Alright, back on Friday I promised girls, but then the Karl is going to be fired stuff heated up, and I spent all my time putting down brush fires.
Sunday game finished up and it was time to go watch the Superbowl, which btw is a really crapty football game that feels nothing like football should -- football should be cold, muddy, and bloody. Not brightly lit casual fanned in nice safe climes with everybody posing for the camera. Its a parody. Anyway...so certainly wasn't going to bother throwing together late night grades there. I am in a similar spot to the team, just waiting for whatever is going to be done to be done.
But tonight I will. Earlier game so get them up tonight even, with the Girls included.
Anyway, just two pointless giveaway games. The team has largely quit, this is on management unless they are talking to somebody behind the scenes. When a team in any sport flatlines, you should move immediately to resuscitate before it becomes habit and you lose the patient altogether.
So onto some actual grades.
Boxscore vs. BOS
Boxscore vs. CLE
Stats vs. BOS: OUT
Stats vs. CLE: 27min 16pts (6-12, 4-6, 0-0) 7reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Summary: was out vs. BOS with the ankle, but vs. CLE at least on target from range and tried to compete with James on defense..
Gay ( ) -- Rudy sat out the Celtics game after turning his ankle the night before, but against the Cavs he put up a decent fight against LeBron, although how decent it would have looked if he had not been hot from three I don't know. Got up and challenged The King though, and used up his fouls trying to slow him.consistently hitting angle threes helped keep a wire to wire 'they're better than us" loss from turning into a rout.
Rachel Bilson
Stats vs. BOS: 23min 15pts (7-9, 0-0, 1-1) 4reb 1ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Stats vs. CLE: 30min 13pts (6-9, 0-0, 1-2) 4reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Summary: flying up court on offense, and may hav ebeen better on that end of the court than defense tehse last two games.
Cauley Stein ( B+ ) -- for both games of the back to back Willie's energy and athleticism has stood out, and he has really begun to find the open holes left by all the double team pressure thrown at Cuz. The result was back to back games of highly efficient rim running, keeping his hands up inside when Cuz is doubled, and even a few little spot jumpers along the baseline. At the same time his rebounding was subpar, and we were not getting the same defensive push out of him. Nonetheless, as an energetic and clueless kid, we were getting the most consistently oblivious effort games out of him on the whole roster.
Crystal Marie Denha
Stats vs. BOS: 36min 31pts (11-25, 3-6, 6-8) 7reb 6ast 0stl 0blk 5TO
Stats vs. CLE: 29min 14pts (5-14, 0-1, 4-6) 8reb 3ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Summary: started off vs. BOS and looked like he had quit, although eventually came on late, vs. Cavs never inspired, never fought. He's waiting too.
Cousins ( D ) -- as I said over the weekend, Cousins is our canary. With his complete lack of emotional filter you know at all times exactly how he's feeling and how things are going. And as the Karl is going to be fired murmur grew into a crescendo, it was completely obvious that Cuz checked out. Now there may have been other things working in the Boston game -- for some reason we have weird scheduled games against them, and I remember last year we faced them in a similar situation, very early game, in the midst of a coaching collapse, and Cuz had a horrendous game and got tossed for throwing Marcus Smart to the ground (not that Marcus Smart doesn't deserve throwing tot he ground quite frequently). Then we had Mexico City, and that debacle. In any case, Boston has been a problem, 1pm games may have been a problem, dying coaching regimes have been a problem. And he came out against Boston just blatantly not wanting to be there with no energy whatsoever. Looked like somebody said something to him when he went to the bench after his first stint there too. But as an emotional being as we hung around against Boston and started to halve a chance, Cuz picked up the scent and his game, started hitting threes, and closed the game with a rush as we mounted a semi-charge. Against Cleveland there was less obvious dog in this dog. He didn't drag, but he also didn't play with any passion, and the flipside with Cousins is he feeds off the passion. It was a different sort of checked out. More professional, but less engaged and at no point a factor or even really trying to be so. During both games, and much of the last week as things have gotten bad, has really concentrated on passing and setting up teammates. No idea if that was a coaching request or his own decision, but it was the best part of what he did over the weekend.
Charlotte McKinney
Stats vs. BOS: 38min 16pts (7-17, 2-8, 0-0) 4reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Stats vs. CLE: 26min 8pts (3-8, 1-3, 1-1) 0reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Summary: still looks more comfortable starting, gave us some offense in BOS and vs. CLE the only guy proing from the start but ran out of talent
Belinelli ( B- ) -- funny thing when you go looking for scapegoats here, and find fewer than you might think because of the amorphous responsibility mess that is our defense. Offensively a lot of our guys did fine until the Cleveland game, and Bels was one of those. If you look carefully you will notice he STILL is not hitting threes, but the rest of his SG play is night and day from Ben. He was engaged and actively running plays as both a passer and popper in the two games, against Cleveland was one of the few guys who came out strong hitting shots. Entirely respectable efforts on that end. However on the other side of the ball we continued to get lit up by opposing backcourts -- accomplishing the dubious feat of having every starting guard of the weekend score 20 or more against us: Bradley (25), Thomas (22), Smith (22), Irving (32). Les of that can be laid directly at Belinelli's feet than you might think, but there was an obvious quickness issue and I don't even want to talk about our scheme at the perimeter anymore until George has retired and we see what the next guy can do.
Rosalind Halstead
Stats vs. BOS: 39min 14pts (5-10, 1-1, 3-4) 5reb 15ast 6stl 0blk 4TO
Stats vs. CLE: 33min 7pts (1-8, 1-4, 4-8) 8reb 16ast 3stl 0blk 6TO
Summary: really wanted to show well in BOS and gave a big effort, against CLE set guys up, but blew layups and never slowed his man
Rondo ( A-/C ) -- gets the split grade here because there was a real gap. Was good in Boston actually, you could tell he wanted to show well in front of the old home crowd and he brought real effort, on both sides of the ball. made a lot of chase down steals. Then came Cleveland, and while he still ran things offensively, you did not feel his presence except for a game long string of simply blown layups at the rim that were just demoralizing and at least theoretically may have denoted a lack of focus. Meanwhile Kyrie was lighting us up the other way.
Brenda Song
Sunday game finished up and it was time to go watch the Superbowl, which btw is a really crapty football game that feels nothing like football should -- football should be cold, muddy, and bloody. Not brightly lit casual fanned in nice safe climes with everybody posing for the camera. Its a parody. Anyway...so certainly wasn't going to bother throwing together late night grades there. I am in a similar spot to the team, just waiting for whatever is going to be done to be done.
But tonight I will. Earlier game so get them up tonight even, with the Girls included.
Anyway, just two pointless giveaway games. The team has largely quit, this is on management unless they are talking to somebody behind the scenes. When a team in any sport flatlines, you should move immediately to resuscitate before it becomes habit and you lose the patient altogether.
So onto some actual grades.
Boxscore vs. BOS
Boxscore vs. CLE
Stats vs. BOS: OUT
Stats vs. CLE: 27min 16pts (6-12, 4-6, 0-0) 7reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Summary: was out vs. BOS with the ankle, but vs. CLE at least on target from range and tried to compete with James on defense..
Gay ( ) -- Rudy sat out the Celtics game after turning his ankle the night before, but against the Cavs he put up a decent fight against LeBron, although how decent it would have looked if he had not been hot from three I don't know. Got up and challenged The King though, and used up his fouls trying to slow him.consistently hitting angle threes helped keep a wire to wire 'they're better than us" loss from turning into a rout.
Rachel Bilson
Stats vs. BOS: 23min 15pts (7-9, 0-0, 1-1) 4reb 1ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Stats vs. CLE: 30min 13pts (6-9, 0-0, 1-2) 4reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Summary: flying up court on offense, and may hav ebeen better on that end of the court than defense tehse last two games.
Cauley Stein ( B+ ) -- for both games of the back to back Willie's energy and athleticism has stood out, and he has really begun to find the open holes left by all the double team pressure thrown at Cuz. The result was back to back games of highly efficient rim running, keeping his hands up inside when Cuz is doubled, and even a few little spot jumpers along the baseline. At the same time his rebounding was subpar, and we were not getting the same defensive push out of him. Nonetheless, as an energetic and clueless kid, we were getting the most consistently oblivious effort games out of him on the whole roster.
Crystal Marie Denha
Stats vs. BOS: 36min 31pts (11-25, 3-6, 6-8) 7reb 6ast 0stl 0blk 5TO
Stats vs. CLE: 29min 14pts (5-14, 0-1, 4-6) 8reb 3ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Summary: started off vs. BOS and looked like he had quit, although eventually came on late, vs. Cavs never inspired, never fought. He's waiting too.
Cousins ( D ) -- as I said over the weekend, Cousins is our canary. With his complete lack of emotional filter you know at all times exactly how he's feeling and how things are going. And as the Karl is going to be fired murmur grew into a crescendo, it was completely obvious that Cuz checked out. Now there may have been other things working in the Boston game -- for some reason we have weird scheduled games against them, and I remember last year we faced them in a similar situation, very early game, in the midst of a coaching collapse, and Cuz had a horrendous game and got tossed for throwing Marcus Smart to the ground (not that Marcus Smart doesn't deserve throwing tot he ground quite frequently). Then we had Mexico City, and that debacle. In any case, Boston has been a problem, 1pm games may have been a problem, dying coaching regimes have been a problem. And he came out against Boston just blatantly not wanting to be there with no energy whatsoever. Looked like somebody said something to him when he went to the bench after his first stint there too. But as an emotional being as we hung around against Boston and started to halve a chance, Cuz picked up the scent and his game, started hitting threes, and closed the game with a rush as we mounted a semi-charge. Against Cleveland there was less obvious dog in this dog. He didn't drag, but he also didn't play with any passion, and the flipside with Cousins is he feeds off the passion. It was a different sort of checked out. More professional, but less engaged and at no point a factor or even really trying to be so. During both games, and much of the last week as things have gotten bad, has really concentrated on passing and setting up teammates. No idea if that was a coaching request or his own decision, but it was the best part of what he did over the weekend.
Charlotte McKinney
Stats vs. BOS: 38min 16pts (7-17, 2-8, 0-0) 4reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Stats vs. CLE: 26min 8pts (3-8, 1-3, 1-1) 0reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Summary: still looks more comfortable starting, gave us some offense in BOS and vs. CLE the only guy proing from the start but ran out of talent
Belinelli ( B- ) -- funny thing when you go looking for scapegoats here, and find fewer than you might think because of the amorphous responsibility mess that is our defense. Offensively a lot of our guys did fine until the Cleveland game, and Bels was one of those. If you look carefully you will notice he STILL is not hitting threes, but the rest of his SG play is night and day from Ben. He was engaged and actively running plays as both a passer and popper in the two games, against Cleveland was one of the few guys who came out strong hitting shots. Entirely respectable efforts on that end. However on the other side of the ball we continued to get lit up by opposing backcourts -- accomplishing the dubious feat of having every starting guard of the weekend score 20 or more against us: Bradley (25), Thomas (22), Smith (22), Irving (32). Les of that can be laid directly at Belinelli's feet than you might think, but there was an obvious quickness issue and I don't even want to talk about our scheme at the perimeter anymore until George has retired and we see what the next guy can do.
Rosalind Halstead
Stats vs. BOS: 39min 14pts (5-10, 1-1, 3-4) 5reb 15ast 6stl 0blk 4TO
Stats vs. CLE: 33min 7pts (1-8, 1-4, 4-8) 8reb 16ast 3stl 0blk 6TO
Summary: really wanted to show well in BOS and gave a big effort, against CLE set guys up, but blew layups and never slowed his man
Rondo ( A-/C ) -- gets the split grade here because there was a real gap. Was good in Boston actually, you could tell he wanted to show well in front of the old home crowd and he brought real effort, on both sides of the ball. made a lot of chase down steals. Then came Cleveland, and while he still ran things offensively, you did not feel his presence except for a game long string of simply blown layups at the rim that were just demoralizing and at least theoretically may have denoted a lack of focus. Meanwhile Kyrie was lighting us up the other way.
Brenda Song
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