Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well, this wasn't exactly the stress free, starters kicking it on the bench sipping mai tais by the start of the 4th blowout you might have wished for, but we showed up, overcame an absolutely horrid night from every member of our backcourt not named Jimmer, and with the Magic trying to smallball us tonight we responded in a way that warmed the cockles of my heart, pounding the ball down inside, running the Gay at SG lineups so that we had no fewer than 4 postup advantages, and creaming them on the glass. That's how you crush a smallball team. 2 in a row after the player's meeting. Let's see if we can make it 3 and close out the homestand in respectable fashion.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Bajaden
Spudfan
Capt. Factorial
Rainmaker
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 22pts (8-13, 0-2, 6-6) 10reb 5ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Gay ( A ) -- becoming so smooth and consistent that you run out of things to say. Another strong, efficient game. Actually turned the ball over on the very first play of the game trying to feed JT in the post, as that was a major pillar of our early game strategy with the Magic trying to smallball us. But later hit him two times easily on the same pass, and throughout the night again showed himself capable of making nice passes to create for teammates as well as himself. Not really that involved offensively in the early going as we happily went about pounding the itsy bitsy Magic inside, but got a nice baseline shot to fall in the mid quarter, and followed that with a big block on Afflalo the other way. First guy out in our new substitution pattern for Wiliams, and unfortunately when he returned might have been too eager to get going and first thing he did was throw up a random too quick contested three. Started to score, but was taking higher degree of difficulty shots than just about anybody else. But when the Magic went back to the mini lineup, we responded again by having Gay play some SG and were able to basically post with any of our SG through C. Played a nice smooth third, passing the ball, hitting jumpers that look contested, but apparently aren't due to his great length, running the floor with Cuz as those two guys really took control of the game with IT having an off night and sort of did everything from running the point to finishing. Took a hit to the, er, lower stomach again in the early 4th that actually caused one of his turnovers, but revived and was back to solid play. As we returned to our new mega Gay/DWill swingman combo, gave us a major boost on the glass as well. We're 6-8 now since he arrived in the starting lineup. Project that out and if he'd been here full year we would be about 15-20, around the same record as New Orleans or Memphis. Not yet good without moves for some defense, but not laughingstocks either.--Brick
Stats: 25min 14pts (7-9, 0-0, 0-0) 7reb 1ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Thompson ( B+ ) -- As a role player I'm not sure Jason can play much better than he did tonight. He did everything his role requires of him and did it extremely well for the most part without forcing anything or stepping on anyone's toes, which is part of being a role player. He helped set the tone early as we established an inside presence from the opening tip. Started in the post with a drop-step and righty finish off the glass. Then Rudy found him for the dunk. After that, cut baseline and Isaiah found him with a well timed pass for the reverse layup. Defensively it was a tough match-up for Jason as he was stuck guarding Harris for much of his time on the floor who's a SF and stretched the floor by spotting up on the wing or in the corner. Harris however isn't all that good of a player and hit only 3 of his 5 made FG's on the night while matched against JT. Jason did bite on a Harris pump fake from the top of the key as Harris blew by him and finished the layup as JT fouled him from behind but that type of thing will happen now and then when he's asked to match up against SF's. I'm glad btw that Malone didn't decide to go small to match-up with Orlando much of the night and instead for stretches forced them to deal with our size advantage. Offensively JT continued his solid and extremely efficient display in the 2nd half. Swished a perimeter jumper but continued doing most of his work in the paint. Saw a flash of nice high-low action when Cuz hit Jason on a nice cut as he dropped in the hook. Finished 7-9 on the night and didn't take a single questionable shot. Hit the glass pretty well as we dominated Orlando on the boards all night. A very efficient night for JT where he hit just about every shot which came his way, actually did a good job on his defensive rotations as he was sagging off Harris and providing help when needed and rebounded well. Can't ask for much more.--Rain
Stats: 39min 24pts (9-16, 0-0, 6-6) 14reb 6ast 3stl 1blk 3TO
Cousins ( A ) -- Another day, another great game by DeMarcus. There are a few things you know about Cousins. One, he's a great rebounder. Check. Fourteen boards on the night, although given that he grabbed eight of those in the first quarter alone it looked early on that he was on his way to a 20+ rebound game in the absence of Nicola Vucevic. You also know he's a great scorer. Check. Cousins did his scoring a bit topsy-turvy in this game. He did very little posting up - at least some of this is because the Kings determined to exploit JT in the paint against the out-of-position Tobias Harris, which was working so well there wasn't much reason to give it up. But even when JT was out of the game, Cousins only posted a couple of times, with the most notable ones being the two times Big Baby denied the entry pass (once by fouling, once by knocking it out of bounds). Instead, Cuz took a lot of open jump shots (which he was being given), setting the scene early with three quick jumpers and finishing the game by going 5-7 on his J. He actually missed four of his first five shots at the rim (the only hit being a coast-to-coast layup - thing #3 that you know about Cousins is that he can handle) but ended up going 3-6 on drives and 1-2 on putbacks. Couple that with 6-6 from the line and it's clear that Orlando had very little answer for Cousins' offense. The fourth thing you know is that DeMarcus can pass. Tonight Cousins had six assists - three of those were for dunks (and DW cheated him of another assist by clanking one), two in spectacular fashion on the fast break. The second of those breaks was initiated by Cousins coming out to help on Jameer and straight up ripping the ball from the little man like that thing was Boogie's Ice Cream Cone. GIVE THE MAN HIS ICE CREAM! And that leads into the fifth thing you supposedly know about DeMarcus - he's a terrible defender. Well, not today, man. Not today. Cousins not only played good D, he played smart D. He baited Big Baby into taking EIGHT jump shots - he made ONE. But he also played great help defense. I was paying special attention to Cousins' help D tonight, and the best i can figure it, it went like this: I counted 25 opportunities for Cousins to help (you'd think it would be more, but Orlando didn't play a lot of pick-and-roll and took a ton of jumpers). On those 25 chances, Cousins failed to help three times. There were three fouls (only one on Cuz), and four makes. But there were five misses and ten denies where he forced the man he was helping on to pass. So 88% of the time, Cousins played it right and did what he had to do, and out of 22 opportunities for the Magic to hurt us in the paint, he only allowed 10 points. I was really happy with Cousins' defense tonight. Anyway, I'll probably reserve the A+ for a 20/20 game, but Cuz can't play much better. --Capt.
Stats: 18min 1pts (0-4, 0-3, 1-2) 3reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thornton ( C- ) -- It is getting hard to tell if the Kings are starting Marcus to show case him, or the Kings are starting Marcus because he is better than Ben. Either way, making a shooter look good when he is not making shots and not taking many shots is going to be hard to do. Tonight wasn’t a particularly bad game for MT, even if his only point came at the line. He was hustling after rebounds on the offensive end and was responsible for the Kings gaining possession on the opening tip. We are getting to the point where there isn’t much to say about Thornton and it is probably safe to say there their won’t be much to say about him in the future. With this new style of basketball the Kings are playing, that emphasizes getting the ball to the good players on the team there isn’t much room for Marcus to shine. Even if he wanted to. Best hope for Kings fans is someone thinks they can coax some of his former glory out of him and we can trade him.--Spud
Stats: 36min 9pts (2-13, 1-5, 4-4) 4reb 7ast 2stl 0blk 4TO
Thomas ( D+ ) -- Well, what a night for IT. If I didn't know better, I would have said he was on drugs or something. So start with what he did right. He guarded Nelson pretty well all night long. He did lose him a couple of times and both times it resulted in a basket. He also had 7 assists if I counted correctly, but should have had more. In the first quarter he had Thornton wide open cutting to the basket, and for some reason ignored him, or perhaps didn't see him. Instead he put the ball on the floor, drove around the left side of the key, pulled up and missed. A bit later he drove the lane, threw up a floater and missed, but got his own rebound and missed the put back as well. He followed that by missing a corner three. That's when he backed off Nelson, who said thank you and hit a three. Late in the first, it appeared that he made eye contact with Williams, who immediately headed toward the basket and was open for an alley opp or a backdoor, but once again, IT ignored him. IT went to the bench at the end of the quarter, and re-entered the game at 3:44 of the 2nd quarter. He got off to a good start by immediately turning the ball over. At this point it appeared to me that IT just wasn't playing with his normal intensity and concentration. He appeared to be almost nonchalant out there. He did make a nice pass to a cutting Cuz, but followed that by driving into traffic and getting the ball stolen. IT started the 2nd half by losing track of Nelson who hit a three. He made a nice pass to JT who hit an 18 footer. And then, finally, IT hit a three, his first basket of the night. He was to make only one more basket, a layup. The rest of his points were at the line. He did make a few nice passes after that for assists, but he made a couple of bonehead plays as well, like ending the 3rd quarter by grabbing the ball and driving toward the basket, and then throwing the ball back over his head, and Cousins head for an over and back. He closed things out by driving into the lane and getting the ball stolen. All in all, just a terrible night for IT. This is one he'll try to forget quickly.--bajaden
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