Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Ok, well a fugly game fully worthy of its 4 games in 5 nights stature, but we eventually wobbled aright enough to wander out with a victory. After half there may have even been some defense played, although the Magic are a remarkably easy team to play defense against. Notable tonight was DeMarcus just obviously being gassed after the big road trip, and how useful it was to have the extra weapon in Gay to pick up the slack (after a slow start himself). Also notable was the return of Marcus Thornton, who really does need to be traded down to one of these Florida teams since everytime he hits the sunshine state he seems to catch a second wind. Anyway, fugly slow paced game, like two mediocre heavyweight boxers leaning on each other in the 9th round and mostly just hoping the other one passes out from lack of oxygen first. We survived, and avoided the bagel on the road trip. Yay and all that. At least there was some fight.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Bajaden
Rainmaker
MassachusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 39min 23pts (8-20, 3-6, 4-4) 6reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Gay ( B ) -- Gay started off the game really, really cold. He didn’t seem particularly engaged on either end. His defense was lazy (late closeouts, weak fouls, etc.), and his offense just wasn’t there at all. This lasted until about halfway through the 2nd quarter when Gay helped spark the Kings mini-run with a quick 8 points (two 3’s and two FT’s) that erased Orlando’s double digit lead right before halftime. He was much more aggressive after the half, and was mostly effective. We definitely saw more than a couple forced shots and drives to the basket (some of which went in), but aggressive Rudy Gay is better then invisible Rudy Gay. He had a very short spurt of hero basketball late in the fourth that could have cost the Kings the game had Orlando not completely collapsed in the last minute or so. His defense never really picked up, but he did contribute on the glass with 6 rebounds. I didn’t love a lot of Rudy’s game tonight, but I thought his impact was more positive than negative. Despite his 20 shot attempts he didn’t handle the ball as much as that number would suggest. And with Cousins struggling to find his own offense, the Kings needed all the points Gay could give them. When he was handling the ball his decision-making was a little questionable, but you could see his superior talent level again tonight. He had one fantastic pass to Cousins over the top of the defense for an easy two points that might have been the best play of the entire game. This was a solid, but not great overall game from Gay on a night where his volume shooting didn’t necessarily take anything away from the rest of his teammates. --Mass
Stats: 37min 11pts (5-7, 0-0, 1-2) 7reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Thompson ( B- ) -- a more solid effort than the night before in Miami. Played well down around the hoop, was occasionally victimized early and late by the perimeter shooting Magic semi-bigs. Had more rebounds by the end of the first quarter than he had all game in Miami, but faded back away again as Jason this year is basically rebounding at the same rate he did last year, which was a career low effort. Had an important stint in the early 4th holding down the center spot for a gassed Demarcus. Started it off with a good challenge inside on Oladipo to force a miss, and did a fully credible job at center against Vucevic until Boogie could get back. Quit producing numbers as the game went along, but until the jumpshooting ways of his opposite numbers finally chased Malone into bringing back Outlaw for the final 2 minutes, JT stayed out on the floor tp play long minutes by just being solid as his career. --Brick
Stats: 37min 14pts (5-14, 0-0, 4-9) 11reb 2ast 1stl 2blk 4TO
Cousins ( D+ ) -- Nope, just did not have anything left in the tank after carrying the team through the first three nights of a 4 In 5 stretch. Cuz has done a better job fighting through fatigue this year, but in this case the legs were just shot. Was getting pushed around by Vucevic (although not dominated -- even on a bad night Boogie won the matchup) and O'Quinn, who are about as beefy as any center duo in the league, never looked comfortable on offense, pushed off his spots, no explosion. And throughout his career one of the first places you can see fatigue with Boogie is on the glass. By the end of the third was clearly just gassed, was not changing ends fast, and the feet stopped moving. Came back on for the final 5 min or so, and while no less gassed than before, sort of wildly scrapped around inside to some minor effect (and half his rebounds came in sort of wild late action), including coming up with a huge sequence at the 2:40 mark that may have sealed the game for us. Came up with the offensive rebound, the finish +1, missed the FT, grabbed the offensive board off his own miss, went back in got fouled again, and split the pair for the whole-lotta-effort three point play to get us back up 7. Probably added the + here. In fact really, given circumstances I was even pondering C-. But justifiable or not this was clearly one of Boogie's worst games, so sown into the Ds we venture. --Brick
Stats: 17min 9pts (3-3, 2-2, 1-2) 0reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( B- ) -- Both the ups and downs of rookie life were on display tonight for Ben. Wasn't seeing much, if any of the ball for long stretches but the few touches he did get he capitalized on. Made a nice pass to JT on an early JT dive to the basket. Hit both 3's he attempted and I was impressed by the speed and balance with which he got off and made his second 3. Turned, balanced himself, elevated and fired extremely quickly, which is tough to do given the angle and speed with which he ran to the wing. Later received the ball in transition and did a good job getting into the paint and converting softly off the glass considering his ball handling concerns. Didn't see much of the ball and was a spectator much of the night on offense so it's tough to hold not doing more offensively against him. Finished 3-3 on FG's. What did knock his grade down were his fouls. His fouls sent him to the bench early in both halves. This is also part of his growing pains and something he should improve on as he adjusts to the speed of the game at this level. Afflalo had a great night, scoring 26 on 9-17 from the floor, however a number of those points came when Ben was on the bench. Ben did a decent job tracking and sticking with Afflalo, foul trouble aside and his defense is slowly trending up. Has to limit fouls going forward but is something most rookies have to go through during their first go-around.--Rain
Stats: 43min 23pts (8-15, 3-7, 4-4) 5reb 9ast 3stl 0blk 4TO
Thomas ( A ) -- Thomas played a pretty complete game tonight. Most of his scoring came in the flow of the game, and he did have the occasional, I think its my time to score moments. But they were far and few between. A couple of them ended up being turnovers, and two of them came at a significant point of the game when the Magic were attempting to come back. But as they say, no harm no foul. He did have a total brain dead moment with less than two minutes left in the game, he unbelievably left the ball roll down the floor without touching it to start the clock, as though we were behind in the game, and trying to save clock. I can only assume that he's been in that exact situation so many times, that it was an automatic reflex. However he followed that moment by pulling up and hitting a 16 footer giving us a 6 pt lead with 36.8 seconds left in the game. In fact, that was the game. I thought IT benefited by not having to guard one of the quicker and taller PG's tonight. In fact, he was up against someone almost his own size, at least height wise. Nelson isn't a spring chicken anymore either, plus, he's more of a pass first PG. So defensively, IT got a little break. Not that he didn't have a couple of breakdowns. Nelson got by IT in the first quarter, and was fouled. Later in toward the end of the 2nd quarter, IT turned his head for moment and Nelson blew by him for a layup. Probably his worse moment came at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, when Nelson put the ball on the floor and drove past IT for a layup with 2 ticks left on the shotclock. But I'm nitpicking now. IT played a very good game. It was a nice mix of assists and scoring that I thought was very well balanced. He ended the night with 9 assists, and with a little luck, he could have had few more. He was certainly a big part of the win. --Baja
Last edited:
