Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
After a pretty gross first half that looked like the All Star game, the first team to finally play some defense won the game.
That won't be Karl's lesson. He'll draw from this that you run faster and faster and eventually they get tired. Guaranteed.
But we won one without Cousins -- one we absolutely needed. No room for anymore errors. Also STILL despite everything keeps us on my by January 7 .500 pace -- the key was splitting the MIL/CHA pair, and going 2-3 on the trip. now beat Minny, lose to the Warriors, and we finish the month 7-11, right on schedule. Obviously this can still go either way easily, but the flame still flickers. The quest to not be the league's miserable turds yet again goes on.
Also, JKidd is a nut.
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 36pts (13-25, 2-5, 8-9) 5reb 2ast 1stl 1blk 0TO
Summary: and there it finally was, Rudy, playing more like Rudy in his favorite spots, stepped up huge with Cuz out. That's what's needed.
Gay ( A ) -- he came right out firing in this one, establishing early on that the Bucks weren't going to stop him and pouring in 8 our our first 12 points, and 16 by the end of the first quarter alone. For all the rot that gets talked about him, when he gets on one of these rolls he's nearly impossible to stop, seeming to always rise up 1 or 2 inches higher than his opponent, even if that opponent is 6'11" and called the "Greek Freak". A real key was that whether this was an altered gameplan, taking advantage of Cuz's absence, or Rudy jsut taking it upon himself, he was attacking from much more familiar spots for him. There was less dribbling up top, more work on the short wings and baselines where his bread and butter pullups and postups can be deadly. He powered through MCW at the end of the half to get his 20th pt, and our 69th. And he never went away, and in fact probably sealed the game with a falling down/fouled on the shot 3pt play at the 3:30 mark that pushed us back up to a 10pt lead. This is how you survive a star's absence -- the #2 scorer steps up, and everybody else chips in.--Brick
Stats: 23min 7pts (3-4, 0-0, 1-2) 5reb 0ast 0stl 3blk 0TO
Summary: not exactly the spectacular performance needed to change Karl's mind, but started rolling defensively in the 4th
Cauley-Stein ( B ) -- struggled a bit early in this one, and continued to leave three point shooters too open. As the game sped to breakneck pace, fell back toward a straight platoon with Koufos. But when we finally did go big again WCS began to come on, and had a stretch of especially strong play in the 4th when his defense was one of the keys for us finally gaining some control of the game defensively (Mil scored 33 in the first and second quarters, 26 in the 3rd and 4th), added a dunk from Casspi, and almost a monster dunk that Milwaulkee fouled him on to prevent.--Brick
Stats: 35min 14pts (5-8, 0-0, 4-4) 9reb 0ast 1stl 2blk 0TO
Summary: too stodgy and solid for this sort of game, but Karl actually played him, and he trudged along and neutralized Monroe
Koufos ( B ) -- looked decidedly out of place out there as everybody spent most of the game racing up and down the court letting the other guy score quickly so they could get back to scoring themselves. But he had a purpose out there, to give us a big body to match up with Monroe, and he did the job admirably. Monroe was never a factor. And while it was hard to say Kosta was either, he was extremely solid, and had a few little bursts of play where he'd get a stop on one end, a little half hook on the other, and just help us maintain our superiority. 14pts 9rebs 2blks 0TO on 5-8 shooting in 35min? That's about as "solid" a game as you're going to get out of lesser talented big. He didn't win it for us, but he held his spot down. --Brick
Stats: 27min 8pts (2-5, 0-1, 4-4) 4reb 1ast 3stl 0blk 3TO
Summary: closer to the recent aggressive Ben than to Ben the Invisible Man, but one of the few starters making mistakes too
McLemore ( C- ) -- I guess Ben didn't have that bad a game in the grand scheme of things, but frankly, I'm tired of the stupid turnovers. I'm tired of seeing him drive into traffic and lose the ball, which he did twice tonight. He had three turnovers overall. I'm tired of seeing him drive to the basket and throw up wild shots, hoping he gets the call. I commend him for being more aggressive. It's a step in the right direction, but being active or aggressive doesn't equal good. His defense tonight was just OK, not great. He has a habit of backing off his man and leaving just enough space for him to get a shot off when he catches Ben leaning in the wrong direction. He also has the habit of leaving his man to double at times when it doesn't seem necessary. He's not the only perimeter defender to do that. Collison got burned several times tonight trying to double and leaving his man with a wide open shot. If it's by design, then they need to change that design. Overall, I thought our ball movement was much better for the entire game. And I thought our overall defense was better. Not great, or even good. Just better. Tonight Ben didn't really have much impact on the game. Except for the turnovers, he neither helped us or hurt us to any degree. If we had lost this game, I would have given him a D. Winning helps my attitude. --Baja
Stats: 39min 10pts (5-10, 0-1, 0-0) 9reb 13ast 0stl 1blk 4TO
Summary: badly outclassed MCW, notched another near-triple double, but looked to be cramping up on the sidelines late
Rondo ( A- ) -- helped set the immediate offensive tone as once again, ho hum, he notched 7 first quarter assists as we poured in 40pts. And a part of it was how very much it was Rondo taking complete control of the offense. Nobody was making any turnovers except for Rondo, because he was making all the offensive decisions. Combined with no apparent Bucks defense it was like videogame scoring, on both sides. But this time the scoring against us wasn't on Rajon either, as he completely dominated Michael Carter Williams, often by just standing back 3-4 feet and daring him to shoot. There was a long stretch in the second quarter of Collison running the team, in different and less effective fashion. But when Rondo took back over full time in the third he was right back directing things, and sneaking in for those little reverse layups. Probably would have had yet another triple double, but the early pace in this one might have been too ridiculous for his body to sustain, and by the early 4th he was over on the sidelines having his legs worked on, and at one point rather alarmingly having a huge pack wrapped around one. He would return and as usual help stabilize us late, but may have been less productive in the final minutes. --Brick
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