Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
And finally we get to be Ali.
In a clear spillover from what really was a "great loss" against Miami, our starting unit, sans IT who was quickly out of the game with fouls, just played the game the way you are supposed to play it, met little resistance against a terrible Orlando team that were 4-28 over their last 32 games, and the blowout was in fullforce within 10 minutes of the opening whistle. Orlando never did mount a significant run against either our starters or backups. We weren't as brilliant after half, but it did not matter as for just about the first time I can remember this season we hammered a team and were able to have our starters joking over on the bench for the final 12-15min of he game. I mean, that NEVER happens to us anymore. We're always on the other end. So, likely the best 2-game stretch of basketball we've had all year.
No Baja sauce on the Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
Boxscore
Stats: 22min 21pts (7-9, 4-5, 3-3) 1reb 5ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Salmons ( A ) -- funny thing in a game like this, but you actually end up taking fewer notes than you do in a normal game because everything is going so well and its clear you're gonig to win the game form so early, that no particular play is likely to make that big a difference and its more fun just to sit back and watch the rout. I have as many about John as anyone, but aside from a solitary 1 on 1 forced drive in the first quarter, that was out of character for both him and us in this game, it was na allmost boring parade of sueprlatives. Basically right now John is hitting all of his shots, he's moving the ball unselfishly, and while there wasn't much to say about hsi defense tonight, he's at least attenive on that end. I was a little annoyed in the early going when out of a timeout Smart AGAIN called the play for John frickin' Salmons...but John responded on it wiht a big drive and dunk that got the bench up and laughing because Salmons almost never dunks, certainly not with authority. Came upw itha couple of what in this game could basically be called important palys as we came out predictably gflat about the first half blowout, but John's +1 drive, and then another three point bomb bumped the lead right back out and kickstarted us to jsut walk this home like professionals. I don't require perfection to get a straight A, I just want it to be up at the very high end fo a game we are likely to see out of a guy. And 21pts on 7-9 shooting in 22min, 5ast, in a blowout win is pretty much as good as you can ever ratioanlly hope for out of John. This was an A as he continued his run of strong play. --Brick
Stats: 22min 8pts (3-7, 0-0, 2-2) 7reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( C+ ) -- speaking of guys I have few notes for, Jason was pretty much the only guy on the court in the early going who didn't really particpate much in the party. He was quiet to start, and ceded the entire second quarter to Patterson, who played well. By the time Jason returned for the third, the game was pretty much over. Got into a little scrappiness with Nicholson on the glass and did a little better than before half, but I don't think there was a single notable play he made in his minutes. --Brick
Stats: 24min 13pts (4-10, 0-0, 5-6) 6reb 4ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Cousins ( B ) -- another good start in all ways, and what on paper might have looked like a good matchup between tow good young centers quickly turned into a rout as Vucevic had nothing and DeMarcus was just too powerful and clever for him from the start. But it wasn't just about Boogie individually beating Viucevic, it was how comfortable he was out there and how happy he was to function as a passer to help everybody get involved. Only thing that was off was his jumper. Started the third sluggish and then got out of sorts as the Magic were physical to the point of openly provocative against him. For a while I thought it was going to get the better of him as he started getting into it with the refs and his defense suffered as he allowed several open jumpers. But it wasn't going to be that night for him or us, he avoided the technical, continued making plays, and Coach Smart wisely yanked him before the end of the third before anything could go stupidly wrong in a game we'd won half an hour ago. --Brick
Stats: 26min 17pts (7-11, 0-0, 3-4) 3reb 7ast 4stl 0blk 1TO
Evans ( A- ) -- Tyreke had a pretty good night - the highlight was of course at the end of the first quarter (back when the game was still in doubt!) when he made an amazing pass over-the-shoulder to Patterson for a dunk, then on the next possession stole the ball and ran the break leading to a behind-the-back wrap off of the dribble leading to a kick to Jimmer for a 3. Had that sequence happened in STA, we'd have brought the roof down. Tyreke hit six layups tonight, three in transition, two off of the drive, and one off of the cut, and when he does that it works wonders for both our shooting percentage and our probability of winning. He did, however, miss two layups on coast-to-coast attempts going into traffic, so there's a fine line between getting out there and forcing the issue. Tyreke had seven assists tonight, and at least 5 of those were to three-point shooters (I've only got 6 in my notes so I don't know about that last one). Defensively it was a mixed bag. I loved his four steals, though two were wasted with a turnover in transition and a bad alley-oop pass to Cuz. But there were a lot of possessions in the third where he wasn't really putting forward full effort, even though he finished the game allowing a respectable 8 points on 8 shots. Altogether, a very nice game but a few warts here and there that prevented me from giving him the full A. --Capt.
Stats: 14min 2pts (1-2, 0-1, 0-0) 0reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Thomas ( INC ) -- IT picked up two very quick fouls and was taken out of the game before two minutes had passed. By the time he came back in, the game was already a laugher and he just was not terribly involved in the offense. He threaded an alley-oop pass to DeMarcus in traffic but outside of that didn't do anything notable offensively in the third, and he got a well-deserved break for the fourth. However, it did look like IT was focusing on defense during the third. He had two separate possessions in the late third where he stayed in front of Beno when he tried to drive, and he did a much better job getting both under and around screens. He didn't really play in enough minuted to earn a grade, but if he can carry that defensive effort into games that are contested, I'll be a very happy Kings fan. --Capt.
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) BUT man I'm so happy for our guys. Hopefully, playing the champs like we did last night gave us a newfound confidence in ourselves.
