Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Whew!
Melodramatic as it may sound, that right there could have effectively been it -- the unforgiveable loss that ended our last pretense of sniffing a playoff run. There is less than no room for error for us at this point, and losing to the worst team in the WC on your home floor goes beyond mere error -- it would be disastrous.
In what was possibly an incredibly saavy maneuver by Cousins to not only guarantee himself a max contract in a couple of years, but also get a free masseuse and his favorite brand of potato chips stocked on the team plane, he sat this one out just to let everybody see just what a pathetic crew of smallball chuckers and smallball coaches, we have without him (as an aside, it has occurred to me that no wonder we are built like this -- our coaching staff consists of a former PG, former chucking PG/SG, former HOF chucking SF, and then some dude who doesn't look like he ever played. We started the season with a different headcoach, himsef a chucking SG. Our GM is a former chucking SG. Of COURSE all these fools are going to see beauty in lineups with 4 or more chucking guards at a time.
In any case, this wasn't impressive, we really had no right winning it, and against anybody but the Hornets we probably don't. But hey, makes up for giving away two we had no right to lose on the road. So we keep the pretense of being after a playoff spot alive for another game at least. Let's just hope Cousins is back by then or it won't be much longer.
Boxscore
Evans ( B- ) -- nice drive and reverse layup to start. Hit a three on the kick from Jimmer. And had a 3-3 start. In fact the only miss of the first half was his now customary almost fell halfcourt heave at the buzzer which rimmed out. Made some first half mistakes though -- namely making the mistake of passing the ball to his teammates, because it wasn't coming back (which is of course always the dynamic on teams that get selfish -- its a disease the guys who will pass catch from the guys who won't once they realize the ball won't come back. Started off the third with another hit, but focus did not seem as sharp, and made a lackadaisical mistake in the late 3rd trying to drop a pass back to Marcus at the halfcourt line, missing him, ball went into the backcourt, and eventually off the scramble play the Hornets end up with a +1 AND a techncial on Thornton for a 4pt disaster of a play. Left a few minutes later and then amazingly a guy who shooting 6-8 from the floor and one of our two main guys on the night got completely frozen out by his own coach, sitting on the bench for a full 12 minutes of stretch run as we were in a dogfight and nearly lost it. When finally returned there were only 4 minutes to go and it might as well have been a new game. Missed a pair of jumpers, both that needed to be taken against the clock this time, but sealed the deal playing excellent defense on Ariza on the Hornets final attempt to win it at the biuzzer. Tough game to grade, but felt like Reke was actualy one of the few guys playing it right, and had to overcome both his own teammates and his own coach on the night to put up the relatively modest numbers. Just as an aside: having largely set aside even trying his jumper right now unless he absolutely has to, Reke is shooting .471 so far in March.
Thompson ( B- ) -- our lone true NBA level big tonight, and still barely played 30min in Smart's smallball schemes as we got crushed on the boards with a little help from our coaches. Got off to the decent start with a couple of nice interior moves in the early going going right at Kaman. Not able to slow Kaman much when he became his man, and the big wart here was too many turnovers trying to make passes that weren't there etc. Never really had any stretches where he was a major factor, but as the only guy on the team on the glass, an when he wasn' out there things got just embarrassing.
Hayes ( C- ) -- well, he tried hard in there against Kaman, but the size disadvantage just had him irrelevant. Finally contribued something with a nice pass to a cutting Thornton. Racking up fouls in the 2nd quart, and got his 4th early in the 3rd. Maybe a good thing for us, as otherwise Smart would have played him more. Brought back in for the stretch run in place of JT, why? Nobody knows. Just not effective as a rebounder or paint protector as the Hornets ran a layup drill, and Kaman amusingly almost put up a triple double.
Thornton ( A- ) -- king of our chuckers tonight. Took the most shots. Made the most points. Was perhaps the most pointed of all in making the fewest passes. This was our king chucker in his element, and in the end he stepped forward to hit two big shots in the final minutes to help us pull it out. Was gunning, but not hitting, in an aggresive first quarter burst on both sides. Our defense was terrible, but as usual Marcus was racing around picking up steals and whatnot. Was not hitting his threes, but stepped up with the huge one to tie the game at the 1:30 mark -- was 1-7 from three before that shot, but as usualn in crunchtime he gets deadly. Then grabbed a huge offesnvie rebound and putback at the 40 second mark to cut it back to 1 again. This was a real selfish game even by Marcus standards. He was not goign to pass, and every break, every drive etc. that shot was going up without even looking around. But selfish or not he was the man for us and more than any other won the game with forceful play.
Thomas ( B- ) -- three on the kick from Reke to start, and three quick scores to start as he got off to the fast offensive start -- at least his own offense. Many sticky fingered types tonight. Jack began to beat him with power drives the other way though, and it became a major problem in a hurry as he picked up 2 early fouls. Hit another three after returning in the late 2nd, but was also run through by Jack again. Was still effective in the early third, on one end, but defnsively it was sucha disaster that we ended up subbbing him out...for Jimmer Fredette?? In any case, despite shooting 4-5 from the field ended up sitting on the bench nearly the entire second half before finally getting resummoned in the final seconds. And then after sitting for 18 minutes, made the play of the game, the game saving play, getting the steal that you always need but almsot never get when he stole the Hornets inbound pass with 10 seconds to go and them up 1, and dished it to Salmons for the finish to take the lead with 7 seconds to go. Its the whole reason you call all those timeouts and work so hard int he ginal minutes, but it almost never works out. Tonight for us it did.
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Bench
Fredette ( B ) -- good offensive start moving toward the hoop and showing some of his variety of shots along the baselines rather than settling outside, and making a couple of solid passes. Scored over the other way as fast he was scoring hiself however. Looked nicely settled this time, and playing ateam as poor as the Hornets will do that for you. Was making good decisions with his passes on the break. Back in pretty quickly for IT in the third and while he missed a three and had trouble finishing inside over length he was largely playing well in both stints this time. In the 4th had a nice dropoff pass to JT drawing three defenders before delivering it, and hit a three off his dribble before giving way to the varsity for the stretch run.
Whiteside ( C+ ) -- fouled Kaman on his first defensive chance vs. him. Got a couple of scores in the early second, then another block. But did not look as energetic or sure of himself this time out and despite being our only real size besides Jason, did not help us with our boarding problem in his minutes.
Outlaw ( D ) -- still doesn't look like he knows what he is doing out there for us and was part of a demoralizing Whiteside/Outlaw/Garca/Jimmer/Salmons lineup in the 2nd. Missing his threes and made no other contributions.
Garcia ( C ) -- and back the other way again for Cisco, as he was quiet to the point of invisible this time out. Missed his only shot, a three. Never did have any great effect on defense, althoguh did grab a few boards ona night when we needed everyone we could get. Fate of an offensively passive roleplayer in a land full of chuckers.
Salmons ( B- ) -- this time the PGing didn't go so well as nobody was moving open, and John could not create of course. So he just took them himself. Shocker. Knocked down a jumper, and left in in place of JASON THOMPSON again as the starters came back. Anybody know Smart? Wanna slap him for me? In any case John kept on playing well. Scratch that. John kept on scoring well. He ntoched 0 assists on the night. 1 rebound. And 2 bad TOs in the late 4th hurt us. Redeemed himself however with the finish to win it at the 7 seconds mark after IT stole the ball.
Greene ( C ) -- can't really say he did much more than bought us some frontline time after he entered for the first time after Hayes got his 4th in the 3rd quarter. Hit a three in the mid 4th, but missed a second on his next possession.
Melodramatic as it may sound, that right there could have effectively been it -- the unforgiveable loss that ended our last pretense of sniffing a playoff run. There is less than no room for error for us at this point, and losing to the worst team in the WC on your home floor goes beyond mere error -- it would be disastrous.
In what was possibly an incredibly saavy maneuver by Cousins to not only guarantee himself a max contract in a couple of years, but also get a free masseuse and his favorite brand of potato chips stocked on the team plane, he sat this one out just to let everybody see just what a pathetic crew of smallball chuckers and smallball coaches, we have without him (as an aside, it has occurred to me that no wonder we are built like this -- our coaching staff consists of a former PG, former chucking PG/SG, former HOF chucking SF, and then some dude who doesn't look like he ever played. We started the season with a different headcoach, himsef a chucking SG. Our GM is a former chucking SG. Of COURSE all these fools are going to see beauty in lineups with 4 or more chucking guards at a time.
In any case, this wasn't impressive, we really had no right winning it, and against anybody but the Hornets we probably don't. But hey, makes up for giving away two we had no right to lose on the road. So we keep the pretense of being after a playoff spot alive for another game at least. Let's just hope Cousins is back by then or it won't be much longer.
Boxscore
Evans ( B- ) -- nice drive and reverse layup to start. Hit a three on the kick from Jimmer. And had a 3-3 start. In fact the only miss of the first half was his now customary almost fell halfcourt heave at the buzzer which rimmed out. Made some first half mistakes though -- namely making the mistake of passing the ball to his teammates, because it wasn't coming back (which is of course always the dynamic on teams that get selfish -- its a disease the guys who will pass catch from the guys who won't once they realize the ball won't come back. Started off the third with another hit, but focus did not seem as sharp, and made a lackadaisical mistake in the late 3rd trying to drop a pass back to Marcus at the halfcourt line, missing him, ball went into the backcourt, and eventually off the scramble play the Hornets end up with a +1 AND a techncial on Thornton for a 4pt disaster of a play. Left a few minutes later and then amazingly a guy who shooting 6-8 from the floor and one of our two main guys on the night got completely frozen out by his own coach, sitting on the bench for a full 12 minutes of stretch run as we were in a dogfight and nearly lost it. When finally returned there were only 4 minutes to go and it might as well have been a new game. Missed a pair of jumpers, both that needed to be taken against the clock this time, but sealed the deal playing excellent defense on Ariza on the Hornets final attempt to win it at the biuzzer. Tough game to grade, but felt like Reke was actualy one of the few guys playing it right, and had to overcome both his own teammates and his own coach on the night to put up the relatively modest numbers. Just as an aside: having largely set aside even trying his jumper right now unless he absolutely has to, Reke is shooting .471 so far in March.
Thompson ( B- ) -- our lone true NBA level big tonight, and still barely played 30min in Smart's smallball schemes as we got crushed on the boards with a little help from our coaches. Got off to the decent start with a couple of nice interior moves in the early going going right at Kaman. Not able to slow Kaman much when he became his man, and the big wart here was too many turnovers trying to make passes that weren't there etc. Never really had any stretches where he was a major factor, but as the only guy on the team on the glass, an when he wasn' out there things got just embarrassing.
Hayes ( C- ) -- well, he tried hard in there against Kaman, but the size disadvantage just had him irrelevant. Finally contribued something with a nice pass to a cutting Thornton. Racking up fouls in the 2nd quart, and got his 4th early in the 3rd. Maybe a good thing for us, as otherwise Smart would have played him more. Brought back in for the stretch run in place of JT, why? Nobody knows. Just not effective as a rebounder or paint protector as the Hornets ran a layup drill, and Kaman amusingly almost put up a triple double.
Thornton ( A- ) -- king of our chuckers tonight. Took the most shots. Made the most points. Was perhaps the most pointed of all in making the fewest passes. This was our king chucker in his element, and in the end he stepped forward to hit two big shots in the final minutes to help us pull it out. Was gunning, but not hitting, in an aggresive first quarter burst on both sides. Our defense was terrible, but as usual Marcus was racing around picking up steals and whatnot. Was not hitting his threes, but stepped up with the huge one to tie the game at the 1:30 mark -- was 1-7 from three before that shot, but as usualn in crunchtime he gets deadly. Then grabbed a huge offesnvie rebound and putback at the 40 second mark to cut it back to 1 again. This was a real selfish game even by Marcus standards. He was not goign to pass, and every break, every drive etc. that shot was going up without even looking around. But selfish or not he was the man for us and more than any other won the game with forceful play.
Thomas ( B- ) -- three on the kick from Reke to start, and three quick scores to start as he got off to the fast offensive start -- at least his own offense. Many sticky fingered types tonight. Jack began to beat him with power drives the other way though, and it became a major problem in a hurry as he picked up 2 early fouls. Hit another three after returning in the late 2nd, but was also run through by Jack again. Was still effective in the early third, on one end, but defnsively it was sucha disaster that we ended up subbbing him out...for Jimmer Fredette?? In any case, despite shooting 4-5 from the field ended up sitting on the bench nearly the entire second half before finally getting resummoned in the final seconds. And then after sitting for 18 minutes, made the play of the game, the game saving play, getting the steal that you always need but almsot never get when he stole the Hornets inbound pass with 10 seconds to go and them up 1, and dished it to Salmons for the finish to take the lead with 7 seconds to go. Its the whole reason you call all those timeouts and work so hard int he ginal minutes, but it almost never works out. Tonight for us it did.
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Bench
Fredette ( B ) -- good offensive start moving toward the hoop and showing some of his variety of shots along the baselines rather than settling outside, and making a couple of solid passes. Scored over the other way as fast he was scoring hiself however. Looked nicely settled this time, and playing ateam as poor as the Hornets will do that for you. Was making good decisions with his passes on the break. Back in pretty quickly for IT in the third and while he missed a three and had trouble finishing inside over length he was largely playing well in both stints this time. In the 4th had a nice dropoff pass to JT drawing three defenders before delivering it, and hit a three off his dribble before giving way to the varsity for the stretch run.
Whiteside ( C+ ) -- fouled Kaman on his first defensive chance vs. him. Got a couple of scores in the early second, then another block. But did not look as energetic or sure of himself this time out and despite being our only real size besides Jason, did not help us with our boarding problem in his minutes.
Outlaw ( D ) -- still doesn't look like he knows what he is doing out there for us and was part of a demoralizing Whiteside/Outlaw/Garca/Jimmer/Salmons lineup in the 2nd. Missing his threes and made no other contributions.
Garcia ( C ) -- and back the other way again for Cisco, as he was quiet to the point of invisible this time out. Missed his only shot, a three. Never did have any great effect on defense, althoguh did grab a few boards ona night when we needed everyone we could get. Fate of an offensively passive roleplayer in a land full of chuckers.
Salmons ( B- ) -- this time the PGing didn't go so well as nobody was moving open, and John could not create of course. So he just took them himself. Shocker. Knocked down a jumper, and left in in place of JASON THOMPSON again as the starters came back. Anybody know Smart? Wanna slap him for me? In any case John kept on playing well. Scratch that. John kept on scoring well. He ntoched 0 assists on the night. 1 rebound. And 2 bad TOs in the late 4th hurt us. Redeemed himself however with the finish to win it at the 7 seconds mark after IT stole the ball.
Greene ( C ) -- can't really say he did much more than bought us some frontline time after he entered for the first time after Hayes got his 4th in the 3rd quarter. Hit a three in the mid 4th, but missed a second on his next possession.
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