Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Ok, here's the bare knuckle report tonight.
I am pissed at virtually everyone on the Kings but Cousins.
-- Cousins was simply magnificent. You could argue in many ways this was the most franchise like player game he has ever produced. He did everything, and he had to because his teammates did nothing for most of the night. He was our best scorer, best rebounder, best passer and best defender. He should of by all rights have had a monster triple double, except Ray McCallum sucks.
-- Ray took a huge hit on a blind open court screen (clean) from Tyson chandler midway through the 4th. And I was thinking: you deserved that.
First of all Ray started this game 0-9. 0-9. And he couldn't remotely run the team for most of the night, so Cuz had to. Secondly, Ray blatantly blew an absolutely monster triple double by Cousins by blowing multiple perfect setups at the rim (Cousins finished with 8 assists, Ray missed at least 3 himself). He eventually made some contributions in the 4th to salvage some dignity, but I assume this game will quiet a bit the Ray as starter desires. Not ready, and this is a Knick team with terrible PG play.
-- Ray and Ben were a bad joke before half. Absolutely everything you could fear would happen starting 2 rooks in your backcourt with no reserves. Both woke up after half to make contributions. Too little too late. Ben started to hit jumpers, that was good. Ben showed his characteristic inability to control his man as J.R. Smith LIT US UP. That was bad. I hate J.R. Smith. I think that little punk should be behind bars. And Ben let him axe murder us. Although "let" can be a tough concept when it comes to Smith on a hot streak. Let's say Ben fundamentally could not make me uncomfortable, let alone J.R.
-- Rudy Gay was terrible. I think he was initially thrown off by having to be a backup PG. That didn't work. But his whole game melted down, and to top it off Melo pantsed him in front of all New York. did more than just pants him too, but this is a family board.
-- Royce White finally got to play. 48 seconds last time, and he was in in the first quarter this time. Makes sense to me. Thx coach. First of all, He's not 6'8. He's not 6'7". He might be 6'5". Corliss principle. He had no hope guarding Melo or Amare. Got nothing done the other way. He flopped. Do not know if he gets another shot.
-- IT made himself a lot of money tonight. Or some NBA level PG.
-- Theme is gonna be; Abandoned Resorts. I ain't gonna waste my A-grade stuff until the fanbase comes back from vacation.
Alright, here we go:
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 14pts (4-10, 0-2, 6-9) 3reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Gay ( D- ) -- yeah...um...Rudy, you just got your ass handed to you by a team that plays in the world's media market. People were watching. Actually started off the game solidly. Hit his first couple of shots, and Melo had nothing in the early going. As in no points at all by the time Rudy left. Which makes what was to come all the more frustrating. I think it started when he returned to start the 2nd, and he was forced to run the backup PG. Yikes. We only had two guards on the night, and they were both numbnut rookies, one of whom can't dribble without using both hands and who was in foul trouble. So when Ray went to the bench, it was Rudy Gay trying to bring it up and get us into an offense, and that worked just not at all. it did not help that Rudy was being checked by Iman Shumpert, and our offense died, Rudy's turnovers and frustration mounted, and I don't think we ever got him back after that. Everything was out of rhythm, and to make matters worse, Melo began to thrash him the other way. It got fugly enough Rudy eventually (and wisely) backed off and started just giving the ball to Cuz, which basically was the one thing we did right on the night. He contributed with a few defensive boards to help our run late in the third, but mostly he was a ghost and Cuz was alone with only a couple of kids to keep him company. And did I mention that by this point Melo had commenced kicking our ass? It wasn't that Rudy's defense was unattentive. Indeed, he tried. I don't know whether that's better or worse. But Melo is a great offensive player, a GREAT offensive player, and he just pummeled Rudy, effort or no. And the real problem is that you have to make Melo work the other way, and Rudy simply did not. We needed him to come to life if we were going to pull this out, and finally in the early 4th the lane parted and Rudy flew down it for a dunk to cut the lead to to 6. And then he added a brilliant spinning drive to cut it to 4 at the 7min mark and you were thinking it was going to happen...except It didn't. That was it. he never had another FG. Never ignited. And of course the drumbeat throughout was Melo scores over Gay, J.R. scored over Ben, Melo scored over Gay, J.R. scores over Ben, Melo scores....sigh. Melo had Smith as a wingman tonight. neither of Cuz's wingmen showed up, and that 2-1 star advantage for New York is why they won.
Courbefy Resort, France -- Courbefy was actually an old French village that like a lot of small towns just started dying when residents began moving away in the 1960s and 70s. Eventually there was an attempt to save it/get some use out of it by turning the entire village into a hotel resort in the early 1980s. That too failed, and the place was left entirely to rot until 2012 when a French court sold the entire village to a Korean photographer for half a million euros. No idea what he plans to do with it, but I guess you can say you own an entire village in France.
Stats: 16min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Evans ( D ) -- this game started out looking good for Reggie. He and Cuz exchanged assists to each other inside, and I was thinking ok, cool this is going to be a game where the saavy old vet helps the young franchise guy to overcome adversity (as in a complete lack of guardplay). But then...nothing happened. Worse than nothing. All of a sudden you started to notice that somehow a team starting Demarcus Cousins (5th in the NBA in per minute rebounding) and Reggie Evans (4th in the NBA in per minute rebounding) was somehow getting pounded on the glass. Yes that "1" in Reggie's rebounding total is not a misprint. Wonder how often that has ever happened to him. Anyway, there were some coaching hijinks as well, with Royce White suddenly appearing early in the game to get lit up, a lot of smallball and refusal to play Jason Thompson more than 5min etc. But it basically gets down to this: after about the first 4min of the game Reggie Evans did nothing out there at all, and was replaced in the third for people who at least might contribute somehow.
Cap Skirring, Senegal -- Cap Skirring is a remote town on the coast of Senegal formerly popular amongst Europeans, who seem to like to vacation in dangerous spots. One of Africa's eternal civil wars/insurgency movements dried up the tourist trade in the 1990s, leaving behind a number of abandoned resorts and hotels. Beaches are still nice though..
Stats: 43min 32pts (10-15, 0-0, 10-12) 15reb 8ast 2stl 2blk 4TO
Cousins ( A+ ) -- so much to say here that maybe the better way to go is just to say less. This was a remarkable game for Cousins. And it goes beyond the near miss on the monster triple double (a miss BTW that should never have happened -- his passing was so good he could have notched a dozen assists easy given even just normal competence from his recievers). It even goes beyond the flat excellent defense he played most of the night, both on the interior and challenging shooters on switches. What was truly remarkable here was the degree to which Cuz took it upon himself to quite clearly try to lead and carry a shorthanded team to victory. He truly was the franchise on the night. From the beginning of the game he was a major factor helping our guard crew with passing duties, and eventually at one point largely just taking over and creating the shots for teammates McCallum could not. And offensively he was as efficient as efficient can be -- I think he was 6-7 from the field before half, and he never did miss a FT the entire game. He had a handful of spectacular plays, including a one handed offensive rebound and follow slam, some great defense on J.R. Smith on the perimeter (maybe the best defense anybody played on Smith the whole night), and an offensive board and follow on a missed FT after the Knicks took out Chandler and tried to check him with Amare,. He really began to work the boards in the third, and by the midquarter was even taking our technical FTs. Truly one man teaming it, as he did all our third quarter scoring until he finally set Ben up for a three late in the quarter, which got our rookies going late in the game. As the game wore on there were a few turnovers trying to set people up, but it was remarkable just how many of the shots we did get up were the result of those attempts. he got Outlaw off to the start in the first half. Got Ben going in the second half. Got Reggie his only hoop, tried everything but picking Ray up and holding him at the hoop, little kid style, to get Ray to score. This grade is clear.
Ryugyong Hotel, North Koreal -- I'll mock this thing one more time while I can, because you see, after nearly 30 years they may actually finally be finishing it. Or at least they said they were last year. Anyway, this has long been kind of the crown jewel of that idiotic kingdom's idiocy. Back in the late 80s they squandered a bunch of Russian money on a grandiose dream of their last muppet in charge, and so in the heart of the capital city of their little medieval empire they suddenly decided to throw up a gigantic 106 story space age hotel far taller than any other building in the country. Of course with no trade, no money, and neighbors who they threaten with nuclear weapons, there is no telling who they ever thought was possibly going to stay in it. Anyway, the money ran out with the place only half finished by the early 90s, and so there it stood for decades, a 106story skeleton looming over the city. Like I say, last year they were talking about finally finishing it. So maybe they have/will. But there is still nobody to stay in it even if they do.
Stats: 31min 16pts (6-12, 4-7, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( C ) -- well the good was that from the beginning of the game continued to show improved confidence offensively, and hit his first three pointer. Problems started soon thereafter though, he started missing and then picked up 2 quick fouls, and amusingly this is the very first game all season where I hoped a foul would be called on Cuz and not Ben, because we are fresh out of guards. So Ray is struggling terribly, Travis Outlaw has somehow given us a boost, and Ben comes back...only to quickly pick up his third foul and go to the bench for the rest of the half having only played 7 minutes. Which I think means that that he played the entire second half. The good on that front is that after 8 3rd quarter minutes of complete non-entitiness, no boards, no assists, no defense, no scoring, nada, he finally felt in another three from Cuz late in the quarter to cut the lead to 14. And after another miss, he hit another important three with a few seconds to go to cut the lead to 11....only to watch J.R. Smith race down the other way and can a three of his own and push the lead back to 14 -- that one actually wasn't on him though, as Smith shot it over DWill instead. And just to complete the streak, hit a 4th three from Cuz to start the 4th quarter -- finally somebody hitting shots Cuz was giving them. Threw in one more fugly I can't dribble drive attempt that went nowhere, but halfway through the quarter was looking good. Until the other side of the ball popped back up, and J.R. Smith just ripped the soul right out of us with bang, bang, bang! Three threes, we dead. Ben defended one of them well, the other two he was off wandering again. Added a steal and open court dunk in the final minute that was kind of just padding, and that was that. So...hit some shots over a stretch from the late 3rd to early 4th. Didn't do much of anything else (16-1-1) and got shots bombed back the other way on his head down the stretch. This is Ben, who frankly gets graded like he's not a very good player and therefore should lose his matchups every night. But giving him extra credit for hitting a few shots and only getting outscored 29-16, is not the same thing as giving him a good grade. However unlike Rudy and Reggie, at least he contributed for a stretch.
UFO Houses, Sanzhi, Taiwan -- these semi-famous landmarks were meant to be a unique Taiwanese resort on their coast when construction started in 1978. Unfortunately the builder went bankrupt (and some said that they had unearthed hundreds of skeletons at the site and that it was haunted), and so the project was abandoned. It sat there for 30 years, and actually became something of a tourist attraction, until some Taiwanese bureaucrat with a mind of wheels and no sense of fun ordered them bulldozed down in 2008 to make way for new development.
Stats: 43min 10pts (3-14, 0-2, 4-5) 6reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McCallum ( D ) -- ok...um...bad. I'm glad I waited until today to write this up. Last night I would not be kind. Actually I still am not going to be kind. Here is a short description of Ray's play for the first 3/4 of this game: Ah! Ah! AH! AHHH! Ah! AHHH! Ah! AHHHH!!!! Got his first start a PG, and I'm pretty sure he had to change his shorts at halftime so shaky was he. And this was against Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni too. Please believe when I say it doesn't actually get any easier for a PG debut in this league anymore. Got blocked from behind by Melo on his first attempt at the rim in the opening minutes. And then took a hard fall we obviously could not afford. And blew anoher assist from Cuz as he again got himself blocked on the break. As a playmaker, the best you could say was that for a few minutes it looked like he was trying to set up fellow rookie Ben, and then when that did not work he had the good sense to run the give it to Cuz offense. Actually most of what he did as a PG was a direct result of pick series up top with Cuz. Take a Cuz pick, give it to him. Run around a Cuz pick, take the pass back. Run around a Cuz pick, pass it to somebody else out on the perimeter. Just very limited ability to create. And his own offense went from bad to worse. Well..actually since he had never hit a shot, I guess it just went from worse to worse as he missed, and missed, and missed, gimmes, layups, little jumpers, perfect setups at the rim. Started the game 0-9, and when you are 0-9 with your own offense, and aren't creating any offense for anybody else... Finally FINALLY got a shot to fall with a +1 drive past Prigioni in the final minute of the third, and it was clearly one of those huge relief get the lid off the hoop sort of moments. From that point on, he played. Picked up defensive pressure on Felton in the 4th. And suddenly showed more confidence offensively, drew a foul, split a pair, got a little turnaround fallaway in the paint ala Reke's gamewinner over Kenyon Martin his rookie year. Continued however his one man (well actually he had friends) crusade to keep Cuz from a triple double as he blew another gimme layup right at the rim (he would later miss an open three from Cuz too) and then got caught on a huge Chandler screen in the open court and went down in a heap. When management has only provided you with two guards who can dribble. And one of them is already out, having the other one, no matter how 2nd round rookie he is looking, go down in a heap is not good. But wobbled on up, and eventually would get two kind of gift FTs off a jumpball scramble, before making a mistake and giving Melo two FTs back the other way. For those who do not like to read, all of the above can be roughly summed up as "Was not ready to start in the NBA". And sans any PG play at all, anyone not a brilliant All NBA type of talent struggled all night.
Polissya Hotel, Pripyat -- a semi-cheat here, as this was the very exciting, as you can tell from the architecture, Soviet era hotel in Pripyat...which is to say the now famous abandoned city that used to serve Chernobyl. So not only is the hotel abandoned, an entire city of 50,000 people is abandoned. Since Putin wants to go around beating the war drums now, if I were Ukraine (where its located) I would tell him sure, you can have part of Ukraine. How about this part. You broke it, you can clean it up. P.S. saw a grade z level horror film apparently filmed on location in Pripyat (which actually does have residual radiation levels). Was a decent effort until the end when they didn't know how to finish things and so resorted to the clichéd endless shaky cam chase.
I am pissed at virtually everyone on the Kings but Cousins.
-- Cousins was simply magnificent. You could argue in many ways this was the most franchise like player game he has ever produced. He did everything, and he had to because his teammates did nothing for most of the night. He was our best scorer, best rebounder, best passer and best defender. He should of by all rights have had a monster triple double, except Ray McCallum sucks.
-- Ray took a huge hit on a blind open court screen (clean) from Tyson chandler midway through the 4th. And I was thinking: you deserved that.
First of all Ray started this game 0-9. 0-9. And he couldn't remotely run the team for most of the night, so Cuz had to. Secondly, Ray blatantly blew an absolutely monster triple double by Cousins by blowing multiple perfect setups at the rim (Cousins finished with 8 assists, Ray missed at least 3 himself). He eventually made some contributions in the 4th to salvage some dignity, but I assume this game will quiet a bit the Ray as starter desires. Not ready, and this is a Knick team with terrible PG play.-- Ray and Ben were a bad joke before half. Absolutely everything you could fear would happen starting 2 rooks in your backcourt with no reserves. Both woke up after half to make contributions. Too little too late. Ben started to hit jumpers, that was good. Ben showed his characteristic inability to control his man as J.R. Smith LIT US UP. That was bad. I hate J.R. Smith. I think that little punk should be behind bars. And Ben let him axe murder us. Although "let" can be a tough concept when it comes to Smith on a hot streak. Let's say Ben fundamentally could not make me uncomfortable, let alone J.R.
-- Rudy Gay was terrible. I think he was initially thrown off by having to be a backup PG. That didn't work. But his whole game melted down, and to top it off Melo pantsed him in front of all New York. did more than just pants him too, but this is a family board.
-- Royce White finally got to play. 48 seconds last time, and he was in in the first quarter this time. Makes sense to me. Thx coach. First of all, He's not 6'8. He's not 6'7". He might be 6'5". Corliss principle. He had no hope guarding Melo or Amare. Got nothing done the other way. He flopped. Do not know if he gets another shot.
-- IT made himself a lot of money tonight. Or some NBA level PG.
-- Theme is gonna be; Abandoned Resorts. I ain't gonna waste my A-grade stuff until the fanbase comes back from vacation.
Alright, here we go:
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 14pts (4-10, 0-2, 6-9) 3reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Gay ( D- ) -- yeah...um...Rudy, you just got your ass handed to you by a team that plays in the world's media market. People were watching. Actually started off the game solidly. Hit his first couple of shots, and Melo had nothing in the early going. As in no points at all by the time Rudy left. Which makes what was to come all the more frustrating. I think it started when he returned to start the 2nd, and he was forced to run the backup PG. Yikes. We only had two guards on the night, and they were both numbnut rookies, one of whom can't dribble without using both hands and who was in foul trouble. So when Ray went to the bench, it was Rudy Gay trying to bring it up and get us into an offense, and that worked just not at all. it did not help that Rudy was being checked by Iman Shumpert, and our offense died, Rudy's turnovers and frustration mounted, and I don't think we ever got him back after that. Everything was out of rhythm, and to make matters worse, Melo began to thrash him the other way. It got fugly enough Rudy eventually (and wisely) backed off and started just giving the ball to Cuz, which basically was the one thing we did right on the night. He contributed with a few defensive boards to help our run late in the third, but mostly he was a ghost and Cuz was alone with only a couple of kids to keep him company. And did I mention that by this point Melo had commenced kicking our ass? It wasn't that Rudy's defense was unattentive. Indeed, he tried. I don't know whether that's better or worse. But Melo is a great offensive player, a GREAT offensive player, and he just pummeled Rudy, effort or no. And the real problem is that you have to make Melo work the other way, and Rudy simply did not. We needed him to come to life if we were going to pull this out, and finally in the early 4th the lane parted and Rudy flew down it for a dunk to cut the lead to to 6. And then he added a brilliant spinning drive to cut it to 4 at the 7min mark and you were thinking it was going to happen...except It didn't. That was it. he never had another FG. Never ignited. And of course the drumbeat throughout was Melo scores over Gay, J.R. scored over Ben, Melo scored over Gay, J.R. scores over Ben, Melo scores....sigh. Melo had Smith as a wingman tonight. neither of Cuz's wingmen showed up, and that 2-1 star advantage for New York is why they won.
Courbefy Resort, France -- Courbefy was actually an old French village that like a lot of small towns just started dying when residents began moving away in the 1960s and 70s. Eventually there was an attempt to save it/get some use out of it by turning the entire village into a hotel resort in the early 1980s. That too failed, and the place was left entirely to rot until 2012 when a French court sold the entire village to a Korean photographer for half a million euros. No idea what he plans to do with it, but I guess you can say you own an entire village in France.
Stats: 16min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Evans ( D ) -- this game started out looking good for Reggie. He and Cuz exchanged assists to each other inside, and I was thinking ok, cool this is going to be a game where the saavy old vet helps the young franchise guy to overcome adversity (as in a complete lack of guardplay). But then...nothing happened. Worse than nothing. All of a sudden you started to notice that somehow a team starting Demarcus Cousins (5th in the NBA in per minute rebounding) and Reggie Evans (4th in the NBA in per minute rebounding) was somehow getting pounded on the glass. Yes that "1" in Reggie's rebounding total is not a misprint. Wonder how often that has ever happened to him. Anyway, there were some coaching hijinks as well, with Royce White suddenly appearing early in the game to get lit up, a lot of smallball and refusal to play Jason Thompson more than 5min etc. But it basically gets down to this: after about the first 4min of the game Reggie Evans did nothing out there at all, and was replaced in the third for people who at least might contribute somehow.
Cap Skirring, Senegal -- Cap Skirring is a remote town on the coast of Senegal formerly popular amongst Europeans, who seem to like to vacation in dangerous spots. One of Africa's eternal civil wars/insurgency movements dried up the tourist trade in the 1990s, leaving behind a number of abandoned resorts and hotels. Beaches are still nice though..
Stats: 43min 32pts (10-15, 0-0, 10-12) 15reb 8ast 2stl 2blk 4TO
Cousins ( A+ ) -- so much to say here that maybe the better way to go is just to say less. This was a remarkable game for Cousins. And it goes beyond the near miss on the monster triple double (a miss BTW that should never have happened -- his passing was so good he could have notched a dozen assists easy given even just normal competence from his recievers). It even goes beyond the flat excellent defense he played most of the night, both on the interior and challenging shooters on switches. What was truly remarkable here was the degree to which Cuz took it upon himself to quite clearly try to lead and carry a shorthanded team to victory. He truly was the franchise on the night. From the beginning of the game he was a major factor helping our guard crew with passing duties, and eventually at one point largely just taking over and creating the shots for teammates McCallum could not. And offensively he was as efficient as efficient can be -- I think he was 6-7 from the field before half, and he never did miss a FT the entire game. He had a handful of spectacular plays, including a one handed offensive rebound and follow slam, some great defense on J.R. Smith on the perimeter (maybe the best defense anybody played on Smith the whole night), and an offensive board and follow on a missed FT after the Knicks took out Chandler and tried to check him with Amare,. He really began to work the boards in the third, and by the midquarter was even taking our technical FTs. Truly one man teaming it, as he did all our third quarter scoring until he finally set Ben up for a three late in the quarter, which got our rookies going late in the game. As the game wore on there were a few turnovers trying to set people up, but it was remarkable just how many of the shots we did get up were the result of those attempts. he got Outlaw off to the start in the first half. Got Ben going in the second half. Got Reggie his only hoop, tried everything but picking Ray up and holding him at the hoop, little kid style, to get Ray to score. This grade is clear.
Ryugyong Hotel, North Koreal -- I'll mock this thing one more time while I can, because you see, after nearly 30 years they may actually finally be finishing it. Or at least they said they were last year. Anyway, this has long been kind of the crown jewel of that idiotic kingdom's idiocy. Back in the late 80s they squandered a bunch of Russian money on a grandiose dream of their last muppet in charge, and so in the heart of the capital city of their little medieval empire they suddenly decided to throw up a gigantic 106 story space age hotel far taller than any other building in the country. Of course with no trade, no money, and neighbors who they threaten with nuclear weapons, there is no telling who they ever thought was possibly going to stay in it. Anyway, the money ran out with the place only half finished by the early 90s, and so there it stood for decades, a 106story skeleton looming over the city. Like I say, last year they were talking about finally finishing it. So maybe they have/will. But there is still nobody to stay in it even if they do.
Stats: 31min 16pts (6-12, 4-7, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( C ) -- well the good was that from the beginning of the game continued to show improved confidence offensively, and hit his first three pointer. Problems started soon thereafter though, he started missing and then picked up 2 quick fouls, and amusingly this is the very first game all season where I hoped a foul would be called on Cuz and not Ben, because we are fresh out of guards. So Ray is struggling terribly, Travis Outlaw has somehow given us a boost, and Ben comes back...only to quickly pick up his third foul and go to the bench for the rest of the half having only played 7 minutes. Which I think means that that he played the entire second half. The good on that front is that after 8 3rd quarter minutes of complete non-entitiness, no boards, no assists, no defense, no scoring, nada, he finally felt in another three from Cuz late in the quarter to cut the lead to 14. And after another miss, he hit another important three with a few seconds to go to cut the lead to 11....only to watch J.R. Smith race down the other way and can a three of his own and push the lead back to 14 -- that one actually wasn't on him though, as Smith shot it over DWill instead. And just to complete the streak, hit a 4th three from Cuz to start the 4th quarter -- finally somebody hitting shots Cuz was giving them. Threw in one more fugly I can't dribble drive attempt that went nowhere, but halfway through the quarter was looking good. Until the other side of the ball popped back up, and J.R. Smith just ripped the soul right out of us with bang, bang, bang! Three threes, we dead. Ben defended one of them well, the other two he was off wandering again. Added a steal and open court dunk in the final minute that was kind of just padding, and that was that. So...hit some shots over a stretch from the late 3rd to early 4th. Didn't do much of anything else (16-1-1) and got shots bombed back the other way on his head down the stretch. This is Ben, who frankly gets graded like he's not a very good player and therefore should lose his matchups every night. But giving him extra credit for hitting a few shots and only getting outscored 29-16, is not the same thing as giving him a good grade. However unlike Rudy and Reggie, at least he contributed for a stretch.
UFO Houses, Sanzhi, Taiwan -- these semi-famous landmarks were meant to be a unique Taiwanese resort on their coast when construction started in 1978. Unfortunately the builder went bankrupt (and some said that they had unearthed hundreds of skeletons at the site and that it was haunted), and so the project was abandoned. It sat there for 30 years, and actually became something of a tourist attraction, until some Taiwanese bureaucrat with a mind of wheels and no sense of fun ordered them bulldozed down in 2008 to make way for new development.
Stats: 43min 10pts (3-14, 0-2, 4-5) 6reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McCallum ( D ) -- ok...um...bad. I'm glad I waited until today to write this up. Last night I would not be kind. Actually I still am not going to be kind. Here is a short description of Ray's play for the first 3/4 of this game: Ah! Ah! AH! AHHH! Ah! AHHH! Ah! AHHHH!!!! Got his first start a PG, and I'm pretty sure he had to change his shorts at halftime so shaky was he. And this was against Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni too. Please believe when I say it doesn't actually get any easier for a PG debut in this league anymore. Got blocked from behind by Melo on his first attempt at the rim in the opening minutes. And then took a hard fall we obviously could not afford. And blew anoher assist from Cuz as he again got himself blocked on the break. As a playmaker, the best you could say was that for a few minutes it looked like he was trying to set up fellow rookie Ben, and then when that did not work he had the good sense to run the give it to Cuz offense. Actually most of what he did as a PG was a direct result of pick series up top with Cuz. Take a Cuz pick, give it to him. Run around a Cuz pick, take the pass back. Run around a Cuz pick, pass it to somebody else out on the perimeter. Just very limited ability to create. And his own offense went from bad to worse. Well..actually since he had never hit a shot, I guess it just went from worse to worse as he missed, and missed, and missed, gimmes, layups, little jumpers, perfect setups at the rim. Started the game 0-9, and when you are 0-9 with your own offense, and aren't creating any offense for anybody else... Finally FINALLY got a shot to fall with a +1 drive past Prigioni in the final minute of the third, and it was clearly one of those huge relief get the lid off the hoop sort of moments. From that point on, he played. Picked up defensive pressure on Felton in the 4th. And suddenly showed more confidence offensively, drew a foul, split a pair, got a little turnaround fallaway in the paint ala Reke's gamewinner over Kenyon Martin his rookie year. Continued however his one man (well actually he had friends) crusade to keep Cuz from a triple double as he blew another gimme layup right at the rim (he would later miss an open three from Cuz too) and then got caught on a huge Chandler screen in the open court and went down in a heap. When management has only provided you with two guards who can dribble. And one of them is already out, having the other one, no matter how 2nd round rookie he is looking, go down in a heap is not good. But wobbled on up, and eventually would get two kind of gift FTs off a jumpball scramble, before making a mistake and giving Melo two FTs back the other way. For those who do not like to read, all of the above can be roughly summed up as "Was not ready to start in the NBA". And sans any PG play at all, anyone not a brilliant All NBA type of talent struggled all night.
Polissya Hotel, Pripyat -- a semi-cheat here, as this was the very exciting, as you can tell from the architecture, Soviet era hotel in Pripyat...which is to say the now famous abandoned city that used to serve Chernobyl. So not only is the hotel abandoned, an entire city of 50,000 people is abandoned. Since Putin wants to go around beating the war drums now, if I were Ukraine (where its located) I would tell him sure, you can have part of Ukraine. How about this part. You broke it, you can clean it up. P.S. saw a grade z level horror film apparently filmed on location in Pripyat (which actually does have residual radiation levels). Was a decent effort until the end when they didn't know how to finish things and so resorted to the clichéd endless shaky cam chase.
Last edited:
