Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Shocking how that one played out huh?
I should note BTW that much as offense always draws the attention, the problem is on the other side of the ball. Our opp ppg this season wihtou Reke is just ridiculous. I don't think we've held a single oponent under 100..actually wait. We held ONE under 100 -- we held the Clippers to 99. Otherwise every single night teams are scoring 110, 115 pts against us. Its ridiciulous. If the Spurs were playing defense like this, they would be a sub .500 team. So would anybody.
2/25 110
2/26 120
2/28 99
3/02 107
3/05 109
3/07 123
3/09 106
3/11 108
3/12 115
------------
Record: 3-15
Opp PPG: 114.9
Just silly.
P.S. I did the poll right this time.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( C+ ) -- knocked down a handful of long jumpers in the first half, and the other way harassed an impotent Trevor Ariza. But never really ignited, the weak rebounding for a SF was an irritant again, and really it was just a fiairly one dimesnional shurg effort. Did not hurt us, but only a modest help. Some g-time hoops got his point total over 10, but for much fo the game he was fairly invisible offensively.
Cousins ( B ) -- got off to a great start again as we were bully balling the Hornets early. Just dropping in long jumpers early as various dumb Kings kept posting up between him and the hoop, but once that cleared up (and Okafor disappeare with foul trouble) opened up the whole game. Dropped a slick behind the back pass to Daly in the paint for a dunk -- NO big does that that's still in the league. We used to have a couple of them though. Big 10pt 5reb 1ast 1st quarter. Continued the strong play into the 2nd, but unfortunately those fouls started racking up again, and got his third just before half on a wimpy little touch rebounding call. Was just overwhelming Landry when that was the matchup, but began pressing in the 3rd. His 4th foul may have been another bad call as the fouls began to overshadow the game again. And picked up the 5th foul and strained his shoulder in the early 4th, and it probably killed any chance we had, although he had long left behind the hot start. Maybe he got tired, definitely got doubled, and as always had the fouls to deal with. Also at a certina point the turnovers become less amusing. Its something every young player has to play through and learn from, but you can't keep nothcing 5+ night after night. Even if Steve Nash did that you would begin to look askance at him. Let alone if you are a 280lb center.
Dalembert ( B ) -- a good game overall, and the real encouraging thing is how well he and Cousins are beginning to work together inside. The other encouraging thing is that surprising passing, which nobody in the world knew he had, and which has opened up whole new possibilities with him on the court. Helped early with a couple of hoops, but was not able to stop West the other way, and really was more effective as a scorer than a defender in the first half. Nice give and go to Thornton to start the 3rd. Effective offensively all game long, and working really well with Cousins. Terrible alley oop atempt to Thronton to start the 4th. A solid game next to Cousins, aprticualrly using his length on offense as we jsut played over the stubby Hornets. But in the end a littel disappointing as while we did effectively bully ball the shroter team, there skilled midget combo of West and poor man's West largely neutralized our advantage by scoring back the other way, and none of our bigger guys ever realy got a handle on how to stop that.
Thronton ( B+ ) -- back home in New Orleans, and responded with..pretty much nothing in the early going. But really picked it up in the 2nd on his way to a big game in his return. Hit a three of f a fumbled ball when Demarcus tried to go coast to caost in the open court. Anticpated a CP3 pass and picked off the pass. Really using his athleticsm to battle on the glass. Started the third with a dunk off the give and go with Daly, and was starting to rain threes. On the other hand was losing contol of Bellinelli the other way, which is not something you hear often, and capped it by fouling him beyond the three point line. Did a nice job, and has consistently done a nice job since arriving, of passing on the break. Not able to do much down the stretch as the Hornets pulled away.
Head ( C- ) -- lots of early foul trouble as CP3 was aggressive, and long gone were those heady days in late Novemenber when Head stated against him and actualy alrgely shut him down. Drew a foul in the mid third taking an ugly three, and actually made a pretty move against Paul late in the third, with a step through. Lost the thread defending CP3 the longer the game went on though, and Paul was getting open for jumpers at will.
Bench
Thompson ( B- ) -- into the game and immediately blocked the man he battled for minutes all year (Landry). In fact it was really a game within a game as the guys with the two opposing styles battled each oyher each trying to prove something. And it went back and forth, although in the end Landry's game felt better. JT used his length to challenge the smaller guy, and had his fulllk on ugly husdtle game going. Blowing tips and laying, but using his size and activity to bounce back and try again. Meanwhile Landry used his quickness and skill back the other way to go around him and get to the rim. In the end I think it was Jason's career long problems with touch aroudn the rima nd foul problems that tipped it to Landry.
Jeter ( C+ ) -- you know, just looking at the boxscore numbers you would think that Pooh had himself a game here, but really not so much. Set some people up, but also overpentrated, and Paul just absolutely KILLED him the other way. Overpowered him right to the hoop repeatedly, and just looked like he could do anythign he wanted out there against him. Stayed efficient offensively at least, although he did take a dumb quickshot in the early 4th right after Casspi did the same, forcing us to call a timeout. Pooh's an interesting character, because he seems to know how to play the point in purer fashion than perhaps anybody else on the roster, yet even in his basketball middleage wil still go through spells of just pulling up for 1 on 1 shots without a single pass taking place. Overall a good statline, but it was really hard to push this grade any higher giving the overwheleming impressionn that he was getting his butt handed to him out there.
Taylor ( D ) -- slash down the lane and at the last second tured a layup into a quick dunk. Unfortunately it was the only thing that fell in some of Taylor's least effecitve minutes since moving into the rotation. Misse dhis threes, didn't get much of antyhing accomplished in any phase of the game.
Casspi ( C- ) -- some good tough rebounds in the early 2nd and was winning the battles for the loose balls. Drive and fouled just before half, hit both FTs to tie it up going into the break. That was the good. The bad was, call it legs, call it whatever, but he could not hit a shot to save his life, or our game. Had one good floating finish on the break, but the jumpers were all flat and off the front of the rim, and he didn't do enough of anythign else to make up for the offensive impotence. Added a dumb quick shot in the early 4th -- 1 on 4 with no rebounders underneath -- to start a particualrly bad sequence for us that led Westphal to call a timeout. Down to a month to go, and still none of our current players have made a convincing argument why we shouldn't go out and spend all that money we have on a top SF.
Greene ( INC ) -- a dominating 5 seconds of action at the end of the first half.
Jackson ( INC ) -- was THIS clsoe to recording a triple double in his own 5 seconds of action, but fell just short
I should note BTW that much as offense always draws the attention, the problem is on the other side of the ball. Our opp ppg this season wihtou Reke is just ridiculous. I don't think we've held a single oponent under 100..actually wait. We held ONE under 100 -- we held the Clippers to 99. Otherwise every single night teams are scoring 110, 115 pts against us. Its ridiciulous. If the Spurs were playing defense like this, they would be a sub .500 team. So would anybody.
2/25 110
2/26 120
2/28 99
3/02 107
3/05 109
3/07 123
3/09 106
3/11 108
3/12 115
------------
Record: 3-15
Opp PPG: 114.9
Just silly.
P.S. I did the poll right this time.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( C+ ) -- knocked down a handful of long jumpers in the first half, and the other way harassed an impotent Trevor Ariza. But never really ignited, the weak rebounding for a SF was an irritant again, and really it was just a fiairly one dimesnional shurg effort. Did not hurt us, but only a modest help. Some g-time hoops got his point total over 10, but for much fo the game he was fairly invisible offensively.
Cousins ( B ) -- got off to a great start again as we were bully balling the Hornets early. Just dropping in long jumpers early as various dumb Kings kept posting up between him and the hoop, but once that cleared up (and Okafor disappeare with foul trouble) opened up the whole game. Dropped a slick behind the back pass to Daly in the paint for a dunk -- NO big does that that's still in the league. We used to have a couple of them though. Big 10pt 5reb 1ast 1st quarter. Continued the strong play into the 2nd, but unfortunately those fouls started racking up again, and got his third just before half on a wimpy little touch rebounding call. Was just overwhelming Landry when that was the matchup, but began pressing in the 3rd. His 4th foul may have been another bad call as the fouls began to overshadow the game again. And picked up the 5th foul and strained his shoulder in the early 4th, and it probably killed any chance we had, although he had long left behind the hot start. Maybe he got tired, definitely got doubled, and as always had the fouls to deal with. Also at a certina point the turnovers become less amusing. Its something every young player has to play through and learn from, but you can't keep nothcing 5+ night after night. Even if Steve Nash did that you would begin to look askance at him. Let alone if you are a 280lb center.
Dalembert ( B ) -- a good game overall, and the real encouraging thing is how well he and Cousins are beginning to work together inside. The other encouraging thing is that surprising passing, which nobody in the world knew he had, and which has opened up whole new possibilities with him on the court. Helped early with a couple of hoops, but was not able to stop West the other way, and really was more effective as a scorer than a defender in the first half. Nice give and go to Thornton to start the 3rd. Effective offensively all game long, and working really well with Cousins. Terrible alley oop atempt to Thronton to start the 4th. A solid game next to Cousins, aprticualrly using his length on offense as we jsut played over the stubby Hornets. But in the end a littel disappointing as while we did effectively bully ball the shroter team, there skilled midget combo of West and poor man's West largely neutralized our advantage by scoring back the other way, and none of our bigger guys ever realy got a handle on how to stop that.
Thronton ( B+ ) -- back home in New Orleans, and responded with..pretty much nothing in the early going. But really picked it up in the 2nd on his way to a big game in his return. Hit a three of f a fumbled ball when Demarcus tried to go coast to caost in the open court. Anticpated a CP3 pass and picked off the pass. Really using his athleticsm to battle on the glass. Started the third with a dunk off the give and go with Daly, and was starting to rain threes. On the other hand was losing contol of Bellinelli the other way, which is not something you hear often, and capped it by fouling him beyond the three point line. Did a nice job, and has consistently done a nice job since arriving, of passing on the break. Not able to do much down the stretch as the Hornets pulled away.
Head ( C- ) -- lots of early foul trouble as CP3 was aggressive, and long gone were those heady days in late Novemenber when Head stated against him and actualy alrgely shut him down. Drew a foul in the mid third taking an ugly three, and actually made a pretty move against Paul late in the third, with a step through. Lost the thread defending CP3 the longer the game went on though, and Paul was getting open for jumpers at will.
Bench
Thompson ( B- ) -- into the game and immediately blocked the man he battled for minutes all year (Landry). In fact it was really a game within a game as the guys with the two opposing styles battled each oyher each trying to prove something. And it went back and forth, although in the end Landry's game felt better. JT used his length to challenge the smaller guy, and had his fulllk on ugly husdtle game going. Blowing tips and laying, but using his size and activity to bounce back and try again. Meanwhile Landry used his quickness and skill back the other way to go around him and get to the rim. In the end I think it was Jason's career long problems with touch aroudn the rima nd foul problems that tipped it to Landry.
Jeter ( C+ ) -- you know, just looking at the boxscore numbers you would think that Pooh had himself a game here, but really not so much. Set some people up, but also overpentrated, and Paul just absolutely KILLED him the other way. Overpowered him right to the hoop repeatedly, and just looked like he could do anythign he wanted out there against him. Stayed efficient offensively at least, although he did take a dumb quickshot in the early 4th right after Casspi did the same, forcing us to call a timeout. Pooh's an interesting character, because he seems to know how to play the point in purer fashion than perhaps anybody else on the roster, yet even in his basketball middleage wil still go through spells of just pulling up for 1 on 1 shots without a single pass taking place. Overall a good statline, but it was really hard to push this grade any higher giving the overwheleming impressionn that he was getting his butt handed to him out there.
Taylor ( D ) -- slash down the lane and at the last second tured a layup into a quick dunk. Unfortunately it was the only thing that fell in some of Taylor's least effecitve minutes since moving into the rotation. Misse dhis threes, didn't get much of antyhing accomplished in any phase of the game.
Casspi ( C- ) -- some good tough rebounds in the early 2nd and was winning the battles for the loose balls. Drive and fouled just before half, hit both FTs to tie it up going into the break. That was the good. The bad was, call it legs, call it whatever, but he could not hit a shot to save his life, or our game. Had one good floating finish on the break, but the jumpers were all flat and off the front of the rim, and he didn't do enough of anythign else to make up for the offensive impotence. Added a dumb quick shot in the early 4th -- 1 on 4 with no rebounders underneath -- to start a particualrly bad sequence for us that led Westphal to call a timeout. Down to a month to go, and still none of our current players have made a convincing argument why we shouldn't go out and spend all that money we have on a top SF.
Greene ( INC ) -- a dominating 5 seconds of action at the end of the first half.
Jackson ( INC ) -- was THIS clsoe to recording a triple double in his own 5 seconds of action, but fell just short
Last edited:
I choose to give the coach some credit. Reke has a unique talent. Both Reke and Cousins need maturing and their games will get better and they will be the cornerstone of a great team as long as the team can afford them. We have two more numbers to lift to the rafters. 
