Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Ok, well, this was no great triumph. But it was a win, and an important one to Coach Malone on his return to his hometown. And by the very act of being a tight win, an OT win, it ends up feeling more refreshing than just a standard 10pt win in regulation would have. The standout feature here of course was Jimmer likely having his career game. It was his career scoring night, but more than that, it wasn't garbagetime scoring. In the first half in particular he flat picked us up when we had little going and carried the team back into it with a crazy college Jimmermania flashback. After half Cuz would begin to click into gear, and despite shaky error filled games, both Gay and IT did enough right late (including Gay hitting the game tying shot to send it into OT) that we pulled it out.
The big ? hanging over the night is that with 3min remaining Cuz, who was our best player on the court by that time, suddenly pulled up lame. Early report was a strained hip flexor, so you just have to hope that this well timed break gives him the time to recover.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Henkel
Capt. Factorial
MassachusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 45min 20pts (9-22, 2-6, 0-2) 7reb 3ast 2stl 0blk 4TO
Gay ( B- ) -- This was an up-and-down game for Rudy. He had the task of guarding Melo for most of the night and Melo ended up with 36 points. He did a pretty good job staying in front of Melo and forcing him to shoot mid-range shots, but to start off the game Melo was hitting everything. At the half Melo had 22 points on 8-13 shooting, including 3-4 from 3pt land. As the game wore on Melo began missing most of those mid-range pull-ups, including going a paltry 1-8 in the 4th quarter and over-time. Rudy played a lot of minutes and he didn’t fair all that well in the 4th quarter and over-time going only 3-10, but many times it’s making the timely shot that sticks in people’s minds, and Rudy had the most important shot of the game. The Kings were down 2 with 20 seconds left in the game when Rudy decided that he was going to either win it or lose it for the Kings. He dribbled around a lot, finally got switched onto Amare, took it into the the lane and pulled-up for the game-tying shot. He then followed that up by playing good defense on Melo, resulting in a tough shot and miss to send the game into over-time. In overtime he hit an open 3pt shot to give the Kings a 3pt lead which they never let go over to get the win in NY. So he played decent defense but couldn’t stop Melo in the early going, but in the last 30 seconds of regulation he was the guy who closed out the game for his team. During the course of the game there was all sorts of ugly as he made bad passes for turn-overs, clanked wide open 3pt shots, didn’t really shoot it well going 9-22, and missed 2 free-throws in OT which would have put the Kings up by 3 possessions with 2 minutes remaining. But he gets the solid grade in this one for coming through in the clutch. Hopefully he’ll take the time off to rest and get healthy, as I still don’t think he’s fully recovered from his injury.--Uncia
Stats: 31min 6pts (3-5, 0-0, 0-0) 10reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Thompson ( B- ) -- This game provided some pretty accurate examples of how you should and shouldn’t use a player like Jason Thompson. Due to the small size of the Knicks starting lineup, the Kings made a conscientious effort to feed Thompson the ball inside, and it just didn’t work. I applaud Malone for trying to exploit the Knicks weaknesses instead of just matching their small ball, but Jason Thompson just isn’t a guy you can do that with. He had two turnovers tonight and both of them came early in the first quarter off of failed post attempts. It was ugly, and I think this extreme focus on whatever mismatch we had down there kind of ruined our offensive rhythm. Thompson just looked out of place for a lot of this game all-together. JT is a pretty solid man defender, but in this one he was forced to worry about either Shumpert or Prigioni on the perimeter (Gay was on Melo) and he surrendered a few more open 3’s to those guys than you’d like. He was still playing hard, but he wasn’t really giving the team a positive contribution. It started to turn around a bit in the second half, and despite the rocky start he played a huge role in our 4th quarter and eventual overtime win. Cousins left this one with about 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter and I thought Jason did an admirable job locking down the paint as we tried to pull this one out. It wasn’t spectacular, but he was really working hard on the glass, often times trying to pry rebounds away from two or three guys, and he didn’t even get all of them, but he kept working. All his hard board work would eventually culminate in overtime where he had a huge offensive rebound and putback. Just a classic Jason Thompson kind of play he’ll make one or two times a game. This wasn’t a perfect performance. Not even close, but JT showed up when it mattered and provided the kind of inside presence the Kings needed in order to get the win. --Mass
Stats: 33min 19pts (7-13, 0-0, 5-5) 14reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Cousins ( B ) -- On a night when the Knicks took turns going off on the Kings (notably Carmelo and Amare), Cousins had his own defensive problems - Tyson Chandler dunks. He only allowed three of them, but it was about two too many. The Kings seemingly could not solve the problem of how to guard Chandler's rolls to the basket, and Cousins overhelping was a big part of it. Cousins started out the first quarter strong offensively, going 3-4 from the floor (with the benefit of a pretty unconscionable continuation call) for 9 points, but by halftime Cousins had only two rebounds. Cousins came out strong to start the third, setting a pick for Gay and then rolling straight to the rim to be in position to grab the rebound and finish with a big stuff. But then things looked like they were about to fall apart - the Knicks made a couple of open threes, Cuz missed two shots, and it looked like he was about to sulk out of the game. He stopped giving effort on both sides of the floor, taking two plays off on offense and playing some severe matador D on a Felton drive. There was 9:45 left in the quarter, and Malone called an angry timeout, and I thought he might bench Cuz right then. But whatever choice words he had for Cuz must have worked, because he returned to the game with renewed effort after the timeout and absolutely destroyed the Knicks on the boards, grabbing a total of nine in the quarter. Cousins had only a short stint in the fourth, grabbing three more rebounds and hitting two deep jumpers before leaving the game with an apparent hip injury. But the Kings were able to pull the game out without him, and we can only hope he'll be OK. DeMarcus' rebounding in the first, defensive issues, and poor effort in the second and early third made it look like this grade was destined to be a bust, but then he turned it around spectacularly to earn a pretty decent grade. --Capt.
Stats: 19min 3pts (1-4, 1-2, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Thornton ( D ) -- I got to grade the Nothing Twins tonight, and they did not disappoint. A combined 37min of basically incomplete. No role, no effectiveness, no reason to be on the court. A complete waste of $10 million a year. Thornton was the better of the two, by better meaning he actually hit a shot in the second half, and seemed to be competing some of the time on defense. not that it mattered since neither guy ever guarded anybody who ever scores. To go with his complete lack of offensive role, Marcus also chipped in 0reb 0ast, and lost many of his minutes not only to Ben, but to Jimmer/IT as well, as the complete punchlessness was just ridiculous, so why not. And he was the GOOD defensive option. In fact we brought him back for the final defensive stand of regulation in what was clearly a defensive role. Said it before, but you know you have problems when you are calling on Marcus as your defensive wing stopper. These are giveup Ds for a grader. There's almost nothing to grade. You could have put me out on the court in that role and barely noticed the difference.--Brick
Stats: 41min 20pts (6-17, 1-4, 7-8) 1reb 7ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Thomas ( C+ ) -- Isaiah was fairly mediocre throughout regulation, luckily he pulled it together down the stretch and helped saved this trip from being a complete disaster. Started things off with a fade away from mid range that was swatted by Chandler. On the other end Felton was getting into the lane with ease. For most of this game the Knicks were getting inside with little resistance and while there's plenty of blame to go around Isaiah definitely deserves his fair share. Managed to find his way open from deep off the nice Cousins screen. Made his contribution to a sloppy first quarter with a lazy pass on the perimeter which lead to a easy fast break that Shumpert somehow manage to screw up. Helped salvage a poor shooting quarter with a nice runner as the quarter was drawing to a close. Came in mid way through the second to play a long side the hot shooting Fredette, which has been a rarely seen combo. Fairly quite during this stretch but did manage to knock down a pull up jumper while fading from mid range. On the other end Chandler and the Knicks guards were embarrassing the Kings with penetration and dishes for wide open dunks. Didn't have his jumper going for most of the second half, but did manage a couple of nice set ups in the third. Threw a decent pass to Cousins for the the dunk, unfortunately Chandler recovered to bother it. managed another nice pass that didn't end up with a assist as he found a cutting Cousins who was fouled on his way to an easy score. Part of a four point swing as he picked off a break out pass at half court then took it right to the basket finishing with the floater. Pulled down a offensive board hustling for a long rebound and then wrapped up the third by picking up a couple of free throws while driving to the basket. His shooting numbers were still trending in the wrong direction but it was actually a decent stretch for Thomas. Didn't manage to do much of anything in the fourth after reentering a long side Jimmer once again. At least he wasn't forcing things, no ugly shots or turnovers like in the past just no real impact as Gay and Jimmer got us to overtime. Didn't start the overtime off on a strong note as he forced the three, luckily managed to grab the offensive board which lead to a three from Gay. Several nice plays in the last coupe of minutes. Drew the foul driving into the paint then had a nice kick out to push the lead to six. Actually hit a jumper to put this one away, although he took it with too much time on the clock especially considering we had the lead. Luckily he made it and luckily the anti Isaiah crowd can take the night off.--Henkel
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