Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Ok, that was ugly, but we got it, so I'll take it. The Blazers really are just a matchup nightmare for us. Looked like we were even intimidated in the early going. Fortunately they are a different team on the road than at home, as are we, and after some shaky minutes in the early second when I thoguht Smart was going to sink us with some more random rotations, he panicked and threw back in our main guys, and we discovered we could play with these guys.
Interesting developments were Salmons best game of the season by far, Jimmer out of the rotation with Thornton's return, and Cousins not playing after the third quarter. And on that latter one I just hope, really hope, that Smart and he had an understanding. We're begining to play better, him continuing to thud the middle for double doubles is a big part of that hope, and it would absolutely kill us, and Smart's future, if a rift developed. Donte and Cisco were also benched with Salmons playing well. Anyway...we won, and the next game is winnable too. Anybody for a win streak?
Boxscore
Salmons ( A- ) -- Easily, and I do mean completely no brainer best game of the season for Salmons. Proof that even a blind fish can find water every once in a while, or proof that you can teach an old fish new tricks we will see. Actually there has been some progress for the last week or so, as we first finally convinced him not to shoot and hence not to miss, and now maybe we actually went the extra step and convinced him to actually hit something. Was hot from the beginning, and given my long term assessment of John's basketball persona, getting an open three in the game's early minutes may have been enough to get him feeling good about the game and give him some pep in his step Knocked down a second three, and added a couple of pullups of the sort that were good shots because they fell, but would have been 1 on 1 forced jumpers by a scrub if he had missed them. Was leading the whole team with 10 first quarter points and given how much trouble the Blazers give our main guns with all of their defensive personnel, having a rolpelayer step up and do that was absolutely key. Began to take tougher shots, but to his, or somebody's credit, stopped before it became offensive. And a magical thing happened when John felt good about his offensive game: all of a sudden his defense was there too, and against a guy (Wallace) who had manhandled him in the two earlier matchups. The provisos there would be that Salmons' defense in the first half was not great, and we even seemed to have Thornton taking turns on Wallace early (ouch), and that Wallace this year has notoriously been a different player home/away (in 11 home games he's averaging 18.9pts, in 11 road games its 8.1pts). But in any case, after the break Salmons was up into Wallace on defense, and made a great defensive hustle play in the open court to save a hoop (you heard that right, the sleepwalking one hustled). Added one more three to begin the 4th before largely handing things back over to Thornon and Reke and IT, which fortunately saved me from having to become a Knicks fan, as I long ago decided if I ever had to watch another Kings team with John Salmons as its leading scorer I was going to defect immediately. Fortunately Marcus went on a little run, and whew. In any case, a most unexpected source of hope here.
Thompson ( B ) -- got his butt kicked by Aldridge in the early going, and that's the factor that holds this grade back. Basically we were really missing Daly in there -- last year he dominated Aldridge, holding him to 23-65 (.354) shooting in three games . Tonight with Jason it was 9-11 in the first half alone, and he was just basically turning and firing right over JT and completely ignoring him. Jason did a few nice things otherwise, including a nice hi low pass to Cousins, but mostly he just took it on the chin... and was looking woozy. But came out better in the third, really fighting for boards and tipping it when he could not snatch it,and he became MUCH more effective once Hayes entered the game in place of Cousins and took over the Aldridge duties. Came back in for the final minutes instead of Cousins and grabbed a couple of big boards. But made a really bad turnover (one of 4 on the night) at the :45 second mark trying to throw an unnecessary pass to Chuck Hayes of all people (why on Earth would a) Hayes be in there on that possession and b) you want to feed the one armed guy who scored 3pts in 28min and is a subpar FT shooter? And the 5pt lead quickly became 3 as the Blazers immediately scored off the turnover.
Cousins ( INC ) -- I'm going to call this an incomplete grade since DeMarcus had his minutes aritifically limited...by his own coach. Started off the game again looking like a long shotblocker was going to be a problem for him, nervously rushing up his first shot in the post, and then getting his second and third blocked consecutively by Camby. Still was scuffing his way to decent numbers, and made a nice fullcourt outlet pass to a streaking Evans for the layup. But the big thing that popped back up again fro him tongiht was the foul trouble, as twice he got burned on the risky run over in front of the guy and fall down stuff (sorry, if I was reffing there would be no charging calls unless you had been sitting there reading War & Peace when some hooligan ran you over out of the blue). And after sitting out most of the half, picked up 2 more quick fouls in the third, this time on a charge and a completely unnecesary hip check preventing Gerald Wallace from moving off the ball. And then the interesting thing happened -- Coach forgot about him. He hadn't really done anything wrong except be too loose with the fouls. Still been pretty productive (in fact double his min and he'son pace for 18 and 12 in 28min). But we went to Hayes, then Hickson, then back to JT...and DeMarcus never played again. And hey, we won. But...this is DeMarcus Cousins we are talking about, Keith Smart is still an interim rent-a-coach figthing for a job, and there just can't be any ripples in these waters. So I hope he and Cuz had a talk and the big guy was good with the strategy.
Thornton ( C+ ) -- yay, finally our big three were back out there together for only the 20th time since Thornton's acquisiton..and of course COusins has to miss most of the game. But anyway, Marcus was back, and good thing too with both Cousins and Reke held down by Camby, Wallace, Felton and friends. Hit an early three off the Reke kick and briefly you hoped he was going to come back into the lineup bombing, but was not to be. Struggled with his shooting for most of the night, but made up for it to some degree with energy and aggression, racing inside for a dozen FTs. But without the shooting stroke going was never consistent, and was not able to stabilize us in the early 2nd with Reke and Cousins both on the bench. Played his normal gambling style of defense, which resulted in steals and deflections, but also in him being beaten backdoor on multiple occassions. Ran the break hard, with Reke in particular, but in the late third victimized by the refs blowing a whistle just as Reke had set him up for a WIDE open three -- then they decide to blow the whistle and reset the clock? Mugged by Wallace on the break in the early 4th and looked groggy. Shot the FTs and headed to the lockerroom, but if anything maybe the blow shook the cobwebs out, as when he returned he reponded a minute later with a three and then a two. Added a big defensive stop on the break late in the game, but almost got himself tagged as the goat (and I don't mean Greatest Of All Time) when with 10 seconds to go and us u 3 and jsut needing to hang onto the ball, Wallace stole the ball from him when all we needed was to keep the ball and get fouled, and raced the other way. Fortuntely for him as well as us, the Blazers missed 2 threes to end things, and we escaped.
Evans ( C+ ) -- I don't think anybody, including Reke himself, would tell you he had a great game tonight, but he was a steadying presence for us out there (everytime he left we seemed to fall apart) and hit many of the game's biggest shots. Was getting beat by Felton early, and again the combination of Felton and Wallace was causing him fits on defense. The jumper was off all game long, and combined with the Blazers length and athleticism inside shutting down all his lanes, it was a constant struggle. But his value could be seen as soon as he left as the Blazers, who has been inching out ahead, suddenly stretched he lead to 14 and if Smart had just screwed around for another couple of minutes we might have been down 20 in the first half with the game being almost over. Upon returning with Thompson and Cousins, Reke's impact was immediate. Energy shot up, Reke was scoring and moving the ball, and we got right back into it. Along with Salmons helped the frontline guys with his rebounding too. While the jumper never did start falling, with one notable exception, and with no clean lanes and drives he frequently looked awkward, it was a game where he just found a way to contribute, which is avery good sign. That's what great players do. They get their numbers somehow even when things aren't going well. So he ran the break hard all night long to get scores. He moved without the ball, including beating the clock when we inbounded the ball under the hoop with only a second to go. His dunk on the break from Thornton completed our comeback and gave us our first tie since early on at 63-63, and really got the crowd going, not t mention get us over the mental hump. Then a couple of plays later raced out for one of those steam train breakouts (see above) of his for a +1 finish to give us our first lead since the first quarter, and it was game on. Defense on Felton really picked up as the game went on too. Had one flat stretch after returning in the 4th, coming in and just not looking ready to go for a few minutes, but got a big power drive down the left side through Wallace for a +1 at the 4:00 mark. And after a bad turnover getting stripped bringing it up for a Blazers breakout, sealed the game by pulling up for the unlikely midrange jumper at the 19 second mark to make the lead 5. May have been the only jumper he hit all night, but if he doesn't knock down that clutch shot consider the consequences: we would have only been up 1, rather than 3, when Thronton got stripped by Wallace. Instead of Wallace passing it to a three point shooter looking to tie, he would have gone all the way for the slam, and instead of a 3pt win, we would have been down 1 with maybe 5 seconds to go and primed for a heartbreaking loss.
Interesting developments were Salmons best game of the season by far, Jimmer out of the rotation with Thornton's return, and Cousins not playing after the third quarter. And on that latter one I just hope, really hope, that Smart and he had an understanding. We're begining to play better, him continuing to thud the middle for double doubles is a big part of that hope, and it would absolutely kill us, and Smart's future, if a rift developed. Donte and Cisco were also benched with Salmons playing well. Anyway...we won, and the next game is winnable too. Anybody for a win streak?
Boxscore
Salmons ( A- ) -- Easily, and I do mean completely no brainer best game of the season for Salmons. Proof that even a blind fish can find water every once in a while, or proof that you can teach an old fish new tricks we will see. Actually there has been some progress for the last week or so, as we first finally convinced him not to shoot and hence not to miss, and now maybe we actually went the extra step and convinced him to actually hit something. Was hot from the beginning, and given my long term assessment of John's basketball persona, getting an open three in the game's early minutes may have been enough to get him feeling good about the game and give him some pep in his step Knocked down a second three, and added a couple of pullups of the sort that were good shots because they fell, but would have been 1 on 1 forced jumpers by a scrub if he had missed them. Was leading the whole team with 10 first quarter points and given how much trouble the Blazers give our main guns with all of their defensive personnel, having a rolpelayer step up and do that was absolutely key. Began to take tougher shots, but to his, or somebody's credit, stopped before it became offensive. And a magical thing happened when John felt good about his offensive game: all of a sudden his defense was there too, and against a guy (Wallace) who had manhandled him in the two earlier matchups. The provisos there would be that Salmons' defense in the first half was not great, and we even seemed to have Thornton taking turns on Wallace early (ouch), and that Wallace this year has notoriously been a different player home/away (in 11 home games he's averaging 18.9pts, in 11 road games its 8.1pts). But in any case, after the break Salmons was up into Wallace on defense, and made a great defensive hustle play in the open court to save a hoop (you heard that right, the sleepwalking one hustled). Added one more three to begin the 4th before largely handing things back over to Thornon and Reke and IT, which fortunately saved me from having to become a Knicks fan, as I long ago decided if I ever had to watch another Kings team with John Salmons as its leading scorer I was going to defect immediately. Fortunately Marcus went on a little run, and whew. In any case, a most unexpected source of hope here.
Thompson ( B ) -- got his butt kicked by Aldridge in the early going, and that's the factor that holds this grade back. Basically we were really missing Daly in there -- last year he dominated Aldridge, holding him to 23-65 (.354) shooting in three games . Tonight with Jason it was 9-11 in the first half alone, and he was just basically turning and firing right over JT and completely ignoring him. Jason did a few nice things otherwise, including a nice hi low pass to Cousins, but mostly he just took it on the chin... and was looking woozy. But came out better in the third, really fighting for boards and tipping it when he could not snatch it,and he became MUCH more effective once Hayes entered the game in place of Cousins and took over the Aldridge duties. Came back in for the final minutes instead of Cousins and grabbed a couple of big boards. But made a really bad turnover (one of 4 on the night) at the :45 second mark trying to throw an unnecessary pass to Chuck Hayes of all people (why on Earth would a) Hayes be in there on that possession and b) you want to feed the one armed guy who scored 3pts in 28min and is a subpar FT shooter? And the 5pt lead quickly became 3 as the Blazers immediately scored off the turnover.
Cousins ( INC ) -- I'm going to call this an incomplete grade since DeMarcus had his minutes aritifically limited...by his own coach. Started off the game again looking like a long shotblocker was going to be a problem for him, nervously rushing up his first shot in the post, and then getting his second and third blocked consecutively by Camby. Still was scuffing his way to decent numbers, and made a nice fullcourt outlet pass to a streaking Evans for the layup. But the big thing that popped back up again fro him tongiht was the foul trouble, as twice he got burned on the risky run over in front of the guy and fall down stuff (sorry, if I was reffing there would be no charging calls unless you had been sitting there reading War & Peace when some hooligan ran you over out of the blue). And after sitting out most of the half, picked up 2 more quick fouls in the third, this time on a charge and a completely unnecesary hip check preventing Gerald Wallace from moving off the ball. And then the interesting thing happened -- Coach forgot about him. He hadn't really done anything wrong except be too loose with the fouls. Still been pretty productive (in fact double his min and he'son pace for 18 and 12 in 28min). But we went to Hayes, then Hickson, then back to JT...and DeMarcus never played again. And hey, we won. But...this is DeMarcus Cousins we are talking about, Keith Smart is still an interim rent-a-coach figthing for a job, and there just can't be any ripples in these waters. So I hope he and Cuz had a talk and the big guy was good with the strategy.
Thornton ( C+ ) -- yay, finally our big three were back out there together for only the 20th time since Thornton's acquisiton..and of course COusins has to miss most of the game. But anyway, Marcus was back, and good thing too with both Cousins and Reke held down by Camby, Wallace, Felton and friends. Hit an early three off the Reke kick and briefly you hoped he was going to come back into the lineup bombing, but was not to be. Struggled with his shooting for most of the night, but made up for it to some degree with energy and aggression, racing inside for a dozen FTs. But without the shooting stroke going was never consistent, and was not able to stabilize us in the early 2nd with Reke and Cousins both on the bench. Played his normal gambling style of defense, which resulted in steals and deflections, but also in him being beaten backdoor on multiple occassions. Ran the break hard, with Reke in particular, but in the late third victimized by the refs blowing a whistle just as Reke had set him up for a WIDE open three -- then they decide to blow the whistle and reset the clock? Mugged by Wallace on the break in the early 4th and looked groggy. Shot the FTs and headed to the lockerroom, but if anything maybe the blow shook the cobwebs out, as when he returned he reponded a minute later with a three and then a two. Added a big defensive stop on the break late in the game, but almost got himself tagged as the goat (and I don't mean Greatest Of All Time) when with 10 seconds to go and us u 3 and jsut needing to hang onto the ball, Wallace stole the ball from him when all we needed was to keep the ball and get fouled, and raced the other way. Fortuntely for him as well as us, the Blazers missed 2 threes to end things, and we escaped.
Last edited by a moderator:
