Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Boxscore
Stats: 33min 23pts (9-14, 1-4, 4-4) 4reb 2ast 2stl 1blk 0TO
Gay ( A- ) -- 9/14 and 4/4 FT for 23 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl and a blk and NO TO”s and NO PF. This was the kind of game you want for Rudy as the SF. Played good defense on JR Smith through the game game holding him to 4 pts in 31 min. He shot 5/8 in first half and 4/6 in second half. Did a number of slick post-up moves and turn-around shots in the paint. One impressive alley-oop from DC at end of a fast break. Made one 3, had his post up moves working great and pretty much got any shot he wanted. DWill came in for Rudy in last 10 sec of 1st. Rudy back in for JWill 6 min into 2nd. Hits turn around and baseline jumpers over JR. Everyone doing good ball movement in 2nd. Kings up 55-44. Again works JR down to paint and makes another jumper over him. Has effectively neutralized JR who has only 2 pts in first half. Whole team only has 1 TO at half time. Kings really good at both ends, just as Cuz commented they needed to do to be a tough team to beat. Rudy picks up where he left off in the 3rd quarter, gets a nice steal and break away but hard foul by JR, makes 2 FT. Kings now up 65-44. At about 6 min mark of 3rd Rudy banged something as was in pain for a bit but smiling when play started. Next time down takes a couple dribbles way out and pops a 3, now has 17 pts. Dribbles to key for quick, smooth jumper for another 2. Friendly rim gives him 20 ft jumper near end of 3rd. DWill comes in for last 30 sec or so of the 3rd. Kings have total of only 3 TO thru 3rd quarters!!! Rudy in at about 8 min mark of the 4th quarter to insure a win after uneventful, casual stint by DWill with mostly 0’s on stat line except for one 3 and 3 reb. Thats it for 16 min of play. Rudy heads into lane pops up a tear drop off the rim, misses but follows shot for left hand slam for 2. Kings up by 24 with 5:46 left in game. --Cruz
Stats: 32min 7pts (3-8, 0-0, 1-2) 10reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( B ) -- Against a Cavaliers team that's without LeBron, the Kevin Love matchup is probably the most important one on the floor, and JT was the guy who was primarily tasked with Love. The results were...interesting this time around. Love was not playing much of a low-post game today. Against JT he only took four shots in the paint all game long - and three of those were in the first quarter. Instead, he did a lot of setting up on the perimeter, and the Cavaliers played a ton of pick-and-pop with Love. Whether this was because of history with JT (who has generally done a very good job on Love) or because he might be a bit hobbled I don't know, but he went for 14 points on 11 shots against JT with 7 of the 11 shots being jumpers. Oddly enough, Love seemed to hit every jumper that Thompson closely contested and missed the shots where he was left open, which lends some credence to the theory that his shot has flattened out a bit - perhaps he got the arc back on it when JT had a hand in his face. Overall, the pick-and-pop defense was only OK (though the results were good) but JT did do a great job on team D through most of the game. In addition to drawing the big charge on Love in transition in the first quarter, he threw down a ton of hustle to get in front of a guard to stop a transition play in the fourth and played a notably nice possession on team D with Rudy a few possessions later. Thompson did a great job on the boards - he had 11 on the night (as of this writing, the box score is shorting him one) and until relatively late in the game he actually was leading Cousins in rebounding. Offensively, he couldn't miss in the first quarter (two post ups and an easy dunk created by Collison), but after that he didn't hit anything beyond one free throw - his jumper didn't fall tonight and he missed a supreme bunny under the basket in the third. Altogether it was a good outing, but not a great outing. The rebounding and the fact that a somewhat-out-of-sorts Love was held in check a bit, that outweighs the stuff that wasn't so hot. --Capt.
Stats: 35min 26pts (11-23, 0-0, 4-6) 13reb 5ast 4stl 3blk 1TO
Cousins ( A ) -- came right out attacking in a huge way. Knocked down 2 jumpers not only with no hesitation just aggressively setting them up. Powered through and threw up a prayer off the very top of the glass, which was answered. Ripped a ball away from Love underneath and took it fullcourt the other way for a layup and the lightning 8pt start forcing the Cavs to call a timeout. He added another no hesitation jumper and an uncredited assist to Ben before leaving (not an assist as as Ben blew the layup he was given, got it back, and finished it). Came back in and immediately started setting up guys for threes, not that they would all hit them, and smothering the walking mediocrity that is Tristan Thompson on defense. On one play he posted love and tried to finish over him inside, it rolled off, and he just reached right over the former rebound king, grabbed it, and finished. Got stuffed right to the floor on an off the ball slash, and so responded by immediately hitting a contested leaning jumper right over JR Smith, found another King for a three, and was just really active on defense, including another strip of with a reach in. Scored our final bucket of the half slashing off the ball and taking the quick pass from DC for the capping dunk. Started the second half with more energy (it appears he's fully back from the virus energy wise at least) but was just a tad off on a couple of plays before he picked a ball off up top for asteal and went fullcourt the other way. Some huge rebounds and craxy full length lumbering takes, except when he does it its not really lumbering and he has a better handle than our SG. Back in to start the 4th and as it was vs. Denver again brought a major push trying to close it. Strong boards, good challenges on D, real leadership. On the other hand, as it was vs. Denver, all of a sudden his jumper, which he had not messed with since early in the game when I think he might have been 4-4, got very broke very fast. He tried 3 or 4 in the early minutes of the 4th, and not only was it not wet, he had completely lost all feel for it. He missed one so badly it slammed off the glass without drawing iron. That shot has been a bit of a mystery for him this year. But to have it go from so good to so bad int he space of 2 quarters was odd. Thing is, it was a minor blip and he was dominating the game anyway. When DC returned he set him up for two more threes to notch his 5th assist of the game and provide the daggers to the final Cleveland hopes. And he responded to the entry of the lumbering landmass named Brendan Haywood with another burst of defense (I think Boogie had such a quickness advantage he could have circumnavigated Haywood twice and still had time to block his shot) and the final assist to Collison and that was it. BTW, in case people have missed it: Boogie isn't fouling anymore. The result is big minutes and flat HOF numbers. --Brick
Stats: 27min 7pts (3-8, 1-5, 0-0) 4reb 4ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( C- ) -- Ben struggled with his shot tonight going 1 for 5 from beyond the arc. Second straight game that he's been unable to find the range from out there. He started by missing his first shot of the game, a three pointer from the wing. He then missed a point blank layup, but got his own rebound and put it back in. His best play of the night came with the ball moving from Cousins at the left baseline, to Gay near the basket. to a cutting McLemore from the top of the free throw circle, who blurred his way to the basket to lay it in. Ben played pretty good D tonight as well, although for the most part, the Cav's defended themselves. He wasn't seriuosly challenged all night long. J.R. Smith brought a bag full of bricks with him, and when he wasn't busy missing shots, he was turning the ball over. Ben also pulled down 4 boards and had 4 assists. Not one of his best nights, but it came on a night when his offense wasn't needed. --Baja
Stats: 33min 16pts (6-10, 2-3, 2-2) 2reb 6ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Collison ( B- ) -- put up his normal statline, but really was not an important factor for most of the game. Slow start other than a darting hoop out on the break. Kind of played himself into things as the quarter went along but forced a drive late in the quarter and ended up on his butt, with the result Irving went back the other way and hit a three to start a run of three point bombs (Irving had 14 of his 19 in the first quarter). Missed one of his corner three in the final
minute of the half but made a great play to close the half racing in and dishing to a cutting Cuz for a dunk. Had a couple of little hits early in the 3rd, but generally really quiet while Cuz was out there until the very end of his night. Wasn't even needed to handle the ball because Cuz was just going to do that himself tonight. Finally got his 10th point pulling up on our final possession of the 3rd. Had to return quickly after shaky work by Ray to start the 4th, and capped his night hitting two threes from Cuz in his final four minute stint, widening the lead out to 27 and ending the night for our main guys as they all went to the bench together. Darren was...fine I guess you'd say. He wasn't one of the movers in this one until adding the final punctuation marks late, but he was certainly a lot steadier than McCallum, and after the early scare when Kyrie looked like he might go off for 30+, DC more than held his own. --Brick
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Kings are .600 in the month of January...Yes!
