It was men against boys as this one was over before it even beg...hey! Oops. Scrap that script.
Now normally I am not huge into the oh yays we played well and beat a good team stuff for some sort of lift. Once I know about how good we are or aren't, a loss or win on any particular night is largely window dressing. But this however was fun. For a long long time in fact we didn't look like the Kings at all. The Coach basically played only 6 guys. The stars/featured guys took most of the shots, and rewarded the confidence by hitting them. The other guys played the roleplayers and passed and defended. We had clutch shots hit, took advantage of a big power beast advantage inside, and in general earend the right to take this to 2 OTs.
In the end we remembered who we were. The Coach choked at the end of the first OT, drawing up our gamewinning attempt for his pet 5'9" PG rather than the three matchups that were killing the Heat (Cousins, Thornton, Reke) -- mind you he made the same call to close regulation as well, and IT missed that too, but Big Cuz saved us with a follow tip. Then that PG, who had actually played the whole game as a PG this time, not a me guard, then choked as well, looking for himself for an impossible high flip over three Heat when DeMarcus was right there with a wide open lane to the hoop for the winning dunk. And then we went to a second OT and the whole thing fell apart as suddenly we looked very much the normal Kings, full of turnovers, selfish dumb shots, slumped shoulders and fail. But for 52 minutes we were really good and it took an epic statline pairing from Lebron (40pts 8reb 16ast!!!) and Wade (39pts 8reb 7ast!!) to avoid the upset.
If you are one of those who record and watch later, this is one to definitely watch. In fact maybe THE one to watch out of the whole season.
Highlights:
No Baja sauce on the Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
Boxscore
Stats: 50min 15pts (6-11, 3-4, 0-0) 5reb 7ast 1stl 2blk 4TO
Salmons ( B ) -- John Salmons opponent in this game put up 40pts on 14-23 shooting with 8reb and 16ast. A quick search of basketball-reference.com's database reveals that in the past 27 years (how far back it goes) the number of players to ever put up 40+pts 8rebs and 16+ast in the same game numbers exactly one: King James. Tonight. Never been done before. And yet I don't care for this grade. Or at least its not going to control this grade so much as just tweak it, because John Salmons played a good game of basketball no matter what his legendary opponent was doing back the other way. He was content to be a passer in the early going, not scoring at all, but when he comes out in that mode it helps set a tone for us and we were very unselfish, and hence better, for much of this game. Was really looking for Cousins in the early second, and added a steal and breakaway layup the other way. Was also giving it the ole college try on defense against Lebron, and in fact I can remember a numebr of plauys where John's defense was flat out strong -- you ook at the numbers you'd never know. But hewwas in there, in the one on one sets kept Lebron in fornt of him and made him shoot jumpers etc. Unfortauntely John Salmosn is an insect on Lebron James' windshield and whenver the 260lb SF got half a step or a corner there was nothing the 210lb SF could do but ride along on his hip and get in on the poster. In the late half had a quick 5pt burst to hold us right in it. Got a full court walkin layup to begin the 3rd when Wade was too busy arguing a call to run back, and he hit his threes as our roleplayers all for the most part played their roles successfuly for once. There were some sputterings for a bit of the same call plays for John Salmos out of the timeout, watch John Salmons dribble around looking for his clasic 18ft contested jumpers thing, but it was just a passing phase, and as this one settled into a long extended dogfight for the last 20minutes, John stepped bakc out of the way on offense and concentrated on just slowling own the LBJ express. In the first OT in fact was playing some strong defense on Lebron, and saved the game (or well the OT) for us by blocking LeBron inside on the game winning attempt at the end of the first OT. So you know what? John's opponent slapped up a historic statline and pretty much controlled the game thoughout. But I am still happy wiht John's game here. I can't hand out A's for getting slapped around like a proverbial red headed stepchild, but all 6 of our main guys had roles in this strong performance, and John's roleplayer game was part of it. --Brick
Stats: 26min 8pts (3-10, 0-0, 2-3) 6reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Thompson ( C ) -- I think the numbers here make this look like a weaker game than it necessarily was, although I am certianly not going to puzzle you with tales of how well Jason played. Basically the good here was the normal Jason good, this time finally joined with other people also getting it: he was content to stay out of the way in the early going, tried to pass etc.. Emphasis on "tried" however, because this time out JT seemed to have been infected by Cuz's wandering pass disease, and most of those turnovers were making the same mistake Cuz has been making for the last month, trying to thread impossible needles as a big man passer. And of course the other thing is that while he was playing the right style of game, Jason's lack of touch and inability to finish around the rim popped back up in a big way as he did his old Jason miss point blank flips, miss tip, miss tip, flail around thing that must have had the steady vets on the other side laughing. Got better after half, when he started the quarter with a strong d-board in traffic and finally got a layup to fall int he mid quarter. That led to another layiup in the late 3rd to give us the lead back, and whne he returend to the game late in regulation he came up with a big +1 opportunity with 4:50 to go to keep it wihtin 5. Lost a lot of minutes to us smallballing, in this case somewhat reasonably given Miami's tactics and how well Reke/MT/Salmons were all playing. But despite the ugly 3-10 4TO statline, Jason had his moments after half and stepped up to make some big plays for us. --Brick
Stats: 49min 24pts (10-17, 0-1, 4-7) 15reb 5ast 2stl 0blk 4TO
Cousins ( A- ) -- a big burly performance by DeMarcus that by all rights should hae been capped by the game winning power dunk to win the game at the end of OT...but unfortunately after a long game in which our team had finally realized the wisdom of the feed the beast mantra, we reverted just in time to lose it. From the start of this game thoguh we had the flipside of the Boogiue Prophecy. Where his incredible versatility means that he can turn into a jumpshooter against a big ole lumbering tree like Marc Gasol, faced with a scrawny weenie like Bosh Boogie went into power overdrive, and just bullied him with his bog body, knocking him out of the way and attacking the rim repeatedly. He was showing his power on the glass as well, and dominated the boards against the Birdman in the early 2nd as Miami simply has nobody who could hold him out of the post -- notoriously the Achilles heel of this Heat team is its lack of a center, but of course int eh modern NBA almost nobody has a real force in the middle to punish them for it. We do. Was not perfect by Cuz, as also had those turnover problems again with more of those simply impossible pass attempts, adn when you turn it over against the Heat they quickly score back and the game tightens right up. Amazingly despite combinign for 50pts on the night on 21-36 shooting, both Reke and Cuz had very limited minutes int he first half, as Thornotn and Hayes came on with a backup crew that weebled and wobbled but somehow kept the game close, and the big guns just never returned before half. When he did return though for the second half he immediately resumed the strong boardwork and dropped of a nice pass to a cutting Reke -- both a bright hope for the future and a depressing note about the present is that Big Cuz might look for and create more offense for Reke than any other King. Gave a true offensive foul in the ealy 4th just taking his forearm and knocking Bird on his *** on the drive. Get out of my way son -- might as well get your money's worth. Bosh finally began to get a few little scores against him late in the game wihtthe weenie jumpers, but Cuz saved our bacon in the latter stages of regulation with a late steal in the final 2 mintues on LeBron of all people, and then rumbling down the other way and setting up Thornton for antoher three. And then got the game saving follow top with 8 seconds to go to tie the game for OT after our coach drew up a play for IT to win the game, not Cuz, MT or Reke. A mistake he would repeat 5 minutes later. To start the first OT got the lane, rumbled down it ...and missed the big dunk sending LeBron the other way for a +1. But came up with an 0-reb and +_1 opportunity a mnute later (missed the FT). And then was completely missed by IT on what should/could have been the game winning dunk with 8 seconds to go as IT threw up an impossibly high flip over Bosh rather than slipping the ball to Cuz who had a free lane right to the rim. --Brick[/I
Now normally I am not huge into the oh yays we played well and beat a good team stuff for some sort of lift. Once I know about how good we are or aren't, a loss or win on any particular night is largely window dressing. But this however was fun. For a long long time in fact we didn't look like the Kings at all. The Coach basically played only 6 guys. The stars/featured guys took most of the shots, and rewarded the confidence by hitting them. The other guys played the roleplayers and passed and defended. We had clutch shots hit, took advantage of a big power beast advantage inside, and in general earend the right to take this to 2 OTs.
In the end we remembered who we were. The Coach choked at the end of the first OT, drawing up our gamewinning attempt for his pet 5'9" PG rather than the three matchups that were killing the Heat (Cousins, Thornton, Reke) -- mind you he made the same call to close regulation as well, and IT missed that too, but Big Cuz saved us with a follow tip. Then that PG, who had actually played the whole game as a PG this time, not a me guard, then choked as well, looking for himself for an impossible high flip over three Heat when DeMarcus was right there with a wide open lane to the hoop for the winning dunk. And then we went to a second OT and the whole thing fell apart as suddenly we looked very much the normal Kings, full of turnovers, selfish dumb shots, slumped shoulders and fail. But for 52 minutes we were really good and it took an epic statline pairing from Lebron (40pts 8reb 16ast!!!) and Wade (39pts 8reb 7ast!!) to avoid the upset.
If you are one of those who record and watch later, this is one to definitely watch. In fact maybe THE one to watch out of the whole season.
Highlights:
No Baja sauce on the Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
Boxscore
Stats: 50min 15pts (6-11, 3-4, 0-0) 5reb 7ast 1stl 2blk 4TO
Salmons ( B ) -- John Salmons opponent in this game put up 40pts on 14-23 shooting with 8reb and 16ast. A quick search of basketball-reference.com's database reveals that in the past 27 years (how far back it goes) the number of players to ever put up 40+pts 8rebs and 16+ast in the same game numbers exactly one: King James. Tonight. Never been done before. And yet I don't care for this grade. Or at least its not going to control this grade so much as just tweak it, because John Salmons played a good game of basketball no matter what his legendary opponent was doing back the other way. He was content to be a passer in the early going, not scoring at all, but when he comes out in that mode it helps set a tone for us and we were very unselfish, and hence better, for much of this game. Was really looking for Cousins in the early second, and added a steal and breakaway layup the other way. Was also giving it the ole college try on defense against Lebron, and in fact I can remember a numebr of plauys where John's defense was flat out strong -- you ook at the numbers you'd never know. But hewwas in there, in the one on one sets kept Lebron in fornt of him and made him shoot jumpers etc. Unfortauntely John Salmosn is an insect on Lebron James' windshield and whenver the 260lb SF got half a step or a corner there was nothing the 210lb SF could do but ride along on his hip and get in on the poster. In the late half had a quick 5pt burst to hold us right in it. Got a full court walkin layup to begin the 3rd when Wade was too busy arguing a call to run back, and he hit his threes as our roleplayers all for the most part played their roles successfuly for once. There were some sputterings for a bit of the same call plays for John Salmos out of the timeout, watch John Salmons dribble around looking for his clasic 18ft contested jumpers thing, but it was just a passing phase, and as this one settled into a long extended dogfight for the last 20minutes, John stepped bakc out of the way on offense and concentrated on just slowling own the LBJ express. In the first OT in fact was playing some strong defense on Lebron, and saved the game (or well the OT) for us by blocking LeBron inside on the game winning attempt at the end of the first OT. So you know what? John's opponent slapped up a historic statline and pretty much controlled the game thoughout. But I am still happy wiht John's game here. I can't hand out A's for getting slapped around like a proverbial red headed stepchild, but all 6 of our main guys had roles in this strong performance, and John's roleplayer game was part of it. --Brick
Stats: 26min 8pts (3-10, 0-0, 2-3) 6reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Thompson ( C ) -- I think the numbers here make this look like a weaker game than it necessarily was, although I am certianly not going to puzzle you with tales of how well Jason played. Basically the good here was the normal Jason good, this time finally joined with other people also getting it: he was content to stay out of the way in the early going, tried to pass etc.. Emphasis on "tried" however, because this time out JT seemed to have been infected by Cuz's wandering pass disease, and most of those turnovers were making the same mistake Cuz has been making for the last month, trying to thread impossible needles as a big man passer. And of course the other thing is that while he was playing the right style of game, Jason's lack of touch and inability to finish around the rim popped back up in a big way as he did his old Jason miss point blank flips, miss tip, miss tip, flail around thing that must have had the steady vets on the other side laughing. Got better after half, when he started the quarter with a strong d-board in traffic and finally got a layup to fall int he mid quarter. That led to another layiup in the late 3rd to give us the lead back, and whne he returend to the game late in regulation he came up with a big +1 opportunity with 4:50 to go to keep it wihtin 5. Lost a lot of minutes to us smallballing, in this case somewhat reasonably given Miami's tactics and how well Reke/MT/Salmons were all playing. But despite the ugly 3-10 4TO statline, Jason had his moments after half and stepped up to make some big plays for us. --Brick
Stats: 49min 24pts (10-17, 0-1, 4-7) 15reb 5ast 2stl 0blk 4TO
Cousins ( A- ) -- a big burly performance by DeMarcus that by all rights should hae been capped by the game winning power dunk to win the game at the end of OT...but unfortunately after a long game in which our team had finally realized the wisdom of the feed the beast mantra, we reverted just in time to lose it. From the start of this game thoguh we had the flipside of the Boogiue Prophecy. Where his incredible versatility means that he can turn into a jumpshooter against a big ole lumbering tree like Marc Gasol, faced with a scrawny weenie like Bosh Boogie went into power overdrive, and just bullied him with his bog body, knocking him out of the way and attacking the rim repeatedly. He was showing his power on the glass as well, and dominated the boards against the Birdman in the early 2nd as Miami simply has nobody who could hold him out of the post -- notoriously the Achilles heel of this Heat team is its lack of a center, but of course int eh modern NBA almost nobody has a real force in the middle to punish them for it. We do. Was not perfect by Cuz, as also had those turnover problems again with more of those simply impossible pass attempts, adn when you turn it over against the Heat they quickly score back and the game tightens right up. Amazingly despite combinign for 50pts on the night on 21-36 shooting, both Reke and Cuz had very limited minutes int he first half, as Thornotn and Hayes came on with a backup crew that weebled and wobbled but somehow kept the game close, and the big guns just never returned before half. When he did return though for the second half he immediately resumed the strong boardwork and dropped of a nice pass to a cutting Reke -- both a bright hope for the future and a depressing note about the present is that Big Cuz might look for and create more offense for Reke than any other King. Gave a true offensive foul in the ealy 4th just taking his forearm and knocking Bird on his *** on the drive. Get out of my way son -- might as well get your money's worth. Bosh finally began to get a few little scores against him late in the game wihtthe weenie jumpers, but Cuz saved our bacon in the latter stages of regulation with a late steal in the final 2 mintues on LeBron of all people, and then rumbling down the other way and setting up Thornton for antoher three. And then got the game saving follow top with 8 seconds to go to tie the game for OT after our coach drew up a play for IT to win the game, not Cuz, MT or Reke. A mistake he would repeat 5 minutes later. To start the first OT got the lane, rumbled down it ...and missed the big dunk sending LeBron the other way for a +1. But came up with an 0-reb and +_1 opportunity a mnute later (missed the FT). And then was completely missed by IT on what should/could have been the game winning dunk with 8 seconds to go as IT threw up an impossibly high flip over Bosh rather than slipping the ball to Cuz who had a free lane right to the rim. --Brick[/I
Last edited by a moderator:
