Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Nothing to see here.
The gap between where this team is today, and where it was last time we saw this team is just staggering.
Boxscore
Stats: 40min 24pts (10-18, 1-4, 3-5) 7reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Gay ( B+ ) -- the best of the Kings tonight after getting a few days off after his meltdown weekend. Looked fresher and more Rudylike, and impressively scored right over Jimmy Butler and Tony Snell -- two guys who would easily be out best perimeter defenders if here -- in doing it. His first quarter start was slow, he got a few fastbreak hoops, but in the halfcourt wasn't terribly effective. There were the moments of pure tunnel vision where he backs in against two guys, everybody else stands around with their hands up for the pass that never comes (the worst perhaps being a incredibly selfish 1 on 1 three pointer where he didn't pass the whole possession so determined was he to jack it up). I'm not even sure if selfish is quite the right word there, as I truly don't think he even sees them so focused is he on the 1 on 1. But we got him a dunk on ball movement on a pass from Cuz out of the timeout in the mid quarter, and he began to click into major gear in the second with Cuz out, starting it off with a midrange jumper and continuing to just shoot right over the defense all quarter long, along the way ignoring getting victimized by an absolutely awful offensive foul call when Butler grabbed HIS arm after getting hammered by a Reggie pick, and then they called Rudy for the foul? Added an alley oop to Ben on the break and was one of several Kings picking up the rebounding slack on an energyless night for Cuz as balls kept kicking out long. Was clearly the Kings guy with 15pts at the half, although he did have a hand in some of Tony Snell's ridiculous lighting us up as well. After we did our now normal 3rd quarter swoon to fall completely out of the game, in which Rudy was largely invisible, he came back and for a few minutes in the late 3rd/early 4th hit enough shots to stabilize us, but no more than that. A strong statistical night with adequate impact. Not dominant, but good. --Brick
Stats: 19min 7pts (3-5, 0-0, 1-2) 7reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( C+ ) -- I often wonder why they don't call JT's number more often. If they do call a play for him, it's usually early in the first quarter. Whether the makes the shot or not doesn't seem to matter, if's as though, you've had your shot, not go defend and rebound. That aside, JT had a decent game tonight. Were it not for Gasol abusing him from time to time, he would have earned a B. But except for leaving Gasol alone on the perimeter a couple of times, he certainly gave effort on defense, even if he didn't get the results he wanted. Whats frustrating with JT is that he's still making the same mistakes. He continues to put both hands on whomever he's defending in the post. Old habits die hard. Offensively he scored 7 points on 3 of 5 shooting and pulled down 7 rebounds. Not bad for nineteen minutes of work. I think JT would benefit the most from a change of scenery. --Baja
Stats: 35min 15pts (5-15, 0-0, 5-10) 8reb 8ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Cousins ( C ) -- Cuz is always a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, and in the entire NBA one of the guys who unfortunately is most sensitive to things being off. You can see in his body language when he's hurt, sick, or tired. And tonight, from the opening tip, he was just dragging. Nothing was as quick or explosive as it could be, transitions up and down the court were not crisp. He was most of the time moving pretty well on defense, probably wanting to impress Coach Thibodeau, but offensively he simply did not have it. Of course we were insisting on having him try to face up again against Noah and drive it in, which wasn't working at all. But he was settling for bad fallaways out of the post as well, and the jumper was unfocused and off, extending even to his FT shooting. He even airballed a shot, not something you see often out of Cuz when he's going good, and did not hit his first shot until the dying minutes of the half. And he wasn't piling up boards, lost several scrums, and then just seemed to be in the wrong place as balls kicked out toward the free throw line. What he did well was first of all start the game off on a ridiculous passing pace, notching 6 assists by the end of the first quarter, and doing it efficiently. Some of them were the same thread the needle passes that can lead to turnover,s but they were in control and hit the mark. And guys actually caught them, not a given on our team. Several of them were nice Brad Milleresque bouncers to backdoor cutters. He was the early PG in the old Princeton fashion. That would slow down after the early going, although some of the slowdown is that guys just wouldn't hit those shots again. Put Cuz on the Hawks he might have had a dozen assists tonight. His energy picked up for a while after half, and he began to get his power driving game going in the late third. Along with some nice defense challenges and blocks (he had more than the 1 credited) he had an impact for a while. But the jumper never came online, he never really got into any rhythm scoring or on the boards, and in the end you would just have to say he didn't have it tonight. This is a C- Cuz game. Just want that out there even though I am giving him a C for the passing/near triple double. --Brick
Stats: 36min 11pts (5-10, 1-4, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
McLemore ( C- ) -- another quiet and one dimensional boxscore, and it was Tony Snell who looked like the young SG with potential this time out. What Ben did, he did spectacularly. he had at least two alley oops (albeit one of them on a break he misplayed as he threw it out to a covered Rudy to get the alley oop back when he could have just dumped the ball off to his right for an easy Sessions layup) and a follow tip slam. Early on he got his block as he impressively protected the rim after Noah had blown around Cousins. But there wasn't enough of it, and aside from a few decent stands inside fighting off the much bigger/thicker Butler (who had to leave with an injury before half), his man to man defense was sloppy at best, and ineffective most of the time. He flat fell asleep letting Butler get a backdoor hoop behind him, and Tony Snell apparently needs to shower more often, as Ben was quite determined to keep his distance as Snell had his career game against us (there is a common denominator in all these guys having career nights against us, and its not that the tony Snells of the world average 20 against everyone else). As we fell out of contention in the 3rd there was no Ben, although mercifully Snell handed the kick our butt baton off to Pau rather than going for 30 himself. Down the stretch in the 4th an extended sequence drove this grade down down, and almost down, as we were poised right on the edge of making things interesting, and 3 times in the space of 3 minutes Ben was set up for open threes that could have made the lead 12, and each time he bricked the shot. On one of those three he partially made up for it by going inside for that follow tip slam, but we simply need to find a shooter who hits those big shots. As it was, we just had Ben on quiet night and it wasn't nearly dynamic enough with Cuz off his game. --Brick
Stats: 22min 3pts (1-6, 0-3, 1-2) 1reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Sessions ( D ) -- the first couple of games with Ramon filling in as a starter actually went surprisingly well. DC's absence hurt, but Sessions was doing a surprisingly (off his play this year) solid job. This time out however we finally got stung, as Ramon was invisible on offense, and he and McCallum managed to make DRose look like an MVP candidate again on the other. Just simply not quick enough to stay in front of Rose, missed the few shots he took, and in the early going our PG was Boogie, not Ramon. He did not hit his first shot until the final two minutes of the half. That would also turn out to be his only made shot. Things didn't improve after half, and he, Ben, and Rudy combined for an awesome 2-11 from 3pt land as he guys who would theoretically break up the scrum of interior defenders around Boogie. --Brick
The gap between where this team is today, and where it was last time we saw this team is just staggering.
Boxscore
Stats: 40min 24pts (10-18, 1-4, 3-5) 7reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Gay ( B+ ) -- the best of the Kings tonight after getting a few days off after his meltdown weekend. Looked fresher and more Rudylike, and impressively scored right over Jimmy Butler and Tony Snell -- two guys who would easily be out best perimeter defenders if here -- in doing it. His first quarter start was slow, he got a few fastbreak hoops, but in the halfcourt wasn't terribly effective. There were the moments of pure tunnel vision where he backs in against two guys, everybody else stands around with their hands up for the pass that never comes (the worst perhaps being a incredibly selfish 1 on 1 three pointer where he didn't pass the whole possession so determined was he to jack it up). I'm not even sure if selfish is quite the right word there, as I truly don't think he even sees them so focused is he on the 1 on 1. But we got him a dunk on ball movement on a pass from Cuz out of the timeout in the mid quarter, and he began to click into major gear in the second with Cuz out, starting it off with a midrange jumper and continuing to just shoot right over the defense all quarter long, along the way ignoring getting victimized by an absolutely awful offensive foul call when Butler grabbed HIS arm after getting hammered by a Reggie pick, and then they called Rudy for the foul? Added an alley oop to Ben on the break and was one of several Kings picking up the rebounding slack on an energyless night for Cuz as balls kept kicking out long. Was clearly the Kings guy with 15pts at the half, although he did have a hand in some of Tony Snell's ridiculous lighting us up as well. After we did our now normal 3rd quarter swoon to fall completely out of the game, in which Rudy was largely invisible, he came back and for a few minutes in the late 3rd/early 4th hit enough shots to stabilize us, but no more than that. A strong statistical night with adequate impact. Not dominant, but good. --Brick
Stats: 19min 7pts (3-5, 0-0, 1-2) 7reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( C+ ) -- I often wonder why they don't call JT's number more often. If they do call a play for him, it's usually early in the first quarter. Whether the makes the shot or not doesn't seem to matter, if's as though, you've had your shot, not go defend and rebound. That aside, JT had a decent game tonight. Were it not for Gasol abusing him from time to time, he would have earned a B. But except for leaving Gasol alone on the perimeter a couple of times, he certainly gave effort on defense, even if he didn't get the results he wanted. Whats frustrating with JT is that he's still making the same mistakes. He continues to put both hands on whomever he's defending in the post. Old habits die hard. Offensively he scored 7 points on 3 of 5 shooting and pulled down 7 rebounds. Not bad for nineteen minutes of work. I think JT would benefit the most from a change of scenery. --Baja
Stats: 35min 15pts (5-15, 0-0, 5-10) 8reb 8ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Cousins ( C ) -- Cuz is always a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, and in the entire NBA one of the guys who unfortunately is most sensitive to things being off. You can see in his body language when he's hurt, sick, or tired. And tonight, from the opening tip, he was just dragging. Nothing was as quick or explosive as it could be, transitions up and down the court were not crisp. He was most of the time moving pretty well on defense, probably wanting to impress Coach Thibodeau, but offensively he simply did not have it. Of course we were insisting on having him try to face up again against Noah and drive it in, which wasn't working at all. But he was settling for bad fallaways out of the post as well, and the jumper was unfocused and off, extending even to his FT shooting. He even airballed a shot, not something you see often out of Cuz when he's going good, and did not hit his first shot until the dying minutes of the half. And he wasn't piling up boards, lost several scrums, and then just seemed to be in the wrong place as balls kicked out toward the free throw line. What he did well was first of all start the game off on a ridiculous passing pace, notching 6 assists by the end of the first quarter, and doing it efficiently. Some of them were the same thread the needle passes that can lead to turnover,s but they were in control and hit the mark. And guys actually caught them, not a given on our team. Several of them were nice Brad Milleresque bouncers to backdoor cutters. He was the early PG in the old Princeton fashion. That would slow down after the early going, although some of the slowdown is that guys just wouldn't hit those shots again. Put Cuz on the Hawks he might have had a dozen assists tonight. His energy picked up for a while after half, and he began to get his power driving game going in the late third. Along with some nice defense challenges and blocks (he had more than the 1 credited) he had an impact for a while. But the jumper never came online, he never really got into any rhythm scoring or on the boards, and in the end you would just have to say he didn't have it tonight. This is a C- Cuz game. Just want that out there even though I am giving him a C for the passing/near triple double. --Brick
Stats: 36min 11pts (5-10, 1-4, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
McLemore ( C- ) -- another quiet and one dimensional boxscore, and it was Tony Snell who looked like the young SG with potential this time out. What Ben did, he did spectacularly. he had at least two alley oops (albeit one of them on a break he misplayed as he threw it out to a covered Rudy to get the alley oop back when he could have just dumped the ball off to his right for an easy Sessions layup) and a follow tip slam. Early on he got his block as he impressively protected the rim after Noah had blown around Cousins. But there wasn't enough of it, and aside from a few decent stands inside fighting off the much bigger/thicker Butler (who had to leave with an injury before half), his man to man defense was sloppy at best, and ineffective most of the time. He flat fell asleep letting Butler get a backdoor hoop behind him, and Tony Snell apparently needs to shower more often, as Ben was quite determined to keep his distance as Snell had his career game against us (there is a common denominator in all these guys having career nights against us, and its not that the tony Snells of the world average 20 against everyone else). As we fell out of contention in the 3rd there was no Ben, although mercifully Snell handed the kick our butt baton off to Pau rather than going for 30 himself. Down the stretch in the 4th an extended sequence drove this grade down down, and almost down, as we were poised right on the edge of making things interesting, and 3 times in the space of 3 minutes Ben was set up for open threes that could have made the lead 12, and each time he bricked the shot. On one of those three he partially made up for it by going inside for that follow tip slam, but we simply need to find a shooter who hits those big shots. As it was, we just had Ben on quiet night and it wasn't nearly dynamic enough with Cuz off his game. --Brick
Stats: 22min 3pts (1-6, 0-3, 1-2) 1reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Sessions ( D ) -- the first couple of games with Ramon filling in as a starter actually went surprisingly well. DC's absence hurt, but Sessions was doing a surprisingly (off his play this year) solid job. This time out however we finally got stung, as Ramon was invisible on offense, and he and McCallum managed to make DRose look like an MVP candidate again on the other. Just simply not quick enough to stay in front of Rose, missed the few shots he took, and in the early going our PG was Boogie, not Ramon. He did not hit his first shot until the final two minutes of the half. That would also turn out to be his only made shot. Things didn't improve after half, and he, Ben, and Rudy combined for an awesome 2-11 from 3pt land as he guys who would theoretically break up the scrum of interior defenders around Boogie. --Brick
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