Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Back to back? Check.
Missing #2 scorer? Check.
15 game losing streak to team? Check.
Frustrated Cuz? Check.
Lousy bench play? Check.
Non-Cuz starters unable to hit a shot? Check.
KINGS ON A 4 GAME WIN STREAK?
Boxscore
Stats: 38min 13pts (4-10, 3-7, 2-4) 5reb 2ast 5stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: well, the shooting did not come around, but the few he hit were timely. Aroudn the ball on defense and the glass.
Casspi ( C ) -- started off hitting his first three, but then started missing everything again, and I think it had an effect on his overall confidence/game. Finally hit another one to cap a run in the early third, and his final three was a big shot in the mid 4th to get us the lead back. That shot seemed to inspire him to make a great hustle steal the other way, and that would be where Omri had what impact he was going to have. Didn't notch 5 steals with quick hands. but was around the ball a lot, chased well, and it felt like he got more than the 5 rebounds for which he was credited.
Stats: 30min 12pts (5-8, 0-0, 2-2) 11reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 0TO
Summary:another strong one for Willie, and hustle on the offensive glass a prob for Hawks all night. Needs to close better on threes however.
Cauley Stein ( A- ) -- some good early defense on Milsap, and was a very good matchup for him, being able to match quickness and add in tremendous length. Missed a dunk, as once again he was 5-8, but probably should have been 7-8 if he converted all the easy ones. But later backed off a dunk and hit a layup, and was all over the offensive glass, tipping and scrambling. Either he or Cuz came up with a big block with 3min to go (I thought it was Cuz, Grant seemed to think it was Willie, but then again Grant was gleefully trying to pin a proposed loss on Cuz's single technical, so not a neural observer). And more hustle on the offensive glass with 45 seconds to go in the game sent him to the line with his shaky FT stroke in a 1pt game, but he came up with the pair of clutch FTs (doing better in that regard than Collison would 40 seconds later). About the only negative here is something that has happened a number of times over the season -- despite his great defense inside, he appears to have a phobia about the 3pt line, and in the final minutes he TWICE failed to close out strongly on Hawks bombers, and Korver and Shroeder drained two threes because of it to abruptly put us in danger of losing it. Willie is right there too, has great length to cause a huge challenge, but acts like he;s afraid they are going to put it on the floor and go around him. Not in the "modern NBA" people like to bleat about. In the "modern NBA" they're going to chuck 'em big guy. Make it hard.
Stats: 39min 24pts (10-25, 1-1, 3-4) 15reb 5ast 3stl 2blk 6TO
Summary:the refs weren't calling much, and sure enough the Hawks got beneath his skin, nobody else was scoring, forcing him to do too much. And yet he was active on D and the boards and he made plays to win it.
Cousins ( C ) -- in the early going of this game was doing a nice job smoothly setting guys up off the attention he was drawing, and in particular set up Ben with several nice targeted drive and kicks like a 6'11" PG, drawing Ben's man, then kicking. Was much more active on the glass and defensively than he had been the night before when he was relatively sluggish in a "puny" 36-16 effort. Was up to 11pts and 8 rebs by the end of the first quarter, but was getting frustrated with the refs not calling much inside as the Hawks swarmed -- note the nearly ipossible (for Cousins) 25 FG to 4 FT ratio. That's not because he was shooting jumpers either. He was hammering inside, the Hawks were swarming and swiping, and the refs just weren't going to call that action. Cuz eventually lost his cool to the point of getting a technical leaving the game in the late 3rd, which from that point onward in a game in which we missed 59 shots and had 19 turnovers was going to be Napear's sole and only reason we were going to lose the game. No wonder the Great Stupidity happened to the fanbase a month ago. Because a real struggle to get productive play out of going to Cuz in low, but nobody else was hitting ANYTHING, the bench was worthless, and so with Rudy out again and again we just went to that well. Cuz still made enough plays that in a defensive war we held on. Had a great open court block on the speedy Schroeder, somehow avoiding the foul while volleyball blocking his shot out of bounds. Out of the timeout in the mid-4th while he was struggling and thinking he was getting doubled, came up with a burst. Either he or WCS had the big block with 3min to go, and he did a nice job of adjusting, catching, waiting, and then laying it up safely on the other side of the rim with 1:50 to go to put us up 4. Still, in the end our game winning score came when we called a play (btw, another night of excellent play calls out of timeouts) with 13 seconds to go using Cuz as a decoy, and then having him drop the ball off to a cutting Rondo for the game winning hoop. I don't think anything that happened in this one changed the perception that the Hawks are a real problem team for Cuz. Its not at all clear why given their personnel, so probably just coaching. But he went to war in there, and in a scrappy, ugly contest led the game in scoring, rebounding, and references to the referees mothers. We win. Good enough.
Stats: 34min 14pts (5-14, 2-7, 2-4) 3reb 4ast 2stl 1blk 3TO
Summary: played one of the best games of his career despite shaky shootngs. Helped in all other ways, and big time defensive hustle.
McLemore ( A- ) -- gave a taste of what was coming when he quickly got stripped on one end, but excellent hustle to race down the other way and stop the breakout. Got half of his points working directly with Cuz, hitting a corner three, and even getting a 4pt play and hopping up looking pumped, which is something we almost never see from him. Was aggressively attacking in the first half off his dribble. Of course since that dribble still ain't all that, just flat lost control of it a few times for turnovers. But this game wasn't about his offense anyway. He shot 5-14 on the night, 2-7 from 3pt one, and missed big shots we needed. Yet he still had a heck of a game because of his impact. He often gets accused of having defensive iompact, but I've rarely seen it. Tonight we saw it. It was full court flying hustle, breaking up multiple Hawks fast breaks just by being the best athlete, and he and Willie flying about athletically goes a long way toward explaining how we got ugly and defenisvely scrappy to out fugly the Hawks to a victory. More of this please, and we won't have to waste time plotting how to add a backcourt defender via trade.
Stats: 38min 11pts (5-16, 1-4, 0-0) 10reb 11ast 0stl 1blk 6TO
Summary: he made mistakes passing, and the Hawks exploited his lack of shooting and made it into a weapon for them, but he boarded, led, and hit the game winning shot.
Rondo ( C+ ) -- Rajon Rondo notched a triple double for us in this one, scoring his 10th + 11th points on our game winning shot. And yet for most of the night it was a real struggle for him. There were turnovers against Hawks defensive pressure, but mostly thee were turnovers of a different kind, as the Hawks scheme obviously included a healthy dose of leave Rondo open and go double the big guy, and Rajon just could not hit those wide open jumpers all night. Now what he could do was rebound, and he was a real factor in there as our 3rd 10+ rebound man on a night we crushed the Hawks on the glass. From time to time he would set Cuz up with something clever. But most of the night felt like a relative struggle for him, right up until a smartly designed play out of a timeout making use of all the attention Cuz was drawing for Rondo to get the finishing layup off a baseline cut.
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