a nice move to get a layup on the break. But otherwise it was all forces and just not playing within himself. Contiuing to try to do too much of the dribble, and to overpenetrate and get himelf caugt amongst the trees down in the paint. Wish he could figure that latter one out. As in stop doing it. 6'2" guys don't pick up their dribble in the paint in the NBA. Forced attempt to shoot over David Lee messed up the end of the qutrter play, and continues to adopt a puzzled face everytime he gets beat on defense or makes mistakes on offense, constantly turning to our bench like he either wants to explain something or wants something explained. We tried to hide him on defense against Wright whiel reke and Salmons slowed Curry/Ellis, and guess which one of the Warriors 3 smaller guys was the only one to get going. Not a fair matchup of course, but who was he going to guard otherwise?
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