Well we almost had three guys score 20, so good game. Right? RIGHT??
In our ridiculous world it probably is. Sorry, I was always a defensive guy. Every sport I ever played, soccer, football, basketball, tennis...did not matter. I was the captain of the defense until I finally progressed to levels where my talent would not allow that, and then I became a willing foot soldier. Every game too. In chess when I play black I specialize in the French Defense and hypermodern counterattacks where I expose nothing. In strategic computer games I am the master of the turtle defense. And right about now this Kings team would actually have a lockerroom problem if I was on it, because this is just not acceptable. These guys get all hangdog if they have a bad shooting night. But that's not the end where you really compete. And we just aren't on defense.
All of which of course means one last dose of Girls. And ladies, since I'm nice, I'll throw in a Hot Guy as well. Maybe Danny Devito.
Boxscore
Evans ( F ) -- alright, so our experiment with Tyreke Evans playing the Keith Bogans offensive role did not go so hot. Reke had 5pts. 2 of those 5 came on the very first possession of the game when Leonard gambled on a steal, and Reke was able to waltz right to the Duncanless rim. What happened after that was a combination of our own inexplicable use, or lack of use, of Reke, and the Spurs on the other hand seeming to think a lot more of him as an offensive threat than we do, putting their best perimeter defender on him and doubling him every time he caught the ball (think I'll take Pop's talent assessment over Smart's). On our lack of use btw, seriously now, its progressed to the point where we will have just ANYBODY bring the ball up and run the offense instead of Reke. IT, TWill, Jimmer...just so long as Reke doesn't initiate and just goes over to the opposite side and stands there waiting for a ball that never comes. Here's the kicker to that, which I am going to explore further in a separate thread: this guy was our starting PG to begin the year, and we were BETTER with him starting at PG under Smart (8-14 .364) than we have been since we went to IT (10-23 .303). And yet now we act like he's going to rub snot on the ball. Now of course as mentioned, the Spurs were paying him a tremendous amount of attention for a 5th option when he actually did get the ball, so it made it all the easier just to swing the ball away. And the few completely out of rhtyhm attempts he did make to force something up were completely unproductive. No role in the offense meant just randomly going 1 on 5, resulting in turnovers and misses, and when the Spurs backed off, the jumper was nowhere to be found. BTW, did I mention that back when Reke was playing PG we went into San Antonio and beat this team for its first home loss of the season in a defensvie war behind 23pts 11rebs and 7ast from Reke? Well we didn't beat them tonight playing stupid ball with Reke frozen out.
P.S. Momentarily considered going all the way to a D- because Reke might have been the only guy on the the team playing attentive defense. But the key word there is attentive. He was almsot alone in not just letting his guy get free looks, but his guy was Leonard (who BTW scored most of his points against others) and they don't run any plays for him. So all attentive defense means is that Reke stayed close and challenged his shots. But when Thornton went out at the end of the 3rd and he switched onto Manu, the Spurs got him with three straight back picks, which apparently nobody on our team calls out BTW in the expectation our guards have eyes in the back of their heads. So even his "attentive" defense was no more than just being responsible, rather than any kind of impact. "Highlight' if you want to call it that might have been wehn he and Manu had a HUGE collision in the early 4th running full speed into each other and slamming heads -- Reke was running to get the ball on a handoff. No idea what Manu was thinking except maybe taking the handoff himself, but he had to see Reke coming? Anyway, good way to get a concussion or broken jaw, but both guys shook it off, although Manu had to go to the lockerroom for a bit.
Lily Aldridge -- one of the Victoria's Secret supermodels
Thompson ( C ) -- my notes on JT have shrunk game to game as has his relevance. Here was what I had tonight: "getting a lot of shots with the TWill and Evans combo out there in the 2nd. A few nice finishes inside in the third." That was it. No idea what happened to the rebounding machine of a month ago. Every once ina while we, normally Reke or TWill, woudl trhow him the ball on the blcok and he would either score or not. But there was no momentum, no impact, no relevance. He was just there. Not awful. Not in any way good. Just there. Not btw anyway to audition for free agency. At least you can't accuse him of making a contract year push.
Antoinette Nikprelaj -- Albanian beauty
Cousins ( B- ) -- scruffy and slightly selfish first quarter where he frequently put his head down against double teams but still managed productivty on pure talent alone. Dumb but fun fullcourt gallop through traffic for the layup. Wasn't often looking up for cutters, which particularly effected Reke since that's the only off ball tactic we have for him. Cut through and Boogie will hit you. If he's looking to. Somehow after half the Spurs seemed to just pretty much single cover him and let him do his worst, and he responded with some nice looking post work. We were already starting to fade in the late 3rd as we simply refused to stop anybody, like ever. But the kicker that killed our last chances was when Boogie picked up his 4th, we gambled and left him in, and he quickly picked up his 5th before the end of the 3rd quarter. Then after we desperately subbed him backn in in the ealry 4th with the lead swelling to 18 at that point, fouled out ona tough call within a minute of his reutrn, and that was it for both him and us.
Alice Greczyn
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