Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
UGH! This one hurts worse than last night's, because this one did not have to be. For 30 minutes of this one we played great ball. Not an exaggeration, not "great for us", but just great ball. We were up 23 in the third. And yet as a fan you were never comfortable, can never be with this team. You can just see we have no confidence. The first little swing in momentum and the composure is gone and things start falling apart in a hurry.
I'll see what I have in the theme bag for this one. For once I thought I wasn't goign to need one. Phooey.
Ok given our own fallen status, theme is going to be: Fallen Entertainement Icons
Official Boxscore
Greene ( B- ) -- shot 3-8 from the field, and 3-7 from the 3pt line, you do the math. But it all was part of a choesive offense at the time -- he had a role, and filled it. Three early possessions saw him taking threes from the same spot, but only hit 1 of 3. Did get fouled once, but then missed both FTs. Some nice play in the early 3rd using his size on the galss, and then stepping out to drain a three. Once again taken out of the game by Westphal as a team smallballed us with 3 guards, which is just a duh. He was not perfect, but he had the largest +/- on the team, and we built up a 23pt lead at one point on his watch. And then Westphal played the reed in the wind again nad let the opposing team dictate his lineups.
Tom Cruise goes nuts, jumps on couches, pronounces himself an expert on psychiatry, slides into Scientology hell -- I am going to start with two absolutely enormous icons who were right there as maybe the two biggest names in Hollywood for a 20 year period from the mid-80's to mid 00s, and who just shockingly blew their good names and box office appeal right to hell.
Thompson ( C ) -- nice solid first quarter supporting on the boards, until he joined Donte by bricking both FTs in a 1-5 quarter for us (should be noted that we took 12 FTs on the night while the Hornets took 30). The solid game descended into invisibility after half as he got iced in the second quarter with that awful platoon system we have at most of our positions -- guy is playing well, but is inevitably going to get frozen out for a quarter just so the other half of the platoon can get his own minutes -- and JT never recovered. Was out there in the third while we built the lead, but did little himself -- think he had 4pts 5rebs at the end of the first quarter. It was 4pts 6rebs for the game 36 minutes later. Was reinserted late in this oen and again got nothing accomplished as West woke up just enough, and Jason's inabiulity to finish bit us again as he got a gallop to the hoop in the final minutes, missed it, got the o-reb, missed the follow etc. and we came up empty on the possession. Like the game itself, just disappointing given the way it had started.
Mel Gibson -- a rare A-lister who had both sexes eating out of the palm of his hand, he could be charming, intense, comedic...and then the facade crumbles and you are left with a scary alcoholic anti-Semitic religious fanatic. If I had said circa 1995 or so that this was going to be Cruise's and Gibson's eventual fate, they would have locked me in a white room ight next to them.
Cousins ( C+ ) -- we got to see much of the talent and even more of the not readiness of DeMarcus Cousins in this one. Got off to his normal strong offense/weak defensive start. Knocked down three jumpers to start the game, negating Okafor's interior defense, but you could immediately see the difference betwen Cousins and Daly as the Hornets did not hesitate to attack the rim as a play broke down with him back there, and he kept letting Okafor slip to the hoop on the other end. Picked up a dumb dumb 2nd foul challenging a Paul jumpshot 20 feet from the hoop and had to leave the game. Came back in in the second and started bullying David Anderson with his size, and came up with some great post moves on the weak *** defense of Jason Smith in the mid-2nd. Not keeping the Hornets off the glass though as they used offensive rebounds to keep vauge touch. and then picked up his third. Immediately started the third with a big aggressive drive against West that not only got him to the line but got West frustrated enough to get a technical too. Nice deciisnmaking with the pass too, letting guys go through and not moving the ball until the right guy got open. So...so far so good. But things were about to turn, and unfortunately one thing we know about DeMarcus is that depsite having the desire, when the going gets tough, when opposing teams squeee, he will screw up. And how. Drew a charge at the beginning of the 4th to get a key stop as we tried to hold on. But fumbled a key pass at the 5:00 mark letting the Hornets tie it up. And the refs really got into him calling travels in the second half -- almnost all fo his turnovers came late and helepd the Hornets immnesely in their comeback. Could not finish in traffic at the 1:00 mark on a dropodff from Reke that we just had to have, and then got called for yet another travel that killed us at the 40 second mark with us down 4 and needing a score. There was promise to this performance, but so many of the mistakes of youth that it killed us and I can't go higher with a grade -- you really could very clearly see exactly how our inexperience bit us in this one.
Tom Sizemore -- not quite the leading man, but one hell of an actor who was in so many of the big movies of the 90s and on eveyone's A-list when another top project came along...until the rumors began to slip out about his inability to handle the lifestyle. Rampant drug problems, apparently resulting in a priapism issue (look it up if you don't know), a sex tape in which he does 4 girls, an engagement to Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss...his life just turned into a circus and his career died away with the weirdness. He's still working, but been a long time since anybody has tapped him for anything major.
Udrih ( A- ) -- was good for us early, and better late, as we did not lose this one because of our backcourt. Hit his early little pullup shots, and even managed to stay in front of Ariza on one play. Again missed that open corner three on the Reke setup however, and added another 0-3 to his career worst .268 3pt percentage. Helped us steady things in the late third with a technical FT and two little timely jumpers to stem the tide. Came up with a great steal and breakaway layup with the lead down to 3 at the 9:00 mark, one of several excellent hustle plays he made on the defensive end of the court this time. But again airballed a three off the glass off a Reke pass, and followed with a critical turnover trying to pass through 4 Hornets at the 6:00 mark. Panlcked and tried to play hero at the 1:45 mark, forcing and missing a 1 on 1 jumper with us down 3 -- you can just see the overwhelming lack of confidence leading to evertying breaking down and everybody trying to pull it out one on one down the stretches of these things.
Paul Rebuens -- note to Pee Wee: beloved (or beloathed) children's show character and adult theater pervert are not generally a marketable combo.
I'll see what I have in the theme bag for this one. For once I thought I wasn't goign to need one. Phooey.
Ok given our own fallen status, theme is going to be: Fallen Entertainement Icons
Official Boxscore
Greene ( B- ) -- shot 3-8 from the field, and 3-7 from the 3pt line, you do the math. But it all was part of a choesive offense at the time -- he had a role, and filled it. Three early possessions saw him taking threes from the same spot, but only hit 1 of 3. Did get fouled once, but then missed both FTs. Some nice play in the early 3rd using his size on the galss, and then stepping out to drain a three. Once again taken out of the game by Westphal as a team smallballed us with 3 guards, which is just a duh. He was not perfect, but he had the largest +/- on the team, and we built up a 23pt lead at one point on his watch. And then Westphal played the reed in the wind again nad let the opposing team dictate his lineups.
Tom Cruise goes nuts, jumps on couches, pronounces himself an expert on psychiatry, slides into Scientology hell -- I am going to start with two absolutely enormous icons who were right there as maybe the two biggest names in Hollywood for a 20 year period from the mid-80's to mid 00s, and who just shockingly blew their good names and box office appeal right to hell.
Thompson ( C ) -- nice solid first quarter supporting on the boards, until he joined Donte by bricking both FTs in a 1-5 quarter for us (should be noted that we took 12 FTs on the night while the Hornets took 30). The solid game descended into invisibility after half as he got iced in the second quarter with that awful platoon system we have at most of our positions -- guy is playing well, but is inevitably going to get frozen out for a quarter just so the other half of the platoon can get his own minutes -- and JT never recovered. Was out there in the third while we built the lead, but did little himself -- think he had 4pts 5rebs at the end of the first quarter. It was 4pts 6rebs for the game 36 minutes later. Was reinserted late in this oen and again got nothing accomplished as West woke up just enough, and Jason's inabiulity to finish bit us again as he got a gallop to the hoop in the final minutes, missed it, got the o-reb, missed the follow etc. and we came up empty on the possession. Like the game itself, just disappointing given the way it had started.
Mel Gibson -- a rare A-lister who had both sexes eating out of the palm of his hand, he could be charming, intense, comedic...and then the facade crumbles and you are left with a scary alcoholic anti-Semitic religious fanatic. If I had said circa 1995 or so that this was going to be Cruise's and Gibson's eventual fate, they would have locked me in a white room ight next to them.
Cousins ( C+ ) -- we got to see much of the talent and even more of the not readiness of DeMarcus Cousins in this one. Got off to his normal strong offense/weak defensive start. Knocked down three jumpers to start the game, negating Okafor's interior defense, but you could immediately see the difference betwen Cousins and Daly as the Hornets did not hesitate to attack the rim as a play broke down with him back there, and he kept letting Okafor slip to the hoop on the other end. Picked up a dumb dumb 2nd foul challenging a Paul jumpshot 20 feet from the hoop and had to leave the game. Came back in in the second and started bullying David Anderson with his size, and came up with some great post moves on the weak *** defense of Jason Smith in the mid-2nd. Not keeping the Hornets off the glass though as they used offensive rebounds to keep vauge touch. and then picked up his third. Immediately started the third with a big aggressive drive against West that not only got him to the line but got West frustrated enough to get a technical too. Nice deciisnmaking with the pass too, letting guys go through and not moving the ball until the right guy got open. So...so far so good. But things were about to turn, and unfortunately one thing we know about DeMarcus is that depsite having the desire, when the going gets tough, when opposing teams squeee, he will screw up. And how. Drew a charge at the beginning of the 4th to get a key stop as we tried to hold on. But fumbled a key pass at the 5:00 mark letting the Hornets tie it up. And the refs really got into him calling travels in the second half -- almnost all fo his turnovers came late and helepd the Hornets immnesely in their comeback. Could not finish in traffic at the 1:00 mark on a dropodff from Reke that we just had to have, and then got called for yet another travel that killed us at the 40 second mark with us down 4 and needing a score. There was promise to this performance, but so many of the mistakes of youth that it killed us and I can't go higher with a grade -- you really could very clearly see exactly how our inexperience bit us in this one.
Tom Sizemore -- not quite the leading man, but one hell of an actor who was in so many of the big movies of the 90s and on eveyone's A-list when another top project came along...until the rumors began to slip out about his inability to handle the lifestyle. Rampant drug problems, apparently resulting in a priapism issue (look it up if you don't know), a sex tape in which he does 4 girls, an engagement to Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss...his life just turned into a circus and his career died away with the weirdness. He's still working, but been a long time since anybody has tapped him for anything major.
Udrih ( A- ) -- was good for us early, and better late, as we did not lose this one because of our backcourt. Hit his early little pullup shots, and even managed to stay in front of Ariza on one play. Again missed that open corner three on the Reke setup however, and added another 0-3 to his career worst .268 3pt percentage. Helped us steady things in the late third with a technical FT and two little timely jumpers to stem the tide. Came up with a great steal and breakaway layup with the lead down to 3 at the 9:00 mark, one of several excellent hustle plays he made on the defensive end of the court this time. But again airballed a three off the glass off a Reke pass, and followed with a critical turnover trying to pass through 4 Hornets at the 6:00 mark. Panlcked and tried to play hero at the 1:45 mark, forcing and missing a 1 on 1 jumper with us down 3 -- you can just see the overwhelming lack of confidence leading to evertying breaking down and everybody trying to pull it out one on one down the stretches of these things.
Paul Rebuens -- note to Pee Wee: beloved (or beloathed) children's show character and adult theater pervert are not generally a marketable combo.
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