[Grades] Grades v. Bucks 11/25/2015

Would you exterminate an indigenous culture for the sake of a turkey feast?

  • Yep!

    Votes: 3 10.7%
  • You betcha!

    Votes: 5 17.9%
  • Pass the gravy

    Votes: 20 71.4%

  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Evil-Dooms-Day-Turkey.jpg


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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Bench

Stats: 31min 19pts (6-9, 3-5, 4-6) 7reb 3ast 2stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( A ) -- this is one of those games where our fore-shortened 8/9 (depending on Cuz availability) bench really paid off, with everybody contributing, and few more than Omri. He was extremely efficient from the very beginning (so efficient his 1-game Offensive Rating was 172), knocked down his threes, and encountered scant resistance to his drives. You got his hustle, and this time there weren't any of the mistakes either as there seemed to be a teamwide focus on fewer loose plays. The first thing he did after returning in the third was snag a big hustle o-reb. And his three at the 2:10 mark was the final dagger. You realistically couldn't ask for much more from a bench forward, and he and Rudy combined for a cool 55pts on 19-34 shooting. --Brick

Stats: 23min 17pts (5-10, 3-7, 4-5) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Belinelli ( A- ) -- When we signed Marco in the offseason, I think this is the player we thought we were getting. 17 points in 23 minutes is not bad when you do it shooting 50% overall from the floor, and 42% from the three. His biggest flaw was his lack of rebounds, but he had zero turnovers. I'll say it again, he had zero turnovers. That alone earned him an A. He was 3 of 7 from the three, and a couple of those threes were very timely, and needed. I thought Marco also played pretty good defense tonight. He did a better job of staying in front of his man than McLemore did, and he also left less space between himself and his man. Heck, he even had 2 steals. I doubt we win this game tonight without Belinelli, so its safe to say he impacted the game. Plus, there always seems to be good ball movement when Marco is on the floor. I doubt that's an accident. I hope this is the Belinelli that shows up every night for the rest of the season. --Baja

Stats: 26min 18pts (5-10, 2-4, 6-7) 2reb 3ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Collison ( B- ) -- perhaps the least successful of the benchers, just in that a lot fo his scoring was more one on one oriented against the slower Bucks PGs, and the gap in floor gneralship between he and Rondo is just stark. Whether by inclination or instruction he's taking the "be Lou Williams" thing seriously. While he had problems effectively challenging the endless rian of Bucks threes, he wasn't the biggest defenisve problem tonight, or rather he was no bigger problem than anybody else. We scrambled the game, were constantly in the open court, rarely fully locked in. DC raced up and down and put up points without much else. --Brick
 
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2-3 road trip with Cousins out for 2 of them.

Somehow winning this oddity in the way we did feels right.

Rudy played well, bench sure seemed to score a lot.

Love seeing Kidd's tantrum.
 
Been spending time with the fam all night but just popping in to say GREAT WIN! We really needed this one as a bounce-back. The Great Rudini looked like last year's Rudy. If we can get the same effort on D in the 4th quarter for 48 minutes we could see some playoffs. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
 
Something else I wanted to point out...

After tonight's scoring explosion, only Kevin Durant (basically a tie with Westbrook), Brandon Knight, Kyle Lowry, and CJ McCollum are scoring more points per game than Rudy Gay as a second option right now. It's not always pretty but he's doing his job out there.
 
Right so we got the win somehow and that’s all that matters.

I’m going to put my want to play sustainable, effective basketball aside and just say that this was a key win in terms of maintaining some form of momentum. We can absolutely beat the Timberwolves playing this rubbish, defenceless, junk, pace ball and that’s all we should be keeping an eye on currently.

I feel like I’m selling my soul here but all that matters is wins. Karl has turned us into this and so be it. Win and take it game by game. I do not want this season to be over by Christmas. We can be there or there abouts in terms of .500 by December end. A team with Rondo, Gay and Cousins has too much potential not to string wins together.
 
They managed to win a game without Boogie. He has another day to rest that back and hopefully be ready for Minnesota. Hopefully nothing comes out of the altercations in the tunnel. Cooler heads need to prevail here. Collison did right by Boogie and the team.
 
I badly want to see us give the Warriors their first loss on their home court on Saturday. Like I'm uncomfortable with how much it appears to matter to me.

It should matter to us. We are better. If we have demarcus and play defence we can execute a win
 
Something else I wanted to point out...

After tonight's scoring explosion, only Kevin Durant (basically a tie with Westbrook), Brandon Knight, Kyle Lowry, and CJ McCollum are scoring more points per game than Rudy Gay as a second option right now. It's not always pretty but he's doing his job out there.

The Kings replaced Boogie with Rudy in the play set in which they run pick and roll in the middle of floor and it worked well. Also Giannis despite his length did not bother Rudy. His strength and savvy got him the good looks he wanted.

Karl said something interesting post-game, that Rudy and Omri play well together. I hadn't noticed that but he said he needs to make an effort to have them on the floor together more often.
 
+The ball movement was the best we have seen from a Kings team since the glory years.
+ Rudy is looking to be back in rhythm with less black hole iso and more quick hit finishes.
+You can see that Rondo is really getting more comfortable with his guys as the season goes on. Starting to find guys in rhythm more and more.
+Koufos has been rock solid of late after a shaky start to the season, post defense and help defense is great.
+WCS can really change a game when he starts rolling. We will only see more and more as he keeps growing.
+Omri is playing even better than last season, the out of control drives are almost eliminated and the outside shooting and energy are as good as ever. What a bargain.
+Collison showed signs of getting back in rhythm, important piece.
 
They managed to win a game without Boogie. He has another day to rest that back and hopefully be ready for Minnesota. Hopefully nothing comes out of the altercations in the tunnel. Cooler heads need to prevail here. Collison did right by Boogie and the team.

The Dubs play PHX on Friday so have the longer travel on back-to-back. Kings will have confidence of playing well in first match-up vs GSW and all the motivation in the world, assuming they are 17-0. Hopefully we can blow out the Wolves so our main guys don't have to play extended minutes on Friday...so we can shock the world on Saturday. :eek:
 
I'm not saying we can beat the Dubs but Boogie/WCS is an interesting frontline I want to see vs them. Then again Brooklyn was a tip on away from beating them. Also they have the record so anyone can catch them a "off" night I feel now.
 
The Kings replaced Boogie with Rudy in the play set in which they run pick and roll in the middle of floor and it worked well. Also Giannis despite his length did not bother Rudy. His strength and savvy got him the good looks he wanted.

Karl said something interesting post-game, that Rudy and Omri play well together. I hadn't noticed that but he said he needs to make an effort to have them on the floor together more often.

That's him saying he wants to run Boogie and the two SFs without having to worry about the other bigs getting in the way.
 
Karl said something interesting post-game, that Rudy and Omri play well together. I hadn't noticed that but he said he needs to make an effort to have them on the floor together more often.

As long as it isnt accompanied by Collison and Rondo we should be ok
 
I have about 200 dollars and a couple profile pic bets riding on the Warriors game. With this momentum, im pretty confident we will give them their first loss
 
Add WCS and Rondo and that is a nice long team!

Nah. Karl is trying to go smaller and with more scoring. WCS doesn't score/create enough for Karl. Plus, WCS might just turn it into a defensive game, and that's just not acceptable. The faster we let our opponents shoot, the faster we get the ball back on offense.
 
I have about 200 dollars and a couple profile pic bets riding on the Warriors game. With this momentum, im pretty confident we will give them their first loss

I'm a little worried what your avatar is going to be like Sunday morning. :)

Maybe we need to contact Cuz on twitter and start a #winoneforthedemon hastag.
 
How close this 5-game trip could have 3-2 and evev 4-1. The're still learning how to play defense, at least in the 4th quarter when it mattered. Thought Casspi finally got into his man in 4th after laying back for 3 qtr and everyone turned it up in 4th as winning teams do. Willies impact improving every game on defense. A's for Rudy and Omri and mostly B's otherwise.
 
I hope Karl understands that he can't outrun the Warriors or out-smallball them and experiments, for once, with a slow grind-it-out gameplan. It's his only hope of beating them, and he has the personnel to do it. What better game to experiment than one you're bound to lose anyway, right? Wishful thinking I know.
 
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