The good news: Tyreke was great.
The bad news: everybody else sucked (with apologies to Cisco and Dalmebert)
Loss = Theme, and given the depressing nature of said loss, theme just has to equal: Pretty Girls, the first of 2010
P.S. As noted in the preseason, this year I am cheerfully taking Theme lists from anybody who wants to provide them. Choose a topic you know, put together your list w/links or pics hopefully, + send it to me and if its good I will use it. I of course mention this now to forestall the inevitable complaints about pretty girls -- you don't like pretty girls? Well a) you're strange. And b) so send in your own idea and do something about it!
Official Boxscore
Casspi ( C ) -- a number of Kings had relatively inexplicably poor outings in this one, but Omri's struggles -- and he was more mediocre than awful -- had a more obvious source: Rudy Gay kicked his, and our, butts. Got off to the active start running the floor and cutting, and while he wasn't producing much with it, at least it was energy. Hit the buzzer beating 40 feet heave at the 1st quarter buzzer for his only three. An important little moment actuallty as we had played a shaky quarter but went in down only 6. But from the very start of the game Gay was dominant, and there was nothing Omri could do about it. Not too much to be ashamed about, as Gay took on all comers, and went over Omri, Jason, Demarcus and Daly, and through Reke and Cisco before the night was through. But it was still a pretty one sided thumping. Omri scored in transition, but never got the shooting game going, and was hindered in that regard by some seriously bad and off target setup passes. The beating resumed after half, with Gay going right over to start the 3rd, and Omri unable to respond, and picking up an offensive foul possibly through frustration. We had worse players on the night -- we DEFINITELY had worse players on this night -- but it was still a long one for Omri and his matchup was one of two (the other was PF) that killed us all night long.
Leighton Meester -- accidentally watched a movie with her in it a few weeks back, and just had to go look in the credits and say "who dat?"
Landry ( F ) -- crunch. Ouch. Were this theme tonight not dedicated to the girls, I might just post a picture of a bruise. You ever see a prison movie where the big hairy guy drops the soap in front of the little guy in the shower and says pick it up? Carl wasn't the big hairy guy. Just got pummeled, and I do mean pummeled, by Zach Randolph all night long. Now I try to be colorful in these grades obviusly, but I am not exaggerating in any way when I say I am struggling to remember the last time any Kings' starter looked so completely helpless in the face of an opponent. Spencer vs. Dwight comes to mind, but this may have been even more of a mismatch. Started the game with a nice pass inside to Daly for a dunk as our two noted non passing bigs teamed up, but that was quite literally it for the highlights. Randolph just mauled him in there, pushed him wherever he wanted to push him, scored from point blank range, grabbed all the rebounds (literally -- Carl grabbed ZERO on the night), and the Grizzlies big frontline just squished him the few times he even pondered trying to counterattack. The telling part is that he was not being lazy -- he was battling int here with everything he had, but he just was simply not big and strong enough for this battle. Left early in the 3rd as he was just wholly ineffective. Brought him back in when Randolph went to the bench, and he promptly gave up an offensive rebound and finish to Darrel Arthur, who is not quite the intimidator. Just a terrible night for Carl, and one that cannot be forgotten soon enough.
Elisabetta Canalis -- Italian model who may or may not be George Clooney's gf of the moment -- I lose track. Still kind of a compliment though given the man's nearly limitless options.
Dalembert ( B+ ) -- big Sam was one of the few Kings not named Tyreke who showed up to play in this one, and fully justified the decision to start him. While he wasn't able to singlehandedly convert us to Boston West on defense, he slowed the scoring onslaught, meaning we gave up 100 rather than 110, and notched 8pts 12reb and 5blks while largely dominating the matchup with Marc Gasol, who looks like he was hanigng out at Donte's place for the summer. Some activeness inside on offense early, but it took a little while for the defense to begin to have an effect (ironic since we were hoping to get off to the better defensive start with him in there, and they still scored 30 in the 1st). Began to time things though, erased a Conley drive with a shotblock, and some good defensive work intimidating when not blocking shots, and calling out instructions to the guys ahead of him. Surprised by flashing a little bit of skill as a passer, once dropping the nice dare I say Vlade/Darkoesque interior pass to a cutting Casspi, but Casspi blew the layup. One man defensive stand against Randolph in the early 3rd, getting two blocks on one posession and trying to give the fans something to get excited about. Added in several more nice defensive plays, both blocks and steals, along with a smattering of the sort of shaky decisions that the always forgiving Philly fans chose to define him by -- a goaltending call, called for offensive screening for holding back the entire Grizz front line so Beno(?) could score a layup etc.. I however choose not to condemn for the mistakes (including 5 TOs) but rather to celebrate for the good tough interior work he gave us on a night when guys giving us good minutes were few and far between.
Dayana Mendoza -- I generally don't pay much attention to the Miss Universe paegeant, but I think there was some controversy or the other involving Miss Universe 2008, and she is a little bit on the pretty side, so Pretty Girls theme here we come.
Udrih ( D ) -- and here was one of those inexcplicable bad games that left Reke out there pretty much playing a 2 on 5 game with Cisco. Mike Conley had looked better in the early season so far, but there was no call for Beno to be this badly overmatched. Missed two early jumpers, but came up with a nice d-reb and quick bounce pass to Casspi on the breakout for his onyl numbers in the early going. Thought he was going to wake up as there were a few sings of life in the early 2nd as he ran the team with Reke resting, but you know that smooth flow he often has in that role? Not there at all. Got one of his little pullups to go, made a nice pass for an assist, but he seemed intimidated by Memphis's size up front, neer could hit from outside and seemed ot lack confidence in it, and could never contain Conley's quickness on defense. Late in the game seemed so lacking in confidence that he seemed ot be just throwing the ball back to Tyreke rather than attacking himself, and saying you do it kid. Two of our top 4 scorers (Landry the other) basically gave us nothing tonight.
Kacey Barnfield -- Cute little British accent too. I mean come on now.
The bad news: everybody else sucked (with apologies to Cisco and Dalmebert)
Loss = Theme, and given the depressing nature of said loss, theme just has to equal: Pretty Girls, the first of 2010
P.S. As noted in the preseason, this year I am cheerfully taking Theme lists from anybody who wants to provide them. Choose a topic you know, put together your list w/links or pics hopefully, + send it to me and if its good I will use it. I of course mention this now to forestall the inevitable complaints about pretty girls -- you don't like pretty girls? Well a) you're strange. And b) so send in your own idea and do something about it!
Official Boxscore
Casspi ( C ) -- a number of Kings had relatively inexplicably poor outings in this one, but Omri's struggles -- and he was more mediocre than awful -- had a more obvious source: Rudy Gay kicked his, and our, butts. Got off to the active start running the floor and cutting, and while he wasn't producing much with it, at least it was energy. Hit the buzzer beating 40 feet heave at the 1st quarter buzzer for his only three. An important little moment actuallty as we had played a shaky quarter but went in down only 6. But from the very start of the game Gay was dominant, and there was nothing Omri could do about it. Not too much to be ashamed about, as Gay took on all comers, and went over Omri, Jason, Demarcus and Daly, and through Reke and Cisco before the night was through. But it was still a pretty one sided thumping. Omri scored in transition, but never got the shooting game going, and was hindered in that regard by some seriously bad and off target setup passes. The beating resumed after half, with Gay going right over to start the 3rd, and Omri unable to respond, and picking up an offensive foul possibly through frustration. We had worse players on the night -- we DEFINITELY had worse players on this night -- but it was still a long one for Omri and his matchup was one of two (the other was PF) that killed us all night long.
Leighton Meester -- accidentally watched a movie with her in it a few weeks back, and just had to go look in the credits and say "who dat?"
Landry ( F ) -- crunch. Ouch. Were this theme tonight not dedicated to the girls, I might just post a picture of a bruise. You ever see a prison movie where the big hairy guy drops the soap in front of the little guy in the shower and says pick it up? Carl wasn't the big hairy guy. Just got pummeled, and I do mean pummeled, by Zach Randolph all night long. Now I try to be colorful in these grades obviusly, but I am not exaggerating in any way when I say I am struggling to remember the last time any Kings' starter looked so completely helpless in the face of an opponent. Spencer vs. Dwight comes to mind, but this may have been even more of a mismatch. Started the game with a nice pass inside to Daly for a dunk as our two noted non passing bigs teamed up, but that was quite literally it for the highlights. Randolph just mauled him in there, pushed him wherever he wanted to push him, scored from point blank range, grabbed all the rebounds (literally -- Carl grabbed ZERO on the night), and the Grizzlies big frontline just squished him the few times he even pondered trying to counterattack. The telling part is that he was not being lazy -- he was battling int here with everything he had, but he just was simply not big and strong enough for this battle. Left early in the 3rd as he was just wholly ineffective. Brought him back in when Randolph went to the bench, and he promptly gave up an offensive rebound and finish to Darrel Arthur, who is not quite the intimidator. Just a terrible night for Carl, and one that cannot be forgotten soon enough.
Elisabetta Canalis -- Italian model who may or may not be George Clooney's gf of the moment -- I lose track. Still kind of a compliment though given the man's nearly limitless options.
Dalembert ( B+ ) -- big Sam was one of the few Kings not named Tyreke who showed up to play in this one, and fully justified the decision to start him. While he wasn't able to singlehandedly convert us to Boston West on defense, he slowed the scoring onslaught, meaning we gave up 100 rather than 110, and notched 8pts 12reb and 5blks while largely dominating the matchup with Marc Gasol, who looks like he was hanigng out at Donte's place for the summer. Some activeness inside on offense early, but it took a little while for the defense to begin to have an effect (ironic since we were hoping to get off to the better defensive start with him in there, and they still scored 30 in the 1st). Began to time things though, erased a Conley drive with a shotblock, and some good defensive work intimidating when not blocking shots, and calling out instructions to the guys ahead of him. Surprised by flashing a little bit of skill as a passer, once dropping the nice dare I say Vlade/Darkoesque interior pass to a cutting Casspi, but Casspi blew the layup. One man defensive stand against Randolph in the early 3rd, getting two blocks on one posession and trying to give the fans something to get excited about. Added in several more nice defensive plays, both blocks and steals, along with a smattering of the sort of shaky decisions that the always forgiving Philly fans chose to define him by -- a goaltending call, called for offensive screening for holding back the entire Grizz front line so Beno(?) could score a layup etc.. I however choose not to condemn for the mistakes (including 5 TOs) but rather to celebrate for the good tough interior work he gave us on a night when guys giving us good minutes were few and far between.
Dayana Mendoza -- I generally don't pay much attention to the Miss Universe paegeant, but I think there was some controversy or the other involving Miss Universe 2008, and she is a little bit on the pretty side, so Pretty Girls theme here we come.
Udrih ( D ) -- and here was one of those inexcplicable bad games that left Reke out there pretty much playing a 2 on 5 game with Cisco. Mike Conley had looked better in the early season so far, but there was no call for Beno to be this badly overmatched. Missed two early jumpers, but came up with a nice d-reb and quick bounce pass to Casspi on the breakout for his onyl numbers in the early going. Thought he was going to wake up as there were a few sings of life in the early 2nd as he ran the team with Reke resting, but you know that smooth flow he often has in that role? Not there at all. Got one of his little pullups to go, made a nice pass for an assist, but he seemed intimidated by Memphis's size up front, neer could hit from outside and seemed ot lack confidence in it, and could never contain Conley's quickness on defense. Late in the game seemed so lacking in confidence that he seemed ot be just throwing the ball back to Tyreke rather than attacking himself, and saying you do it kid. Two of our top 4 scorers (Landry the other) basically gave us nothing tonight.
Kacey Barnfield -- Cute little British accent too. I mean come on now.
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