[Grades] Grades v. Clippers 03/01/12

If the world were overrun by flesh eating zombies, you'd:

  • Run screaming for the hills

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Loot and pillage man, the world's ending, what do I care?

    Votes: 5 13.5%
  • Shoot 'em in the head. Always the head.

    Votes: 8 21.6%
  • Be that annoying idiot who always gets everybody else killed

    Votes: 1 2.7%
  • Be the wimpy quitter who always gets everybody else killed

    Votes: 2 5.4%
  • Be the crazy loner guy/gal who spends his/her days sniping zombies from rooftops

    Votes: 9 24.3%
  • Barricade yourself in a shopping mall and live it up

    Votes: 3 8.1%
  • Two words: zombie lovin'

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • All I gotta say is if grandma tries to eat me, she's gonna get beatdown

    Votes: 1 2.7%
  • Find a nice island somewhere to take over and rule with an iron fist

    Votes: 8 21.6%

  • Total voters
    37
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
We lost to a better team, simple as that. Sometimes it takes three paragraphs to describe a loss, sometimes one line.

Boxscore

And oddly quiet board that we have this evening, I think I will sneak in a theme: Wacky Restaraunts

Evans ( C- ) -- got off to the good start in this one stealing the ball off the opening tip and feeding DeMarcus, and then grabbing the rebound of the next possession, taking it down, and splashing a jumper, before starting the attack inside. But as the quarter wore on began to press and overdribble and have ballhandling adventures before he and the rest of the starters ended up sitting and watching the reserves go on an unlikely run for nearly the entire second quarter. Nice oop to Cousins in the early third but things really began to get scrufy as the half wore on. Repeatedly blocked on his drives in the third. Started really attacking when Cousins went out late in the quarter, but everything inside was challenged, tipped, blocke, and the jumpers just refused to fall. Still was just brute forcing his way to some level of productivity, and after one hit got really clunked back the other way on an illegal Reggie Evans screen that is sure to produce some discussion at the Thanksgiving table next year (Reggie being Tyreke's cousin). Again almost hit the quarter ending runner and is almost making those quarter enders a signature shot, but might be a good idea if he looked for something better firs before the heave. Only got a brief two minute rest in the 4th as Jimmer came in and was unable to handle the increased defensive pressure from Paul. Clanked a few more jumpers and wasn't much of a factor down the stretch.
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Hajime Restaurant (Bangkok, Thailand) -- ah got to love those wacky Japanese (the restaraunt is in Thailand, but Japanese owned and operated). Dispensing with human wait staff, instead you are served your food by four dancing robots -- yes they dance -- that cost the owners $1million to have made. Should save you money on tips at least.

Thompson ( D ) -- consumed by guarding Blake of course, which is as it should have been. But there is being consumed, and there is being so consumed that your own game is knocked into utter irrelevancy. Makes this grade tough, because Blake had a definite down game, although when he did score it was all too easily on just dunk after dunk. But whether it was JT or not, not as if Blake blew up on him, and Jason was making a few saavy little plays that might have at least contributed to the quiet night by his opponent. Of course if Blake was having a quiet night, then Jason was doing a karaoke version of Silent Night. The ball wasn't exactly hopping for us this time, and Jason wasn't getting his typical roleplayer shots -- perhaps an irony or a mistake by a young team thinking Blake = monster player, so avoid going at him, when Blake's weakness is precisely defense. But roleplayer shots or not, he wasn't giving us anything on the glass either, was missing his FTs in a big way again, including several pair we desperately needed, and finished with one of his emptiest statlines of the season. No matter how I feel about this game overall I think I am really constrained to offer only one possible grade here by the anemic boxscore on one side, making it impossible to give agood grade, and then the relative down game by Griffin, making it impossible for the botom to fall entirely out of the grade.
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Modern Toilet (Taipei, Taiwan) -- ok, can't blame this one on the Japanese. Here we are in Taiwan. Eating dinner seated on toilet bowls. Out of toilet bowl shaped bowls. In a restaraunt called "Modern Toilet". But hey, if something disagrees with you, you don't even have to get up.

Cousins ( B+ ) -- continued his I am better than you and I'm going go make you like it tour with another 23 and 10 performance as he kicked off March the same way he ended February (a month in which he averaged 19pts 12.3rebs). Solid start on the glass and with the jumper, and maybe maturing a bit against the sorts of long athletes that sometimes give him problems inside -- instead just stepped out and peppered Jordan with jumpers. Got his hands on a lot of balls on defense. Got set up, apparently intentionally, by IT for another three? This one from the corner ala Brad Miller? Please tell me we aren't going to **** up one of this generation's great big men by encouraging him to stand in the corner chcuking threes? Unfortunately while this ws 23 and 10, it was also yet another game where it should have been even more. For about the 100th time in his 115 game NBA career DeMarcus was limited by foul trouble. Totally unnecessary 2nd foul in the early 2nd just as he was going out hurt his, and our future cause. Came back in in the final minutes of the first half carrying 2 fouls, and gave us a boost with acpair of scores, one on a jumper, then very professionally using the attention that drew for an upfake and drive and one handed slam. Broke a Clippers run to start the third with a post move for a foul, and then an oop from Reke. But could not avoid the whistles. Picked up his third, and amid constant calld from the Clippers announcers for their big guys to flop and draw his 4th, he did exactly that. Actually the Clippers announcers did a great job on that opne, predicting exactly when he was going to get it, and urgin Smart to get him outof the game. He'd gone 6+ min after picking up his 3rd, was tiring, the announcers said it was a perfect time when a guy makes a mistake and gets a loose foul,, and sure enough voila! Also unfortunately picked up his 9th technical in the third for no good reason -- this time yapping at Foye. As I have been mentioning, he's got to shut up now, because those are piling up and at this rate he's going to start bumping against the limit and the mandatory suspensions that come with it. Started really banging bodies and getting to the line late in the game, but nobody else was really playing well and his efforts were for nought. BTW, how's this for blowing up the individual game +/- stat: in the game DeMarcus had a +/- of -22, by FAR the worst on the team. Second worst was Marcus Thornton, our second best player on the night, with a -14. If you think those +/- numbers had anything to do with anything this game please go ask your mom to slap you with a wet fish.
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Laino Snow Village Ice Restaurant (Ylläsjärvi, Finland) -- caught somewhere betwenen cool and wacky, bring your parka if you want to dine on reindeer bits north of the Artic Circle in a giant natural ice igloo, complete with solid ice tables and chairs.

Thornton ( B ) -- was an afterthought early, but scoring whenver he did get it, going right to the rim and efficient. Never really got the longball game going, and missed a couple of critical ones from Reke that we really needed. Shots began to dry up entirely as the game went along. Got 15 shots, so was haardly starved, but this was one where it felt like his 18pt night could have been something more if we could hav just found him regularly.
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Dinner In The Sky (worldwide) -- so if for strange reason you have a hankering to eat dinner after being lifted hundreds of feet in the air by a giant crane, Dinner in the Sky is for you. Give them a call, fork over a large sum of dough, and they will show up at your door with a huge crane and table which seats 22. And hey, thrill your scared of heights financee too by ordering a Marriage in the Sky from the same people.
 
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Thomas ( D ) -- after touring the country showing up some of the league's best young PGs, returned home to face the mature vet at the height of his powers, and it was a much different story. Had a couple of early turnovers, but mostly stepped back and let the Reke and Boogie show dominate early play, and was quiet until hitting a contested threee in the early 2nd once Reke/Boogie went out. A couple of pretty good passes to JT in the third, but was racking up a ton of TOs that were stalling us out, and CP3 kicked it into another gear on the other end of the court and more or less chased IT from the game by the late 3rd. Padded the stats up in the final minutes of garbagetime, but this was a 5pt 6TO night until the very end, and maybe some sort of lesson learned. Not sure what though -- just never had any of those little bursts of inspiration or spark tonight. Seemed like he was hanging on for dear life against CP3, playing tight, and just never had a positive impact. too bad too -- in the past Reke has caused CP3 a lot of problems, and with DeMarcus emerging at a Blake-like level, we might have been able to stay right with the Clippers stars. Maybe.
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Le Refuge des Fondus (Paris, France) -- ah Paris, The City of Love, sitting in a quaint little cafe with your honey sipping on wine out of baby bottles.... Popular tourist spot in the Montmartre area foudn a unique way to get around a tax on wine served in wine glasses. Diapers optional.

Bench

Hickson ( B- ) -- loooked better than he has been with a couple of nice athletic plays in the late 2nd, blocking a shot, making a strong finsh on the break sneaking along the baseline, and using the hops on the glass. Went high for a offensive rebound late in the third, got upended trying to go over Reggie Evans, and took a hard fall on his hiney and had to leave the game. Which of course very logically prompted Coach Smart to install Cisco as our PF instead. I mean afterall, what other options did we have?
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Mars 2112 (Times Square, New York City) -- I have heard of this weird Martian themed tourist trap, but oddly have not been tempted to give it a try. Further oddness, apparently the menu consists of seafood...for a planet with no surface water.

Hayes ( C ) -- only one of the benchers to be ineffective in the first half and eventually replaced by Cousins. After he came back with Cousins' foul trouble, made a nice defensive play on Blake in the late 3rd, ripping the ball from him on the baseline., and was generally playing some better hands defense unerneath. Took a charge in the early 4th fouling out Eric Bledsoe. We were saved. Another minimal statistical night,but at least did not hurt us this time.
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Alcatraz E.R. (Tokyo, Japan) -- back to those crazy Japanese, who in this case have opened a restaraunt where you are led into a cell in handcuffs, and fed food out of blood transfusion bottles. Next time I'm in Tokyo I'm there baby.

Salmons ( B- ) -- effectively playing backup PG now. Which is just... But thing is, while its still a freakin' miracle everytime the ball leaves his fingertips and he struggles to bring it up against pressure obviously, he has been safely getting it past halfcourt, and has just looked/felt solid as a bencher in a way he never did as a starter. Reasonm ay simply be that he gets to touch his the ball, John's own personal preciouss. Hit back to back jumpers as we got back into it in the second and helped again a little more on the glass than he is wont to nprmally. In fairly early in the third with IT not effective against CP3 but not nearly dynamic enough to make any real difference in the momentum.
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Villa Escudero (San Pablo City, Phillipines) -- yes indeed, that is a waterfall and those people are eating while sitting in the middle of a pool or stream beneath it with their feet in the water. Leave the wingtips at home.
 
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Garcia ( C ) -- three to tie it in the mid 2ndw as his only hit of the night as for the second game in a row those were the only shots he took, and tonight it was 1-4. Had a nice help block in the 4th to get the crowd into it, but overall just a meh game.
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's Baggers (Nuremberg, Germany) -- like the robot place after Reke's grade, apparently the future is going to be a bad time to be a waiter/waitress. This restaraunt though dispenses with dancing robots and just goes for the drive thru experience -- you punch your order into a touchscreen, and then a few minutes later it comes sailing down the steel tubes above your table with you never having to intereact with any of those nasty human creatures. Presumably they are still cooking the food at this stage though.

Fredette ( B+ ) -- bricked a three, but got back to take a charge to stop the break. Bailed out the terrible all backup crew hitting a three when we were down 10, and fading, and that seemed to trigger something welcome -- one of those rare bursts of Jimmermania we have seen this season, just to remind you. Knocked down back to back threes to cap a big backup run in the 2nd and get the crowd roaring. Made seveal good setup passes as well. Finally came back down to Earth on the final play of the half, making the overpentration and get stripped error, leading to a Clippers breakout that threatened to give them the lead. Finally got back in the 4th, but the difference was we had him trying to being the ball up against Chris Paul, and and back to back turnovers qucikly had Reke and Thornton back up along the sideline. Wanted to go A- here because the fun run was just fun, but jst proving again that he can't handle pressure on his dribble had to be taken into account as well.
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The Cave Restaraunt and Resort (Richland, MO) -- well, the name kind of says it all no? For those that enjoy the sensation of having millions of tons of rock poised right over their head, embrace your inner caveman.

Whiteside ( INC ) -- tried a baseline turnaround and got it blocked. But then got a dunk in traffic on our last possession. Should be noted that Hassan's per 36min numbers last night were 32pts and 32rebs, while Cousins' were only 26pts 11rebs. Start Hassan! Trade Cuz!
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Opaque (Los Angeles, San Diego and San Franciso, CA) -- there was story about these guys last year, and its more interesting gimmick than off the wall wacky. Nonetheless when the gimmick is you dine in pitch blackness, served by blind waitstaff so that your senses pick up and the flavor/smell etc. is enhanced (not to mention they can serve you some seriously grotesque lookign muck), its kinda wacky. Good place for guys to take dates thoguh if they want to "accidentally" cop a feel in the dark. Right up until they realize they've accidentally felt up the 96 year great grandma celebrating her birthday at the table next to them...and she's feeling right back.
 
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trade t.evans hes just garbage when he cant shoot what was he 0-9 shooting????i dont think hes ever gona get good at shooting the ball....forcing dumb layups also smh!
 
When flesh eating zombies arrive, I'll be the fat guy welding airplane propellers in front of a fire truck and cleaning that road full of zombies. But I think that role is reserved for Cousins he's been an awesome bully down low. :)
 
When flesh eating zombies arrive, I'll be the fat guy welding airplane propellers in front of a fire truck and cleaning that road full of zombies. But I think that role is reserved for Cousins he's been an awesome bully down low. :)

Cousins is so awesome that he bites the zombies
 
As a fan of the "Walking Dead", I love tonight's poll.

I do find it a little disturbing, however, that as of this point, being a lone sniper on a rooftop taking out zombies is tied with finding a deserted island to rule with an iron fist. Some of you scare me.

Oh wait...I'm one of those who chose the former.

;)
 
Just finished watching the game. Refs screwed us in the 3rd quarter which started the separation between the teams. The way the Clippers were shooting though it probably wouldn't have mattered. But seriously, i feel like teams can't miss against us... at first i thought it was just bad luck catching teams on hot nights... but i'm pretty sure its because we just don't know how to defend against it...the amount of wide open shots we give other teams is ridiculous.
 
And oddly quiet board that we have this evening, I think I will sneak in a theme: Wacky Restaraunts
I like the idea. That's gotta be a gold mine. :) I was always amused by Sacramento restaurant that has been a Chinese restaurant since before i moved to Sac (1967). It was obviously a cheesy western-themed restaurant that they left as is when they took over the place.. You know...wagon-wheel chandelier kind of place. :D

Not wacky enough, though. ;)
 
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Just finished watching the game. Refs screwed us in the 3rd quarter which started the separation between the teams. The way the Clippers were shooting though it probably wouldn't have mattered. But seriously, i feel like teams can't miss against us... at first i thought it was just bad luck catching teams on hot nights... but i'm pretty sure its because we just don't know how to defend against it...the amount of wide open shots we give other teams is ridiculous.

We also tend to have defensive lapses where guys leave their man unnecessarily to kinda weakly double team. Tyreke and Garcia are the biggest culprits, along with Marcus Thornton, who on top of that seems to get caught ball watching at times. The result is wide open 3s. I don't know about you, but I'd rather live with giving up 2 points off a contested 1 on 1 post move than giving up 3 to a good open shooter.

Tyreke's decision making left me scratching my head in this one. Get off to a good start feeding Cousins and attacking the rim - proceeds to pull up for a 3 early in the shotclock. Yes, that's right. A guy shooting .230% on 3s for the season decides to pull up for a 3 without even trying to run the offense. I certainly want the best for Tyreke, and hope that he becomes a superstar for our team along with Cousins, but such plays really leave me wondering what kind of BB IQ Tyreke has. You can't be a star without good BB IQ. Tyreke repeatedly deciding to pull up for contested fade away jumpshots is about as stupid as Earl Boykins trying to dunk in traffic whenever he penetrates. Or Shaq bringing up the ball. I can't understand why Tyreke doesn't realise his limitations and try to work around them instead of forcing things he simply can't do well.
 
modern-toilet-restaurant2-xl.jpg

Modern Toilet (Taipei, Taiwan) -- ok, can't blame this one on the Japanese. Here we are in Taiwan. Eating dinner seated on toilet bowls. Out of toilet bowl shaped bowls. In a restaraunt called "Modern Toilet". But hey, if something disagrees with you, you don't even have to get up.

you know something is bizarre when the first one to think of it was Lius Buñuel:

The next morning, the nurse leaves for the town of Argenton, giving a lift to another resident who is breakfasting in the bar. This resident is a professor at the police academy. He is dropped off at work where he gives a lecture to a class of delinquent policemen, who behave like schoolchildren, on the subject of the relativism of laws, customs and taboos. The lecture is constantly interrupted, either by the police being called away to respond to crimes being committed, or their own childish pranks, until only two officers are left in the class. The professor continues, using a dinner party at his friends’ house to illustrate a point he is making. We then cut to the ‘dinner’ party which is being held in a modern bourgeois apartment.

The guests are seated around the table on flushing toilets. They politely discuss various issues around the topic of defecation whilst publicly using the toilets that they are sitting on. When a guest is hungry, he excuses himself and retires to the dining room, a private cubicle, to eat food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_Liberty
 
we also tend to have defensive lapses where guys leave their man unnecessarily to kinda weakly double team. Tyreke and garcia are the biggest culprits, along with marcus thornton, who on top of that seems to get caught ball watching at times. The result is wide open 3s. I don't know about you, but i'd rather live with giving up 2 points off a contested 1 on 1 post move than giving up 3 to a good open shooter.

Tyreke's decision making left me scratching my head in this one. Get off to a good start feeding cousins and attacking the rim - proceeds to pull up for a 3 early in the shotclock. Yes, that's right. A guy shooting .230% on 3s for the season decides to pull up for a 3 without even trying to run the offense. I certainly want the best for tyreke, and hope that he becomes a superstar for our team along with cousins, but such plays really leave me wondering what kind of bb iq tyreke has. You can't be a star without good bb iq. Tyreke repeatedly deciding to pull up for contested fade away jumpshots is about as stupid as earl boykins trying to dunk in traffic whenever he penetrates. Or shaq bringing up the ball. I can't understand why tyreke doesn't realise his limitations and try to work around them instead of forcing things he simply can't do well.


amen¡
 
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Mars 2112 (Times Square, New York City) -- I have heard of this weird Martian themed tourist trap, but oddly have not been tempted to give it a try. Further oddnes, apparently the menu consits of seafood...for a plaent with no surface water.

One could just as easily point out that there are no cows, chickens, pigs, or for that matter vegetables, grains, etc. on Mars, so whatever specialty of food was chosen could always be pointed at as inappropriate. Unless one wants to dine on rocks with a side of dust.
 
But there are polar ice caps on mars...so I guess you could make it a stretch to say seafood could exist...
 
At the game I got a few impressions to share. We were tied at the half. From the moment the Kings walked out on the floor to start the half they looked and acted somewhat hang-dog. No energy, just reacting. They went behind 8-0 then they began to play. And to their credit they got within two points.

We paid a price in the second half for Fredette's good shooting in the first half, which, incidentally was impressive. In the second half he was allowed to handle the ball too much on several occasions where he QBed the ball to a Clip. That and a few poor possessions where we took poor shots (and missed) and we dropped behind enough to really chill us. I think the price of holding out Thomas for defensive reasons was also a deflater for out offense. All and all down 18 when it was time to get our fourth quarter buzz on.
 
One could just as easily point out that there are no cows, chickens, pigs, or for that matter vegetables, grains, etc. on Mars, so whatever specialty of food was chosen could always be pointed at as inappropriate. Unless one wants to dine on rocks with a side of dust.

Well Mars does have ice on its poles so I'm thinking a slushie bar would be entirely appropriate ;)
 
Great game except the last quarter, as soon as the Clippers put pressure on us, got some steals it got into the player’s minds. We can’t let those things get to us, but it was an overall really good game.

We should move I.T to the bench and let him bring the spark with the second unit - even though last night wasn’t his best game, 6th man is the best spot for him.

Jimmer! The roof blew off when Jimmer made the last of his 3rd three. This is how he needs to continue to play, you saw him demand the ball, he put the ball on floor once and shot it. He needs to do this all the time. Just be confident. I actually like to see Tyreke and Jimmer play together a bit more, simply because Tyreke’s ability to penetrate can have a great impact for Jimmer.

I love how this team is coming together. You can see them cheering for each other.

Jimmer really, really needs to work on his defense. It’s really non-existent.
 
I was watching Hassan Whiteside a bit more closely and he's really a foul magnet. He was fouled at least three times in his 1:50, but of course they didn't call it since it was the end of the game. Not only that but he's huge and has incredible length.

The Kings are playing four games in five days. JJ Hickson is out for three games. They better play him.

I swear if Travis Outlaw gets any minutes... Oh wait, SMART will just play Donte at center or something.
 
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