Okay, a pretty feel good win over a depleted Blzers team (who this season went from a Camby/Aldrdige/Wallace frontline to Old Pryz/Hickson/Batum) to snap our loss streak at 7 (kinda disappointing really as we were perfectly set up for an epic showdown in Charlotte next week by which time we would have been on the 10 game losing streak, and they would have been on the 18 game win streak).
Could feel in this game the unbalance in our lineup as we struggled all night to keep all of our main guns involved, with this guy or that constantly getting frozen out because not enough shots to go around. But notably int he end first Reke, then Cuz, and finally MT all combined for the big hoops/FTs to win it for us as all 3 guys notched 20pts, and that has to help everyone feel pretty good about things in the lockerrom later.
Now, before I get to the grades I feel like I have to go take a shower after listening to Jerry Reynolds have on air sex with IT for the past 2 hours, but when I get back I'll try to get these up tonight this time.
Boxscore
Evans ( B ) -- hit his first layup, but you could see him race to force it up because he was having trouble geting the ball early. Got him going though, and he found ways to get extra attempts as he went inside for some good offenisve rebounds and follows -- rare for Reke as he is primarily a defensive rebounder, but tonight again found himself on the backline of our zone having to check out guys like Hickson and Thabeet, and just no way. Got on the hoop repeatedly in the early 2nd with off the ball movement, and was passing pretty well, although guys were rarely knocking the shots down, and he did commit the IT error of actually passing it to Hayes expecting him to score on several occasions. Started the thrid notching a steal in similar fashion to a couple of games ago, slapping the ball to IT, then racing out to get the finsih when It gave it back. Had some nice moves in the late 3rd and early 4th but kept on missing the layups, throw in a couple of missed jumpers and it turned what could have been a big game into a 9-21 night. Had a say at the end when he raced out on the break and got tackled by the Blazers defense at the 40 second mark, and tied the game with 2 FTs. Overall looked pretty good, too small inside, but solid defense on Batum, made a lot more passes than the assists indicate, but not creating high quality looks, and found ways to be involved on offense, with 4 or 5 missed finishes being the downside. Should note btw a shift in my grading scale for Reke of late, as 20-3-3 would formerly have been C+/B- type work, depending on details. But I like to grade guys on a scale of what I think its legitimately possible given role/talent and usage, and since the AllStar break that has been Reke averaging 15-4-4, so this was pretty good considering.
Thompson ( C ) -- Hickson kicked our butt early, and while he eventually calmed down, he still was much better than Jason who appears to have completely pissed away all that momentum he had a month ago as he heads into free agency. We made a copel of attempts to post him up, but he got nowhere, and generally the guards and forwards were putting up too many shots for him to get many roleplayer off the ball movement type attempts. Best play of the night may have been a good pass to Cuz for the big dunk late in the 3rd. If I thought Jason actually hurt us tonight I would go lower with this, but he was just more irrelevant, and all our roleplayers were in a tough spot with all 4 of our main gunners taking 18+ shots. This perhaps a warning sign BTW for our search for a shotblocking PF this summer -- if we retain this same crazy coach and same crazy lineup, if all our main guys are going there are simply no shots for anybody else. Normal shots in an NBA game is about 80-85. Our top 4 guys tonight took 75 combined.
Cousins ( A- ) -- good post move to start, but then just one of those loose offensive fouls trying to drive in all the way from the 3pt line. Not quite sure what to do with Thabeet the first time he saw him and went to the bench. After returning in the mid 2nd, ignored by his guards and forwards and did not evern get a touch for 4 to 5 mintues straight Not as hot. A touch. Was pissed too as he was season yelling at guys during a timeout. Season may be ending just at the right time for us, as you can see Cuz's frustration beginning to boil here late in the year. Most of his boards were in the first quarter, and maybe some of that was because after that the Blazers were bombing and most of the rebounds were long. Started the 3rd after coach presumably talked to the team at halftime, and we slowed it down, gave him back to back post moves and he beat Pryz for back to back hoops. Got him off and runing to a big third quarter, which was capped by a big two handed gorilla dunk late in the quarter. And once he started getting the touches he got into a rhythm efficiently beating the Blazers up in there, the body language picked up, and with it energy and focus. Took a charge, got fired up. His reward? He got benched for the first 8 miutes of the 4th quarter. That's Coach Smart for you -- nothing is so obvious he won't miss it, and obviously he did not want to mess up the rhthym of the awesome JT/Hayes and Donte/Hayes frontlines we had out there for a guy who only shot 11-18 on the night. We finally reinserted him at the 3:59 mark for Donte, and he promptly scored over Pryz with a hook. And drove baseline and beat Pryz for what looked like it was going to be the the game winner at the 11 second mark, until Cisco's mistake on defense necesssitated MT re-bailing us out. Going A- here considering the recent up and down play. The rebounding was not up to snuff, but he was very efficient and dominated on offense, when his coach deigned to play him or our guys felt like passsing it to him, and this was against two bigger players who's sole purpose for being out on a basketball court was to stop him.
Thornton ( B ) -- had an up and down game largely centered around whether it was his turn to be the designated guy not getting his shots in our overstuffed lineup, as of course Marcus Thornton not touching the ball largely means Marcus Thornton not contributing. In fact the big factor holding this grade back is if you scan on down to Marcus's counterpart tonight and check out HIS boxscore. 8-10 from 3ptland and 31 pts?? Are you kidding me? Wasn't all Marcus's fault, as we flipped in and out of a zone, and Cisco was the guy who allowed Matthews to hit the near backbreaker at the end, not Marcus. Nonetheless, for some reason I continue to not understand, Marcus keeps leaving his guy on the perimeter and always seems to be hustling back in the frame just as the uncontested shot goes up. And if he does contest, he's too short to make much of a difference. Now back on Marcus's side of the floor...was missing his early shots both inside and out -- the inside largely because he kept getting his shots blocked. Sort of scruffed his way to 6-8pts in the first 14 minutes, but it never was efficient or in rhythm. Then because our rotations are ridiculous, never returned for the rest of the half, sitting out nearly the entire second quarter (to put a cherry on top of the rotatinal capriciousness, he then never left the game for the entire second half). A forgotten man in the early third offensively, and like Cuz in the late 2nd just not even getting touches, let alone shots. Finally got a three late in the 3rd as IT quit shooting, and that freed up extra shots for Marcus. Was determined to take the last shot of the 3rd, although his teammates looked dubious and unsure of what he watned to do. But after Cuz finally came up and gave him a little pick he stepped into a three to tie the game for the first time in a long while. Contributed a few more hoops in the 4th as we rode our three guards to the complete exclusion of the bench, and in the end, we drew up the play for him and he hit the little midrange game winner for us at the 4 second mark.
Thomas ( B ) -- got off to a shaky start forcing his early takes and Felton was getting around him surprisingly easy. But out of a timeout in the mid first we drew up a play for him to drive inside, and Reke found him for a corner three as he got going more by moving off the ball than with it. Got cheated of at least 1 and maybe 2 hoops in his first stint, although on the first one a foul was called so we got the points anyway. Had consistent defensive issues tonight and not sure why. Kept losing Felton off ball as he set up for threes, and both Felton and even Johnny Flynn were getting by him to their spots. Proved again that the third quarter is his attack quarter as he came out very aggressive and got off to a quick start hitting a two, a three, then racing out on the break and taking a pass form Cuz for the layup as he just outran everybody. But you could see the problem again for our linuep -- and there simply is no solution for this other than for it to not BE our lineup --as he started to get aggressive and look for his own shot, we started to lose Reke, and entirly lost Marcus, who wasn't even getting touches, let alone shots. Just not room for everybody to do their thing, because everybody's thing is shooting/scoring. You could feel the difference toward the end of the quarter when he shifted back toward being more of a passer, and all of a sudden we surged as everybody else got reinvolved. Some high degree of difficulty shots in the early 4th are what tanked his shooting numbers on the night, and the Blazers guys were just shooting right over him the other way. Bad bad turnover at the one minute mark with us down two, and IT threw a blind pass to MT hoping Matthews did not turn into time to see it. He did.
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Bench
Fredette ( B- ) -- like most of our bench, only got first half minutes. Used an upfake to free himself for his first long jumper, something he has been doing more of lately. Defense was the same issue it normally is, so we sunk into a zone ot protect him. Added a score on the break after Marcus found him, and a three on kick from TWill. Largely a very small off the ball SG at this point. Grade is a bit of a reach because minutes were short enough there wasn't time to see much overall game.
Hayes ( B ) -- nice over the shoulder assist to Thornton in the early going, and when he came back late al of a sudden we were running a lot of the offense through him, and he responded with a number of good passes. Struggled to handle Hickson's vertical game, but somewhere in there started to board, which we again needed as our big slide has coincided with the end of JTs hot run as a second rebounder for us. Using him to initiate the offense late in the 4th, and despite his normal offensive impotence otherwise he ended up scoring the go ahead bucket at the 3:00 mark when they took away all his passing angles but forgot to stay between thim and the hoop. This grades are feeling a little wonky with too many high grades for beating a bad team on our home floor, but then again maybe we are just that bad (the x factor is of course again our defense, where our guards especially got torched and we let a team wiht Wes Matthews as its best scorer shoot 53% against us).
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