Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Alright...a loss worth grading this time.
It looked grim at halftime. Our rooks were playing like high schoolers again, we were down by double digits. Then the refs apparently were taking a page from Donaghy in the third and just flat took Cousins out of the game in crooked fashion. We were in grim shape. And then a funny thing happened. Just about everybody stepped up, and we damn near stole this one from the Mavs. Too bad we didn't too, it could have severely damaged their playoff hopes, and Cuban is widely believed to have been one of the owners in favor of stealing your team last year. Would have been nice to screw him. Alas.
Theme = Celebrating The Audio Terrorist Known as Patrice Wilson
Boxscore
Stats: 43min 30pts (11-19, 0-1, 8-10) 7reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 7TO
Gay ( B ) -- scored, boarded, but man was his handle a mess all night long. The zero assists here are a bit deceptive, because he certainly tried to pass. But "try" is the operative word there. He could have had a couple of nice assists to Cuz in the early going that the big guy just could not finish on the first try, but other than that, he just simply threw the ball all over the gym trying to make things happen. And fumbled it all over the gym trying to create his own shots. It looked like he had used some of that hand grease Ben keeps in his locker. And yet he did score, and efficiently, and he stepped up in a big way when the refs took Cuz from us as a goto guy. Very persistent on the offensive boards when he missed the first shot. Got clutch again down the stretch of this one, but may have made a critical mistake trying to help Ben out against Ellis, and leaving Marion in the corner to hit a 3 at the 2:10 mark that put the Mavs up 5. Hard to say, it was a valid choice to make rather than letting Ellis get to the rim, but it burned us. In most ways this was a strong game, and a bounceback game, but a lot of the time the handling and passing misadventures seemed to jump out the most and define it, so it holds the overall grade back a bit.
Stats: 29min 6pts (3-5, 0-0, 0-1) 18reb 1ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Evans ( A ) -- love a good board masher, and Reggie is a GREAT board masher that was in full form tonight. For all the good board nights he's had since arriving, this was one of those I'm just going to take them ALL board nights (even taking them from Boogie a few times) that he has always been capable of having over the course of his career (amazing that Kidd had largely quit using him in New Jersey -- still has it). Was averaging a board a minute in the early going, and he and JT were so good after Cuz was taken out by fouls, that not only did we surge back to take the lead, but I was nervous about who we were going to have to take out to get Cuz back in the game. Threw in a couple of strong post moves in the third as he was feeling it, and pissed off Dirk with a poke steal up top that caused Dirk to actually stick out his leg and intentionally trip him to stop him going the other way. In fact while Daly was able to score over him inside, he did a nice job on the night being very energetic and stepping out to help challenge things on the perimeter. 18 rebs and great energy in 29min = no complaints. More please.
Stats: 27min 17pts (8-15, 0-0, 1-3) 7reb 5ast 2stl 0blk 3TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- started the first couple of minutes to this one looking like he still had his OKC hangover, could not finish a little one inside, outfought for a board by Evans. Almost airballed a side jumper. But finally got a good power drive through Dalembert in the mid quarter, and began to settle in and play some great ball. Got to the rim repeatedly, and came up with a really pretty no look dump off pass to Williams for a layup as once again in the first half McCallum couldn't runt he offense, so Boogie took over and largely created the shots for us. Evans was largely taking all the early rebounds, but after he and Dalembert let, Cousins really began to snap them up against DeJuan Blair. A few special plays as normal, including a great steal up top from Jae Crowder, just reaching right out and stripping him as if Cuz were a guard, then leading the break the other way with a great pass to Ben for the open court dunk. You just don't get plays like that out of non All-NBA centers. Unfortunately what ended up defining and limiting this game was some absolute ref led B.S.. And frankly I hope they ate some bad Chinese after the game. Screw them and their incompetence. Within 3 minutes of the 2nd half beginning they had Cuz with 4 fouls, the 3rd coming on aclose at best call where he tried to kick a pass on the break, but Monta ran over underneath him and fell down. The 4th on a flat ridiculous interpretation of the illegal screen rule, where Cuz tried a dribble handoff to Ben, Monta dove through it, and because Cuz was reaching out trying to give the ball to Ben they ruled that it was a moving screen. Morons. And morons that made a call that could/might easily have decided the game too. Luckily guys across the roster stepped up with Cuz out, we fought back into it. He was back late, played pretty well even with us losing momentum down the stretch. Made one more brilliant play spinning out of a double with 2min to go and setting up Rudy for a dunk to make it 4. Unfortunately ben turned it over trying to feed him in the post next time down the floor, and we never got back over that hump. Shoulda/coulda been a big beautiful game. the refs took that away, but still a strong do everything effort in the minutes he was out there.
Stats: 33min 10pts (4-9, 1-2, 1-1) 2reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( C ) -- played another overmatched first half as Ellis blew by him repeatedly, and he had no response at all the other way. Got one dunk on the break on a great play by Cuz -- all Ben had to do was run. And then made his best play of the half in the final seconds as he grabbed a missed shot and put it back up to beat the buzzer with the little jumper. I just described all 4pts and 1 reb of his first half. But despite the modest numbers here, I thought he came out in the second half and looked much better. He just got his improved half rudely interrupted when Ellis fell on top of his legs late in the third and ben stayed down and had to leave the game for a long stretch. Had a good drive and drop off pass to Reggie for a layup in the early third, and made a good aggressive fullcourt runout finishing through Calderon. Was doing a much better job o tracking Monta on defense. Then the leg thing happened, and when he came back in the 4th it was back to bad Ben. Missed an open court layup with 6min to go, traveled terrible time with us down 2 with 2:20 to go. And turned it over trying to feed cousins at the 1:30 mark. Also got called for a B.S. foul on Dirk at the 1:05 mark to basically give Dallas the game and put them up 7. Took his 7pt night and made it 10 when he hit the three off the missed FT with 20 seconds to go that cut the lead to 3 and ended up giving us a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but Travis could not get the heavily contested shot to fall to send it to OT. I had considered something as high as a B-, but even just reviewing the notes, simply too many mistakes in the 4th and down the stretch for that good a grade. Woulda been higher if he'd played the overall first half like he did the second though.
Stats: 48min 16pts (7-17, 2-4, 0-0) 4reb 8ast 2stl 1blk 2TO
McCallum ( B+ ) -- played every minute of this game, and yet the thing about Ray's statline tonight is this -- it was almost all accumulated in a single half. In the first half, he again looked hopeless and clueless, we couldn't score, and he had no clue how to help us do so. Same kid we've seen out there the last two games. Then in the second half, working on playing almost 48 minutes in his second straight NBA game in the space of 24 hours, suddenly something clicked, he got his confidence up, got out on the attack, and was a major part of our run to make a game of this. As it was with Ben, in the first half basically the only thing that went right for him was getting a layup courtesy of Cuz. He certainly couldn't do the reverse, showed no ability to get us into our offense, and finished the first quarter with 1ast and both his TOs for the game. Like Ben maybe a tiny sliver of life as he hit an open jumper in the final minute of the half, but it was after half, and in particular once Cuz was taken out that Ray finally snapped to some life. Making a defensive impact, reached out an blocking an attempted Calderon drive, getting a steal up top and going the other way to finish a tough layup. Was still throwing up a lot of junk on offense, and notably is averaging 16FGA as the starting PG (albeit in more min than it takes IT to get up his 16). But for a long stretch in the third and early 4th they were falling, and while Rudy did most of the scoring, Reggie did most of the boarding, Ray was doing a lot of the hustling. Pulled up and hit a three to tie the game with 9min to go, and after blowing a layup again won a hustle play gathering up a loose ball and finishing this one. But began missing shots down the stretch, including an open corner three from Cuz that triggered a Mavs break the other way with him out of position to stop it. Might have been fatigue related, but then again, he's a .370 shooter on the year and shot 7-17 on the night, so might have just been returning to the norm. The poor first half here holds this back, but in a lot of ways I wanted to go over the A threshold. Taken as a whole game I don't know if this was his highest quality showing, but the second half of this one was very important for him. His first 2 1/2 games as a starter he struggled badly enough to not only preclude thinking about him as a starter, but even to raise questions about him as a main backup, as you can't have your starter get hurt and have your whole offense fall apart. But after half in this one he flashed something. it wasn't pure PGness. But it was hustle, defense, and he notched 6 assists with no turnovers. Easily his strongest showing as a starter.
It looked grim at halftime. Our rooks were playing like high schoolers again, we were down by double digits. Then the refs apparently were taking a page from Donaghy in the third and just flat took Cousins out of the game in crooked fashion. We were in grim shape. And then a funny thing happened. Just about everybody stepped up, and we damn near stole this one from the Mavs. Too bad we didn't too, it could have severely damaged their playoff hopes, and Cuban is widely believed to have been one of the owners in favor of stealing your team last year. Would have been nice to screw him. Alas.
Theme = Celebrating The Audio Terrorist Known as Patrice Wilson
Boxscore
Stats: 43min 30pts (11-19, 0-1, 8-10) 7reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 7TO
Gay ( B ) -- scored, boarded, but man was his handle a mess all night long. The zero assists here are a bit deceptive, because he certainly tried to pass. But "try" is the operative word there. He could have had a couple of nice assists to Cuz in the early going that the big guy just could not finish on the first try, but other than that, he just simply threw the ball all over the gym trying to make things happen. And fumbled it all over the gym trying to create his own shots. It looked like he had used some of that hand grease Ben keeps in his locker. And yet he did score, and efficiently, and he stepped up in a big way when the refs took Cuz from us as a goto guy. Very persistent on the offensive boards when he missed the first shot. Got clutch again down the stretch of this one, but may have made a critical mistake trying to help Ben out against Ellis, and leaving Marion in the corner to hit a 3 at the 2:10 mark that put the Mavs up 5. Hard to say, it was a valid choice to make rather than letting Ellis get to the rim, but it burned us. In most ways this was a strong game, and a bounceback game, but a lot of the time the handling and passing misadventures seemed to jump out the most and define it, so it holds the overall grade back a bit.
Stats: 29min 6pts (3-5, 0-0, 0-1) 18reb 1ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Evans ( A ) -- love a good board masher, and Reggie is a GREAT board masher that was in full form tonight. For all the good board nights he's had since arriving, this was one of those I'm just going to take them ALL board nights (even taking them from Boogie a few times) that he has always been capable of having over the course of his career (amazing that Kidd had largely quit using him in New Jersey -- still has it). Was averaging a board a minute in the early going, and he and JT were so good after Cuz was taken out by fouls, that not only did we surge back to take the lead, but I was nervous about who we were going to have to take out to get Cuz back in the game. Threw in a couple of strong post moves in the third as he was feeling it, and pissed off Dirk with a poke steal up top that caused Dirk to actually stick out his leg and intentionally trip him to stop him going the other way. In fact while Daly was able to score over him inside, he did a nice job on the night being very energetic and stepping out to help challenge things on the perimeter. 18 rebs and great energy in 29min = no complaints. More please.
Stats: 27min 17pts (8-15, 0-0, 1-3) 7reb 5ast 2stl 0blk 3TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- started the first couple of minutes to this one looking like he still had his OKC hangover, could not finish a little one inside, outfought for a board by Evans. Almost airballed a side jumper. But finally got a good power drive through Dalembert in the mid quarter, and began to settle in and play some great ball. Got to the rim repeatedly, and came up with a really pretty no look dump off pass to Williams for a layup as once again in the first half McCallum couldn't runt he offense, so Boogie took over and largely created the shots for us. Evans was largely taking all the early rebounds, but after he and Dalembert let, Cousins really began to snap them up against DeJuan Blair. A few special plays as normal, including a great steal up top from Jae Crowder, just reaching right out and stripping him as if Cuz were a guard, then leading the break the other way with a great pass to Ben for the open court dunk. You just don't get plays like that out of non All-NBA centers. Unfortunately what ended up defining and limiting this game was some absolute ref led B.S.. And frankly I hope they ate some bad Chinese after the game. Screw them and their incompetence. Within 3 minutes of the 2nd half beginning they had Cuz with 4 fouls, the 3rd coming on aclose at best call where he tried to kick a pass on the break, but Monta ran over underneath him and fell down. The 4th on a flat ridiculous interpretation of the illegal screen rule, where Cuz tried a dribble handoff to Ben, Monta dove through it, and because Cuz was reaching out trying to give the ball to Ben they ruled that it was a moving screen. Morons. And morons that made a call that could/might easily have decided the game too. Luckily guys across the roster stepped up with Cuz out, we fought back into it. He was back late, played pretty well even with us losing momentum down the stretch. Made one more brilliant play spinning out of a double with 2min to go and setting up Rudy for a dunk to make it 4. Unfortunately ben turned it over trying to feed him in the post next time down the floor, and we never got back over that hump. Shoulda/coulda been a big beautiful game. the refs took that away, but still a strong do everything effort in the minutes he was out there.
Stats: 33min 10pts (4-9, 1-2, 1-1) 2reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( C ) -- played another overmatched first half as Ellis blew by him repeatedly, and he had no response at all the other way. Got one dunk on the break on a great play by Cuz -- all Ben had to do was run. And then made his best play of the half in the final seconds as he grabbed a missed shot and put it back up to beat the buzzer with the little jumper. I just described all 4pts and 1 reb of his first half. But despite the modest numbers here, I thought he came out in the second half and looked much better. He just got his improved half rudely interrupted when Ellis fell on top of his legs late in the third and ben stayed down and had to leave the game for a long stretch. Had a good drive and drop off pass to Reggie for a layup in the early third, and made a good aggressive fullcourt runout finishing through Calderon. Was doing a much better job o tracking Monta on defense. Then the leg thing happened, and when he came back in the 4th it was back to bad Ben. Missed an open court layup with 6min to go, traveled terrible time with us down 2 with 2:20 to go. And turned it over trying to feed cousins at the 1:30 mark. Also got called for a B.S. foul on Dirk at the 1:05 mark to basically give Dallas the game and put them up 7. Took his 7pt night and made it 10 when he hit the three off the missed FT with 20 seconds to go that cut the lead to 3 and ended up giving us a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but Travis could not get the heavily contested shot to fall to send it to OT. I had considered something as high as a B-, but even just reviewing the notes, simply too many mistakes in the 4th and down the stretch for that good a grade. Woulda been higher if he'd played the overall first half like he did the second though.
Stats: 48min 16pts (7-17, 2-4, 0-0) 4reb 8ast 2stl 1blk 2TO
McCallum ( B+ ) -- played every minute of this game, and yet the thing about Ray's statline tonight is this -- it was almost all accumulated in a single half. In the first half, he again looked hopeless and clueless, we couldn't score, and he had no clue how to help us do so. Same kid we've seen out there the last two games. Then in the second half, working on playing almost 48 minutes in his second straight NBA game in the space of 24 hours, suddenly something clicked, he got his confidence up, got out on the attack, and was a major part of our run to make a game of this. As it was with Ben, in the first half basically the only thing that went right for him was getting a layup courtesy of Cuz. He certainly couldn't do the reverse, showed no ability to get us into our offense, and finished the first quarter with 1ast and both his TOs for the game. Like Ben maybe a tiny sliver of life as he hit an open jumper in the final minute of the half, but it was after half, and in particular once Cuz was taken out that Ray finally snapped to some life. Making a defensive impact, reached out an blocking an attempted Calderon drive, getting a steal up top and going the other way to finish a tough layup. Was still throwing up a lot of junk on offense, and notably is averaging 16FGA as the starting PG (albeit in more min than it takes IT to get up his 16). But for a long stretch in the third and early 4th they were falling, and while Rudy did most of the scoring, Reggie did most of the boarding, Ray was doing a lot of the hustling. Pulled up and hit a three to tie the game with 9min to go, and after blowing a layup again won a hustle play gathering up a loose ball and finishing this one. But began missing shots down the stretch, including an open corner three from Cuz that triggered a Mavs break the other way with him out of position to stop it. Might have been fatigue related, but then again, he's a .370 shooter on the year and shot 7-17 on the night, so might have just been returning to the norm. The poor first half here holds this back, but in a lot of ways I wanted to go over the A threshold. Taken as a whole game I don't know if this was his highest quality showing, but the second half of this one was very important for him. His first 2 1/2 games as a starter he struggled badly enough to not only preclude thinking about him as a starter, but even to raise questions about him as a main backup, as you can't have your starter get hurt and have your whole offense fall apart. But after half in this one he flashed something. it wasn't pure PGness. But it was hustle, defense, and he notched 6 assists with no turnovers. Easily his strongest showing as a starter.
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