[Grades] Grades v. Celtics 02/08/17

Who blew your hair back the most tonight?


  • Total voters
    46
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1


I really don't care about people hating on this team anymore. You know what? You all suck. :p

This team isn't that good, it's beat up, but damn if it doesn't fight. After 10 straight years of teams quitting, and a few years before that when we were led by a pack of talented softies like Peja and Kevin and Brad, this team fights harder than any crew we've had since maybe the Ron Ron and Bonzi show. Much respect.



Link to Boxscore

Afflalo ( C+ ) -- this is another one of those games where it was not there statistically. Hit a few shots early, not much else. But he was somehow a stabilizing force, never let his man get off, and was brought back in late as a guard just to be a steadying hand

Tolliver ( B- ) -- this was trying very hard to be a strong game for Tolliver. he did almost everything right EXCEPT the one thing he is supposed to be out there doing. So he made a ton of saavy plays, and snuck inside for scores, and did a good job defending Al Horford, who likes to have a quickness advantage and did not...but everytime the grade surged, Anthony would badly brick another open three, and down it went again. Part of this though.

Koufos ( B- ) -- its hard to go any higher with this grade. Statistically the game looks very solid, and he hit the glass. But he looked uncomfortable all night on offense, and in the end ceded the late minutes to Willie instead.

Lawson ( B+ ) -- wanted to give him a real grade here, and actually truth is he might have deserved a FIFTH A of some sort. He was right up and competing with IT from the opening tip, and going right at him and challenging that defensive questionmark. Looked to be the key to us neutralizing IT...then suddenly came up lame with yet another hammy injury for us. luckily DC picked right up in the amazing effort department.

Collison ( A+ ) -- huge game. Enormous game on BOTH ends. That was the excitement here. We were down half our offense before we even tipped off. Early it was Ty Lawson giving Isaiah all he wanted. Then we lose Lawson too. And DC stepped up in huge fashion, both as a scorer, and working his ass off to deny IT the ball. Many props here.

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Barnes ( A ) -- our upset bid faced a major challenge in the late 3rd, as Lawson's loss left us with no backup to DC at all. So instead we turned the ball over to Matt to run the show for a few minutes and get DC a rest, and he was amazing for about 6 minutes. Bombed in three after three, rebounded, defended, and kept us fighting. May have lost a "+" with a Matt special near flagrant as we tried to wrap things up in the final minutes.

Cauley Stein ( A- ) -- there were some warts here, his second stint was better than the first, he let guys slip inside for rebounding position a few times, and he made one incredibly stupid 1 on 1 force at a critical time in the early 4th, causing Joerger to call a timeout. But, BUT, not only was he again aggressive and confident, coming up with blocks and bothers, and attacking offensive moves, he also did this:


McLemore ( A- ) -- came in off the bench and played this game with uncommon confidence. No hesitation, even a little arrogance as he began bombing in the 2nd quarter. It was refreshing. A breakaway dunk in the third, after a nice defensive effort on the other end, was an early exclamation point for us. Joerger wisely pulled him as he began to return to Bendom, but great for a while buoying us through all the holes in the roster.

Richardson ( INC ) -- short first half stint where he he hit a three, drew a good charge on the hard charging Jaylen Brown, but also was attacked and beaten repeatedly by Brown. The fight got serious, Ben blew up, and Malachi was not back until garbagetime.

Labissiere ( INC ) -- just the last minute after we got done stomping the last fight out of them scrubs :p

Papagiannis ( INC ) -- see Skal above
 
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#6
The best way for me to describe the effect of this team upon myself would be to quote Bilbo Baggins..

"I am old, Gandalf...I know I don't look it, but i'm beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel thin...sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."

I'll admit I didn't watch this game until the 4th. I kept checking the score, but I did not want to have my heart broken again by this team so I decided to take a step back. My mood goes with the success of the team some nights, and it's hard to always wear yourself out with the cheering and then the sadness. This circus act has gone on for years as we all know! Years!

However, when I see the team come together like this, it really bolsters my moral in many ways. I want them to succeed...I want our city to win!! Hopefully this victory fills our players hearts with a newfound sense of pride. This was a team victory and i'm proud of every one of them! This is the kind of fight I wan't to see from our guys each and every night!


Whooooo!!!!!
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#6


I really don't care about people hating on this team anymore. You know what? You all suck. :p

This team isn't that good, its beat up, but damn if it doesn't fight. After 10 straight years of teams quitting, and a few years before that when we were led by a pack of talented softies like Peja and Kevin and Brad, these team fights harder than any crew we've had since maybe the Ron Ron and Bonzi show. Much respect.
Scott Moak ‏@AnnouncerScott 43m43 minutes ago
Do not question this teams' heart.
 
#9
Amazing.
I just don't get this team. No Cousins, no Gay, no Temple, no Casspi. Against red hot Celtics who comes after 7 straight wins, + 2 days rest.
Then of course we bit them by 16, and even find time for all of our rookies to play! Wow, just wow.
Great effort, really amazing. No other team like that in the NBA, for good and bad... o_O
 
#12
This team is better coached than people realize. We are quietly developing a strength of character and a great culture. Watching Joeger after this win, it clicked for me, what he's doing with this team. Our guys fight for each other. A sign of a well coached team is that guys don't get bitter and atrophy on the bench, but when their number is called, there are scrappy performances and good chemistry. We've seen this repeatedly this season. The team picked Cuz up tonight. That's what teammates do.
 
#13
Watching the game now, really refreshing to see no arguing and yelling. If only the Kings can maintain their composure every game.. maybe we'd be a better team than we are now? Negative energy is really understated. Of course, when we're winning, everyone's happy. When we're losing, everyone's frustrated, but when you unnecessarily add more onto that frustration, it brings the entire team to the deeper depths of lows.

I really hope this suspension can light a fire under Cousins. The team won tonight, but we all know we're a sub 20W team without him. Cousins is probably the only thing stopping Cousins from being great. I hope we can build on from tonight. Continue the positive energy. Don't recall a single Cousins game where he didn't get upset and do something dumb. I know we've all been saying it for the last 7 years, but I really hope Cousins can start trending in a positive direction soon.
 
#14
Let's face it -- this team just consistently does what you don't expect them to do.

Every time we feel good about the team's play and their ability to take care of business against lower level teams, they lay an egg.
Every time we get down about them laying an egg against a lower level team, they then beat an above average to elite level team.

Like the Warrior game on a back-to-back after a horrible loss to PHX, I had ZERO confidence that they could pull off a W tonight. None. Boy, do I love being pleasantly surprised!

Not sure they could sustain this level of play w/o Cousins for more than a game or two -- especially considering their track record when Boogie doesn't play -- but it sure was awesome to see and sorely needed.

Shout out to Darren Collison for stepping up when the team needed him most. He's taken criticism on this site for not being clutch. Well, he sure was clutch tonight!
 
#15
This team is better coached than people realize. We are quietly developing a strength of character and a great culture. Watching Joeger after this win, it clicked for me, what he's doing with this team. Our guys fight for each other. A sign of a well coached team is that guys don't get bitter and atrophy on the bench, but when their number is called, there are scrappy performances and good chemistry. We've seen this repeatedly this season. The team picked Cuz up tonight. That's what teammates do.
Strength of character? Would have to disagree with that due to the player's off-court reps.

We've seen this repeatedly this season. The team picked Cuz up tonight. That's what teammates do
It's arguable that Cousins put his teammates in a crapty position tonight against a top 3 team in the East. They were able to pull it out, but 9times out of 10, it's a loss. To begin with, Cousins should have been playing in this game. How he got his 16th technical was extremely immature and showed a lack of composure+leadership. The game was a few seconds away from being over. All he needed to do was go in the lockeroom, but instead, he exploded at the refs well knowing that it was his 16th tech. At that split second, he decided he'd let his anger consume him, and make his teammates play without their best player on Friday. Those aren't decisions you can make when you're supposed to be a leader, according to Joerger.

Even with that being said, it seems like our role players have bought in. Now, we need Cousins to buy in. I can't recall the last game within the last 4-5 years where Cousins was actually able to maintain himself at a steady level. That needs to change if the Kings are really trying to buy into playoff talks. Today, it was a game where no one argued about any calls, or non-calls. It was a game where no one was slow to get back on defense because they were upset.
It's the little things that really start to add up. It's the little things that start to stand out when they start impacting you in a big way.

So, I would respectfully disagree with you. I don't see a change in culture or character. It should start with Cousins, not end at him.
 
#22
This feels like the Memphis team coach had when his guys were dropping like flies but he kept chugging away and winning games.

Ps. Not a bad consolation prize for kingfanpaul.
LOL

What a freaking game! Here I was all sad that I wouldn't get to watch Cousins and then the team goes out and plays an excellent game. Good luck trying to make sense of this team haha.

Man oh man am I glad that I got to see that Cauley-Stein dunk live!
 
#27
This is when a coach like DJ shows what he's all about. For all of those "he's an average coach" folks, well he just clearly isn't. He's a scrappy fighter type of coach and now his team is too. I feel like he doesn't get enough credit for completely changing this teams culture in half a season. That comes from the coach and the rest of the coaching staff. That alone is a major accomplishment. We are the team that can beat anybody anytime and that counts for something, playoffs or no playoffs.
 
#28