Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
This franchise has a remarkably hard time generating any real stretch of good news/vibes, but its probably worth noting that we have been in these games, and that if ever could just once, somehow accidentally, get healthy and on the same page it wouldn't take much of a push to turn these Ls into Ws.
I should also note this: George Karl ball has us giving up 108.2 pts/gm, which would be the most since our stellar 17 win season in 2008-09 when we gave up 109.3.
Boxscore
Stats: 39min 16pts (7-11, 2-4, 0-4) 6reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 4TO
Summary: was doing his Morey thing, attack the middle and shoot threes, but got the details wrong with TOs and missed FTs
Casspi ( B- ) -- Omri went most of the way in this one and might have given about as standard an Omri performance as its possible to give, although going 0-4 from the free throw line was a bit much. There were a couple of threes, the second of which got us back to within 10 as we tried to hang around, and then of course his normal array of charges to the hoop and flip finishes, where Whiteside was less of a factor than I thought he would be. Too many forces though, as the turnovers mounted, and he blew a break with Rondo at the 5min mark that we needed in order to make another faux-hustle run at one of these things. --Brick
Stats: 25min 13pts (6-13, 0-0, 1-1) 12reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: was scraping along, at least battling on the boards, and then, ruh roh, suddenly came up holding his shoudler, MRI tomorrow
Gay ( B- ) -- you could not say that Rudy looked comfortable in this one before we eventually lost him to a shoulder strain, but he was making enough tough shots to avoid the true struggle, and he was hitting the boars hard as our fill in PF. Early on he busted a hard pass under the hoop to Ben, but again was forcing tough shots into traffic. Its still something I want to lay at the feet of the dribble drive offense, as he just seems determined to drive it right into the teeth of the defense. Of course then again he's also tunnel visioning when he catches the ball inside and is surrounded by opponents. In any case, it was largely forced offense again, its just he is talented so some of the forces were going. He closed the first half forcing a long drive, scrapping for the offensive rebound, and scoring at the first half buzzer. Whiteside's presence after half didn't deter here from going at the rim, but on one foray he was going up and somebody -- Winslow maybe? was coming down on the arm at the same time. That btw is a good way to dislocate a shoulder, but the hit didn't look that hard. Still, Rudy came down holding his upper arm, and never returned. MRI today, and if Rudy's detractors think that's a good thing for us in our current situation, they have another thing coming. --Brick
Stats: 25min 6pts (3-8, 0-0, 0-2) 7reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: jumped right out and looked to show Whiteside what's what, but foul trouble plagued him, and Hassan got him after half
Koufos ( C+ ) -- good job challenging Whiteside early, going over him with several hooks and then drawing a foul on him, but missing both FTs. Whiteside picked up 2 quickies, and we survived the early matchup there unscathed. Unfortunately that did not play in our favor as Ghostof Amare came in off the bench in a throwback night in Miami, and gave Kosta a lot more problems than Whiteside's primitive block and dunk game had. And then Kosta got into foul trouble, and it plagued him the rest of the half. By the time he got back to start the 3rd, a much different Hassan awaited him. He blew a little flip off of ball movement early on, and then the shotblocker was in full gear and Kosta went from factor to just some scrub watching it happen. Lost a lot of his later minutes to WCS, who it freaks Karl out to play at PF, but who he was willing to platoon at C tonight. --Brick
Stats: 32min 17pts (7-12, 3-4, 0-1) 1reb 3ast 0stl 0blk 4TO
Summary: played about 2/3 of a strong offensive game here, but turned it over, and Wade decided to explain things to the kid
McLemore ( B ) -- didn't look as smooth as he has in some of his other "look at me I can play!" outings, but there was again a confidence for much of the game, and while it wasn't there every play, he again had several good plays where he created something and set other guys up. He cut and caught a hard pass from Gay early in the game and finished it, then set Gay up in return off the bounce. Got free for a big flying dunk with 4min to go in the half, and threw an alley oop to WCS late in the half. But missed a technical FT, got stripped by a resurgent Wade up top going the other way (responded well though coming right back with a three) and got smushed at the rim on two layup attempts. At least Ben didn't seem to be shrinking, but Wade began to heat up and feel 25 again, and it became a one-sided battle after a while. --Brick
Stats: 40min 14pts (6-13, 2-3, 0-0) 9reb 18ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Summary: hohum, only barely missed his 5th triple double in 10 days and came within 1 of the franchise record for assists in a game. Ho hum.
Rondo ( A- ) -- It feels strange giving a guy with 18 assists and a rebound shy of a triple-double anything short of a perfect grade, but defensively, Rondo was nearly a non-factor. Offensively, Rondo didn't get his game going until the beginning of the third, going o for 3 in the first half. After that, though, he was slightly more aggressive with his shot, getting inside relatively easily against both Dragic and Tyler Johnson. The biggest improvement on offense was the drop in turnovers. I don't think that was entirely a coincidence with Cousins being out of the game. It forced Rondo to spread the ball to other scoring targets, which meant that defenses couldn't focus on shutting down the passing lane to the star player. As a result, the team scoring was very well-balanced -- guys were getting the ball in good spots and hitting shots at a good rate. On defense, I think it is clear that we are hiding Rondo at this point. We continue having either Casspi or Rudy guarding point guards while hiding Rondo on non-threats like Justise Winslow. I don't think that can continue as good teams are just exploiting the inevitable mismatches. Rondo will need to step up his defensive aggressiveness, both in defending primary ballhandlers and in playing passing lanes like he used to in Boston. --Hadlowe
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