Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Looked like a foul to me BTW.
So we witness the possible beginning of Isaianity, and yet in the end, moving him into the lineup, and even into a starring role, didn't change the essential dynamic of the team. We still are young, still make too many errors, still can't shoot, and still don't get any push from our bench -- less of course with our best bench guy starting.
We could have course have won this if Reke has any sort of game, if Cousins does not commit dumb fouls, if Salmons could still hit an open corner three, or obviously if Reke does not commit the final brutal closing foul. But then again, there have been these kind of buts all year long. We need a bench, we need time and experience. Will we get them? Only the Geoff knows.
Boxscore
Evans ( D- ) -- sigh. Not good, and with the unfortunate capper at the end of the not goodness. ITs explosion left him relatively little to do in the early going. Again showing dribble penetration with the pass in mind, but we rarely got results out of it. The offense was just never there, and the disappointing part is that so many of them were layups that he should have made, and has made in the past. Also frustrating because the few things that did work were of the spectacular variety. Had a special 1 on 1 spin past Gee for his first points late in the first. Added a pure strength drive to close the quarter and give us a 31pt first, and briedly it looked like maybe he had just been laying back waiting for IT to get done toying wiht the Cavs before stepping up. Looked more active on defense to. But was not to be. Got out leading the break and threw a bad pass to Thronton down around his laces that lost the opportunity. Kept missing layups he should ahve had, and was having some obvious problems finishing over Casspi's length. Refs were doing him no favors though as he appeared to be hit a number of times and enver did get to the line for his trouble. Was maybe on his way to a "struggled, but fought through it and found a way to contribute" storyline as he came up with some big defensive plays in the 4th, iincluding a big momentum changing block on Casspi on the break, and saving a hoop at the 2:00 mark when IT got beat by Irving, and Reke slid over as the last line of defense under the hoop and knocked the ball away. But was not to be again, as the defensive play people are going to remember happened wiht half a second left in the game. Up 1 with 3 seconds to go we put our best perimeter defender on Irving, a guy who has won games for us in the past with big defensive plays and...well, he kinda blew it. The game I mean. Did not understand what he was even trying to do. We had the lead, 3 seconds to go, all you want to do is stay in front of the guy and get a hand up to challenge any jumper. Instead Reke went for one of those pokeaway steals, which are great if you're behind, but just and unnnecessary gamble in this situation. Sure enough, the refs called it, and bang, just like that Reke added goat horns on top of what was already a bad game. We won't discuss the perverseness of the cheer that went up in certain parts of Kingsland.
Thompson ( C ) -- not stopping Jamison early and just not able to stay with his mobility. Did the classic saavy pul the chair out maneuver against Tristan Thomspon. Redeveloped a bad case of the fumbleflips and was missing all his little follows and tips around the rim, and those were basically the only shots he was getting. Grabbed quite afew boards, but overall effectiveness was shaky, and swa many of his minutes distributed out between Hayes, Hickson, Donte and Salmons. That was not a typo.
Cousins ( B- ) -- despite big per miute numbers, disappointing overall as this game had to be seen as one DeMarcus should clearly have dominated in epic fashion. But he took himself out of it. Pikced up a couple of early loose fouls, including a silly full court dribble right into the chest of Hollins for his second foul. Had one nice move along the basseline after returning, but quickly pikced up his third and just never got into a rhythm. Shooting was off, and even his FTs suffered as he missed 3 of 4 there during one stretch. Finally began to get into his banging boarding rhythm in the third, but was never efficient. Took several good charges in the late 3rd, and added a nice job hitting Reke cutting along the baseline with a pass. Still was picking up dumb fouls though, as at least 3 of his 5 were just totally unnecessary limits on his game. Mental focus = ?. Came up huge int eh final minutes, only to have it all go for naught, and was not a happy camper leaving the court. Has to be watched.. At the 1:30 marknot only stole a ball in the open court from Irving, but then threw the 3/4 length pass to a streaking Thornton to get us the lead back. At the 10 second mark posted, used the attention he drew to find Salmons in the corner for what should have been the game winning three...only to see him again, AGAIN, brick one of those. Then pissed off, DeMarcus made the huge error of his own that could have lost it, as he fouled on the rebound scrum, thus sending the Cavs the other way to the line to take the lead with 6 seconds to go. And so came up hgue one more time with the game winning reverse layup over Jamison to win it at the 3 second mark....until the disastrous Reke foul at the end finally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. (if you are counting BTW that means we basically made 3 game losing mistakes inthe final 10 seconds, Salmons missing the three, Cousins comitting the foul to give the Cavs the lead, and then Reke committing the foul to let them win it).
Thornton ( B ) -- one of those players that seemed largely forgotten about in the early going while IT was putting on a show. Hit his only three late in the first quarter as he and Reke seemed to step up a bit when Cousins left. But from that point on kind of played an ugle offensive gun, just standing around and chucking the ball up from three whenever he touched it, and mixing in some forces and selfish looking plays. This BTW would be somewhat consistent with his early season play -- I think there is a dynamic with Marcus where if he has any concerns about getting his shots or touches he will make sure he does. Came up strong on the glass down the stretch of the game, grabbing 6 4th quarter rebounds, but unable to come up with the big shot that would have put us over the top. I probably am not as high on this game as a flat B, but when you get 21 and 10 out of a guard, it deserves some recognition.
Thomas ( A+ ) -- the little man of the hour of course. Was amused by our little poll here, as 5'9" is the U.S. average height for a male, and I hink 5'4"/5'5" for a woman. Baskertball board yes, but I expectd the number of former players and number of women or more or less balance the poll. Methinks it might be a case of everybody being taller on the internet.
In any case, ITmade this personal methinks, He chose the night and the opponent to make a statement, and on the ngiht he was simply bette rthan Irving. Got off to another blitz of a start, and while he was too small to stop Irving the other way in the first half, he appeared to considerably bother him. I have mentioned I thought the game became so much about Isiah that it took away from our normal main guys and none of them got into rhtyhms, and by that I mean that it seemed everything we ran or did abruptly became Isiah centric. Every shot, every pass, every play involved him. Much watching by others. But if you are going to have a player abruptly take over your offense, might as well make it one working on a remarkable triple double pace -- seriously, I doubt any Mr. Irrelevant (last pick in draft) has ever had one as a rookie, and doubt any 5'9" rookies ever have either. And other than a brief lull in the third, just kept on peppering in nice plays to get those numbers. Made nice passes to a cutting Cousins, and several to Donte out running the break, including a nifrty one through traffic as Donte cut that almost surprised his target. Split a double to set up Cousins. Got fouled shooting a three for a 4pt play. A couple of selfish little hero threes were the only major blemish. Well that and one strange play where Reke hit him on the break, and Isiah went down in a stragne heap apparently trying to do somethign fancy. Popped back up, so wasn't an injury, just was weird. Kept making big plays throughout the second half. Drew a foul on Omri early in the 3rd, missed the 2nd FT, then went flying in outhustling Omri and causing us to get the ball back off the missed FT. Was bothering Irving with his defensive quickness, hit a couple of big threes in the early 4th, and on a play that I don't understand how it isn't posted on youtube somewhere, made a holy **** play at the 4:00 mark of the 4th, bricking a three..then racing in, crashing into Tristan Thomas, snatchiing the rebouund and while still in midair touch passing it to Thornton for the layup under the hoop. I mean come on. A+.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bench
Hickson ( C- ) -- last time Cavs fans saw JJ, he was averaging 17pts 11reb after the All Star break for them last year. Now he coems back a year later as a scoreless deep bencher. Offensively impotent, although missed what would have been a big tip follow near the close of the first, and did a nice job closing out on the final shot of the quarter. Made a bad bad play running into Jamison at the three point line giving the Cavs a 4pt opportunity (the FT was missed) at the 5:30 mark.
Hayes ( C+ ) -- was being rebounded over, but stopped penetration by showing on a screen. Subtle thing that helped. Finally saw a good move on offense from him, with a quick spin out near the FT line and drive left. Of course then we had to go into the post to him and...no. Looked awkward in transtion defense and actually got me thinking if Smart's growing Nellie embellism might not have room for a lumbering stub when he's so focused on the runngin game. Took a key charge at the 6:00 mark, and in general stiff a modest effort, but making some of the little saavy plays that are supposed to let you forget he's a 6'6" center.
Fredette ( INC ) -- had to guard Omri when he came in and the Cavs knew it and kept on throwing the ball to Omri in the ridiculous mismatch. Jimmer just couldn't guard him,and I would imagine he was wondering why the heck we were insisting on having him try to muscle a guy who would have been a center where Jimmer was last year. Other side of the ball though was where there was no excuse. Just dribblign aroudn in cricles getting himself into trouble, looking for his shot everytime, and whateve he was doing was both a surprsie to his teammates and his coach, who pulled him pretty quickly. This is just pure speculation, but it almost looked like Jimmer came in and wanted to pick right up in the same ball and shot dominant role Isiah was in. Was not good. Back in as a shooter at the end of the game for one play, Cousins' woulda been game winning layup.
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