Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Another day another loss.
This did not get out of control until the end, but there were certain gamelong trends that hurt us throughout:
1) Tyreke had a just awful game trying to finish inside. The Hornets were uncharacteristically all over the interior defensively and even when not blocked Reke looked uncomfortable and blew layup after layup. Ironically at the end of the game when he just threw up a couple of threes in desperation time, he hit those.
2) the Hornets absolutely punished Isaiah Thomas with Grevis Vasquez all night. Sometimes Isaiah's size is just a footnote that comes into play here and there. But Monty Williams made it an absolute storyline as they posted Vasquez, used picks on Isaiah, and just killed our defense with that all night. IT and DeMarcus got into it on the sidelines in the third and it seemed to be about the defense, although cannot be sure. Reke had to step between them, Patterson tried to exert his Boogie influence etc.
3) our brilliant coach got so scared of Ryan Anderson, who as usual lit us up as a hometown surprise, that he chose to play James Johnson (15min 0pts 1reb 4fls) for extended stretches rather than Jason Thompson (28min 16pts (8-11FG) 9reb), who was the most efficient offensive player on the team tonight.
4) not all game, but John Salmons went on a career hot streak from 3pt land in the 3rd/early 4th quarter. Unfortunately us being us, we did not understand it, and rather than saying aha! Salmons is hot standing still with his feet set at the three point line! We in predictable fashion said Salmons is just hot! And began to call clearouts and isos and pick plays for him to throw up a variety of garbage off his own dribble. Except he never once all game hit a single shot like that. He hit 6 standstill threes, and not one of the other junk shots that we, or he, forcefed him as he was 0-8 otherwise.
5) Barely got to see Patterson in the final 2min of garbagetime.
And...we lost. Still no girls. Just another loss. 25 more games to no more Maloofs.
Full Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 18pts (6-14, 6-7, 0-0) 3reb 3ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Salmons ( B ) -- Finally, a good game by Salmons. He was more aggressive tonight with the ball. The irony of the night, was that he should have just stuck with shooting the ball from long range. He was 6 for 7 from the three, but just 6 of 14 overall. Which means he missed all 7 of his shots within the two point range. From that perspective, it was a strange night. The bottom line is, he had 18 points, and he helped keep us in the game. He finished out the 3rd quarter by hitting a 3 point shot with just a couple of ticks left on the clock. Once again, with John, it was the tale of two half's, as he scored, if memory serves, all of his points in the second half. He did throw in a heat check here and there, and made a couple of unforced turnovers, but overall, John played very well. And, I thought his defense was very good. He was one of the few that did play well, and helped keep the game competitive. --Baja
Remember: Danny Ainge (w/Kings '88-90)? -- few people outside of Sacramento remember that Danny Ainge passed through town for a year and a half at the close of the 80s. At the time he would have sort have been a Manu figure for an aging Celtics squad, and one of the most hated players in the NBA for his cheap chippy play, whining to the refs etc. But he was also 1/5 of one of the two great 80s dynasties, so the Kings of that era in classic wannabe fashion imported him and tried to install him as our star, even though he was maybe only the 5th best Celtic. He had the best statistical year of his career, but he was no franchise player, it was another miserable year for the Kings, and we shipped him off for what turned out to be nothing (guy never played for us) the next season (ironically so Adelman could have him on his contending Portland teams).
Stats: 28min 16pts (8-11, 0-0, 0-0) 9reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Thompson ( B ) -- JT had one of those nights where he was just opportunistic. He seemed to be in the right place at the right time for the tip in or the put back. He started with a dunk on a nice pass from Cuz. After which he hit a 15 foot jumper from the right side. He then tipped in a Tyreke miss, and that was the story of the night. He was basicly the garbage man, but he was very effective in just taking what was there. Even when he missed, the ball seemed to bounce the right way. As when he missed a point blank dunk and the ball bounced all the way out to Salmons beyond the three point line, who promptly hit the shot. A bit later in the second half, he slammed home a dunk off of a missed floater by Thomas. Hopefully JT is back to being JT, and just taking what the game gives him. He also added 9 rebounds . Not spectacular, but very efficient. He ended the night with 16 points on 8 of 11 shootiing, and had 1 blocked shot. Welcome back JT! --Baja
Remember: Danny Ainge (w/Kings '88-90)? -- few people outside of Sacramento remember that Danny Ainge passed through town for a year and a half at the close of the 80s. At the time he would have sort have been a Manu figure for an aging Celtics squad, and one of the most hated players in the NBA for his cheap chippy play, whining to the refs etc. But he was also 1/5 of one of the two great 80s dynasties, so the Kings of that era in classic wannabe fashion imported him and tried to install him as our star, even though he was maybe only the 5th best Celtic. He had the best statistical year of his career, but he was no franchise player, it was another miserable year for the Kings, and we shipped him off for what turned out to be nothing (guy never played for us) the next season (ironically so Adelman could have him on his contending Portland teams).
Remember: Michael Smith (w/Kings '94-98)? -- yet another in the endless stream of undersized PFs this frnachise has wallowed in over the years, but this one had an edge. Nicknamed "The Animal", Smith came in as a second round pick the same year Brian Grant arrived as a first rounder, and the two of them combined to give us a toughness facelift in much the same way Christie and BJax would 7-8 years later. Smith was small, but rugged and ferocious on the glass.
Stats: 37min 16pts (5-13, 0-0, 6-6) 10reb 2ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Cousins ( C ) -- was racking up points in the early going, but mostly as a finisher not a creater. Taking easy passes, clean up follows, out on the break. Efficient, but not as many wow impact plays as normal. Was also providing strong work on the glass, but inevitably picked up 2 fouls before the end of the first quarter to break the stretch. Returned to the game and immediately returned to being better than everybody on the boards, added a drive through traffic, took a charge. But somehow there was never any payoff to the setup for another big game. Never looked 100% comfortable, there was another one of his bad idea crosscourt passes, the jumper was never on, he took a bad defensive gamble to begin the thrid and gave up the dunk because of it. And while he flashed those great hands on a couple of second half plays with great catches inside, another poke steal and rumble the other way up top etc., overall hsi game feel into the middling and out of sorts. He was letting Lopez slash to the hoop on defense, being alternately forgotten about, frustrated, our starting too far out with traffic in front of him on offense, and looking generally disgusted by the whole thing as Reke blew layups, IT got killed on defense, and James Johnson was given his running mates' minutes so he coudl watch Ryan Anderson drain threes. Should note there was an incdent between he and IT on the sidelines int he late 3rd where they appeared to be jawing at each otehr after IT got overwhelemed by Vasquez to the hoop in the open court. Reke had to step in between them, Patterson came over to say something to Cuz. Not sure what it was -- might have been offesnively related, because wasn't much IT could have done on that defensive play given his size.--Brick
Remember: Dahntay Jones (w/Kings '07-08)? -- and you ladies say I never give you anything. Of course Dahntay is still playing, and I was reminded to use him in one of these when we saw him twice on the road trip (he was traded midway through it and got out ahead of us again after Dallas). An athletic defensive specialist swingman, with yes a rockin' bod for the ladies, I liked his toughness and defense. Precisely one of those sorts of roleplayers we need more of and have seemingly completely abandaoned in favor of minature ball doiminant chucker types.
Stats: 34min 12pts (4-16, 2-2, 2-2) 3reb 4ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Evans ( F ) -- Tyreke scored 12 points tonight, but they were about the worst 12 points that can possibly be scored - half of them came on two threes after the game was already completely over. Prior to those two shots, Evans went 2-14, with 11 of those 12 misses in the lane,. Adding to Tyreke's disgusting outing were two technical fouls, one on a defensive three-second violation and one for whining after he missed his tenth shot in the lane. Defensively the story wasn't really much better. He was responsible for 10 points on 6 shots, not counting the two points off technicals. Almost the only thing that can really be said is that he wasn't the focus of the Hornet offense. He did stymie Eric Gordon once in the post, but by the middle of the fourth he wasn't putting in any defensive effort at all, several times not even guarding anybody when he was on the weak side and once slumping off of Gordon so badly that JJ had to run at him to challenge the three because damn well Tyreke wasn't going to do it. Just a terrible effort all around.--Capt.
Remember: Anthony Johnson (w/Kings '97-98, '07-08)? -- Anthony actually had two stints with the Kings. As a second round pick he was thrown to the wolves directing the final chaos in '98 before our Adelman revival, and then years later he would return as a reserve for half a late career season after a long roleplayer career defending and setting up offenses despite little talent (notoriously streaky he would have an odd big game every once in a while out of the blue).
This did not get out of control until the end, but there were certain gamelong trends that hurt us throughout:
1) Tyreke had a just awful game trying to finish inside. The Hornets were uncharacteristically all over the interior defensively and even when not blocked Reke looked uncomfortable and blew layup after layup. Ironically at the end of the game when he just threw up a couple of threes in desperation time, he hit those.
2) the Hornets absolutely punished Isaiah Thomas with Grevis Vasquez all night. Sometimes Isaiah's size is just a footnote that comes into play here and there. But Monty Williams made it an absolute storyline as they posted Vasquez, used picks on Isaiah, and just killed our defense with that all night. IT and DeMarcus got into it on the sidelines in the third and it seemed to be about the defense, although cannot be sure. Reke had to step between them, Patterson tried to exert his Boogie influence etc.
3) our brilliant coach got so scared of Ryan Anderson, who as usual lit us up as a hometown surprise, that he chose to play James Johnson (15min 0pts 1reb 4fls) for extended stretches rather than Jason Thompson (28min 16pts (8-11FG) 9reb), who was the most efficient offensive player on the team tonight.
4) not all game, but John Salmons went on a career hot streak from 3pt land in the 3rd/early 4th quarter. Unfortunately us being us, we did not understand it, and rather than saying aha! Salmons is hot standing still with his feet set at the three point line! We in predictable fashion said Salmons is just hot! And began to call clearouts and isos and pick plays for him to throw up a variety of garbage off his own dribble. Except he never once all game hit a single shot like that. He hit 6 standstill threes, and not one of the other junk shots that we, or he, forcefed him as he was 0-8 otherwise.
5) Barely got to see Patterson in the final 2min of garbagetime.
And...we lost. Still no girls. Just another loss. 25 more games to no more Maloofs.
Full Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 18pts (6-14, 6-7, 0-0) 3reb 3ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Salmons ( B ) -- Finally, a good game by Salmons. He was more aggressive tonight with the ball. The irony of the night, was that he should have just stuck with shooting the ball from long range. He was 6 for 7 from the three, but just 6 of 14 overall. Which means he missed all 7 of his shots within the two point range. From that perspective, it was a strange night. The bottom line is, he had 18 points, and he helped keep us in the game. He finished out the 3rd quarter by hitting a 3 point shot with just a couple of ticks left on the clock. Once again, with John, it was the tale of two half's, as he scored, if memory serves, all of his points in the second half. He did throw in a heat check here and there, and made a couple of unforced turnovers, but overall, John played very well. And, I thought his defense was very good. He was one of the few that did play well, and helped keep the game competitive. --Baja
Remember: Danny Ainge (w/Kings '88-90)? -- few people outside of Sacramento remember that Danny Ainge passed through town for a year and a half at the close of the 80s. At the time he would have sort have been a Manu figure for an aging Celtics squad, and one of the most hated players in the NBA for his cheap chippy play, whining to the refs etc. But he was also 1/5 of one of the two great 80s dynasties, so the Kings of that era in classic wannabe fashion imported him and tried to install him as our star, even though he was maybe only the 5th best Celtic. He had the best statistical year of his career, but he was no franchise player, it was another miserable year for the Kings, and we shipped him off for what turned out to be nothing (guy never played for us) the next season (ironically so Adelman could have him on his contending Portland teams).
Stats: 28min 16pts (8-11, 0-0, 0-0) 9reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Thompson ( B ) -- JT had one of those nights where he was just opportunistic. He seemed to be in the right place at the right time for the tip in or the put back. He started with a dunk on a nice pass from Cuz. After which he hit a 15 foot jumper from the right side. He then tipped in a Tyreke miss, and that was the story of the night. He was basicly the garbage man, but he was very effective in just taking what was there. Even when he missed, the ball seemed to bounce the right way. As when he missed a point blank dunk and the ball bounced all the way out to Salmons beyond the three point line, who promptly hit the shot. A bit later in the second half, he slammed home a dunk off of a missed floater by Thomas. Hopefully JT is back to being JT, and just taking what the game gives him. He also added 9 rebounds . Not spectacular, but very efficient. He ended the night with 16 points on 8 of 11 shootiing, and had 1 blocked shot. Welcome back JT! --Baja
Remember: Danny Ainge (w/Kings '88-90)? -- few people outside of Sacramento remember that Danny Ainge passed through town for a year and a half at the close of the 80s. At the time he would have sort have been a Manu figure for an aging Celtics squad, and one of the most hated players in the NBA for his cheap chippy play, whining to the refs etc. But he was also 1/5 of one of the two great 80s dynasties, so the Kings of that era in classic wannabe fashion imported him and tried to install him as our star, even though he was maybe only the 5th best Celtic. He had the best statistical year of his career, but he was no franchise player, it was another miserable year for the Kings, and we shipped him off for what turned out to be nothing (guy never played for us) the next season (ironically so Adelman could have him on his contending Portland teams).
Remember: Michael Smith (w/Kings '94-98)? -- yet another in the endless stream of undersized PFs this frnachise has wallowed in over the years, but this one had an edge. Nicknamed "The Animal", Smith came in as a second round pick the same year Brian Grant arrived as a first rounder, and the two of them combined to give us a toughness facelift in much the same way Christie and BJax would 7-8 years later. Smith was small, but rugged and ferocious on the glass.
Stats: 37min 16pts (5-13, 0-0, 6-6) 10reb 2ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Cousins ( C ) -- was racking up points in the early going, but mostly as a finisher not a creater. Taking easy passes, clean up follows, out on the break. Efficient, but not as many wow impact plays as normal. Was also providing strong work on the glass, but inevitably picked up 2 fouls before the end of the first quarter to break the stretch. Returned to the game and immediately returned to being better than everybody on the boards, added a drive through traffic, took a charge. But somehow there was never any payoff to the setup for another big game. Never looked 100% comfortable, there was another one of his bad idea crosscourt passes, the jumper was never on, he took a bad defensive gamble to begin the thrid and gave up the dunk because of it. And while he flashed those great hands on a couple of second half plays with great catches inside, another poke steal and rumble the other way up top etc., overall hsi game feel into the middling and out of sorts. He was letting Lopez slash to the hoop on defense, being alternately forgotten about, frustrated, our starting too far out with traffic in front of him on offense, and looking generally disgusted by the whole thing as Reke blew layups, IT got killed on defense, and James Johnson was given his running mates' minutes so he coudl watch Ryan Anderson drain threes. Should note there was an incdent between he and IT on the sidelines int he late 3rd where they appeared to be jawing at each otehr after IT got overwhelemed by Vasquez to the hoop in the open court. Reke had to step in between them, Patterson came over to say something to Cuz. Not sure what it was -- might have been offesnively related, because wasn't much IT could have done on that defensive play given his size.--Brick
Remember: Dahntay Jones (w/Kings '07-08)? -- and you ladies say I never give you anything. Of course Dahntay is still playing, and I was reminded to use him in one of these when we saw him twice on the road trip (he was traded midway through it and got out ahead of us again after Dallas). An athletic defensive specialist swingman, with yes a rockin' bod for the ladies, I liked his toughness and defense. Precisely one of those sorts of roleplayers we need more of and have seemingly completely abandaoned in favor of minature ball doiminant chucker types.
Stats: 34min 12pts (4-16, 2-2, 2-2) 3reb 4ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Evans ( F ) -- Tyreke scored 12 points tonight, but they were about the worst 12 points that can possibly be scored - half of them came on two threes after the game was already completely over. Prior to those two shots, Evans went 2-14, with 11 of those 12 misses in the lane,. Adding to Tyreke's disgusting outing were two technical fouls, one on a defensive three-second violation and one for whining after he missed his tenth shot in the lane. Defensively the story wasn't really much better. He was responsible for 10 points on 6 shots, not counting the two points off technicals. Almost the only thing that can really be said is that he wasn't the focus of the Hornet offense. He did stymie Eric Gordon once in the post, but by the middle of the fourth he wasn't putting in any defensive effort at all, several times not even guarding anybody when he was on the weak side and once slumping off of Gordon so badly that JJ had to run at him to challenge the three because damn well Tyreke wasn't going to do it. Just a terrible effort all around.--Capt.
Remember: Anthony Johnson (w/Kings '97-98, '07-08)? -- Anthony actually had two stints with the Kings. As a second round pick he was thrown to the wolves directing the final chaos in '98 before our Adelman revival, and then years later he would return as a reserve for half a late career season after a long roleplayer career defending and setting up offenses despite little talent (notoriously streaky he would have an odd big game every once in a while out of the blue).
Last edited:
