Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
This is getting borderline unwatchable. I feel as if I should apologize , but I am neither playing in these games, nor as I have repeatedly said over the past few years is this remotely how I would put together a roster.
Tonight none of the big three did anything special. Cousins had a strong first, then did nothing for two quarters before wobbling to the finish line as he let a scrub hack and slap him out of rhythm. He's had no energy this whole trip. He had no energy last trip either. makes me wonder a bit if he's still a kid who hasn't learned how to be disciplined when sleeping in a strange city/bed yet. But he didn't lose this for us. And no, neither did Isaiah. Nobody rebounded but Cuz, and he stopped after the first. Somehow the team abruptly looks depressed and not at all like a team. And the defense from the Gay/DWill/Ben trio was just horrific.
So, in honor of our team tonight doing something that the talent on the team says should be impossible -- we have somehow managed to sink down to the 4th worst record in the league -- I will be reinstituting Themes every loss from here on out. If I can barely watch, so can you, so something must be done to entertain before everybody goes poof again and decides they'd rather watch the Olympics, the NCAAs, and then a baseball team that's not even from their city.
Theme = Lovely Lakes
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Bajaden
Capt. Factorial
Henkel
Boxscore
Stats: 33min 14pts (4-12, 0-2, 6-6) 9reb 3ast 1stl 1blk 3TO
Gay ( ) -- --Baja
Stats: 15min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 3reb 0ast 0stl 2blk 1TO
Thompson ( D+ ) -- Thompson had an early exit from the first quarter (his first stint lasted less than 6 minutes), and while the reason he left was that he had picked up two fouls, the reason he didn't come back was probably that he had completely failed to box out Tristan Thompson three times. This wasn't really an isolated thing - he missed the box on Tristan twice more in the third. Now it did look like Tristan was being extra slippery to get around him, but at the same time, that's pretty bad rebounding. And rebounding is one of the things we need JT to do, especially on a night when he doesn't even attempt a shot. The bright side for Thompson on the night, and the reason he didn't get an F, was his defense. For one, he came out in the third quarter, and in short order appeared to block four shots. He only got credit in the box score for two blocks, but at the very least he altered four shots into a miss. Several of those blocks were on help, and JT had a good help night, presented with six help opportunities in the paint and surrendering 0 points (on three shots) and stopping three drives. I'd say realistically, from JT we need eight points, eight boards, and good defense every game. We only got one of those three tonight - two of them were spectacular failures, but at least the defense was there. --Capt.
Plitvice Lakes, Croatia -- A spectacular series of lakes and waterfalls, its one of many beautiful lakes in that region of the world.
Stats: 36min 21pts (5-12, 0-0, 11-16) 10reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 4TO
Cousins ( C+ ) -- Despite the solid numbers the Kings weren't able to exploit Cousins obvious match up advantage down low. And although this was a better effort compared to the last couple still not as engaged as he was prior to going down with the turned ankle. Started things off with a nice little bank shot from mid range. Then got to work down low pinning Zeller, missing, then following it up for the easy put back. To the Cavs credit they were doing a good job, especially Deng, of doubling DeMarcus as soon as he started to dribble. Was still able to get some decent looks inside in the early going, although he was having some trouble finishing on his initial attempt. His only assisted basket of the first came off a nice little pick and roll with Jimmer. His defense wasn't very inspired in the early going and that didn't change much as things moved forward. Didn't see the ball enough during his second quarter stint as the offense had fallen into guys taking turns going one on one. Scary moment early in the third when he left his feet on a ball fake and then came down awkwardly while fouling to prevent the layup. Managed to walk it off without any noticeable effect. The team was having a tough time finding him down low, which is a shame because all Zeller and Thompson could do to slow Cousins down was hack him. Not his strongest night at the line, but found his rhythm eventually. When he came back in for the fourth the game was almost lost. Immediately threw a pass that never had a chance, which the Cavs turned into a easy fast break. To close things out was still bulling guys down low, but without the ability to get stops we couldn't get back into it. It's been a stellar season, so hopefully this lapse, and what ever has inspired it, are taken care by the time we come back from the break. --Henkel
Lake Bled, Slovenia -- speaking of which, right down the road is Slovenia's pride and joy, the famous Lake Bled, with its famous church sitting atop Bled Island in the middle of the lake. One of the few times a manmade structure actually adds rather than takes away form the beauty.
Stats: 25min 11pts (4-9, 3-7, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Thornton ( C ) -- This wasn’t a horrible game by Thornton, though it still wasn’t all that impactful. He started the game off in the best way possible by hitting a wide open 3pt shot on the first offensive play of the game, but then followed that up with 3 bad plays. First there was a bad pick-n-roll pass to Cousins for a TO, then since he’d hit his last shot tried a contested 3pt shot which missed, and finally he bobbled a pass from Cousins on the FB and was unable to convert for the easy score. He started off the 3rd quarter in much of the way that he started off the 1st. About a minute into the game he knocked down another wide open 3pt shot then followed that up with a missed floater in the lane. He then hit another wide open 3pt shot and then followed that with a missed contested 3pt shot. So as you can see, his offense was hit and miss. He made most of his open looks and missed his contested looks. On defense he spent most of his time guarding the guy who used to call himself Jarret Jack. I don’t know what happened to this guy, but I’m sure Cavs fans wish he would show up after signing the long-term deal. By and large Jack really didn’t do much of anything against Thornton, so you could say Thornton played decent defense. Thornton did let Waiters back-door him for the final shot of the 3rd quarter, which was a pretty important play as the Kings needed to get that stop. So Thornton was one shot away from 50% shooting and hit some floor spacing 3pt shots. He played decent defense but didn’t give us much of anything in the other categories. --Uncia
Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada -- How about some Norcal local flavor to this list
Stats: 36min 16pts (7-14, 1-6, 1-5) 2reb 8ast 1stl 1blk 2TO
Thomas ( B- ) -- just never could get anything consistently established in this one. Hit a couple of little pullups in the early going before finally forcing one on an one on one never pass the ball possession, and for a couple of minutes I thought here we go again as he started forcing drives inside rather than kicking, and they were resulting in turnovers or misses that might as well be turnovers. But even that, thankfully, never really took hold and while there were a few ill advised shots, he never went through another prolonged gunning spell. Unfortunately assist total aside, he also never went on a prolonged got the offense humming spell either. He would make a good pass for an assist, in the early forth made a series of them over about 2-3min, but again, just nothing sustained. When he came back in the game in the 2nd, after a few miscommunications with Cuz and a missed open corner three, he had another little spurt with a little pullup and then ran a break the right way, dropping the pass off to DWill for a lay in. But same as always, it did not last, with us struggling he forced a dumb selfish drive down the left side 1 on 3...but hit it for a +1. Then forced a terrible off balance floating jumper thing trying to get us a 2 for 1 -- but with the percentages on that why not just turn it over and get it over with? The whole game was the same for he and the team. Ragged. No rhythm. To start the third the Cavs switched Jarret Jack over onto him instead of his preferred Kyrie matchup, but on defense he stayed on Irving and cranked up his intensity a bit there. That matchup has favored him for his entire career for whatever reason. Not sure if Jack had an effect or not -- IT missed early in the quarter, never really got going, but then again he never really was going. The larger concern was that IT was overdribbling and largely failing to find ways to get Cuz the ball. Just a question of size and passing cleverness. The Cavs were trying to deny Cuz, and Isaiah never did figure out how to beat that. This was another game where Jimmer was not trusted after half, so IT was set to run the entire second half again until it became clear this win wasn't happening and at the end of the game Malone tried to save a few minutes on his main guys' legs for the back to back. There were a few minutes in the early 4th where he briefly got things humming with some passing to a variey of Kings, including back to back inside assists to Landry and Acy I think, but he hurt his, and our, cause by amazingly missing 4 FTs in a row there to finish 1-5 on the night. And that's our best FT shooter. Anyway, IT had some moments, and some non-moments. He didn't particularly overgun, but he didn't particular floor general it up. It was a meh game for him, but hopefully at least not a controversial one. --Brick
Loch Lomond -- This one has islands instead of monsters.
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