[Grades] Grades v. Bobcats 2/25/11

Winner of the Kings nightly not so hot defense award this evening?

  • Omri Casspi

    Votes: 10 34.5%
  • Demarcus Cousins

    Votes: 5 17.2%
  • Jermaine Taylor

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Beno Udrih

    Votes: 14 48.3%
  • Pooh Jeter

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    29

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1
Here's how bad it is: the Bobcats, one of the worst offensive teams in the league who just traded away one of their two main weapons, score 110pts on us, and that's still considerably LESS than the average we have given up in the 10 games without Reke (116.6pts against per game).

Opp pts per game w/Reke (46gms) = 100.4
Opp pts per game w/o Reke (10gms) = 116.6

At least another 2 1/2 weeks too.

Sigh.


So, in order to short circuit the inevitable complaints from the ever demanding women of the board, tonight's theme will be: Cute Puppies!

Official Boxscore


Casspi ( D+ ) -- the contributions were in the jumpshots. Hit his first two shots, including a three as we raced out to a strong start. But then disappeared on offense for a long time (mostly because the ball was just going other directions), and worse yet was getting absolutely nothing accomplished anywhere else on the court. Got torched on defense again, this time by Stephen Jackson, but in this one didn't have any activity on the boards or in the passing game to make up for it. Scattered in couple more jumpers in the third, but with the Bobcats built perfectly to exploit our two biggest defensive sinkholes at PG/SF, we started going through spasms to avoid seeing Jackson torch Omri anymore. An ineffective Donte could have done the deed if the All Star break hadn't restolen his mojo. Late we experimented with a hopeless three guard set which at its weakest was Pooh Jeter, Marcus Thornton, and Jermaine Taylor -- when guard play is your weakness with Reke out, you put out three of them? Two scrubs and a guy in his first game? Anyway, just shows you how not well it was going with Omri that we would even screw around with that. Shot efficiently, but can't go any hihger when you get torched 30-10 and only grab 1 reb.

Baby Akita -- I'll start with one of the requested dogs. Girls, all together now, awwwww....

Thompson ( B ) -- very active and overwhelming the Bobcats miniature PFs early with energy as much as anything. Was on the glass, and bouncing balls off the glas inside on offense. When he picked up his second foul in the first half adn we had to sit him, we began to fall apart. Picked up his 4th early in the third, but we actually let him play through it -- we let Jason Thompson actually try to avoid a foul so dismal did Westphal deem his options (Jackson had sucked in his stint, and Cousins sufferend a quick and mysterious fall from favor when he refused to quit giving the ball to the other team). JT kept the rebounding up and hit a long jumper, but never had the impact he did early, and sort of faded off to asolid helpful game, but not an impact one.

Lab puppy

Cousins ( C+ ) -- this one started off so well too. Charlotte's cost cutting maneuvers apparently include their scouting department, as we started the game with the exact same Cousins to Taylor on the back door cut for the alley oop play we used last game, and again it worked. If Memphis lets us do that tonight somebody over there should get fired. Settled in and was chewing up the glass and knocking down easy jumpers over Kwame, who didn't want to guard him out there. Then a big gorilla dunk off nice ball movement. Even grabbed a d-board and led the break finishing with a pass over the top to Darnell for a dunk in stride. But started to miss as the half wore on and get frustrated, and more importantly really began to rack up turnovers. When he was going well and he had a couple of aggression, that was one thing. But when he fell off and they just became slop it became a problem. And when he started the third with another one, he got pulled immediately in an odd move, and then buried over on the bench for the entire period, and much fo the rest of the game. I don't know if something was said again or what, but if it wasn't it felt unnecessary and the sort fo thing that could cause more friction. In any case played an "A" first quarter and seemed poised to dominate against a sad 'Cats frontline, and then just kind of stopped. Maybe it was too easy and he lost focus, don't know. But Daly's playing so consistently well that when this happens, there go DeMarcus's minutes.

Beagle Mix Puppy -- my senior year at Penn we had a beagle/collie mix house puppy. Cutest little thing you ever saw, and just wanted attention. Unfortunately this was a house with 8 guys, and there was no clear responsibility for who's dog she was. She got a lot of attention because of the cuteness, and girls absolutely adored her (which justified having her alone), but there was kind of benign neglect of actually training her. So her housebreaking was never done correctly, she wasn't walked on any schedule, she would scratch and claw and whine at people's doors all night if not let in, she chewed up anything and everything she could find, including several expensive pices of furniture, and she would fairly consistently leave little gifts in the hall, or a few times in people's beds (I kept my door shut when I wasn't there). In the end, after about 5 months we gave her away to one of the guy's cousins who was, I kid you not, both gorgeous and a stripper. I'm not making that up.

Taylor ( C- ) -- started this game just like last game with the same alley opp from Cousins, and there was little burst of strong play there as everybody was going well and we jumped off to the lead. But unlike this time out, it didn't last agains the Cats. Trying to move off the ball wasn't enough to get free cositently, and when he tried to takle his man off the dribble he turned it over. Got quiet for a very long time until finally hitting a three in the mid 3rd. Got inserted as a SF for a while in the second half with a tiny guard lineup of Pooh/Thornton/Taylor. Smallest weakest group we could put out there without Head. Kept on missing hs shots, got exposed when trying to create plays, and was not effective defensively as a 3. Added he true garbage +1 with a couple of second to go when he could have just dribbled it out.

I have no idea of the breed, just came up when I typed in "cute puppy"
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Udrih ( B- ) -- its really too bad Beno can't play defense, because he could really help with his offensive skillset. In the early going his game was again typified by helping grease the offense wiht his passing, but by that strange refusal to shoot once more. Was all fine while we were going well, but as outr offense fell apart in the second quarter where was Beno? We don't have the offensive firepower sans Reke for a pass only PG. Of course the aggravating factor was on the other end of the floor, where it was another night of sad beating for Beno. Audustin just took him off the dribble again and again and again, and it was just easy. After half finally started shooting in the third, and his play with both scoring and passing helped us catch back up. The defense didn't pick up though, and after being left out for a long time in the 4th, by the time he returned he had lost his offensive mojo as well and gave us no push late. So..13 assists is nice. And during our best moments Beno was helping grease things. But he also was invisible when nedded with hs own offense, and just vapor when it came to defense.

Maltese puppy


Bench

Thornton ( B+ ) -- here was a positive to take out of this one -- Thornton came in and looked good. Not only did he look good, but it did not take much squinting to imagine how he might be able to fit next to Reke to give us that critical spacing and pop from the perimeter. Hit his first shot, but committed a dumb error right before the first quarter, fouling the Cats to send them to the line to cut the lead to 2. Used his athleticsm a bit on the glass -- on his career so far he's been an above average guard rebounder despite the lack of size. And he came up big when we needed him to too -- draining three threes in the 4th, blocking a shot (even if his lack of size was otherwise exposed a bit by Shaun Livingston), and getting out on the break. Only real area of disappointment migh have been his drives, that were fugly and out of control, but you can close your eyes and see him spotting up on the wing as Reke drives and have a smile on your face.

Shar Pei puppies -- Another request. We've played a cruel joke on this breed, turning them into mounds of wrinkles for our amusement..

Greene ( D ) -- got little accomplished in his first half minutes. Kept on missing after being reisnerted in the late 3rd. Finally got one to fall in the early 4th. And critically with Omri getting torched, had none of his defensive impact in the first half. Was better after break, but still not good enough to justify a 1-5 shooting empty statline, and we resorted to smallballing it because neitehr of our young SFs were getting it done.

Beagle puppy

Jeter ( D ) -- still needed for backup minutes behind Beno even with Thronton in town, as Marcus is not a PG, and brand new. Got little accomplished individually in his minutes on the floor though, and more importantly we rapidly lost ground. Part of that was beign out there with some seriously experimental liuneups involving random peopel, Thronton as the new guy, 3 guard lineups etc. But its not as if Pooh did anything indiviudally either. Once or twice he actually appeared to impede Augustin, which was a novel idea. But his highlight might have been missing a jumper off the side of the backboard in the early 4th. Nuff said.


in progress...
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#3
Dalembert ( B ) -- not a great game, but once again a steady one, and really just our best player. More offense than you would want him to take, but even on days like tonight when he's not shootign 75% its not terrible. I mean, 7-16 for 18pts 10rebs is a very competent frontcourt stat line, and efectively from a guy we are going to as a trustworthy option. With Cousins' evaporation after half played a role in our comeback on both ends, but you are only going to go so far with a Dalembert led offense, and really did not have as much defenisve impact as you would have hoped as Augustin and Jackson blew by our PG/SFs at will.

German Sheperd pup -- the last of the requests

Jackson ( D ) -- This was Darnell's start: airballed a jumper, then a wild drive that had no chance (may have been looking for a foul), stripped on a drive, then another forced shot. It was lovely. How do I know it was lovely? Because I have it on good authority that Darnell is ALWAYS good and ALWAYS comes right in and makes a positive impact. So that must have been what happened here. He intimidated them with airballs. In the final few minutes of the half ran the floor for several dunks on nice passes to save this from a serious F push. Was however bad enoguh that Westphal more or less deemed him unplayabel after half, and ran Hackman himself (JT) wiht 4 fouls right through the second half.
 
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#4
Donte Greene played 11 mins tonight of totally worthless basketball. His defense is vastly overrated. Stephen Jackson who scored 30 pts made Greene look like a joke trying to check him. I hope Greene is gone by next season. In his 3rd year so-called "Buckets" should be better than he is and it appears mediocre bench warmer is all he'll ever be at NBA level.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#6
Donte Greene played 11 mins tonight of totally worthless basketball. His defense is vastly overrated. Stephen Jackson who scored 30 pts made Greene look like a joke trying to check him. I hope Greene is gone by next season. In his 3rd year so-called "Buckets" should be better than he is and it appears mediocre bench warmer is all he'll ever be at NBA level.
He actually did an alright job of playing defense on Jackson in the 3rd (at least better than Omri, which isn't really saying much). Jackson had a field day with Westphal's wonderful three guard line-up though.
 
#7
Leave it to the Kings to beat a fully loaded rested Orlando team on the second night of a back to back, only to lose to a Bobcats team fresh off of losing their best player in trade. =/
 

gunks

Hall of Famer
#10
Shar Pei (sp?) pups gotta be in the mix for this theme.

Anyways, glad I missed this one. Sloppy Cousins play + no D whatsoever means this was probably a bad loss (for those who watched the game) as opposed to those "good" losses of two weeks ago.

The uncertainty surrounding The Kings has got to be wearing on the player's focus. Plus no Reke.

Ah well, heres to Kyrie Irving.
 
#11
Cousins gets into foul trouble and we kinda need him to win games. But is the best solution for him to just run away from his man on defense? If he offers no help in protecting the paint whatsoever, his effect on the defensive end may negate the benefits that he brings on the offensive end.
 
#12
This was a humiliating loss.

There is no way that we should have lost this game, and yet we did.

As far as the worst defender, for me it was Beno hand's down.

Augustin just killed us all night long. He let Augustin shoot 9/11, and Augustin hit all his shots because they were point-blank layups. Over, and over again.

Casspi wasn't much better, but Stephen Jackson is a very good offensive player, and it was an obvious mis-match. I blame Westphal more for putting Casspi in that situation for so long to begin with.

But Beno....you can't hide him out there. Either he's going to get killed by Augustin or he's going to get killed by Henderson.

Hopefully tomorrow's game will be better.

As an aside, I'm watching the games on League Pass and it was the Charlotte announcers. Was there something going on with Cousins that I didn't know about?

I mean, I know that Sammy was having a good game and Cousins was turning the ball over, and not being as quick on his rotations as he should have been, but either Westphal has decided to put Cousins on a much shorter leash, or something else was going on there.
Cousins did put up 13 points and 10 boards in 26 minutes. He had a great first quarter and was far more efficient on the offensive end than Sammy. Just curious, if there was anything else going on that I might have missed.
 
#15
As much as it pains me to say it, we might have actually used Head today. Augustin was destroying us and Head did an acceptable job on Nelson a few nights back. Might've at least given it a shot, but I guess that goes against the Westphalian "you just closed out the game last time out, right? well then, no minutes for you tonight, mister." principle.

Also: Kittens, many, many kittens, please.
 
#17
I thought he was good; he wasn't just jacking shots he was taking good shots and giving it up he needed to.

looked very good from three as well;

The skill set of him and Taylor is high not sure it's wise to have them on the court at the same time for too long though.
 
#18
either Westphal has decided to put Cousins on a much shorter leash, or something else was going on there.
Cousins did put up 13 points and 10 boards in 26 minutes. He had a great first quarter and was far more efficient on the offensive end than Sammy. Just curious, if there was anything else going on that I might have missed.
Whatever else may have been going on, Dally had a fine night, and while Cousins put up some decent numbers too, he was flirting with a triple double of the wrong kind (pts, boards, TOs). You don't really need more justification than a TO every 3-4 minutes of play.
 
#20
I actually really like what I saw out of Thornton. We've discussed it ad naseum how badly this team needs a 3rd guard and someone who can nail a three - Thornton was very effective at doing just that.

While I love Landry as a 6th man scorer, the fact is there are only 96 minutes to go around - and we have three other quality big men.
 
#23
mr_jasonjones Jason Jones
Word is DeMarcus Cousins will not start tonight against Memphis. #nbakings

oh.... **********
Cousins needs to grow up - how many times this season have we said that? I bet his teammates are fed up with his toddler behavior as are obviously the coaches. Hopefully, the immature Cuz becomes a professional NBA player by next season with a major attitude adjustment.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#24
Cousins needs to grow up - how many times this season have we said that? I bet his teammates are fed up with his toddler behavior as are obviously the coaches. Hopefully, the immature Cuz becomes a professional NBA player by next season with a major attitude adjustment.
Who is surprised? We have patience with Whiteside but not Cousins. Nice perspective.