Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
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Pretty sure that's how it works anyway.
Ok, well, before IT flashed his grillz and humiliated himself, his team, his franchise, and likely offended the all mighty(s), this was a decent little game that we controlled throughout. Late in a long losing season, against the drabbest opponent in the NBA, people tune out I guess, but there were things to see. The largest thing was just a certain emerging professionalism amongst the team. And that's got nothing to do with of course wildly out of control thugs like I.T., its just that we came to play, guys did what they had to do to win. There were a couple of selfish stretches for a couple of players (Rudy and IT principally). But it never spread. And those guys had good stretches too. We just sort of professionally came out and did what had to be done.
On the court points of interest were us sort of embracing ITs true nature and running long stretches of offense with Gay and Cuz as initiators and IT as the finisher/SG. Ray Mac put on a shooting display for mom and dad in the stands. Reggie Evans continues to be used as a postup goto guy off the bench, making Carl Landry's role even more dubious when he returns. And for some unknown reason Coach Malone refuses to take his starters off the floor even in blowouts, which is dubious, especially when the game is getting chippy, Joey Crawford is on the floor, and your franchise center gets suspended automatically for every tech he picks up from now on. But on that front Cuz was good for a third straight game, which is really beginning to tell you something. Control was within his reach it appears. Especially when your agent probably gives you a call after the recent blowup and says "you want to be on Team USA? You want to be on the All NBA teams?".
Altogether it equaled Kings win in a blowout, and aside from being deeply personally offended and disappointed in Isaiah, maybe the only real disappointment is that Jerry Reynolds did not even attempt to say Antetokounmpo. Not even once! Pfft! Coward. I've been waiting all season to hear that too.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Bajaden
Capt. Factorial
Henkel
Boxscore
Stats: 35min 22pts (8-116, 0-5, 6-6) 8reb 6ast 2stl 0blk 5TO
Gay ( A- ) -- actually struggled to establish his own offense in this one, but I thought his early response was a key to getting us off to a good start. Made a number of excellent early passes setting up JT, Ben, adding an alley oop to Cousins. And it just set a tone despite him sitting down for the first time with only 2pts. retunred int eh second looking more for his own offense. Fortunately he was hot tonight, because I actually rather preferred his early work. When he came back he forced some tough shots, sort of willing his way into a groove but often ignoring teammates while he did, and capped things with a turnover dribbling into traffic to close the half. In the third you got a little of both world's as he began to pour it on with across the board contributions. Began the third with another assist to Isaiah...that somehow the scorers did not count as an assist. But he wasn't back into first quarter mode, was still offensively aggressive, and a few minutes later dribbled right into a double team while ignoring Cuz and basically forced a turnover just by stubbornness. Most of his turnovers this game were that way. So very next possession he makes amends on the break with a nice pass to Cuz for a dunk. He and JT were all over the glass at this point as well, and he closed the 3rd with a flourish, first running the 1-4 flat at the end of the third and hitting it, and then racing downcourt fullcourt to beat the buzzer with another swooping shot. there were fluxuations in this, the forcing and resulting turnovers were not perfect. But he hit a lot of those forces, got us off to a great start with the early passing, and filled up all corners of the statsheet while dominating his matchup. Not a perfect game, but a very good one. --Brick
Stats: 24min 8pts (4-9, 0-0, 0-0) 13reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Thompson ( B+ ) -- nice little roleplayer game as once again our new Cuz/JT/Evans trio took care of all the dirty work inside. Spent the early game just hanging around the hoop taking passes and getting lots of cleanups as the Bucks worried about everybody but him, and he punished them for it with 8 first quarter points. That would be it for the scoring though as he blew an assist for Cuz early in the third when he blew two layups after Cuz pushed the ball fullcourt and slipped it to him right under the rim. Continued to contribute in other areas though, playing some good defense to block Pachulia inside a few minutes later, and while few of them were particularly impressive, rapidly piled up boards in the third. That lack of impressiveness is what holds me back here from going even higher on this grade. It didn't feel like he was doing anything special. But on the other hand he was just flat getting it done as a support player, and those solid nearly across the board contributions by half a dozen guys are how this turned into a blowout.--Brick
Stats: 31min 21pts (7-14, 0-0, 7-9) 10reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Cousins ( B- ) -- Cousins started the game in a severe funk. He looked disinterested to me, going through the motions. And while the official scorers were terrible (it took them until the fourth quarter to get Cousins' point total correct!) we can't blame them for Cuz starting the game 1-6. In the first half he was practically invisible in terms of his own offense, scoring 5 total points (3 from the line), but on the bright side he was distributing the ball really well. He racked up five assists, three on kick-outs to the perimeter and two on great finds in the lane to McCallum - one from the post hitting Ray on a solid cut and the other a beautiful knifing pass through the defense from the FT line to find Ray at the rim. Unfortunately, Cuz's passing dried up in the second half. After a good dish to JT that was not converted at the rim, Cousins started looking for his own in the third quarter, and he found it. He went 6-7 in the second half (5-5 in the third, including a great drive with basically a Eurostep through the lane and and big flush on the break) to be a big part of putting the Bucks out of their misery and making sure that if the official scorers shorted us on a basket or two it didn't matter. On the boards, he just basically abused Zaza Pachulia, outrebounding him 10-1. So that's the good. The bad tonight was the defense. The effort just wasn't there throughout the game, and the results show it. He allowed 17 points on 9 shots, many of them poorly contested jumpers, and the only shot that DIDN'T fall on the night was on a play where he let Zaza just drive around him and he simply missed at the rim. There was a notable play in the second quarter when he was under the rim and somehow didn't manage to move in to close out a Brandon Knight drive that was right directly in front of him. He complained to the official that he was being held, but I rewound the DVR and it was a complete face-saving maneuver - there was no hold. Then, in the fourth he went for an ill-advised steal on Jeff Adrien, allowing him to get to the rim for the and-1 (and forcing Reggie Evans to pick up his fifth foul). The numbers look good, but the offense was really only half there at any given point in the game (passing in the first half, scoring in the second) and the defense was miserable. So I can't give out too good of a grade despite the 21/10/5 line. --Capt.
Stats: 26min 4pts (2-5, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
McLemore ( D+ ) -- I really want to write something nice about McLemore, but facts are facts, and there just isn't much to say. The one thing he did do well at times, he didn't do consistently all night long. The four points in 26 minutes I can live with. Truth is, he didn't get his number called much. He took five shots making two. He didn't get to the line, but you do need the ball to do that. It was mostly the Cousins, Gay, and IT show, and whatever shots were left over, seemed to go to McCallum, and amazingly, Reggie Evans. Both of whom were quite successful. Reggie, a renown poor freethrow shooter, was even making those. Most of my problems with Ben came in the first half. He started by weakly getting caught in a screen and allowing Wolters to waltz to the basket and score. At the other end, Ben cut to the basket and scored on a nice pass from Gay, who by the way, looked more like a PG than anyone else on the team. After scoring, I'm not quite sure what happened to Ben's brain, but he stood there watching the action standing near the right baseline. Wolters noticed, and tippy toed behind him to the basket and scored with no defender in sight, including Ben, who was supposed to be guarding him. That brought a time out from Malone. After missing a 10 foot jumper, Ben did have a nice moment when he chased down the ball and blocked a shot. But then, at the other end, he lazily went under a screen and allowed O.J. Mayo to hit an uncontested three. Except for about 58 seconds at the end of the half, that was it for McLemore in the half. He must have gotten an ear full at halftime, because he was glued to his man for the majority of his time on the floor. He did allow another three by Mayo coming off a screen, but he at least tried to fight through it. His only other basket came with about 52 seconds left in the game, at which point the game was already over. --Baja
Stats: 33min 26pts (10-17, 4-7, 4-4) 3reb 6ast 4stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( A- ) -- Registered the first points of the game on consecutive illegal defense violations by the Bucks. Had the deep shot going tonight as he knocked down his first attempt off of a nice find by Cousins. On the other end he was having a tough time matching up with Knight. As a large guard for the one spot he was able to exploit his obvious physical advantages through out this one. picked up two quick fouls in a effort to keep Knight out of the lane. Responded on the offensive side almost immediately with back to back baskets. Even with the limited action due to foul trouble had a easy nine points, which is what happens when Isaiah has his shot dialed in. Got back in mid way through the second and outside of a pull up three didn't do much with these minutes. Knight was going off a bit as well. To be fair during this stretch he got a couple of easy baskets off of good ball movement rather than any failing on Isaiah part and his final score of the half came against McLemore with Thomas on the bench for the final minute of the quarter in order to avoid a third foul. Still at the half this was a rather even battle. Managed the first points of the second half as well by knocking down the three off of a nice pass by Gay. Then got to work with Cousins finding him repeated off of penetrate and a couple of high screens. Definitely a factor in getting Cousins rolling after the half . Missed a couple of outside shots and had a poor lob to Gay but finished out a very good offensive quarter with that pretty floater of his and another impressive move to the basket for the easy score. Knight was still getting his as the defensive effort on Isaiah part seemed to wain with the inevitability of this one becoming apparent. For some reason didn't get a break as he played on through for most of the fourth. The game was out of reach and the Bucks had the look of a team that's all to familiar with nights like this. Played well during this stretch as both a play maker and scorer. Ended his night on what I believe is his first ejection as he kept talking at the official after picking up his first instigating a little scrum with Middleton. A easy 25 points and a great job running the team in the second half. Still his opposition had a equally big night. Not all of that can be put onto Thomas and his overall impact was a major factor in a easy win.--Henkel
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