Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Ok, 5 notes:
1) good game, we can play with good teams
2) every single game there has to be one guy who mysteriously gets played and played and played by Keith Smart despite lousy production or all logic. Tonight it was Marcus Thornton who capped a 2-13 shooting night with a selfish play on the game's final shot to finish us
3) BTW, pick and roll, pick and pop, whatever. Our guards are simply too selfish to run it for anybody but themselves and deserve a good hard slap. Late in the game it bit us and bit us hard, as first IT ran one with Cousins, got doubled, leaving Cuz wide open, refused to pass it, and got bailed out by a foul call as he was about to be trapped in the corner, and only hit 1 of 2. Then to finish the game Cuz sets the pick for Thornton, and Marcus, having the play drawn up for him, is of course 100% bound and determined to take that shot and be the hero while Cousins stands open 10 feet away from him, and so he doesn't even get a shot off as Gasol smothers the selfish right out of him and blocks the shot. Selfishness kills.
4) Meanwhile inconsistency as always rules for us, as our two best players from the last game (Reke and JT), were two of our worst this time out. Not only that, IT actually passed the ball this time.
5) Tonight I would like to announce the expansion of the Grading Consortium idea for the final few games of the season. For each game we are going to have prominent posters pass through as Guest Graders so that we can have a full 5 person Consortium every game out. If we all survive the BOG vote in a couple of weeks, its something I want to experiment with for next year. Tonight we'll be joined by hrdboild and Rainmaker, although they kind of got the dregs this time out, many dregs played a major role, so it kinda worked out.
Full Grading Consortium + Guest Graders for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
hrdboild
Rainmaker
Boxscore
Stats: 20min 2pts (1-4, 0-2, 0-0) 0reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Salmons ( F ) -- John started this one out looking lazy and disinterested -- letting defenders drive by him uncontested, camping out in the corner on offense. Twice he was the only defender on the fast break and didn't even attempt to contest. His only positive contributions of the quarter were a nice defensive play on Prince in the post and a credited steal when Marc Gasol passed the ball right to him and he heaved a full court hail mary to IT. Smart mercifully let Salmons ride the bench and think on his sins for the remainder of the half while the three guard lineup of Douglas, Fredette, and Thornton improbably led a 10 point turnaround. Came in to start the third and played all but the last 30 seconds of it. Looked active early, handling the ball a lot but without much success. Hit Cousins in the lane for a layup and finally got a tough layup to drop himself to complete the 1-4 shooting night. And that was it as he again watched a full quarter from the bench. He did have the 2 assists and should have had 2 more as the misses were gimmes. But the biggest impression I have of this one is that he repeatedly found himself in position to make plays defensively and chose instead to stand aside and watch. There's no reason why Salmons shouldn't be doing the same things out there that Toney Douglas is. It's primarily a matter of effort and Salmons does not have it right now. 0 rebounds in 20 minutes from the SF position means your head's not in the game, and that's what swings it from a D to an F for me. Better luck next time John! --Hrd
Stats: 19min 2pts (1-5, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Thompson ( D+ ) -- Thompson had a pretty rough go of it this afternoon. His jumper was not on (0-4) and his rebounding (only 4 in 19 minutes) was definitely a step down from his recent production. The rebounding can largely be chalked up to the Memphis bigs, who were really muscling JT around. Things weren't helped by the officials, who made (in my opinion) three very bad foul calls on JT - the worst of them being an offensive foul in the lane when Randolph was mauling him. But despite JTs poor offensive game, his defense was pretty good. He only allowed 8 points on 10 shots, holding Randolph to 0-3 and Gasol to 0-1 and two free throws. Unfortunately he had two real fouls in addition to the three questionable ones and he left the game for the final fifteen minutes while Smart went smallball. So his D was good but he didn't really get anything else done and didn't play down the stretch. It's probably a bit much to ask for three "A"s in a rows, so I suppose it's not too shocking.--Capt.
Stats: 30min 22pts (9-15, 0-1, 4-4) 9reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- notice how even with the expansion to a full 5 graders this time, that I saavily mange to appoint to myself the only two starters to deliver halfway decent games? Saavy + experience for the win! And for the night, Boogie was the man for us. Now being the Kings not infrequently the team, the coaches, resident trolls and dimwits of all kinds forgot about that for spells. But in the end that was the way of things. And really it was from the very start of the game -- Cuz got off to the good start, basically the only King to do so, starting the game with a big dunk down the lane, hitting several jumpers, and scoring 11 of our first 16 points before picking up his 2nd foul just before the end of the quarter with the old Bibby face foul vs. Kobe -- this time it was Marc Gasol delivering the elbow to Cousins' face, in the wide open court, and getting the foul called on Cousins for it. Calls like that make you wonder what the hell, and I do mean what the hell, the refs are looking at. Returned to the game in the mid 2nd but really wasn't the centerpiece as Douglas, Jimmer, even Chuck Hayes were all contributing to one of those random Kings reserves blowups we get once in a blue moon. Unfortunately when he's not terribly involved in things Cuz has a tendency to do dumb things, as he did in picking up his 3rd foul on a dumb play trying a wraparound knockaway on Gasol 30 feet from the hoop. That meant he started the 3rd having to back off on defense and let Gasol/Zach do what they wanted, but on offense you could tell he wanted to take over and made several aggressive plays inside before again getting smacked in the face by a Grizzlies' elbow, and then a shoulder to boot. Unfortunately that damaged his calm, and he picked up back to back turnovers trying to do too much, the first of them after grabbing a d-board and then refusing to give it up, going full court until Gasol stopped the silliness at the rim. Nonetheless by the time he left the game again, here was this startling stat: Boogie was 7-12 from the field. All four other Kings starters were 4-23 combined. Yikes. Was ignored for a while after he returned to the game in the mid 4th, as we were smallballing, and on this team guards gotta be guards, which is to say exhibit their godgiven right to chuck up junk without reprecussions. But when we finally rediscovered him, he was big down the stretch scoring inside, knocking down two FTs, and hitting the jumper to put us up at the 45 second mark. Unfortunately when we went to the well one last time at the 20 second mark, Gasol blocked his shot from behind, and the Grizz went the other way, and on the final play of the game, there was no way Marcus (2-13FG) was going to give up that last shot to DeMarcus (9-15FG) unless you shot him, and maybe not even then. Hence we lose again. --Brick
Stats: 25min 5pts (1-7, 0-2, 3-4) 5reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Evans ( D ) -- Tough night for Tyreke. Nothing was falling, and at times, it because of poor decision making, and other times, or at least one time, by recieving a pass in a spot that was totally untendable. Such as his first opportunity of the game, when he was passed the ball with few seconds left on the shot clock right under the basket and surounded by four defenders. However, he did have a few open shots, and missed all of them. He did manage one basket, and that came off a miss by Cousins that he rebounded and put back in. His other three points came at the foul line, where he went 3 for 4. Tyreke just didn't seem to have that fire in the belly tonight, and in the second half, after missing a corner three, he hardly touched the ball and didn't take another shot another shot in the game. He did manage to take an outlet, and then get tied up by Tony Allen, who also won the jumpball. He went to the bench at the start of the 4th quarter, and returned with just over 5 minutes left in the 4th. In short, Tyreke had little impact on the game, unless you count his lack of impact as impact. Its a shame, because this is a night when his normal contribution would have probably won the game for us. --Baja
1) good game, we can play with good teams
2) every single game there has to be one guy who mysteriously gets played and played and played by Keith Smart despite lousy production or all logic. Tonight it was Marcus Thornton who capped a 2-13 shooting night with a selfish play on the game's final shot to finish us
3) BTW, pick and roll, pick and pop, whatever. Our guards are simply too selfish to run it for anybody but themselves and deserve a good hard slap. Late in the game it bit us and bit us hard, as first IT ran one with Cousins, got doubled, leaving Cuz wide open, refused to pass it, and got bailed out by a foul call as he was about to be trapped in the corner, and only hit 1 of 2. Then to finish the game Cuz sets the pick for Thornton, and Marcus, having the play drawn up for him, is of course 100% bound and determined to take that shot and be the hero while Cousins stands open 10 feet away from him, and so he doesn't even get a shot off as Gasol smothers the selfish right out of him and blocks the shot. Selfishness kills.
4) Meanwhile inconsistency as always rules for us, as our two best players from the last game (Reke and JT), were two of our worst this time out. Not only that, IT actually passed the ball this time.
5) Tonight I would like to announce the expansion of the Grading Consortium idea for the final few games of the season. For each game we are going to have prominent posters pass through as Guest Graders so that we can have a full 5 person Consortium every game out. If we all survive the BOG vote in a couple of weeks, its something I want to experiment with for next year. Tonight we'll be joined by hrdboild and Rainmaker, although they kind of got the dregs this time out, many dregs played a major role, so it kinda worked out.
Full Grading Consortium + Guest Graders for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
hrdboild
Rainmaker
Boxscore
Stats: 20min 2pts (1-4, 0-2, 0-0) 0reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Salmons ( F ) -- John started this one out looking lazy and disinterested -- letting defenders drive by him uncontested, camping out in the corner on offense. Twice he was the only defender on the fast break and didn't even attempt to contest. His only positive contributions of the quarter were a nice defensive play on Prince in the post and a credited steal when Marc Gasol passed the ball right to him and he heaved a full court hail mary to IT. Smart mercifully let Salmons ride the bench and think on his sins for the remainder of the half while the three guard lineup of Douglas, Fredette, and Thornton improbably led a 10 point turnaround. Came in to start the third and played all but the last 30 seconds of it. Looked active early, handling the ball a lot but without much success. Hit Cousins in the lane for a layup and finally got a tough layup to drop himself to complete the 1-4 shooting night. And that was it as he again watched a full quarter from the bench. He did have the 2 assists and should have had 2 more as the misses were gimmes. But the biggest impression I have of this one is that he repeatedly found himself in position to make plays defensively and chose instead to stand aside and watch. There's no reason why Salmons shouldn't be doing the same things out there that Toney Douglas is. It's primarily a matter of effort and Salmons does not have it right now. 0 rebounds in 20 minutes from the SF position means your head's not in the game, and that's what swings it from a D to an F for me. Better luck next time John! --Hrd
Stats: 19min 2pts (1-5, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Thompson ( D+ ) -- Thompson had a pretty rough go of it this afternoon. His jumper was not on (0-4) and his rebounding (only 4 in 19 minutes) was definitely a step down from his recent production. The rebounding can largely be chalked up to the Memphis bigs, who were really muscling JT around. Things weren't helped by the officials, who made (in my opinion) three very bad foul calls on JT - the worst of them being an offensive foul in the lane when Randolph was mauling him. But despite JTs poor offensive game, his defense was pretty good. He only allowed 8 points on 10 shots, holding Randolph to 0-3 and Gasol to 0-1 and two free throws. Unfortunately he had two real fouls in addition to the three questionable ones and he left the game for the final fifteen minutes while Smart went smallball. So his D was good but he didn't really get anything else done and didn't play down the stretch. It's probably a bit much to ask for three "A"s in a rows, so I suppose it's not too shocking.--Capt.
Stats: 30min 22pts (9-15, 0-1, 4-4) 9reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- notice how even with the expansion to a full 5 graders this time, that I saavily mange to appoint to myself the only two starters to deliver halfway decent games? Saavy + experience for the win! And for the night, Boogie was the man for us. Now being the Kings not infrequently the team, the coaches, resident trolls and dimwits of all kinds forgot about that for spells. But in the end that was the way of things. And really it was from the very start of the game -- Cuz got off to the good start, basically the only King to do so, starting the game with a big dunk down the lane, hitting several jumpers, and scoring 11 of our first 16 points before picking up his 2nd foul just before the end of the quarter with the old Bibby face foul vs. Kobe -- this time it was Marc Gasol delivering the elbow to Cousins' face, in the wide open court, and getting the foul called on Cousins for it. Calls like that make you wonder what the hell, and I do mean what the hell, the refs are looking at. Returned to the game in the mid 2nd but really wasn't the centerpiece as Douglas, Jimmer, even Chuck Hayes were all contributing to one of those random Kings reserves blowups we get once in a blue moon. Unfortunately when he's not terribly involved in things Cuz has a tendency to do dumb things, as he did in picking up his 3rd foul on a dumb play trying a wraparound knockaway on Gasol 30 feet from the hoop. That meant he started the 3rd having to back off on defense and let Gasol/Zach do what they wanted, but on offense you could tell he wanted to take over and made several aggressive plays inside before again getting smacked in the face by a Grizzlies' elbow, and then a shoulder to boot. Unfortunately that damaged his calm, and he picked up back to back turnovers trying to do too much, the first of them after grabbing a d-board and then refusing to give it up, going full court until Gasol stopped the silliness at the rim. Nonetheless by the time he left the game again, here was this startling stat: Boogie was 7-12 from the field. All four other Kings starters were 4-23 combined. Yikes. Was ignored for a while after he returned to the game in the mid 4th, as we were smallballing, and on this team guards gotta be guards, which is to say exhibit their godgiven right to chuck up junk without reprecussions. But when we finally rediscovered him, he was big down the stretch scoring inside, knocking down two FTs, and hitting the jumper to put us up at the 45 second mark. Unfortunately when we went to the well one last time at the 20 second mark, Gasol blocked his shot from behind, and the Grizz went the other way, and on the final play of the game, there was no way Marcus (2-13FG) was going to give up that last shot to DeMarcus (9-15FG) unless you shot him, and maybe not even then. Hence we lose again. --Brick
Stats: 25min 5pts (1-7, 0-2, 3-4) 5reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Evans ( D ) -- Tough night for Tyreke. Nothing was falling, and at times, it because of poor decision making, and other times, or at least one time, by recieving a pass in a spot that was totally untendable. Such as his first opportunity of the game, when he was passed the ball with few seconds left on the shot clock right under the basket and surounded by four defenders. However, he did have a few open shots, and missed all of them. He did manage one basket, and that came off a miss by Cousins that he rebounded and put back in. His other three points came at the foul line, where he went 3 for 4. Tyreke just didn't seem to have that fire in the belly tonight, and in the second half, after missing a corner three, he hardly touched the ball and didn't take another shot another shot in the game. He did manage to take an outlet, and then get tied up by Tony Allen, who also won the jumpball. He went to the bench at the start of the 4th quarter, and returned with just over 5 minutes left in the 4th. In short, Tyreke had little impact on the game, unless you count his lack of impact as impact. Its a shame, because this is a night when his normal contribution would have probably won the game for us. --Baja
Last edited:
One of my favorite movies!
