Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
This team has started to epitomize close but no cigar. Which with a young team still growing could bode really well for the future. Problem is that its very hard to put your finger on what it will take for them to get over the hump.
Since Dec. 19th we are 4-11. Of those 11 losses, 9 of them have been by 9 points or less. We've lost by: 9,8,5,1,18(DEN),6,6,3,24(BOS),4,2.
All of which equals grrrff!
Theme tonight will be: Bad Statues
Official Boxscore
Greene ( B ) -- got the start for Cisco, who I guess wasn't faking that last injury (calf) after all (suffering from boy who cried wolf syndrome). hit an open three for his first shot, and was using his size on the boards from the bery beginning of this one. Did miss a pair of FTs early as its clearly reached the level of a mental issue for him and he's down to 50%. Kept on rebounding into the third, and we moved him over to SG after Reke went out. It wasn't a disaster either -- I have noted before that we actually had some success wiht Donte as a SG last year, although that's obviously not his natural spot. So why was he over there for a stretch tonight? Joe Johnson, that's why. After stealing the hawks money for the first two months, he's averaging 28 a game in January, and he was very tough again tonight. Too tough to be running out our two PG lineups if Reke wasn't one of the two guys, and far too advanced to throw a Jermaine Taylor at him. So Donte slid over. Problem was that Donte wasn't really able to slow JJ either. Played good defense, but good defense wasn't going to cut it on this night against Johnson, and while he stayed with him, challenged the shots, he didn't smother him, and Johnson almost did not miss from inside the 3pt line -- he shot a ridiculous 15-19 from 2pt land. Donte was notably unable to stop Johnson at the 24 second mark as the Hawks broke the tie and took the lead. Great shot by Johnson, but Donte looked like he gave him baseline, maybe expecting help. In any case, this was a nice roleplaying game -- stayed out of the way, gave us boardwork, filled in where needed to give us great size, but was not able to cap that by taking Johnson out of it in his role as defensive stopper.
Allegedly a statue of Peter the great...and something maritime for some reason, this 315 tall monstrosity sits on the Moscow River and has quickly become something of infamous tourist attraction.
Thompson ( B- ) -- stuffed on his first post move, but was mostly doing a nice job of taking advantage of his size edge in there when they tried to guard him with Josh Smith. Able to use his size advantage to go right over/through Smith repeatedly in the second. Unfortunately they were scoring just as quickly back the other way on him -- the "they" in question being Smith and Al Hordford, who may have had one of his best overall games of the season. Hit a buzzer beating turnaround J to close the third and get us back to 9. But in the end cost us, and himself -- was back in in the 4th and after a couple of shaky plays and some questionable calls, JT just lost his head yet again, got a technical foul, and was pulled by Westphal, who appears to have lost patience with those antics from guys and has been benching them for them of late. And that was it for Jason in what had been a solid game for him most of the way. Fortunately for him we lost by 2 instead of 1.
After the Soviet Union fell, things went from bad to worse for many of the former Soviet republics. In Turkmenistan an egomaniacal strongman named Saparmurat Niyazov took over. After renaming the months of the year after members of his family, and replacing the Quran with the Ruhnama, which was a book of spiritual lessons written by him, he set about building this 244 foot monstronsity, capped with a golden statue of himself that rotated through the day so that it always faced the sun.
Cousins ( B ) -- a little slop in the early going against Collins, but was able to score repeatedly on the otherwise undersized Atlanta frontline, and dropped in some nifty spins and step throughs in the post. Power really began to come in play in the third as he started to flat out bully ball the Hawks. The one impediament there was AL Horford, who just went nuts in there as the last line of defense and set a career high with 7 blocked shots, almost all of them frustrating Cousins and Reke. DeMarcus had an adventuresome final few minutes, coming up with the huge o-reb and flush to get it back to 3 at the 3:30 mark, but then forcing one that had no chance a minute later. Came up with a huge defensive board in traffic at the 40 second mark but then spun and threw an increidbly dangerous 3/4 court outlet pass that was nearly picked off, but was deflected and bounced to Landry at full gallop for the game tying layup. After Johnson's game winning FTs we still had 0.6 secs to go, which was theoretically enough time to catch and shoot an inbounds pass, or I was kind of hoping for an alley opp attempt for Greene. Instead we got a ridiculous inbounds pass fom Cousins apparerently intended for Tyreke sneaking along the baseline...if Tyreke were 14 feet tall. The ball was last seen bouncing down I-75 heading towards Savannah.
Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, the same man responsible for that Peter the Great monstronsity under Donte's grade, er, honored New Jersey by dumping this 100 foot tall thing on our shores a few years back in honor of the victims of 9/11. A nice sentiment, but when your gigantic gift is often compared to a woman's private parts its maybe not quite the sentiment for which you were aiming. It was actually originally scheduled to go in near my old place in Jersey City, right across from where the Towers stood, but they took one look at it and said no thanks, so it moved on down the river a bit to Bayonne instead.
Udrih ( B- ) -- quiet again in the early going, but came up with a little burst at the end of the first quarter. Continued to make some passing decisions that are interesting, consistently feeding Thompson or Daly in 1 on 1 scoring positions that would normally be restricted to actual post threats liek DeMarcus or Landry . Is that igorance or confidence? With Tyreke in the foul trouble in the third really stepped forward as a scorer to pull us out of doldrums. Zaza clotheslined him to close the third, but in a (perhaps welcome) return to 80s refereeing they didn't call it a flagrant. Got a little rest while they stitched his head back on to his neck stump, and then was brought back in the mid-4th to try to steady us. He took that to mean he should drew a foul and promptly brick a pair of FTs. Because nothing makes the Kings feel more comfortable and on their game than bricking FTs. Added a turnover, a bricked three, and in general gave us nothing down the stretch.
No, we have not been invaded by giant insects from a distant planet. That lovely thing is Enterprise, Alabama's very own statue to the Boll Weevil. I kid you not. They made a statue to a bug. And the plaque underneath explains " In profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the Herald of Prosperity". Don't worry, if anybody has a statue in appreciation of rats or fruit flies I'll post it too.
Since Dec. 19th we are 4-11. Of those 11 losses, 9 of them have been by 9 points or less. We've lost by: 9,8,5,1,18(DEN),6,6,3,24(BOS),4,2.
All of which equals grrrff!
Theme tonight will be: Bad Statues
Official Boxscore
Greene ( B ) -- got the start for Cisco, who I guess wasn't faking that last injury (calf) after all (suffering from boy who cried wolf syndrome). hit an open three for his first shot, and was using his size on the boards from the bery beginning of this one. Did miss a pair of FTs early as its clearly reached the level of a mental issue for him and he's down to 50%. Kept on rebounding into the third, and we moved him over to SG after Reke went out. It wasn't a disaster either -- I have noted before that we actually had some success wiht Donte as a SG last year, although that's obviously not his natural spot. So why was he over there for a stretch tonight? Joe Johnson, that's why. After stealing the hawks money for the first two months, he's averaging 28 a game in January, and he was very tough again tonight. Too tough to be running out our two PG lineups if Reke wasn't one of the two guys, and far too advanced to throw a Jermaine Taylor at him. So Donte slid over. Problem was that Donte wasn't really able to slow JJ either. Played good defense, but good defense wasn't going to cut it on this night against Johnson, and while he stayed with him, challenged the shots, he didn't smother him, and Johnson almost did not miss from inside the 3pt line -- he shot a ridiculous 15-19 from 2pt land. Donte was notably unable to stop Johnson at the 24 second mark as the Hawks broke the tie and took the lead. Great shot by Johnson, but Donte looked like he gave him baseline, maybe expecting help. In any case, this was a nice roleplaying game -- stayed out of the way, gave us boardwork, filled in where needed to give us great size, but was not able to cap that by taking Johnson out of it in his role as defensive stopper.
Allegedly a statue of Peter the great...and something maritime for some reason, this 315 tall monstrosity sits on the Moscow River and has quickly become something of infamous tourist attraction.
Thompson ( B- ) -- stuffed on his first post move, but was mostly doing a nice job of taking advantage of his size edge in there when they tried to guard him with Josh Smith. Able to use his size advantage to go right over/through Smith repeatedly in the second. Unfortunately they were scoring just as quickly back the other way on him -- the "they" in question being Smith and Al Hordford, who may have had one of his best overall games of the season. Hit a buzzer beating turnaround J to close the third and get us back to 9. But in the end cost us, and himself -- was back in in the 4th and after a couple of shaky plays and some questionable calls, JT just lost his head yet again, got a technical foul, and was pulled by Westphal, who appears to have lost patience with those antics from guys and has been benching them for them of late. And that was it for Jason in what had been a solid game for him most of the way. Fortunately for him we lost by 2 instead of 1.
After the Soviet Union fell, things went from bad to worse for many of the former Soviet republics. In Turkmenistan an egomaniacal strongman named Saparmurat Niyazov took over. After renaming the months of the year after members of his family, and replacing the Quran with the Ruhnama, which was a book of spiritual lessons written by him, he set about building this 244 foot monstronsity, capped with a golden statue of himself that rotated through the day so that it always faced the sun.
Cousins ( B ) -- a little slop in the early going against Collins, but was able to score repeatedly on the otherwise undersized Atlanta frontline, and dropped in some nifty spins and step throughs in the post. Power really began to come in play in the third as he started to flat out bully ball the Hawks. The one impediament there was AL Horford, who just went nuts in there as the last line of defense and set a career high with 7 blocked shots, almost all of them frustrating Cousins and Reke. DeMarcus had an adventuresome final few minutes, coming up with the huge o-reb and flush to get it back to 3 at the 3:30 mark, but then forcing one that had no chance a minute later. Came up with a huge defensive board in traffic at the 40 second mark but then spun and threw an increidbly dangerous 3/4 court outlet pass that was nearly picked off, but was deflected and bounced to Landry at full gallop for the game tying layup. After Johnson's game winning FTs we still had 0.6 secs to go, which was theoretically enough time to catch and shoot an inbounds pass, or I was kind of hoping for an alley opp attempt for Greene. Instead we got a ridiculous inbounds pass fom Cousins apparerently intended for Tyreke sneaking along the baseline...if Tyreke were 14 feet tall. The ball was last seen bouncing down I-75 heading towards Savannah.
Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, the same man responsible for that Peter the Great monstronsity under Donte's grade, er, honored New Jersey by dumping this 100 foot tall thing on our shores a few years back in honor of the victims of 9/11. A nice sentiment, but when your gigantic gift is often compared to a woman's private parts its maybe not quite the sentiment for which you were aiming. It was actually originally scheduled to go in near my old place in Jersey City, right across from where the Towers stood, but they took one look at it and said no thanks, so it moved on down the river a bit to Bayonne instead.
Udrih ( B- ) -- quiet again in the early going, but came up with a little burst at the end of the first quarter. Continued to make some passing decisions that are interesting, consistently feeding Thompson or Daly in 1 on 1 scoring positions that would normally be restricted to actual post threats liek DeMarcus or Landry . Is that igorance or confidence? With Tyreke in the foul trouble in the third really stepped forward as a scorer to pull us out of doldrums. Zaza clotheslined him to close the third, but in a (perhaps welcome) return to 80s refereeing they didn't call it a flagrant. Got a little rest while they stitched his head back on to his neck stump, and then was brought back in the mid-4th to try to steady us. He took that to mean he should drew a foul and promptly brick a pair of FTs. Because nothing makes the Kings feel more comfortable and on their game than bricking FTs. Added a turnover, a bricked three, and in general gave us nothing down the stretch.
No, we have not been invaded by giant insects from a distant planet. That lovely thing is Enterprise, Alabama's very own statue to the Boll Weevil. I kid you not. They made a statue to a bug. And the plaque underneath explains " In profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the Herald of Prosperity". Don't worry, if anybody has a statue in appreciation of rats or fruit flies I'll post it too.
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