Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I have no idea what was going on this game. DeMarcus Cousins was benched to start the game, played 9min the 2nd quarter, and never brought back. We bring out random 2nd quarter subs who blow our lead, Marcus Thornton and Cousins are out there but barely touch the ball and then they never return to the game. In the 2nd half we bring in a completely different crew of random subs, completely devoid of any scoring, and they too fail while Smart has one offensive player at a time out there while Cousins, Thornton, JT and anybody else competent watches on. We're running isos for Outlaw. Calling plays out of timeouts for JJ, who hasn't played in a month. The game is still theoretically within reach while all this is going on too.
Oh, and as fate would have it, tonight was my first night to grade IT again in several months, and our 5'9" superhero does something pretty remarkable for a "PG": he throws up 20FGA while notching all of 1ast. This should be fun.
Smart has completely lost the thread now.
On the positive side, hey Reke and JT looked good. So there was that.
Full Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
Boxscore
Stats: 26min 3pts (1-6, 1-5, 0-0) 2reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Salmons ( D ) -- John, John, John. Where the hell did you go? Oh well, this is another one of those John didn't show up games. The only difference between this game and others, is that his minutes were less. Gee, maybe Smart actually looked at some film and stats and saw that 38 minutes and 2 points just might not be cutting it on average. Unlike a lot of folks on the fourm, I like Salmons. I think for most of his career he's been a solid journeyman that just goes out and does his job. I always found it interesting how some of the same people that criticize Cousins for being too emotional, criticize Salmons for not being emotional enough. But thats just human nature I guess. At the moment, Salmons doesn't appear to have much left in the tank when it comes to consistency. 3 pts on 1 of 6 shooting just doesn't cut it. Maybe one night out of 10 you could live with, but at the moment, the good nights are one out of ten. In this case, I do understand Smarts problem. We really don't have a SF on the team that deserves to start, and Salmons will at least defer to others. Thats not exactly the kind of endorsement you want as a player. If Salmons is here next year, lets hope he's coming off the bench. --Baja
Stats: 42min 10pts (3-9, 1-3, 3-4) 7reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Patterson ( B ) -- While his overall stats may not look like a B, this is one of those cases where the stats don't reflect the effort. Let me start by saying that Patterson playing excellent defense on Nowitzki all night long. Dirk did manage to score 16 pts, but on 6 of 14 shooting. I'll also add that quite a few of those made baskets came when Patrick was off the floor. Patterson was very physcial with Dirk getting right up into his chest. At one point in the second half, accidently hitting Nowitzki in the nose and getting away with it, only to come back and knock him to the floor on a three point attempt. Probably not a wise move, but it did send a message to Dirk. If your going to score on me, your going to pay a price. P Pat only had 10 pts on 3 of 9 shooting, and its apparent that his shooting hand is bothering him. He hasn't shot the ball nearly as well since the injury. His first shot in the game came with just 9 seconds left in the 1st quarter. Until that shot, he had touched the ball on offense just one time, and almost got an assist from it. He grabbed some very tough rebounds in the game, ending with 7 overall. In one instance he grabbed a board surrounded by 4 Mav's and immediately hit a cutting Tyreke for an assist and a layup. One thing is clear. Patterson has very good court vision, and BBIQ. He may have his limitations in some areas, but the knows how to play the game, and help make everyone around him better. He's unselfish as well, and I'd make him Cousins roommate on the road. Although I think Cousins is unselfish as well, and I won't even go into the few minutes he was allowed to play in the game. --Baja
Stats: 37min 16pts (6-13, 0-0, 4-5) 16reb 4ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Thompson ( B ) -- At first blush, JT's 16 and 16 night looks a lot like his 17 and 15 night last game that earned him an A. He started the game with an easy basket on an alley-oop from Tyreke and followed that up with a great quarter - 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists (1 more than our PG had all game) and some very solid post defense, constesting shots, stymying Kaman and just about every drive from the wings and guards, resulting in allowing 5 points on 10 shots (and that's only if you count the quick three that Carter launched on him when he got switched on a pick). Things went a bit downhill from there. He still got his points and his rebounds (though the great rebound rate couldn't hold up) but his points came on relatively inefficient shooting (10 points on 10 shots the rest of the game) and he committed three turnovers only slightly counterbalanced by a very nice touch pass assist to Outlaw. His defense the remainder of the game, however, wasn't so hot. He allowed 20 points on 16 shots from the second quarter on, and had trouble with his defensive matchups with both Marion and Nowitzki when Cousins was in during the second. He also made several mistakes, including a missed rotation that gave Dirk an open jumper and a failure to box out the beefy Brandan Wright, giving up a putback. Had JT maintained his first-quarter D, he'd have gotten another A, but with the dropoff, I had to penalize him a bit. --Capt.
Stats: 41min 26pts (10-15, 2-4, 4-6) 9reb 6ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Evans ( A ) -- In my humble, or egostistical opinion, if you like, Tyreke was the best player on the floor last night. He didn't have a perfect game! He made his usual couple of bad decisions. But on the whole, he dominated at the SG position both offensively and defensively. He played 41 minutes and went 10 for 14 from the floor, and 2 for 4 from the three. When you add in 9 boards and 6 assists, there's simply not much to find fault with. Unless your were expecting some sort of deity or superman. I've been told that the latter plays for the Lakers. Naturally! He started the game by driving baseline and throwing up an alleyoop to JT for a dunk. Then came his first bad decision of the night when he drove into a crowd of 4 defenders and threw up a wild shot that had zero chance of going in. At the moment Tyreke makes on the average of 4 and sometimes 5 bad decisions a night. If he can limit that to two a night, he's an all star. Four a night doesn't sound that bad until you multiply it by 82 games, and then you have 328 bad decisions. Anyway, I digress. He did a good job of getting to the foul line all night and constantly had the interior defense of the Mav's on their heels. He shot a very good 50% from the three, and every three he took was an open shot. Well done there! He contributed on the offensive boards. As when he started the second half by sliding between two taller Mav's to grab a Patterson miss and put it back in. A play at the top of the 4th quarter represented his night when he drove from the top of the key, broke the ankles of two Mav players and screwed a third into the hardwood for a layup. Oh, and by the way, he managed to make O.J. Mayo's night a little more difficult. Good game! --Baja
Stats: 36min 29pts (9-20, 0-7, 11-12) 3reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Thomas ( B ) -- oi vey! What to do with this one? From the very beginning of this thing had bouts of tunnel vision and was operating as a scorer, not a PG. Had 10pts by the end of the first, was leading us in shots with 7 once Smart removed that big impediment in his way down in the paint, but had only notched 1 assist...which would end up being his only one of the night. His shots were coming in two varieties -- forced three pointers which he missed and missed (0-7 on the night), and forced drives into heavy traffic which should have missed, but which he repeatedly finished in spectacular fashion. And there was the rub and the difficulty in this grade. The guy scored 29pts, and had 3 or 4 spectacular finishes and +1s in there. Call him Marcus Thornton and he is still playing a selfish game, but its expected, he's doing his thing. Unfortunately make him 5'9" and accuse him of being your PG, and you spend the game yelling at your TV as he stuck his head down and played the homeless man's Iverson. As for the rest of his game, in a perfect world he could have gotten a few more assists. He was way too focused on getting to the rim himself to bother looking for kicks to Patterson, but he did try several to Salmons...and with John now having scored 3pts in his last 65 minutes of action, that is not a good way to get assists. Defensively it was haha, James beat him, Colllison beat him for the +1 to close the first half, and I think he was even benched at one point late in the third for getting killed on that end. But even our best perimeter defender, TD, came in and wasn't able to do much to slow Mayo or Collison. Got to come back in with Smart's comical lose the game Outlaw/Johnson/Douglas/Patterson combo and of course looked to be in prime position to take every shot, but somehow for the first time all game he did not get them off beyond one missed three, and the Mavs camped out waiting for him to shoot and took the ball away at crtitical moments. Added one more tough tough finish in the last minute before managing to throw up not 1, but 2 more forced threes in the final 10 seconds as he tried to pad his stats with the game over. Was just where his head was at this game, as very predictably he has responded to his sad face benching at the end of the Lakers game by now throwing up 36 shots in his last two games. Originally I had a minus next to this B, but for the sake of grading consistency I bumped it a bit. 29pts is still 29pts. But this was just...ick. Head shaking. And oh my lord listening to Grant & Jerry go on about it is just getting grotesque. --Brick
Oh, and as fate would have it, tonight was my first night to grade IT again in several months, and our 5'9" superhero does something pretty remarkable for a "PG": he throws up 20FGA while notching all of 1ast. This should be fun.
Smart has completely lost the thread now.
On the positive side, hey Reke and JT looked good. So there was that.
Full Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
Boxscore
Stats: 26min 3pts (1-6, 1-5, 0-0) 2reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Salmons ( D ) -- John, John, John. Where the hell did you go? Oh well, this is another one of those John didn't show up games. The only difference between this game and others, is that his minutes were less. Gee, maybe Smart actually looked at some film and stats and saw that 38 minutes and 2 points just might not be cutting it on average. Unlike a lot of folks on the fourm, I like Salmons. I think for most of his career he's been a solid journeyman that just goes out and does his job. I always found it interesting how some of the same people that criticize Cousins for being too emotional, criticize Salmons for not being emotional enough. But thats just human nature I guess. At the moment, Salmons doesn't appear to have much left in the tank when it comes to consistency. 3 pts on 1 of 6 shooting just doesn't cut it. Maybe one night out of 10 you could live with, but at the moment, the good nights are one out of ten. In this case, I do understand Smarts problem. We really don't have a SF on the team that deserves to start, and Salmons will at least defer to others. Thats not exactly the kind of endorsement you want as a player. If Salmons is here next year, lets hope he's coming off the bench. --Baja
Stats: 42min 10pts (3-9, 1-3, 3-4) 7reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Patterson ( B ) -- While his overall stats may not look like a B, this is one of those cases where the stats don't reflect the effort. Let me start by saying that Patterson playing excellent defense on Nowitzki all night long. Dirk did manage to score 16 pts, but on 6 of 14 shooting. I'll also add that quite a few of those made baskets came when Patrick was off the floor. Patterson was very physcial with Dirk getting right up into his chest. At one point in the second half, accidently hitting Nowitzki in the nose and getting away with it, only to come back and knock him to the floor on a three point attempt. Probably not a wise move, but it did send a message to Dirk. If your going to score on me, your going to pay a price. P Pat only had 10 pts on 3 of 9 shooting, and its apparent that his shooting hand is bothering him. He hasn't shot the ball nearly as well since the injury. His first shot in the game came with just 9 seconds left in the 1st quarter. Until that shot, he had touched the ball on offense just one time, and almost got an assist from it. He grabbed some very tough rebounds in the game, ending with 7 overall. In one instance he grabbed a board surrounded by 4 Mav's and immediately hit a cutting Tyreke for an assist and a layup. One thing is clear. Patterson has very good court vision, and BBIQ. He may have his limitations in some areas, but the knows how to play the game, and help make everyone around him better. He's unselfish as well, and I'd make him Cousins roommate on the road. Although I think Cousins is unselfish as well, and I won't even go into the few minutes he was allowed to play in the game. --Baja
Stats: 37min 16pts (6-13, 0-0, 4-5) 16reb 4ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Thompson ( B ) -- At first blush, JT's 16 and 16 night looks a lot like his 17 and 15 night last game that earned him an A. He started the game with an easy basket on an alley-oop from Tyreke and followed that up with a great quarter - 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists (1 more than our PG had all game) and some very solid post defense, constesting shots, stymying Kaman and just about every drive from the wings and guards, resulting in allowing 5 points on 10 shots (and that's only if you count the quick three that Carter launched on him when he got switched on a pick). Things went a bit downhill from there. He still got his points and his rebounds (though the great rebound rate couldn't hold up) but his points came on relatively inefficient shooting (10 points on 10 shots the rest of the game) and he committed three turnovers only slightly counterbalanced by a very nice touch pass assist to Outlaw. His defense the remainder of the game, however, wasn't so hot. He allowed 20 points on 16 shots from the second quarter on, and had trouble with his defensive matchups with both Marion and Nowitzki when Cousins was in during the second. He also made several mistakes, including a missed rotation that gave Dirk an open jumper and a failure to box out the beefy Brandan Wright, giving up a putback. Had JT maintained his first-quarter D, he'd have gotten another A, but with the dropoff, I had to penalize him a bit. --Capt.
Stats: 41min 26pts (10-15, 2-4, 4-6) 9reb 6ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Evans ( A ) -- In my humble, or egostistical opinion, if you like, Tyreke was the best player on the floor last night. He didn't have a perfect game! He made his usual couple of bad decisions. But on the whole, he dominated at the SG position both offensively and defensively. He played 41 minutes and went 10 for 14 from the floor, and 2 for 4 from the three. When you add in 9 boards and 6 assists, there's simply not much to find fault with. Unless your were expecting some sort of deity or superman. I've been told that the latter plays for the Lakers. Naturally! He started the game by driving baseline and throwing up an alleyoop to JT for a dunk. Then came his first bad decision of the night when he drove into a crowd of 4 defenders and threw up a wild shot that had zero chance of going in. At the moment Tyreke makes on the average of 4 and sometimes 5 bad decisions a night. If he can limit that to two a night, he's an all star. Four a night doesn't sound that bad until you multiply it by 82 games, and then you have 328 bad decisions. Anyway, I digress. He did a good job of getting to the foul line all night and constantly had the interior defense of the Mav's on their heels. He shot a very good 50% from the three, and every three he took was an open shot. Well done there! He contributed on the offensive boards. As when he started the second half by sliding between two taller Mav's to grab a Patterson miss and put it back in. A play at the top of the 4th quarter represented his night when he drove from the top of the key, broke the ankles of two Mav players and screwed a third into the hardwood for a layup. Oh, and by the way, he managed to make O.J. Mayo's night a little more difficult. Good game! --Baja
Stats: 36min 29pts (9-20, 0-7, 11-12) 3reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Thomas ( B ) -- oi vey! What to do with this one? From the very beginning of this thing had bouts of tunnel vision and was operating as a scorer, not a PG. Had 10pts by the end of the first, was leading us in shots with 7 once Smart removed that big impediment in his way down in the paint, but had only notched 1 assist...which would end up being his only one of the night. His shots were coming in two varieties -- forced three pointers which he missed and missed (0-7 on the night), and forced drives into heavy traffic which should have missed, but which he repeatedly finished in spectacular fashion. And there was the rub and the difficulty in this grade. The guy scored 29pts, and had 3 or 4 spectacular finishes and +1s in there. Call him Marcus Thornton and he is still playing a selfish game, but its expected, he's doing his thing. Unfortunately make him 5'9" and accuse him of being your PG, and you spend the game yelling at your TV as he stuck his head down and played the homeless man's Iverson. As for the rest of his game, in a perfect world he could have gotten a few more assists. He was way too focused on getting to the rim himself to bother looking for kicks to Patterson, but he did try several to Salmons...and with John now having scored 3pts in his last 65 minutes of action, that is not a good way to get assists. Defensively it was haha, James beat him, Colllison beat him for the +1 to close the first half, and I think he was even benched at one point late in the third for getting killed on that end. But even our best perimeter defender, TD, came in and wasn't able to do much to slow Mayo or Collison. Got to come back in with Smart's comical lose the game Outlaw/Johnson/Douglas/Patterson combo and of course looked to be in prime position to take every shot, but somehow for the first time all game he did not get them off beyond one missed three, and the Mavs camped out waiting for him to shoot and took the ball away at crtitical moments. Added one more tough tough finish in the last minute before managing to throw up not 1, but 2 more forced threes in the final 10 seconds as he tried to pad his stats with the game over. Was just where his head was at this game, as very predictably he has responded to his sad face benching at the end of the Lakers game by now throwing up 36 shots in his last two games. Originally I had a minus next to this B, but for the sake of grading consistency I bumped it a bit. 29pts is still 29pts. But this was just...ick. Head shaking. And oh my lord listening to Grant & Jerry go on about it is just getting grotesque. --Brick
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