Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Here's a treat people. I rarely rant. Prepare for it.
Good lord. I am pissed. I'm sorry, I keep an ironic distance as a rule. I find amusing asides and Girls and anything else. But this one flat pissed me off. There was no reason at all for this. But then what do we get? First of all, Ben McLemore was terrible. He flat sucked. I had to grade him tonight and he just sucks. There. Angry. Did he never play basketball before? Good lord, being a rookie is no excuse for not having any clue. He killed us. Ok. Then Rudy Gay turns into a pumpkin, does absolutely nothing, and then disappears once and for all with knee stiffness? Did we just lose him? Good lord. Isaiah, you know what? If I was on Isaiah's team on a night like this I might just hit him. Me me me me me me me me Pizza Guy! Me me me me me me me me me!!! You little glory hound. Good lord. Pass the damn ball. Pass it! Then we play embarrassing defense to start the game. Not one bleeping person on the entire team will hit even the most wide open jump shot. By the end of the game the Bohornets were just fearlessly doubling Cousins on the catch, and they didn't care who they doubled off of because everybody else sucked. Oh, and while we're at it, yo Coach, you have another 7 footer on the team. Quincy Acy, who BTW provided some decent moments of machismo pairing with Cousins in the second half, is 6'7". He's not a center, he never will be. Play the damn big guy! Good. Lord.
Oh, and BTW, DeMarcus Cousins was tremendous. He may not be an All star this year. And if he's not its because people are bleeping morons. You can tell them I said that, and send them my way if they want to make something of it. Oh and DeMarcus, if you want to institute a suit for non-support against your teammates, give me a call and I'll happily, and I do mean happily, represent you. Good lord.
Enough. On to the grades.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Spudfan
Henkel
MassachusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 14min 4pts (1-6, 0-0, 2-3) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Gay ( F ) -- After two ‘A’ performances he follows it up with an abysmal game. By the end of the 1st half he’d only scored a single point. He got his first basket to go at the 7:20 mark and that was it. He left the game at the 5:30 mark and didn’t come back into the game due to what is reported as a stiff knee, so hopefully he’ll be OK and will be able to bounce back tomorrow. Who knows how long his knee was bothering him, and that could have been the issue the entire game, but our number 2 option only took 6 shots and only made one of them for a total of 4 points, so it can’t be anything other than an F.--Uncia
Stats: 31min 9pts (4-6, 0-0, 1-2) 9reb 1ast 1stl 1blk 2TO
Thompson ( B+ /F ) -- JT’s night started out fantastic. He won the opening tip, recorded the first rebound of the game, made his only shot attempt of the quarter and kept McRoberts and Zeller scoreless for 9 minutes. His positioning was good on defense and he seemed to be making a concsious effort to stay out Cousins way on offense. In the second quarter the strong play continued and JT provided exactly what you expect out of a role player. He only took 2 more shots, while making one of them to finish with 5 points (2/3 1/2 FT) and 7 rebounds at the half, well done JT. All of this play lead to a B+ as he helped us much more than he hurt us. He really was the only other person out there giving Cousins any support. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to contribute much in the second half because of two silly fouls in less than 30 seconds (F). One of the fouls was due to him holding his man while going for a rebound and the other an offensive foul. We wouldn’t see him again until the fourth quarter where he went 2/3 with one of the baskets coming off of a nice putback dunk. His only real mistake came from a defensive 3-second call that gave Kemba a free throw. B+ night for him when you discount those 2 fouls early in the third (F). The stat line he put up is right in line with what you hope to get out of him every night. Play of the Night for JT: Beautiful screen that gave Ben a wide open layup… which he missed.--Spud
Stats: 36min 30pts (9-13, 0-0, 12-13) 17reb 6ast 3stl 0blk 6TO
Cousins ( A ) -- Well, the Kings can thank DeMarcus Cousins for giving them an opportunity to win this game because no one else really showed up. He was scoring, he was getting to the line, he was rebounding, he was passing, and he even shut down Al Jefferson on the other end. That’s back-to-back games now where Cousins has made his opponent a non-factor. First Howard, now Jefferson. Impressive. He couldn’t do that in his rookie year. He couldn’t do that last year. Cousins usually goes off like this when he has confidence in his ability to score inside against the player guarding him. Al Jefferson can’t stop him in the post and he knew it. We didn’t see to many Jump shots out of DeMarcus, and that kept his field goal percentage and his free throw attempts high. He was making it look easy. What else can you say about this guy? He made more than one incredible post move that only a handful of NBA big men can even dream of ATTEMPTING, let a lone smoothly putting the ball in the basket. His footwork is just on another level. Then there was the passing. He was hitting cutters (Thomas, Acy) he was hitting shooters (with mixed results). He was well on his way to a triple double and a potentially career game by halftime. To the Bobcats credit they made a few defensive adjustments at the half that resulted in a less dominant 3rd and 4th quarter out of Cousins and no one else stepped up in his place. They started aggressively double teaming him as soon as he caught the ball. Double teams are great! Really. Cousins CAN work through that, he has in the past, but the off the ball movement stopped. No one was coming to the ball. No one was helping him out of it. It was Cousins on an island against two defenders. This is what inflated his turnover numbers, and then the Kings just stopped going to him. Isaiah Thomas started doing his own thing, and that was that. Cousins effectiveness started to dip later in the game, so I don’t know how different tonight’s result would have been if they kept feeding him (especially if the Bobcats were going to keep doubling, and the rest of the Kings were going to keep standing around), but I would have much rather watched that then the Isaiah Thomas show. His teammates needed to find a way to get him the ball, and they just couldn’t do that consistently in the 4th quarter. On a night where Cousins vastly outplays his matchup, who also happens to be the opposing teams best player you’d expect to come away with a win. You should win. Not tonight. Cousins held up his end of the bargain, this one was on everybody else. --Mass
Stats: 30min 7pts (2-10, 1-5, 2-2) 3reb 3ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( D- ) -- how did Ben suck tonight? Let me count the ways. he missed his first shot again, then overcommitted on defense and had to foul Hendersen frio behind when he recovered. Blew a wide open layup too as he's just off. I mean wide open. Layup line sort of stuff. Got his second foul on a decent challenge by the midway point of the first quarter, and its getting to be a feeling of relief when you see him head to the bench. Returned to the game and got his first positive, getting out on the break with running mate Williams and hitting Williams for the dunk. And promptly returned to doing everything wrong, completing a tough back to back bad sequence curling and bricking an open three, then going back on the other end, playing bad defense, and watching Gordon blow right by him to the rim. After a timeout came out and fell on his butt on defense. Literally. That's the way its going. Picked up his third before the end of the half still with 0pts and again its whew! Finally finally hit a damn shot and showed off that vaunted shooting form on an open three kicked form Cousins. Of course he promptly goes down the other way and gets beat on defense. Luckily Cousins stepped up to take the charge. He played a little better for the remainder of the third, which is to say he wasn't involved on offense and hence couldn't screw anything up, and only had a few defensive miscommunications with IT up top as they couldn't decide who's turn it was to get burned this time. Finally got another positive play driving and getting to the line to hit 2 near the end of the 3rd. He always looks so happy whenever anything good happens. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. At this point he hits a Ft and he thinks its Christmas. Took some terrible shots late in the game to help bury us. Terrible play with 2:45 to go as with us still breathing he decided to show off his ballhandling skills again in the corne, which predictably led to Ben Gordon, noted stud defender, just reaching out and taking the ball from him like taking candy from a baby. Bricked another open three with 1:10 to go just in case anybody was still going to accuse him of being a shooter. And yet for all of that, all of that muck, I am restricted from giving him an F because hey, he actually had 3 or 4 good plays scattered amongst the 20 bricks, turnovers and blown defensive coverages. And of late his 7pts 3reb 3ast might as well be 20-5-5. Kid needs to see some pine though. I don't think there's even any confidence left to be shot, but getting his ass kicked every night certainly isn't going to bring it back.--Brick
Stats: 36min 21pts (8-23, 2-6, 3-3) 2reb 4ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( D ) -- A selfish performance coming on the heels of one of his more complete games. Cousins was locked in on both side and Gay gets an out due to the injury but IT and the rest of the starters just didn't show up defensively to start this one off. Something that happens way to often. Steve Clifford has gotten his team, a abysmal defensive team last year, to bring it every night on that side of the ball. Something I'd hoped Malone could manage on top of maybe getting his guys to understand basic principles of transition and pick and roll defense, something Clifford has manage to pull off as well. With Gay slowed down IT was looking to shoot right from the start with little result. 2-9 for the half on top of bad communication and effort on the defensive end. Had a nice start after the half and used that as a natural transition into over dribbling and some poor shot selection as the quarter progressed. That near air ball three in the third was pure hero ball nonsense that is a completely unacceptable waste of a possession and a momentum killer. Especially considering your franchise player is having his way. Ineffective to close things out. The Bobcats have a solid transition defense, which is where IT thrives in general but especially as a play maker. Could be more effective as a starter if they can find a way to use him more effectively in the half court, I liked some of the stuff they were doing with him off the ball early, but tonight he didn't look the part and got outplayed by one of the leagues lower tier starting point guards.--Henkel
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