Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
The (Very) Good -- we are a flat talented team. After the first half of the opener, I would go so far as to say we are a GOOD team, or at least playing like one. We went down into the den of a contender and if you knew nothing about the NBA you would have been hard-pressed to tell which team was the contender, which not. In fact given the high level of play you might have concluded their were TWO contenders out there locking horns in an eventual playoff preview. Both of them being led by star PGs too after the northern contender lost its star center. We lost Cuz and this is the new year: it wasn't the end. You looked around out there and there was plenty of talent to still make a game of it. Lots of mature voices to hang tough.
The Bad -- we lost again, good team or not. And now we have an injury concern with Cuz listed day to day with a sore achilles. That can mean virtually nothing -- I've had sore achilles half a dozen times at least -- or it can be a precursor to vulnerability of one of the very worst injuries you can have. I'm not going to remotely ponder the latter, but our training staff may have to, and with the brutal run of teams coming up we can't have him out.
Boxscore
Stats: 31min 20pts (8-23, 2-5, 2-2) 9reb 2ast 2stl 0blk 3TO
Summary: Rudy started this game off hot but ball sloppy, but after we lost Cuz the defense shifted their attention to him
Gay ( B- ) -- sloppy with the ball in the early going, but otherwise was a playing an excellent early game, he hit an early three, ran a nifty give and go with Cuz, and kept on hitting high high degree of difficulty shots that just screamed talent! But when the refs whistles turned badly against us in the second quarter (by halftime 4 of our 5 starters had 3 fouls), rudy was the first victim. And int eh second half, sans Cuz to draw attention away, the Clippers defense became more focused on Rudy, and Rudy's production plummeted. he was largely invisible in the third quarter, and while he was there for us to male our 2nd run in 4 days at the Clips in the 4th quarter, efficiency was a distant memory by that point. The guarding Blake magic wasn't there this time either. It was a game that started off looking nifty, but int he end 8-23 and the early ballhandling misadventures told more of the story.
Stats: 23min 8pts (3-5, 0-0, 2-4) 9reb 0ast 3stl 1blk 2TO
Summary: not as dynamic as last time out, and only slightly slowed Blake. Lost minutes due to need for offense without Cuz
Cauley Stein ( B ) -- got off to another great start racing up and down the court and making an impact especially by running into steals this time, but he was only mildly suppressing the Blake problem, and Karl made a substitution move early that may have made sense on several fronts, but which which seemed to sap Willie's special. he was playing great, we were playing great, and then midway through the first Karl abruptly subbed in Omri for him. I was trying to figure that out, maybe to rest him and keep him from tiring himself out with hustle for too many minutes in a row. Maybe to set up later rotations when Cuz eventually left. Whatever the cause, when WCS made it back on t he floor he was no longer as effective, and foul problems became a major issue for him, eventually combining with Cuz's injury to reduce us from our 3 towers down to just 1 (Kosta).
Stats: 15min 13pts (6-14, 0-3, 1-2) 9reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Summary: Cuz was Cuzzing until he started hobbling and the Clippers started squeezing. Did not return after half
Cousins ( B- ) -- Cuz only got a half of play in this time, and the reason why (sore achilles) is a little concerning given that he sat out the second half of a close winnable game against a team he hates and would love to beat. During the half we did get to see him, which was played at a remarkably high level overall, there seemed to be a looseness and flow to his talent. But it was almost too much looseness, as he was just flowing right into whatever jumper or three came his way without hesitation. He was 0-3 from three, I think 2-5 from the midrange jumpers -- but not his bread and butter from the elbows, but long angled jumpers he was just taking like he was Durant -- and 4-6 from banging inside. I'll take more banging and less settling thanks. Now that said, he put up 13pts and 9rebs in 15 minutes of action, which means that he was putting up numbers at a 31pt-22reb pace per 36 minutes. Always got to check yourself when you nitpick Cuz, because he might be in the midst of something epic at any moment. His cool began to fray, and his limp began to get worse, as the Clips really squeezed us, and the refs really ****ed us late in the half. But still, we were right there, and we finished right there. If we'd had Cuz in the second half we had a good chance of wining this one.
Stats: 10min 3pts (1-3, 0-0, 1-1) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Summary: gave us nothing, and Redick was killing us, eventually we went completely away
McLemore ( D+ ) -- early in this one made a mistake on a rotation and left Redick, who just killed us,. wide open in the corner for a three. This being a new year for us, Ben tries to race over and challenge rathern than just job, but the result was predictable. Got a shaky +1 called on a drive, shaky in that he got fouled about 15 seconds before he finally put the shot up but got continuation anyway. And that was it for Ben one more time. Remarkably. Both by Ben's lack of production and our lack of looking for him, we're kind of playing 4 on 5. He made one really good looking slash to the rim later, but blew the finish, and that was it. With no Cuz after half we entirely went away while looking for somebody who would actually give us some production. There's not even a reason for the "+" to his D. He scored 3pts on 1-3 shooting and was benched for 3/4 of the game. What's an F at this point? 2pts on 1-5 shooting in 8 minutes?
Stats: 33min 21pts (9-17, 1-4, 2-6) 5reb 8ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: occasionally forced to shoot by the defense early, but then we lost Cuz, and Rondo returned to star mode
Rondo ( A- ) -- in the early going of this one was trying to direct things and keep himself from becoming a liability by not hesitating on the jumpers the Clippers were giving him. And while he was far from Curry out there (the Warriors' Curry, not ours), he would miss one, then rattle one in, miss and then hit just enough that he kept things moving and kept that from becoming a winning gimmick for the Clippers. His FTs...are another mysterious issue. And those he didn't hit acceptably. But where Rajon really began to shine again was with us down about a dozen in the third quarter, when it looked like the combination of all the foul trouble and losing Boogie to the injury was going to be too much. We were scrapping, but scraping bottom, but rather than getting weaker, Rajon instead went the other way, started attacking an getting stronger and stronger as the game went along, getting us back into it by the end of the 3rd, and making an amazing steal and full court pass to Collison to get us within 3 in the early 4th. It was something we virtually did not have last year -- Cuz was out, Rudy was not able to take over, and so our THIRD star took, while our THIRD 7'0" banger battled inside, and that's a good time. We came up short again, and I don't think Rajon is going to average 21 this season, but if he plays like this and Cuz's injury is just a tweak, we all of a sudden look very talented. Not even just playoff talented.
Last edited:
