Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
See? Maybe we have not quit on the season after all. A good solid win over the boringest team in basketball as both our guards fought to prove that it was the OTHER guy who should go to the bench with Reke returning.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D- ) -- played a remarkably crappy game. Delfino was just lighting him up trhoughout the early going, and Cisco had absolutely nothing back the other way. Was even missing his layups. Better on Delfino after half, but kept on missing, including numerous little chippees, and eventually Donte took over full time and Cisco watched from the bench. If we lose this, this is an F. As is, I gave a tiny bump because of the imprvied defensive play in the third. But that's as far as I can go.
Cousins ( B- ) -- pretty good start aggressive around the hoop, and another one of those nice top of the key passes to a cutting Beno. Able to overwhelm Mbah a Moute with his size. Good power move throguh Mbah a Moute to start the third, but then something seemed to snap. Got over eager and had back to back travels shuffling his feet trying to make his move. Picked up a third travel a few minutes later and had lost his head. Actually asked out of the game late in the 3rd, and when the wish was granted never returned. I don't know what happened here. Was playing a good game and on his way to potentially very big 20-10ish type numbers again, and then just seemed to lose focus, and ultimately quit on the game. I don't pretend to understand this stuff. Seems just so at the mercy of his emotions that he must almost be in a fog sometimes. Control your emotions young man, lest they control you!
Dalembert ( B+ ) -- competed well throughout, and essentially neutralized Andrew Bogut, who is sometimes wildly overrated, but stil one of the league's better centers in this sad center starved era. Was competitive from the start -- Bogut dropped a nice move on him one way, so Daly came back and did the same the otther way. Reversed the passing relation ship with Cousins, stepping up top to get Cousins hi low for an early hoop. Nice passses to a cutting Beno too. Blocked Bogut on the Bucks final possession of the half. Was playing stout defense, even when scored over, and in the second half anchored us as we squeezed the most offensively inept team in the league. Lost a ball off his leg at the 2:30 mark that could have hurt us, but good boardwork down the stretch on both ends helped us put it away.
Thornton ( A- ) -- candidate #1 for the "other guard" position, standing 6'4" tall and putting up 27pts 6rebs 4ast...Marcus Thornton! Another strong game out of a guy who has averaged a cool 22pts 4reb 4ast since moving into the starting lineup. Showed all the offensive weapons, and they are myriad -- drained an open three off a double on Cousins. Used a nice physical shoulder bump to clear space over Salmson and drained a J. As soon as he saw Dooling on him, immediately and physically into the post to draw foul. Committed a bad turnover up top with a dumb and unnecessary behind the back pass to nobody off the dribble, which led to a Bucks breakout. And had a few too many TOs trying to do thigns that can't be done, like grabbing d-boards and throwing Cousinsesque full length hail marys to guys leaking out. But in general continuing to show things other than scoring. Caught an airballed shot by Beno and in one motion dropped it over to Dalembert for the layin. Used his hops on the offensive glass -- I am still a littel confused aobut how the annoucers, Jerry in particular, were downplaying his athleticism. He's nto Gerald Wallace, but he's fast, strong, and can jump. Not sure what else you are looking for? Didn't win it with a brillaint rush down the stretch, but did drop in his second long three to push us back out to a 5 pt gap with 4:15 to go. And gee, doesn't his game look better when he's taking 3 threes, as he did tonight, rather than 12 or whatever it was in the mess against Cleveland.
Udrih ( A- ) -- candidate #2 for the "other guard" position, standing 6'3" tall and putting up 25pts 6rebs 6ast...Beno Udrih! Was missing more short jumpers than he was hitting in the early going, but was repeatedly freeing himself with backdoor cuts and taking passes from various bigs -- classic Princeton stuff that we've seen more and more of as Cousins and Dalembert have settled in as good hi low passers. After a poor turnover up top late in the third while trying to feed Cousins that led to a Bucks breakout, came back to hit the tough steadying layup, and then a pass ahead on the break to give us back the lead going into the 4th. Defensive energy was better than its been in weeks for him and was hustling and getting his hands on a lot of balls. Jennings was obviously never a facotr at all as Beno badly outplayed him. In and out on the little jumper up 2 with 52 seconds to go, but hit 3 of 4 FTs down the stretch after the Bucks resorted to intentionally fouling.
Bench
Greene ( C+ ) -- got the call early as the first man off the bench with Cisco getting killed out there, and got a couple of hoops, including a follow of his own miss to just beat the 24 second clock at the end of the quarter. Not able to slow Delfino either, however, and made a bad mistake turning the ball over on an inbounds just before the end of the quarter, but recovered to challenge and possibly deflect the layupo attempt so that we did not get hurt. Was back to log heavy minutes after half as well, inclduign the entire stretch run as Cisco just could not get it going. Delfino would hit a couple of more shots, but they were few and far betwen and outside of one wide open three mistake, heaviuly contested. Donte was far from spectauclr, and generally let Beno and Thronton do our talkign for us, but he played defense and made a handful of nice plays, including a little baseline jumper on a nice Beno feed in the 4th, a poke steal up top as well to start a break, and excellent defense on Delfino at the 2:40 mark forcing an airball and keeping us up 4.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- looked bad before half, as he basically got schooled by his old teammate/backup, Jon Brockman, who looked absolutely tiny out there against our frontline and yet had Jason confused (admittedly not the most difficult task). Got an offensive foul running over old friend Brockman, then a loose ball foul trying to keep Brocklman off the pffensive glass. And then sat while Westphal went wiht a thick body to match a thick body in Jackson. Struggled again in the early 4th in relief of Cousins before finally coming alive in the mid-4th with a dunk on the break, then moving without the ball, and grabbing a strong rebound. Added a hi low feed to Daly for the dunk to put us up 4 with 3:30 to go. Missed a gimme chip on a beatuiful setup by Thornton with a minute to go, because that is kind of his defining trait, but fortuunately Daly was there to clean the glass and save the day,. Huge offensive rebound with 20 seconds to go to get us the ball back up 2, and immediately cleared it to Beno before he got fouled and had to shoot the FTs himself. Late surge and rebounding power this grade despite the long patches of not goodness.
Jeter ( D+ ) -- into the game to match up with an even minnier man in Earl Boykins. Struggled with his size in the 4th, getting shot over on one end, and blocked the other. Hit a three for his highlight.
Jackson ( B- ) -- brought in in place of JT to bang with Brock,anm for a few minutes. Ironic given his rebounding. Dropped in several little jumpers. Advanced over the ineffective JT in the roation in the second half, but did not provide much more and it was JT who got the call down the stretch.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D- ) -- played a remarkably crappy game. Delfino was just lighting him up trhoughout the early going, and Cisco had absolutely nothing back the other way. Was even missing his layups. Better on Delfino after half, but kept on missing, including numerous little chippees, and eventually Donte took over full time and Cisco watched from the bench. If we lose this, this is an F. As is, I gave a tiny bump because of the imprvied defensive play in the third. But that's as far as I can go.
Cousins ( B- ) -- pretty good start aggressive around the hoop, and another one of those nice top of the key passes to a cutting Beno. Able to overwhelm Mbah a Moute with his size. Good power move throguh Mbah a Moute to start the third, but then something seemed to snap. Got over eager and had back to back travels shuffling his feet trying to make his move. Picked up a third travel a few minutes later and had lost his head. Actually asked out of the game late in the 3rd, and when the wish was granted never returned. I don't know what happened here. Was playing a good game and on his way to potentially very big 20-10ish type numbers again, and then just seemed to lose focus, and ultimately quit on the game. I don't pretend to understand this stuff. Seems just so at the mercy of his emotions that he must almost be in a fog sometimes. Control your emotions young man, lest they control you!
Dalembert ( B+ ) -- competed well throughout, and essentially neutralized Andrew Bogut, who is sometimes wildly overrated, but stil one of the league's better centers in this sad center starved era. Was competitive from the start -- Bogut dropped a nice move on him one way, so Daly came back and did the same the otther way. Reversed the passing relation ship with Cousins, stepping up top to get Cousins hi low for an early hoop. Nice passses to a cutting Beno too. Blocked Bogut on the Bucks final possession of the half. Was playing stout defense, even when scored over, and in the second half anchored us as we squeezed the most offensively inept team in the league. Lost a ball off his leg at the 2:30 mark that could have hurt us, but good boardwork down the stretch on both ends helped us put it away.
Thornton ( A- ) -- candidate #1 for the "other guard" position, standing 6'4" tall and putting up 27pts 6rebs 4ast...Marcus Thornton! Another strong game out of a guy who has averaged a cool 22pts 4reb 4ast since moving into the starting lineup. Showed all the offensive weapons, and they are myriad -- drained an open three off a double on Cousins. Used a nice physical shoulder bump to clear space over Salmson and drained a J. As soon as he saw Dooling on him, immediately and physically into the post to draw foul. Committed a bad turnover up top with a dumb and unnecessary behind the back pass to nobody off the dribble, which led to a Bucks breakout. And had a few too many TOs trying to do thigns that can't be done, like grabbing d-boards and throwing Cousinsesque full length hail marys to guys leaking out. But in general continuing to show things other than scoring. Caught an airballed shot by Beno and in one motion dropped it over to Dalembert for the layin. Used his hops on the offensive glass -- I am still a littel confused aobut how the annoucers, Jerry in particular, were downplaying his athleticism. He's nto Gerald Wallace, but he's fast, strong, and can jump. Not sure what else you are looking for? Didn't win it with a brillaint rush down the stretch, but did drop in his second long three to push us back out to a 5 pt gap with 4:15 to go. And gee, doesn't his game look better when he's taking 3 threes, as he did tonight, rather than 12 or whatever it was in the mess against Cleveland.
Udrih ( A- ) -- candidate #2 for the "other guard" position, standing 6'3" tall and putting up 25pts 6rebs 6ast...Beno Udrih! Was missing more short jumpers than he was hitting in the early going, but was repeatedly freeing himself with backdoor cuts and taking passes from various bigs -- classic Princeton stuff that we've seen more and more of as Cousins and Dalembert have settled in as good hi low passers. After a poor turnover up top late in the third while trying to feed Cousins that led to a Bucks breakout, came back to hit the tough steadying layup, and then a pass ahead on the break to give us back the lead going into the 4th. Defensive energy was better than its been in weeks for him and was hustling and getting his hands on a lot of balls. Jennings was obviously never a facotr at all as Beno badly outplayed him. In and out on the little jumper up 2 with 52 seconds to go, but hit 3 of 4 FTs down the stretch after the Bucks resorted to intentionally fouling.
Bench
Greene ( C+ ) -- got the call early as the first man off the bench with Cisco getting killed out there, and got a couple of hoops, including a follow of his own miss to just beat the 24 second clock at the end of the quarter. Not able to slow Delfino either, however, and made a bad mistake turning the ball over on an inbounds just before the end of the quarter, but recovered to challenge and possibly deflect the layupo attempt so that we did not get hurt. Was back to log heavy minutes after half as well, inclduign the entire stretch run as Cisco just could not get it going. Delfino would hit a couple of more shots, but they were few and far betwen and outside of one wide open three mistake, heaviuly contested. Donte was far from spectauclr, and generally let Beno and Thronton do our talkign for us, but he played defense and made a handful of nice plays, including a little baseline jumper on a nice Beno feed in the 4th, a poke steal up top as well to start a break, and excellent defense on Delfino at the 2:40 mark forcing an airball and keeping us up 4.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- looked bad before half, as he basically got schooled by his old teammate/backup, Jon Brockman, who looked absolutely tiny out there against our frontline and yet had Jason confused (admittedly not the most difficult task). Got an offensive foul running over old friend Brockman, then a loose ball foul trying to keep Brocklman off the pffensive glass. And then sat while Westphal went wiht a thick body to match a thick body in Jackson. Struggled again in the early 4th in relief of Cousins before finally coming alive in the mid-4th with a dunk on the break, then moving without the ball, and grabbing a strong rebound. Added a hi low feed to Daly for the dunk to put us up 4 with 3:30 to go. Missed a gimme chip on a beatuiful setup by Thornton with a minute to go, because that is kind of his defining trait, but fortuunately Daly was there to clean the glass and save the day,. Huge offensive rebound with 20 seconds to go to get us the ball back up 2, and immediately cleared it to Beno before he got fouled and had to shoot the FTs himself. Late surge and rebounding power this grade despite the long patches of not goodness.
Jeter ( D+ ) -- into the game to match up with an even minnier man in Earl Boykins. Struggled with his size in the 4th, getting shot over on one end, and blocked the other. Hit a three for his highlight.
Jackson ( B- ) -- brought in in place of JT to bang with Brock,anm for a few minutes. Ironic given his rebounding. Dropped in several little jumpers. Advanced over the ineffective JT in the roation in the second half, but did not provide much more and it was JT who got the call down the stretch.
Last edited:
