Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Maybe our best played game of the season, one where our talent finally shines through against a top team, and we get sunk by some seriously bad coaching decisions.
Are Westphal and Landry dating? I have no other explanation.
Is there a reason Beno dribbles our clock away on three straight possessions in crunctime and causes us to have to force last second shots.
Donte Greene, remember him from the first half?
Was it supposed to be clever coaching to not let Tyreke touch the ball down the stretch of the game, in a dominant game by him, so that we could run things through a rookie instead?
Duh.
Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh.
Ok, I shouldn't even be having to do a theme this time around, but since the game was blown, and that's this year's rules, theme will be: Dominant Athletic Performances
Official Boxscore
Greene ( A- ) -- got off to a tremendous start to this one out early filling all those roles, hitting a three on a kick from Reke, getting out on the break from Beno, then posting up Butler. Using that athleticism for alley oop after alley oop as our three top young guns (Reke/Cousins/Donte) all went off early while the vets worked in support roles. Cooled off after the shots started getting less balanced/in rhythm, but was still making things very difficult on Butler with his size. Played almost the entire first half as Westphal, shocked that he had found something that worked, was wisely too scared to actually take any of the guys out were keying it -- 4 of our 5 starters played 22 or more min in the first half. Reke and Beno went the whole way. So the 3rd quarter comes along, Donte misses his first two shots I think in the first 5 minutes, and Westphal goes to his latest strange substitution pattern, for the second game in a row bringing in Omri for the first time in the game in the early 3rd quarter. And that is it for Donte. HE NEVER RETURNS. 19pts in 26min of great basketball, and our coach benches him for the final 18 minutes of a game that we ultimately lose. Duh. Duh duh duh duh duh.
Usain Bolt 200m at 2008 Olympics -- you see what you saw happen there just doesn't happen. It just doesn't. You would never know it if you did not understand the context, but the other 7 men in that race are among the fastest human beings ever to walk the planet. And they got totally annihilated. Treated like toys. The acceleration down the backstretch just was not human, or at least not any sort of human we had ever seen before. Then last year Bolt went ahead and shattered the world record he set here and ran one at Berlin in 19.19. Here is a clearer video more focused on just the race, but wiht one fo the worst soundtracks of all time -- muting is highly recommended. You have been warned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_barScyUzI&feature=related
Thompson ( B- ) -- while our triumvirate of guys even younger than Jason dominated the early game, JT himself was helping as a roleplayer with rebounding and even pretty good defensive hustle in there with no Daly to protect the middle. He was the least important of the starting 5 however, and therefore iminently vulnerable to the genus of Westphal's substitutions, so soon enough he found himself on the bench watching Landry not rebound, not defend, not score, and still get the lion's share of the minutes. The same pattern repeated itself after half, with JT somewhat less effective while he was allowed to play but Landry absolutely horrid. Watched the 4th quarter from the bench for no reason at all as Westphal totally forgot about the dominance our big frontline.
Wilt scores 100 -- yeah yeah different era, and almost overlooked at the time as Wilt scored 60 or more points 17 times that season. But still. And in typical Chamberlain fashion he did it hung over after a night of partying with a female companion in New York before he hopped a train back to Philadelphia. It was a feat so ridiculous that it turned the game into a farce, with the Knicks intentionally fouling anybody but Wilt just so he would never get a chance to shoot and not score 100 on them, and the Warriros (Wilt's team) responding by intentionally fouling the Knicks back the other way so they could get the ball back faster and give it to Wilt.
Cousins ( B ) -- not much running through him early, but was playing surprisingly well off the ball, and after the first break at the 6:00 mark fo the quarter came out extremely strong and was dominating play with a finish +1, a nifty alley oop to JT from up top (one of several of those he threw), and then started feeling it and attacking Chandler and Haywood inside with power. I would rate the defense during this time as more poor than awful. Lost track of guys for dunks, but made several nice defnsive stands and was at least trying to challenge. Also, and this is critical, in the last few games has finally begun to show the ability to stay out of foul trouble whihc makes the idea of starting him more tenable that it was at the start of the season. In the third apparently got hit in the groin area and then missed almost the entire quarter. I didn't get that at all, although it may jsut have been Westphal pulling a Westphal, whihc is rapidly getting up there into pulling a NAtt range. Came back in and missed a pair of FTs we needed, leading to us geting tied up. But hit a pair then to give us the lead right back. Made a great steal in the open court blocking a Mavs paas in the backcourt to help is open the lead again. Unable to finish inside against the Mavs length in the last 2 minutes. We kept going to him rather than Reke, and it killed us. I want to go higher here as this was the most "starter like" game he has come up with to date and his failures down the stretch have at least as much to do wiht Westpha's play calling as DeMarcus himself. Nonetheless whether it made any sense or not for the game to put in his hands, it was, and at one point he missed 6 in the row down the stetch, and then on the final play of the game could nto find a shot and so passed the ball to Landry to lose it for us -- Landry passing itseld is by statute an automnatic half grade dock.
Mats Wermelin wins 272-0 -- of course Wilt's feat is nothing at all compared to that of Mats Wermelin, who as a 13yr old in Sweden in 1974 scored all 272 points in a game without an apparent mercy rule, as his "team" beat their opponents 272-0. I would iamgine that can only come about in 1974 Sweden if Mats was the only one of the kids who actually knew what a basketball was. The other guys were too busy trying to kick it.
Udrih ( B ) -- With Greene playing star in the early going, Beno was the guy playing glue. Helping to grease the early offense with his passes, great hustle actually getting back in transition defense. Got aggressive offensively at the end of the half and kept us ahead. And really from that point on he was more of a scorer than the grease guy. Three from Reke to start the third and worked well with Reke into the 4th. And after returning for the stretch run hit a banker off the glass, and then a little pop off a Reke pass. Seriously lost half a grade her for msyteriously getting stupid at just the wrong time, badly overdribbling on three straight possession in the last 3 minutes, causing us to fall apart offensively after coming up wiht lame dump off passes to guy against the clock after he had wated 15 secodns of the possession bouncing the ball in circles. Down 4 with 12 seconds to go drove and dished to Cousins for the dunk to put us in position to potentially tie it at the buzzer.
John Isner Serves 113 Aces -- in the most ridiculous tennis match in history, John Isner served 113 aces, shatering the old record of 79, in an impossible match at Wimbeldon this year where the 5th set went to 138 games, with Isner finally prevailing on the third day of play, over 11 hours from the beginning of the match, 70-68. Like basketball with its hoop 10 feet off the ground, there is a physics to tennis because of the height of the net -- taller people have an advantage serving based on pure geometry. And Isner is one of the biggest tennis players in history -- fully NBA sized at 6'9" 245lbs. So dominant was his serve, that not only did he serve 113 aces, but over the course of the longest match in tennis history (183 games) his opponent only had 3 total break point chances, and only broke him once.
Are Westphal and Landry dating? I have no other explanation.
Is there a reason Beno dribbles our clock away on three straight possessions in crunctime and causes us to have to force last second shots.
Donte Greene, remember him from the first half?
Was it supposed to be clever coaching to not let Tyreke touch the ball down the stretch of the game, in a dominant game by him, so that we could run things through a rookie instead?
Duh.
Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh.
Ok, I shouldn't even be having to do a theme this time around, but since the game was blown, and that's this year's rules, theme will be: Dominant Athletic Performances
Official Boxscore
Greene ( A- ) -- got off to a tremendous start to this one out early filling all those roles, hitting a three on a kick from Reke, getting out on the break from Beno, then posting up Butler. Using that athleticism for alley oop after alley oop as our three top young guns (Reke/Cousins/Donte) all went off early while the vets worked in support roles. Cooled off after the shots started getting less balanced/in rhythm, but was still making things very difficult on Butler with his size. Played almost the entire first half as Westphal, shocked that he had found something that worked, was wisely too scared to actually take any of the guys out were keying it -- 4 of our 5 starters played 22 or more min in the first half. Reke and Beno went the whole way. So the 3rd quarter comes along, Donte misses his first two shots I think in the first 5 minutes, and Westphal goes to his latest strange substitution pattern, for the second game in a row bringing in Omri for the first time in the game in the early 3rd quarter. And that is it for Donte. HE NEVER RETURNS. 19pts in 26min of great basketball, and our coach benches him for the final 18 minutes of a game that we ultimately lose. Duh. Duh duh duh duh duh.
Thompson ( B- ) -- while our triumvirate of guys even younger than Jason dominated the early game, JT himself was helping as a roleplayer with rebounding and even pretty good defensive hustle in there with no Daly to protect the middle. He was the least important of the starting 5 however, and therefore iminently vulnerable to the genus of Westphal's substitutions, so soon enough he found himself on the bench watching Landry not rebound, not defend, not score, and still get the lion's share of the minutes. The same pattern repeated itself after half, with JT somewhat less effective while he was allowed to play but Landry absolutely horrid. Watched the 4th quarter from the bench for no reason at all as Westphal totally forgot about the dominance our big frontline.
Wilt scores 100 -- yeah yeah different era, and almost overlooked at the time as Wilt scored 60 or more points 17 times that season. But still. And in typical Chamberlain fashion he did it hung over after a night of partying with a female companion in New York before he hopped a train back to Philadelphia. It was a feat so ridiculous that it turned the game into a farce, with the Knicks intentionally fouling anybody but Wilt just so he would never get a chance to shoot and not score 100 on them, and the Warriros (Wilt's team) responding by intentionally fouling the Knicks back the other way so they could get the ball back faster and give it to Wilt.
Cousins ( B ) -- not much running through him early, but was playing surprisingly well off the ball, and after the first break at the 6:00 mark fo the quarter came out extremely strong and was dominating play with a finish +1, a nifty alley oop to JT from up top (one of several of those he threw), and then started feeling it and attacking Chandler and Haywood inside with power. I would rate the defense during this time as more poor than awful. Lost track of guys for dunks, but made several nice defnsive stands and was at least trying to challenge. Also, and this is critical, in the last few games has finally begun to show the ability to stay out of foul trouble whihc makes the idea of starting him more tenable that it was at the start of the season. In the third apparently got hit in the groin area and then missed almost the entire quarter. I didn't get that at all, although it may jsut have been Westphal pulling a Westphal, whihc is rapidly getting up there into pulling a NAtt range. Came back in and missed a pair of FTs we needed, leading to us geting tied up. But hit a pair then to give us the lead right back. Made a great steal in the open court blocking a Mavs paas in the backcourt to help is open the lead again. Unable to finish inside against the Mavs length in the last 2 minutes. We kept going to him rather than Reke, and it killed us. I want to go higher here as this was the most "starter like" game he has come up with to date and his failures down the stretch have at least as much to do wiht Westpha's play calling as DeMarcus himself. Nonetheless whether it made any sense or not for the game to put in his hands, it was, and at one point he missed 6 in the row down the stetch, and then on the final play of the game could nto find a shot and so passed the ball to Landry to lose it for us -- Landry passing itseld is by statute an automnatic half grade dock.
Mats Wermelin wins 272-0 -- of course Wilt's feat is nothing at all compared to that of Mats Wermelin, who as a 13yr old in Sweden in 1974 scored all 272 points in a game without an apparent mercy rule, as his "team" beat their opponents 272-0. I would iamgine that can only come about in 1974 Sweden if Mats was the only one of the kids who actually knew what a basketball was. The other guys were too busy trying to kick it.
Udrih ( B ) -- With Greene playing star in the early going, Beno was the guy playing glue. Helping to grease the early offense with his passes, great hustle actually getting back in transition defense. Got aggressive offensively at the end of the half and kept us ahead. And really from that point on he was more of a scorer than the grease guy. Three from Reke to start the third and worked well with Reke into the 4th. And after returning for the stretch run hit a banker off the glass, and then a little pop off a Reke pass. Seriously lost half a grade her for msyteriously getting stupid at just the wrong time, badly overdribbling on three straight possession in the last 3 minutes, causing us to fall apart offensively after coming up wiht lame dump off passes to guy against the clock after he had wated 15 secodns of the possession bouncing the ball in circles. Down 4 with 12 seconds to go drove and dished to Cousins for the dunk to put us in position to potentially tie it at the buzzer.
John Isner Serves 113 Aces -- in the most ridiculous tennis match in history, John Isner served 113 aces, shatering the old record of 79, in an impossible match at Wimbeldon this year where the 5th set went to 138 games, with Isner finally prevailing on the third day of play, over 11 hours from the beginning of the match, 70-68. Like basketball with its hoop 10 feet off the ground, there is a physics to tennis because of the height of the net -- taller people have an advantage serving based on pure geometry. And Isner is one of the biggest tennis players in history -- fully NBA sized at 6'9" 245lbs. So dominant was his serve, that not only did he serve 113 aces, but over the course of the longest match in tennis history (183 games) his opponent only had 3 total break point chances, and only broke him once.
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