Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
We do just find a way don't we?
So, I believe that makes it no less than 22 games this season that we have led in the 4th and gone on to lose -- a stat in which we lead the league by a mile. The good news is that no team in the league has come as close as we have as often as we have and still come up short. The bad news is that no team in the league has come as close as we have as often as we have and still come up short.
Theme: Okay, a gauntlet wsas thrown down regarding good trades we have made, and specifically whether I can come up with 11 of them, over 26 years. I think I can. To whit:
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( C+ ) -- and that Cisco standard game continues to form up -- I tell you, if Casspi is 11pts 6reb as a starter on poor shooting, then Cisco is 13 and 4 or 14 and 3. In a way you could even call it consistency, albeit not terribly greatconsistency. Hit a three to cap an early run that put us up 10, and had an important 3 in the mid thrid as we were sputtering badly and down 7. Were the only two he hit though on a shaky shooting night. Since his return has developed some real chemsitry with Cousins, and understands the roleplayer thing. Cuts to the hoop looks for Cousins to hit him with the pass. Several times a game is leaking out on the break and Cousins tunrs and has been hitting him wiht some amazing fullcourt passes for layups. And probably what he should restrict himself to, as he basically missed everything else tonight. Again a major issue with him at SF is that he's not a SF -- he's a swingman at best, and really more of a SG, and rebounds like it. Tongiht he grabbed all of 2 rebounds in 31 minutes, and on one of the critical plays of our latest late 4th quarter screwup ran into Thornton while both were pursuing a reboudn at the 40 second mark -- should have easily been ours off the Cavs miss and would have left us up 2 with the ball and 40 seconds to go. Instead they bumped into each other, the ball fell to Harangody, and he was fouled to tie the game.
an aging Mitch Richmond for Chris Webber -- like shooting fish in a barrel on this one. What sort of immature moron thinks its actually sport to shoot fish in a barrel I don't know. But there it is.
Cousins ( C ) -- a poor offensive game almost redeemed by the other aspects fo the game, but capped by late failures in the clutch that sealed the defeat. Just seemed to be a lack of focus. Did not get off to a good start, and if ever there has been a player who you could see getting sloppy mentally against a "lesser (they have all of 3 wins less than us) opponent, that would be DeMarcus no? The early malaise reached its peak when the Cavs inserted Luke bleeping Harangody and he got the better of it against DeMarcus, scoing over him repeatedly, while DeMarcus mostly forced junk on the other until realizing he could just back him down and power right over him. We pulled him soon thereafter, and he looked more settled when he came back. Dunk off a tip play late it the half, then followed that with a driving stumbling flip, and added a long jumper just before the break. Was really just about his only good offensive stretch of the game though, as for the other 45 minutes of the game he shot 2-16. 2-16 at 6'11". Er...ouch. On the other hand began to get the boarding game going, and byt the mid third was completely dominating the glass against the undersized Cavs frontline. But a lot of it was off of his own misses as he suddenly developed Thompson touch in there on a night when our crappy shooting was easily the difference inthe game (we shot 38%, they shot 51%). Late in the game came up with a brilliant one handed pass on the move over the top of the defense to a slashing Beno to put us up 2 at the 1:05 mark. It continued his run of CWebb like passing games, and in March Cousins is averaging over 4 ast/gm. So down the stretch we came with DeMarcus having a chance to carry us home and significantly raise this grade. And instead he came up small again as we went to him as outr goto guy. Got called for the offensive foul out of the timeout at he 34 second mark, and then when we got the ball back one last time he missed the heavily contested drive at the 5 second mark. On the positive side, I hope these late game failures have been humbling him a bit after the petualnce about Reke missing late game shots. Aren't any of these guys doing well enough in the clutch to consider themselves the answer to our problems sans teammates.
Billy Owens (#2overall traded) for Mitch Richmond -- anybody got another barrel of fish? Yeehaw!!
Dalembert ( B ) -- after being denied a couple of times early moving without the ball, was the first (and as it turns out only) of our bigs to click it into geat with a blcoked shot and usign his length for a couple of early hoops. Had his own moments of shakiness, as when late in the first half got called for back to back turnovers to help the Cavs get back into it. And worse yet when with 3:30 to go in a tight game he picked up an ill timed tecnhical to give the Cavs a free point. Made up for that however when he made a string of clutch plays to put us in position to win it in the last coyuple of minutes. Came up with huge offensive reboudns and follow fiishes on back to back plays just before the two minute mark, and drew an offensive foul when he had Samuels all lined up for a block and the only way the Cavs could avoid it was to pull his arms down. Unfortunately was unable to get in front of Sessions as he repeatedly burned both Beno and Thornton down the stretch, and while he came up with more than his share of clutch plays, what we ended up needing on the night was a closer, and we could not find him.
Corliss for Christie -- man, fish are having a bad day. Corliss was a solid player, but this trade brought us a captain for our defense right through our best years. Similar to what I think may potentially happen this summer with guys like Kirilenko and Prince available.
Thornton ( B- ) -- this was another of the score through persistence rather than score through brilliance games for Marcus. Had a couple of little mini spurts and some impressive plays, but never really generated any lasting momentum wiht hsi shooting. Got off to a shaky start before hitting a three that seemed to settle him. But the threes were part of why this was a less efficient game, as he was faced with a tough, if aging, defender in Anthony Parker (35 is the prime of life for the rest of the world, its decrepit in basketball) adn settled for far too many threes in response. Shooting double figure threes is rarely a good sign about somebody's game, and it showed up on the FT line, where Marcus did not even shoot one until the 4th quarter. Had some impressive flashes as always oinclduing a coupel fo strong post moves -- which could be such a key when Reke gets back BTW because with two 6'4/6'5" guards with post games, teams with small PGs are not going to have anyplace to hide them. After Cisco got the ball rolling in the third, Marcus drained back to back threes late in the third as we surged back to take the lead. Back into the game in the 4th and immediately drew a foul, his first of the game. Was stuggling to finsih late until he came up with a quick strong drive through contact for was +1 with 3:45 to go, that put us up 2. Wish we'd seen more of that. Did not contain Sessions on the Cavs possession at the 20 second mark, and watched him go around the screen for the go ahead layup. 23 more points as its hard to deny we have found a third scoring machine now. Not put up in his best or most efficient fashion, but pts is pts. Now with Reke returning can he dial it back without getting squirmy? Just a half notch. If he can, we could have one of the most potent trios in basketball in future years.
JWill for Bibby -- I was a little sceptical of this trade when it happend. Was not ahuge fan of Bobby's game, and JWill was simply an amazing talent, at least in one aspect of the game. But it of course turned out to be the perfect stabilizing move for our best seasons, and in the declingin years that folowed Bibby flirted for a while with All Star status before beginning the fade.
So, I believe that makes it no less than 22 games this season that we have led in the 4th and gone on to lose -- a stat in which we lead the league by a mile. The good news is that no team in the league has come as close as we have as often as we have and still come up short. The bad news is that no team in the league has come as close as we have as often as we have and still come up short.
Theme: Okay, a gauntlet wsas thrown down regarding good trades we have made, and specifically whether I can come up with 11 of them, over 26 years. I think I can. To whit:
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( C+ ) -- and that Cisco standard game continues to form up -- I tell you, if Casspi is 11pts 6reb as a starter on poor shooting, then Cisco is 13 and 4 or 14 and 3. In a way you could even call it consistency, albeit not terribly greatconsistency. Hit a three to cap an early run that put us up 10, and had an important 3 in the mid thrid as we were sputtering badly and down 7. Were the only two he hit though on a shaky shooting night. Since his return has developed some real chemsitry with Cousins, and understands the roleplayer thing. Cuts to the hoop looks for Cousins to hit him with the pass. Several times a game is leaking out on the break and Cousins tunrs and has been hitting him wiht some amazing fullcourt passes for layups. And probably what he should restrict himself to, as he basically missed everything else tonight. Again a major issue with him at SF is that he's not a SF -- he's a swingman at best, and really more of a SG, and rebounds like it. Tongiht he grabbed all of 2 rebounds in 31 minutes, and on one of the critical plays of our latest late 4th quarter screwup ran into Thornton while both were pursuing a reboudn at the 40 second mark -- should have easily been ours off the Cavs miss and would have left us up 2 with the ball and 40 seconds to go. Instead they bumped into each other, the ball fell to Harangody, and he was fouled to tie the game.
an aging Mitch Richmond for Chris Webber -- like shooting fish in a barrel on this one. What sort of immature moron thinks its actually sport to shoot fish in a barrel I don't know. But there it is.
Cousins ( C ) -- a poor offensive game almost redeemed by the other aspects fo the game, but capped by late failures in the clutch that sealed the defeat. Just seemed to be a lack of focus. Did not get off to a good start, and if ever there has been a player who you could see getting sloppy mentally against a "lesser (they have all of 3 wins less than us) opponent, that would be DeMarcus no? The early malaise reached its peak when the Cavs inserted Luke bleeping Harangody and he got the better of it against DeMarcus, scoing over him repeatedly, while DeMarcus mostly forced junk on the other until realizing he could just back him down and power right over him. We pulled him soon thereafter, and he looked more settled when he came back. Dunk off a tip play late it the half, then followed that with a driving stumbling flip, and added a long jumper just before the break. Was really just about his only good offensive stretch of the game though, as for the other 45 minutes of the game he shot 2-16. 2-16 at 6'11". Er...ouch. On the other hand began to get the boarding game going, and byt the mid third was completely dominating the glass against the undersized Cavs frontline. But a lot of it was off of his own misses as he suddenly developed Thompson touch in there on a night when our crappy shooting was easily the difference inthe game (we shot 38%, they shot 51%). Late in the game came up with a brilliant one handed pass on the move over the top of the defense to a slashing Beno to put us up 2 at the 1:05 mark. It continued his run of CWebb like passing games, and in March Cousins is averaging over 4 ast/gm. So down the stretch we came with DeMarcus having a chance to carry us home and significantly raise this grade. And instead he came up small again as we went to him as outr goto guy. Got called for the offensive foul out of the timeout at he 34 second mark, and then when we got the ball back one last time he missed the heavily contested drive at the 5 second mark. On the positive side, I hope these late game failures have been humbling him a bit after the petualnce about Reke missing late game shots. Aren't any of these guys doing well enough in the clutch to consider themselves the answer to our problems sans teammates.
Billy Owens (#2overall traded) for Mitch Richmond -- anybody got another barrel of fish? Yeehaw!!
Dalembert ( B ) -- after being denied a couple of times early moving without the ball, was the first (and as it turns out only) of our bigs to click it into geat with a blcoked shot and usign his length for a couple of early hoops. Had his own moments of shakiness, as when late in the first half got called for back to back turnovers to help the Cavs get back into it. And worse yet when with 3:30 to go in a tight game he picked up an ill timed tecnhical to give the Cavs a free point. Made up for that however when he made a string of clutch plays to put us in position to win it in the last coyuple of minutes. Came up with huge offensive reboudns and follow fiishes on back to back plays just before the two minute mark, and drew an offensive foul when he had Samuels all lined up for a block and the only way the Cavs could avoid it was to pull his arms down. Unfortunately was unable to get in front of Sessions as he repeatedly burned both Beno and Thornton down the stretch, and while he came up with more than his share of clutch plays, what we ended up needing on the night was a closer, and we could not find him.
Corliss for Christie -- man, fish are having a bad day. Corliss was a solid player, but this trade brought us a captain for our defense right through our best years. Similar to what I think may potentially happen this summer with guys like Kirilenko and Prince available.
Thornton ( B- ) -- this was another of the score through persistence rather than score through brilliance games for Marcus. Had a couple of little mini spurts and some impressive plays, but never really generated any lasting momentum wiht hsi shooting. Got off to a shaky start before hitting a three that seemed to settle him. But the threes were part of why this was a less efficient game, as he was faced with a tough, if aging, defender in Anthony Parker (35 is the prime of life for the rest of the world, its decrepit in basketball) adn settled for far too many threes in response. Shooting double figure threes is rarely a good sign about somebody's game, and it showed up on the FT line, where Marcus did not even shoot one until the 4th quarter. Had some impressive flashes as always oinclduing a coupel fo strong post moves -- which could be such a key when Reke gets back BTW because with two 6'4/6'5" guards with post games, teams with small PGs are not going to have anyplace to hide them. After Cisco got the ball rolling in the third, Marcus drained back to back threes late in the third as we surged back to take the lead. Back into the game in the 4th and immediately drew a foul, his first of the game. Was stuggling to finsih late until he came up with a quick strong drive through contact for was +1 with 3:45 to go, that put us up 2. Wish we'd seen more of that. Did not contain Sessions on the Cavs possession at the 20 second mark, and watched him go around the screen for the go ahead layup. 23 more points as its hard to deny we have found a third scoring machine now. Not put up in his best or most efficient fashion, but pts is pts. Now with Reke returning can he dial it back without getting squirmy? Just a half notch. If he can, we could have one of the most potent trios in basketball in future years.
JWill for Bibby -- I was a little sceptical of this trade when it happend. Was not ahuge fan of Bobby's game, and JWill was simply an amazing talent, at least in one aspect of the game. But it of course turned out to be the perfect stabilizing move for our best seasons, and in the declingin years that folowed Bibby flirted for a while with All Star status before beginning the fade.
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