Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Listen to the sound of extra ping pong balls piling up...
Same ole story with us. Its our on court story of the year -- did the Orlando Magic, a team on the outside fringes of the championship hunt actually look more talented than us tonight? No they didn't, and that was with us missing one of our two most dynamic talents. But they did probably look more poised and more expereinced, and so in the end we lose another tight one. Which paradoxically tells me that this team, meaning us, could get scary good here in a hurry.
I don't know on theme. I was thinking maybe All About Goldfish or something similarly trivial.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( B- ) -- hit a three to start things, and then a second one when he was wide opoen on the wing. Only production for a long long time however as Casspi took over and was playing tough, if not necessarily great, ball. Came up with a great hustle block on the break in the late 3rd.
Goldfish are descended from the Prussian Carp, which despite its name originated in Northern China/Siberia rather than Germany, but was introduced to Europe centuries ago and now is a common fish in its lakes, ponds, and slow moving rivers.
Cousins ( A- ) -- while flashing on and off flashes of major stardom these last few months, one caution with DeMarcus is that he has seemed to struggle the most against the league's biggest centers, and seemed to be a little intimidated when facing the likes of Shaq and Howard. Flash forward to tonight and maybe yet another step taken forward for a kid who seems to learn at an exponential rate. Now the fact of the matter is that most of DeMarcus's points were not against Howard -- he again pummeled the smaller unworthies like Bass and Anderson as our twin towers set gave him a prohibitive advantage at PF, while he was slowed by the game's best center when they were matched. But it was a huge change in demeanor as he not only accepted the Howard challenge for long stretches, he seemed to be relishing it, and competed with him as an equal. Had multiple turnovers earlyn of the common type of late -- trying to do too much with the passing and create things that are not there. Nice move stepping through a double for an up and under layup -- he did that several times. When's the last time you saw a 6'11" 280lb guy splitting doubles with a dribble? Did a pretty good job against Howard down the stretch of the first quarter after Daly went to the bench, but lost his cool near the end of the quarter and got a T. Killed Bass in the early 2nd, and as soon as Dwight went to the bench near the end of the half, just tanked right through Bass for a +1 finish. Finished the half with another impressive 19pt half, and this one continuing the sense you have gotten in recent weeks that DeMarcus was in control of the game. One negative was that he spent so much time trying to keep Dwight off the glass that he wasn't on the boards himself and ony had 1 in the first half. In the third the Magic changed things up, and really had ot with Howard picking up his 4th foul early in the quarter. They were doubling DeMarcus har,d, and he punished them beating their doubles with passes, again splitting one etc. really begna to hir the Magic beatign their doubels with passes, and then splitting one. Was big down the stretch for us, but not quite big enoguh as it turned out. Set Casspi up for a big late three, saved a near TO by Jason, and hit an off balance jumper over Anderson. At the 1:00 mark we came down, isolated Cousins vs. Dwight, and DeMarcus drew Howard's 6th foul with a power spin move. A possession later caught a missed Thornton layup at the 40 second mark, and got fouled + hit the pair. With 15 seconds to go made a mistake and fouled JRich to let the Magic have a shot at sealing the game from the line, but JRich missed both, which was just shades of similar out of nowhere outages Nash and Durant have had against us. So turned out to be a great foul, and Demarcus came up with the strong rebound on the second miss. But then had to stand and watch Luther Head be the guy to try to tie it for us as once again we were right there but no cigar. So here's the thing DeMarcus has a subpar rebounding night, and he committed 7 TOs on a night when iour TOs killed us. And yet this was if you watchd it easily one of his most impressive games. he attacked the Magic, bent their defense, played stout defense on Howard inside without fouling himsellf out, and when called upon late fouled out the Magic's franchise center and gave us a chacne to pull it out. I'll give you a little hint here: that's because DeMarcus is a franchise center too. And so I'm calling it a low A despite the flaws.
The prussian carp were originally raised for food purposes in ancient China. They are normally an olive greeen color, but a common mutation in some varieties of the carp results in yellow or orange coloration, and the chinese first began to selectively breed fish with these pigmentations for ornamental rather than food purposes more than a 1000 years ago.
Dalembert ( C+ ) -- struggling with Dwight in the early going, but wrestled with him and never made it easy. Erased a Bass layup on the break. Forced a bad 1 on 1 shot against Howard in the early third, but got the ball back when Thornton tracked it down, and drew Howard's 4th only a minute into the 3rd. Looked like a great opportunity for us, but Daly was not able to take advantage of the foul sitiuation on Howard and got repeatedly smushed when he tried to go inside at him. this one was never smooth, never pretty, but he banged and wrestled and impeded, and Howard was held down in numbers while Daly got 10rebs in only 21min. Not a great game by any stretch, but contributed to making to tough for Howard on defense.
Early on in their development the Chinese Emperors decied that only they, the Imperial family, would get to raise the golden/yellow "goldfish" and made it illegal for anybody else to do so. Hence why in the modern era there are so many more orange "goldfish" varieties than actual yellow/gold ones.
Thornton ( B+ ) -- numbers were very good in this one -- in fact almost Rekesque, although the game itself probably offered more quibbles. Went back to back on threes with Cisco to start the game, and had a hard fast finish 1 on 4 in the fullcourt for the +1 -- he attacks the rim HARD. Exploded off for 10pts in the first 5 minutes of the game before settling back. Got out of control on a drive late in the 3rd after Cisco's big block, and clearly ran over a Magic defender who had been sitting threre for a week -- no idea how MArcus didn't see that, so I'm guessing he just got overexcited.. Misran the end of the 3rd quarter play, running it far too early -- did set up Daly for a layup, which was good (and in general did a nice job helping Head run the offense on a night in which we basically played without a PG), but left more than enough time for Arenas to counter with a long three right at the buzzer, which was not so good and why you are supposed to run off the whole clock. It continues to boggle my mihnd how many of our guys make that mistake. Its jsut a siimple mathematical thing -- you start your move with 5 or 6 seconds left. You just do. Gives you time to score on your own or kick it to somebody else, and maybe one offensive rebound tip opportunity. Leaves the opponent with no more than 2 seconds to try to heave a full courter. Its not like this is a negotiable or mysterious rule. But our guys are constantly screwing it up and runing plays with 10, 12, 15 seconds to go in that situation and you are wondering what the hell? Its just basic math guys. In any case, misplayed it, an we got hurt. Kept his own efficiency up all game long despite a ton of attention, and despite his own propensity to try selfish 1 on 1 forces at least once a quarter. That's of course a bad trait, but when you stil mange to hit 50% despite that it shows you just how effiicent he is when he's playing within the offense. Unable to come up big this time down the strettch. Could not convert the layup through traffic out of the timeout at the 40 second mark, and was doubleteamed out of the timeout at the 15 second mark with us down 3 and needing a three to tie it -- now ay the Magic were going to let him shoot it. So he desperately found Head instead. Oops. Not perfect, nor maybe quite as good as the numbers, but it was another strong performance, another legit 20pt have the other team concerned about you performance as a #2 weapon to Cousins. Some say no, but I really realy want to see Reke back out there ot see how Reke/Cousins/Thornton works now with everybody beginning to fire off. If Thornton is really this potent, that could be every bit as good a toung crew as OKC's young trio, and it could make a difference in what we do with the SF position int he offseason -- ie. if thornton is weapon #3 then you can afford to really look at defense/passing/rebounding type stuff from the SF rather than needing to bring in a #3 weapon there.
Once we, meaning people, started breeding them 1000 years ago, goldfish have basically undergone aprocess of forced evolution every bit as severe as that undergone by dogs -- in fact the incredible varities of goldfish today -- over 100 varieties, many of which have very little resemblance to the carp from which they sprung only 1000 years ago -- might make a potent example in the evolution debates of just how quickly and extremely evolution can occur. Goldfish are generally social fish -- they will school, and are rarely aggressive to each other. But I have no idea how a common goldfish and a ryunkin even recognize each other as the same species. Befitting their origin in lakes and rivers of southern Siberia/Northern China, they are a cold water speies that can live outside even in colder climes, essentiually sinking ot the bottom and hibernating through winter. Hardier varieties can easily live 10 years in the right conditions, and the oldest pet goldfish on record actually lived 45 years.
Same ole story with us. Its our on court story of the year -- did the Orlando Magic, a team on the outside fringes of the championship hunt actually look more talented than us tonight? No they didn't, and that was with us missing one of our two most dynamic talents. But they did probably look more poised and more expereinced, and so in the end we lose another tight one. Which paradoxically tells me that this team, meaning us, could get scary good here in a hurry.
I don't know on theme. I was thinking maybe All About Goldfish or something similarly trivial.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( B- ) -- hit a three to start things, and then a second one when he was wide opoen on the wing. Only production for a long long time however as Casspi took over and was playing tough, if not necessarily great, ball. Came up with a great hustle block on the break in the late 3rd.
Goldfish are descended from the Prussian Carp, which despite its name originated in Northern China/Siberia rather than Germany, but was introduced to Europe centuries ago and now is a common fish in its lakes, ponds, and slow moving rivers.
Cousins ( A- ) -- while flashing on and off flashes of major stardom these last few months, one caution with DeMarcus is that he has seemed to struggle the most against the league's biggest centers, and seemed to be a little intimidated when facing the likes of Shaq and Howard. Flash forward to tonight and maybe yet another step taken forward for a kid who seems to learn at an exponential rate. Now the fact of the matter is that most of DeMarcus's points were not against Howard -- he again pummeled the smaller unworthies like Bass and Anderson as our twin towers set gave him a prohibitive advantage at PF, while he was slowed by the game's best center when they were matched. But it was a huge change in demeanor as he not only accepted the Howard challenge for long stretches, he seemed to be relishing it, and competed with him as an equal. Had multiple turnovers earlyn of the common type of late -- trying to do too much with the passing and create things that are not there. Nice move stepping through a double for an up and under layup -- he did that several times. When's the last time you saw a 6'11" 280lb guy splitting doubles with a dribble? Did a pretty good job against Howard down the stretch of the first quarter after Daly went to the bench, but lost his cool near the end of the quarter and got a T. Killed Bass in the early 2nd, and as soon as Dwight went to the bench near the end of the half, just tanked right through Bass for a +1 finish. Finished the half with another impressive 19pt half, and this one continuing the sense you have gotten in recent weeks that DeMarcus was in control of the game. One negative was that he spent so much time trying to keep Dwight off the glass that he wasn't on the boards himself and ony had 1 in the first half. In the third the Magic changed things up, and really had ot with Howard picking up his 4th foul early in the quarter. They were doubling DeMarcus har,d, and he punished them beating their doubles with passes, again splitting one etc. really begna to hir the Magic beatign their doubels with passes, and then splitting one. Was big down the stretch for us, but not quite big enoguh as it turned out. Set Casspi up for a big late three, saved a near TO by Jason, and hit an off balance jumper over Anderson. At the 1:00 mark we came down, isolated Cousins vs. Dwight, and DeMarcus drew Howard's 6th foul with a power spin move. A possession later caught a missed Thornton layup at the 40 second mark, and got fouled + hit the pair. With 15 seconds to go made a mistake and fouled JRich to let the Magic have a shot at sealing the game from the line, but JRich missed both, which was just shades of similar out of nowhere outages Nash and Durant have had against us. So turned out to be a great foul, and Demarcus came up with the strong rebound on the second miss. But then had to stand and watch Luther Head be the guy to try to tie it for us as once again we were right there but no cigar. So here's the thing DeMarcus has a subpar rebounding night, and he committed 7 TOs on a night when iour TOs killed us. And yet this was if you watchd it easily one of his most impressive games. he attacked the Magic, bent their defense, played stout defense on Howard inside without fouling himsellf out, and when called upon late fouled out the Magic's franchise center and gave us a chacne to pull it out. I'll give you a little hint here: that's because DeMarcus is a franchise center too. And so I'm calling it a low A despite the flaws.
The prussian carp were originally raised for food purposes in ancient China. They are normally an olive greeen color, but a common mutation in some varieties of the carp results in yellow or orange coloration, and the chinese first began to selectively breed fish with these pigmentations for ornamental rather than food purposes more than a 1000 years ago.
Dalembert ( C+ ) -- struggling with Dwight in the early going, but wrestled with him and never made it easy. Erased a Bass layup on the break. Forced a bad 1 on 1 shot against Howard in the early third, but got the ball back when Thornton tracked it down, and drew Howard's 4th only a minute into the 3rd. Looked like a great opportunity for us, but Daly was not able to take advantage of the foul sitiuation on Howard and got repeatedly smushed when he tried to go inside at him. this one was never smooth, never pretty, but he banged and wrestled and impeded, and Howard was held down in numbers while Daly got 10rebs in only 21min. Not a great game by any stretch, but contributed to making to tough for Howard on defense.
Early on in their development the Chinese Emperors decied that only they, the Imperial family, would get to raise the golden/yellow "goldfish" and made it illegal for anybody else to do so. Hence why in the modern era there are so many more orange "goldfish" varieties than actual yellow/gold ones.
Thornton ( B+ ) -- numbers were very good in this one -- in fact almost Rekesque, although the game itself probably offered more quibbles. Went back to back on threes with Cisco to start the game, and had a hard fast finish 1 on 4 in the fullcourt for the +1 -- he attacks the rim HARD. Exploded off for 10pts in the first 5 minutes of the game before settling back. Got out of control on a drive late in the 3rd after Cisco's big block, and clearly ran over a Magic defender who had been sitting threre for a week -- no idea how MArcus didn't see that, so I'm guessing he just got overexcited.. Misran the end of the 3rd quarter play, running it far too early -- did set up Daly for a layup, which was good (and in general did a nice job helping Head run the offense on a night in which we basically played without a PG), but left more than enough time for Arenas to counter with a long three right at the buzzer, which was not so good and why you are supposed to run off the whole clock. It continues to boggle my mihnd how many of our guys make that mistake. Its jsut a siimple mathematical thing -- you start your move with 5 or 6 seconds left. You just do. Gives you time to score on your own or kick it to somebody else, and maybe one offensive rebound tip opportunity. Leaves the opponent with no more than 2 seconds to try to heave a full courter. Its not like this is a negotiable or mysterious rule. But our guys are constantly screwing it up and runing plays with 10, 12, 15 seconds to go in that situation and you are wondering what the hell? Its just basic math guys. In any case, misplayed it, an we got hurt. Kept his own efficiency up all game long despite a ton of attention, and despite his own propensity to try selfish 1 on 1 forces at least once a quarter. That's of course a bad trait, but when you stil mange to hit 50% despite that it shows you just how effiicent he is when he's playing within the offense. Unable to come up big this time down the strettch. Could not convert the layup through traffic out of the timeout at the 40 second mark, and was doubleteamed out of the timeout at the 15 second mark with us down 3 and needing a three to tie it -- now ay the Magic were going to let him shoot it. So he desperately found Head instead. Oops. Not perfect, nor maybe quite as good as the numbers, but it was another strong performance, another legit 20pt have the other team concerned about you performance as a #2 weapon to Cousins. Some say no, but I really realy want to see Reke back out there ot see how Reke/Cousins/Thornton works now with everybody beginning to fire off. If Thornton is really this potent, that could be every bit as good a toung crew as OKC's young trio, and it could make a difference in what we do with the SF position int he offseason -- ie. if thornton is weapon #3 then you can afford to really look at defense/passing/rebounding type stuff from the SF rather than needing to bring in a #3 weapon there.
Once we, meaning people, started breeding them 1000 years ago, goldfish have basically undergone aprocess of forced evolution every bit as severe as that undergone by dogs -- in fact the incredible varities of goldfish today -- over 100 varieties, many of which have very little resemblance to the carp from which they sprung only 1000 years ago -- might make a potent example in the evolution debates of just how quickly and extremely evolution can occur. Goldfish are generally social fish -- they will school, and are rarely aggressive to each other. But I have no idea how a common goldfish and a ryunkin even recognize each other as the same species. Befitting their origin in lakes and rivers of southern Siberia/Northern China, they are a cold water speies that can live outside even in colder climes, essentiually sinking ot the bottom and hibernating through winter. Hardier varieties can easily live 10 years in the right conditions, and the oldest pet goldfish on record actually lived 45 years.
Last edited:
