Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
That was just aggravating to watch. This is the second time this season at least that this team has come off of a potential momentum shifting win that might have shifted fan attitudes and just squelched it with an ugly game.
Changed my mind on the theme., This was ugly, and I am a little late getting started here. So I hereby declare this game was too ugly to earn a theme.
Official Boxscore
Casspi ( C- ) -- this was an odd game, was ineffective as everybody else, but unlike the other guys who were just brick brick briccking, Omri just never seemed to get the ball in scoring position. I could go back to watch it again to see if he was just being chased off hsi spots, or had tired legs and wasn't getting to his spots, or was getting to his spots but was not geting the ball (although I don't remember much of that)....but I have no intention of watching any part of this fugliness ever again. Got into quick foul trouble along with the other 24 guys involved in this game, and was having problems wiht Wallace's quickness all game lone.. As a SG in the late 2nd caused a few problems, posting up little Augustin, drawing a foul. Kept getting beat by Wallace off the dribble into the third, and somehow, someway he has got to figure out how to become a better defender. Like last night in Portland, got his entire burst of offense -- in this case a big ole 2 hoops -- on a quick burst in the third as Reke found him on back to back plays for a cut and a leakout. Missed the threes he got. So basically not a contributor on offense or defense, which leaves the glass. And there at least he gave us a little something, tying for the team lead with 8.
Thompson ( B- ) -- fugly in the early going but began to get hustle and effort boards inside as the 2nd quarter went along, and in this ugly affair, was actually our most productive statline in the first half wiht something like 7pts 4rebs. Got a three point play on one end in the early third, but made a defensive error and left Najera open to hit a three on us the other way that instantly negated it. Showing his normal lack of touch around the rim, but also his normal peristence going over the Bobcats to collect his misses and mop them up. When he was at center got pushed around on the glass by Kwame however. Sloppy unsmart play late in the game after coming back for Cousins. Forced a bad pass to Daly in the post, missed a short little flip, slammed a jumpball too hard for Tyreke to catch up to etc. Better than most of what we had going tonight, but that's not to say particularly good.
Cousins ( D ) -- in the past two nights DeMarcus has played a grand total of 35 minutes, and has picked up 11 fouls in those minutes. Which would be a tremednous, and tremendously ill timed step backward, but I just can't blame him that much for this one. These refs were completely ridiculous. I hope they went home last night to find out that their wives had left them. For their brothers. And taken the dogs. Think the refs were in DeMarcus's head fromt he beginning as as he looked unfocused and sloppy in his moves right from the get go here. But again, I consider even acknowledging that there are refs -- whether it be through flopping/cheating or through miserable whining and complaining to be mentally weak and pathetic, and yet this was so bad that I actualy could not realy blame DeMarcus. The way the game was being called how could he or anybody else play wihtout one eye over their shoulder waiting for a random whistle for accidentally sweating on some guy. Had a couple of little good moments, including a nice outlet pass over the top of 3 Bobcats to a streaking Reke, and a nice looking Duncanesque banker high off the glass from the side that it would not surprise me to see him develop -- he's got that kind of natural talent. But was not on the boards and looked tentative agiant a team with nobody really to stop him. He was getting pushed aroudn on the glass again, and while DeMarcus is very strong, this is where he really needs to work in the offseason on becoming just a physical monster -- guys like Pryzbilla and Kwame are every bit as big, and more solid as full grown men rather than kids with a little softness on them, and he has been getting moved a bit of position of late. There was a little life of a sort int he third, when he picked off an outlet pass and figured out how to make the refs pay-by-tweet system work for him, jsut slamming inside without much thought of doing anything other than jsut slamming inside, and waiting for the whistle happy refs to blow and blow and blow and send him to the line. Did not last long however as the phantom calls swung back around against him, he picked up his 4th for apparently invading somebody's personal space and effecting his chakras with his power bands, and the minutes were few and scattered from that point until he fouled out midway through the 4th having lasted only 20 minutes through the madness.
Udrih ( F ) -- you know, I looked at this grade and looked at this grade, and finaly just said, you know what? Yep. Beno was jsut terrible last night. It might have started in the second half in Portland, where he really struggled. But it was game long here. In fact he basically got his game highlight early in the first quarter on a nice change of direction on a breakout spinning Augustin around and around and laying it in. And then things got ugly, and it just killed us. As much as we sucked tonight, all Beno had to do was just hit anything he normaly hits, and we could easily have won this. But just..wow. And it wasn't only that he kept missing and missing, but he was just struggling in all aspects of the game, from decisionmaking, to dribbling, you name it. Kept on forcing bad drives into traffic and not coming close. Unfortunately I think maybe playing hoping to get bailed out by one of those magic whistles rather than just converting. Kept ion missing wide open threes on kicks as well, as all of them were well set up, his feet were set, and just...nothing. Finally got one of his short stop and pop jumpers to fall to start the third...and then promptly resumed sucking. Of course the cherry on top came on defense where he was blown by by Augustin on muiltiple occasions as he slashed inside and broke down our defense. Got a solitary hit in the early 4th, but just kept on missing little shots he should hit as we just never NEVER could convince any of our guys to hit even just 3-4 shots in a row for a mini-run.
Evans ( C+ ) -- you know, this was not what anybody could call a good game for Reke, but there was one thing about it that made me pretty satisfied, and that as the impression that Reke was trying to be the rock in the sea of chaos. During the worst of the Nov/Dec struggles Reke looked lost out there, lost in his own private sea of pain and not only not leading us, but actively draining us as other guys tried to pick him up. That's exactly the oppostie of what you look for from a star. Well in this game he was never really on, but throughout the game you could see that whatever his own struggles, he was trying to set people up, trying to get things going, trying to light a spark -- he was worrying about getting the other guys going rather than the other way around. Did not work of course, but I think he actually did a pretty good job setting up the offense here and could easily have had 10+ assists on any sort of normal night. But nobody responded, and the bricks rained from all directions. Reke came out still thinking he was hot with the jumper from the other night, but was quickly convinced otherwise as he was not only missing badly, he actually airalled two of them to sort of announce the ugliness of the game we were about to watch. Found Greene for an alley oop, which was about the only thing anybody was able to hit. Was having to really fight Stephen Jackson's superior size in the post (he's 6'8"), and picked up fouls doing it. Then had to pay with his hands in is pockets but these refs were just dying to blow the whistle. Started to use quick hard drives to draw attention and kick, but nobody was hitting anything. Finally got a couple of jumpers to fall late in teh half, including our only three of the entire night to cut the lead back to 10. Picked up his 4th foul on a phatom call almost as bad as the phantom call that took out Cousins a few minutes before. Kind of gave up on his own offense there for a long while, but the setting up other people finally paid some brief dividends in the early 4th as 2 or 3 of them een consented to hit those shots and we closed ground on a Cats team that was anythign but impressive, but just not as hirrid as us. Came up with a hige block on the break at the 2:45 mark to save a hoop, raced down the other way for the layup in traffic that could have cut it to 5 and given us one last burst of energy...and missed it. Bobcats go back the other way, lead is up to 8, and a moribuud team is just done. Had one more moment after the Cats tried to get all shaky and give us a shot in the final minute -- after Landry got a three pt play to cut it to 7, the Cats made a terrible turnover and Reke slammed inside, got to the line, and hit both FTs to make it 5 with 35 seconds to go and once again for the millionth time in these last 6 weeks give us a gambler's chance.
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