Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
The lack of offensive talent means when we look bad we look REALLY bad. As we did tonight. The Blazers were absolutely bound and determined not to let Cuz beat them again, and they didn't. Two guys, three, four, whatever it took. They didn't care about the rest of the scrubs, because...scrubs. As a scrub, you are supposed to resent that, say "I'll show em!" and knock down the open shots caused by all the attention on your star. Instead our scrubs embraced scrubhood in its fullest, and we absolutely could not shoot or score to save our lives. Against the worst defensive team in the league mind you.
Link to Boxscore
Barnes ( C ) -- feel like I'm being kind giving him a C here. Sloppy and lax in his worst ways, another guy who didn't hit hist open shots, and made bonehead defensive mistakes too. And yet might have been one of Cuz's BETTER teammates tonight, and one of only two to score in double figures.
Cousins ( B ) -- the numbers are a little deceptive here as he put up a number of them while the game was barely breathing. On the other hand, its amazing he got anything at all with the Blaers absolutely 100% determined he would not beat them -- sometimes there were literally four guys. And with no teammates stepping up to hit open shots (he should have had 10 assists easily), he was smothered all night.
Koufos ( B- ) -- probably should have played more given the utter incompetence of everybody else. At least banged the boards, which meant he was doing one more thing than most of the team were.
Featured Grade
McLemore ( D ) -- Went 2-9 and didn't have a single rebound or assist in nearly 20 minutes. The box score pretty much tells the story. Ben was a non-factor and rightfully lost most of the SG minutes to GT. Early on he had some decent looks, especially on a open midrange J off a Koufos pick. Also missed a desperation jumper as the shot clock wound down. His only basket of the first Q came on a nice cut and curl for a tough layup. He'd later run out for an easy dunk and-one on a dumb late foul by Plumlee. Played decent positional defense but in Ben fashion lost track of his man a few times. Didn't really do anything in the second half and was blocked on a jumper by Crabbe. McLemore was a microcosm of this Kings team on the night of a bad loss. Just a bit out of place and unable to get shots to fall.--Funky
Collison ( D ) -- looking for a positive here...not as bad as Ben? Does that actually rate as a positive? gets the little grade he does for some briefly solid minutes in the second half off the bench -- because you see he was so pathetic in the first half he got benched for the second. I have no idea what the hell has happened here, but we are off trying to bumble and stumble into a playoff push, and arguably our #3 scorer, and #2 with Gay out, is playing like a complete passionless scrub.
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Tolliver ( F ) -- no. He can't board. He can"t do anything inside. We tried playing him at SF and he got worked over by one. His one job is to hit a damn open shot. And he bricked them and bricked them and bricked them in soul-crushing fashion. Just...no.
Lawson ( D+ ) -- brought the feisty, the attempt at energy, but the titanic talent sap dangling over our bench drained away whatever pathetic little bit of shooting he might normally have to. And so once again, Cuz gets ball, three guys shift, Cuz swings ball, and the little guys tried to break windows. And there was nobody to assist.
Cauley-Stein ( D ) -- lost his purchase on minutes this game when he uber-wussied it and cowered sniveling under the hoop as Vonleh strolled right into the middle of the lane to pick up a rebound that led to a Blazer three. There's nothing respectable or acceptable about that, and he was immediately benched. Good.
Temple ( B- ) -- the one guy, who for a half, made some effort to pick up for the offensive slack as the Blazers dogpiled on Cuz. But he wasn't shooting well either, missed several wide open loos, and would just hustle enough to get them back and try in closer. Mysteriously underutilized on defense, and the offense dried up after half.
Casspi ( C ) -- well, he actually hit the few shots he was taking, and in the first half he grabbed some boards. That's enough to separate himself form the worst of the worst tonight, if not to actually have much impact.
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