Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Life's easy when you score 115 every night.
On this homestand now we have had these 5 games:
vs. Dallas 25assists 14TO 110pts
vs. Detroit 25assists 13TO 112pts
vs. Boston 29assists 14TO 120pts
vs. Minnesota 21assists 11TO 115pts
vs. Memphis 28assits 13TO 119pts
Which is kind of getting it done offensively. Too bad the defense remains so porous or The Prophecy might really have come true.
Boxscore
Salmons ( C ) -- responded to Reke's gesture offering to let him keep starting by really not giving us a very good one, and a 7pts in 30min start by John Salmons sounds all too familiar from the first half of the season. Not big enough to stop Gay inside on defense, same problem he had with him back early in the year. Split a pair of threes early, but generally not a factor while Cousins/Thornton/IT went off. Got a little more involved in the third but never got anything going as he did his dribble around looking for open spots to take a jumper thing. Bizarre foul taken in the final minute of the third -- must have been called by our bench? I had the Memphis feed, and they were completely mystified. DeMarcus had a bloody nose and that was apparently why the foul was taken. Except that we were over the foul limit so that foul actually gave the Grizzlies 2 FTs. Why would we do that? Let the refs stop play if they think DeMarcus is bleeding too much. Why give up 2 points in a fairly close game? Night ended early in the 4th after a short bad stint next to Reke when he seemed to revert to his ball pounding and sticky fingered ways. This wasn't John Salmons the stinky fish, but neither was it the Salmons playing in a different gear we've seen this month.
Thompson ( B+ ) -- not as sparkly as the last few efforts, but playing solidly in the first quarter again even without scoring. Zbo isn't fully himself yet, and Jason never had major problems with him, but some trouble with the bigger Gasol on defense though. Racked up 14 rebs grabbing the boards Cousins did not, but again there were some stretches where he wasn't getting it done on the glass and the Grizz were consistently scoring right at the rim. Dunk on the breakout to close the half and restore our 10pt lead that we bounced around for most of the night -- never able to fully shake the Grizz, but never really lost control of the game. Not as efficient as he has been the last few games, but again was really maing an impact as an addiitionl passer. Started getting into it with Randolph in the mid-4th and picking up fouls.
Thornton ( A ) -- managed to make Tony Allen into an offensive machine in the early going, but on the other hand completely ignored Allen -- an All leage defender if you recall -- on his way to an explosive 16pt first quarter in which at one point he hit 7 shots in a row. Finally heat checked a 1 on 1 three off his dribble at the end of the 1st to break the run. Returned in the second with a n immediate selfish force, but there weren't too many of those tongiht -- one of the more remarkable things of this little mini run we've gotnen on at home is that Thornton has notched 20 assists in the last 4 qames, and has 4 of his 5 highest assist games of the season over that span. Suddenly he's giving it up. Stepped back up in the final minute of the half canning a three, and then on the final play of the half stealing the ball up top and leading a break that resulted in a Thompson dunk and the return of our 10pt lead going into half. A few garbage type hoops in the early 3rd and very aggressive in the late 3rd after Cousins went out. And the thing that has always separated Thiornton from your typical shoting weenie of sa scoring guard, si that when he gets aggressive it doesn't mean he just starts chucking jumpers, it means he gets AGGRESSIVE, as in charging the hoop, using his athleticsm to bang around amongst the big boys and come up with offensive rebounds and follows etc. May have finally run out of steam however, as after 30 pts through three quarters, he would only nothc one ore in the 4th. But the damge as they say was done, and it was another huge stat stuffing 31pts 7reb 6ast 3stl night to make all of his fantasy owners *ahem* happy.
Thomas ( A- ) -- played one of his strongest gamss since the initial burst around the All Star break, and it was about what he did not do as much as what he did. Off to a fast start again with a jumper, a nice pass to a backcutting Thornton, and a runout with the +1 against Gasol. Made one mistake with a soft pass up top leadng to a Grizzlies runout and dunk. But collected a Thornton airball to close the first and laid it in for his 9th point. Thing is, it wasn't about his points -- that's where this was a nice outing. He did force a few threes in the early third, but when they didn't fall he knocked it off and did not score again until the mid 4th when he got a bunch of points when the Grizz started fouling him (their idea more than him forcing it) -- the 18 pts were thus kind of an illusion. This was 9pts until the end of the game, or 12 pts or just some game like that, where he concentrated on keeping the offense perking and giving us energy. And because of that you could feel it all night long when he wasn't on the floor.
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Bench
Hayes ( C ) -- in for Cousins in the late 1st, did nothing until the beginning of the second when he threw a nice alley oop pass to Outlaw, and then finsihed (barely) a dropoff from Reke. Return to non-boarding ways though hurt us in the seond (never a good sign for a big to have nearly twice as fouls as boards), and the Grizz began to get all over the glass. Lot of minutes with Cousins in foul trouble again but too small to stop Gasol inside in late third, although the Grizz didn't use him much. When we lost momentum int eh early 4th was quickly subbed back out for Cousins until we lsot him for the last time. One of those games where Chuck was at best a placeholder.
Greene ( INC ) -- brief punchy first half stint that was atypical in some ways. Got fooled by Gay and blown right by for big dunk. Also got called for stepping out of bounds, and picked up a technical arguing it. Donte Greene. Technical. But came back with a tough 1 on 1 move the other way. Added a leaner, and just kept on scoring as everybody was joingin the party. Nice pass setting up Hayes as well, as everybofy as passing as well. Not a long enoguh stint to fairly grade from. B-ish though.
Fredette ( INC ) -- ineffective first half stint. Could not keep up with Pargo on defense, and offensively was completely invisible. No numbers of any kind in 5+min and did not return after half. fell behind Pargo after entering.
Whiteside ( INC ) -- got in at the very end of the 3rd in place of Cousins and in a few minutes of time did block several shots. Everything else, not so much.
4th.
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