To compete, or not to compete, that is the question. And nowadays we can't even figure out which way we are going to answer it quarter to quarter.
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/1/22/7870477/demarcus-cousins-handle-is-unfair
Boxscore
Stats: 42min 25pts (10-19, 1-4, 4-4) 8reb 6ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Gay ( C ) -- How in the world does a guy who puts up a fourth quarter like Rudy did get a C for the game? If you need to know, you have to do nothing more than watch the first three quarters of the game. In the fourth, Rudy decided that we had spotted the woeful nets enough points and it was time to start actually playing. He played tight D on Joe Johnson, and he had a stretch where he scored 12 straight points for the Kings on a drive and an and-1, a three, a sweet bank on a drive, a layup on a cut, and finally a breakaway dunk. He was unstoppable on the offensive end and stonewalled the Nets on the defensive side (0-4 from the field in the quarter against him, only scoring on him on free throws in crunch time). If we'd had that Rudy the rest of the game, we'd win, and it wouldn't have been close. But we didn't have that Rudy. What we had instead was a Rudy who went 2-8 shooting in the first half and seemed to average ten dribbles per touch. We had the Rudy who had no interest in playing defense on Johnson, slacking off of him as much as possible without being called for a three-second violation (and that's not hyperbole - he was right on the edge of the paint most of the time while Joe was outside the three point line) yet somehow being either late or simply not there for most of his rotations. We had the Rudy who allowed Brook Lopez (Brook Lopez!?!) to beat him down the floor for a fast break when it was clearly his responsibility to simply stay in front of him. Just stay in front of the slow guy. That's all he needed to do. Nope. In fact, the only effort he seemed to give in the entire first half on D was an ill-advised attempt to sneak over on the ballhandler and steal the ball. Didn't work, and it forced a rotation which left the Nets open for an easy drive to the basket on the simple second pass. It wasn't all bad - when he wasn't overdribbling he was moving the ball very well in the first half, and even though I thought he was granted two extra assists by a generous scorekeeper the first three quarters saw him rack up 6 assists and at least three more feeds that led to two trips to the free throw line and one missed bunny. But that wasn't enough to make up for the dismal effort on the defensive side of the ball and a relatively lackluster effort on the offensive side (one hard cut and throwdown excepted) for the majority of the game. --Capt.
Stats: 22min 4pts (2-2, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Thompson ( D+ ) -- I looked at the stats, and thought, god, he played 22 minutes. It just didn't seem like he had been on the floor that long. Other than one glaring defensive miatake where he was late rotating and Plumlee just skipped down the lane, he played well defensively. He only took two shots, and one could argue, based on the results, that maybe he should have taken more, as he hit both. Where I have a problem with JT tonight, was his lack of rebounding. We were getting killed on the boards in the first quarter, and he was nowhere to be found. Well, except for one hustling board,when he chased down the ball along the left baseline. Perhaps he used up all his energy on that play. JT played the entire first quarter, but didn't play at all in the second quarter. Corbin has some strange rotations. --Baja
Stats: 41min 28pts (10-24, 0-0, 8-11) 14reb 3ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Cousins ( C+ ) -- Okay, so how does one end up getting a C+ on a night when he notches 28-14 and co-leads a big charge down the stretch that nearly nets us a win? Well, you come out defensively unfocused, sink into a near depression as the team around you is almost laughably flat, get worked over by Brook Lopez (who BTW has often caused Boogie problems in the past -- very good offensive center, and just has the pure size advantage) and looked zoned out until a good little substitution by Corbin late int he first half to let you reset and shake it off. Boogie was actually scoring ok in the opening minutes, but it was one of those games when the finishes weren't falling, and the jumper went ice cold, and sometimes with a guy who is as talented as Cuz I think that's the overall malaise/shellshocked thing bleeding over. In any case, he actually quickly chased Plumlee from the game with fouls (in both halves actually), and that was a dubious accomplishment, because Brooke Lopez came in the game, and despite all the mess with him, he can be the second best offensive center in the game, especially when nobody is rotating. And to make matters worse, an out of rhythm and struggling Boogie was once again faced with a huge 7'1" roadblock who began to smush and alter his shots, causing him to get further into a funk. The real issue was on the other side, where the first 20 minutes of the game...I thought he wanted to rotate early, but somehow he was off. Then it looked like he got disgusted by our guards who were just letting guys walk right around them, and he became even slower on his rotations. Then Lopez came in and began to work our whole frontline, and Cuz just looked dispirited back there as the defense completely collapsed. He did take several charges, there were spurts of effort, but it wasn't inspiring anybody, and it wasn't sustained. I don't think he caused our defensive problems -- our perimeter guys were just letting people walk right around them. But he certainly didn't fix them, and when it got in his head, it was compounded. But with Boogie sitting on 11 points on 2-11 shooting, hanging his head, and generally looking beat, Corbin did a smart thing and bought him a few minutes with 3 minutes of Reggie Evans. Casspi helped by getting into a little something with Jarret Jack. And Cuz came back on the floor with renewed defensive energy as the game began to turn. The problem was we were already down 20 pts by then. From that point on Cuz came more and more online. Began to figure out the Lopez puzzle first with jumpers, and then beginning to use the mobility and cleverness with the ball. Defensively he got much more active and started smothering Lopez and cutting off penetration (which was happening much less often once the perimeter people actually started moving), and helped cause havoc in the early 4th poking away ball after ball up top to disrupt the Nets. And down the stretch he was huge, including hitting 4 clutch FTs to cut it to 2 and to 3, then dropping what would have been a highlight reel (if we had won) behind the back dribble (to beat KG) and dunk to get it to 3 again with 10 seconds to go, and by the end of the flurry he had put up another HOF statline. Unfortunately our awful start, of which he was a part, was too much to overcome, and there is only so much satisfaction to be gained by showing that you can dominate a team for a half when you didn't do so for the whole game, and accordingly lost. Anyway, he and Rudy almost bailed us out of another bad loss with huge play when it mattered. They got inspired, and you could see them click into gear as leaders, talking to each other throughout the 4th, encouraging each other, trying to carry us back. We were within 2 in the final 2 minutes and one more stop and we legitimately could have gotten a (bad) win. But first halves count toward the scoreboard as well, and Cuz's was dispiriting enough he can't get a good grade no matter how big the close. --Brick
Stats: 37min 9pts (3-10, 2-7, 1-2) 5reb 3ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( D+ ) -- you know, I can't tell whether Ben is out of his slump or not. He went through a terrible 3-22 or some such stretch from three point land on the homestand, significantly contributing to our tight losses. But it seemed like he was beginning to snap out of it, and then...here we were again. He briefly looked confident, hit an early three. But he's a kid, and the dispiriting well, everything, is probably going to weigh on a kid more than anybody else. And in this one he came out completely asleep defensively. On one play he barely even moved as he turned his head and let his guy just walk to the rim completely unimpeded. He did not rotate, and was too sleepy o react to guys popping open around him on the perimeter. And I think that quickly sucked the life out of both us and his own offensive game. We actually tried subbing him out early to get Stauskas an early run, but Nik appears determined not to start his career, and so Ben was back to start the 2nd. He started missing, wasn't getting his shots (offense's fault), wasn't in rhythm, and just went away again, rookie Ben style. Was still missing inside and out in the early third, and got caught on a ridiculous illegal screen by Garnett that somehow did not get called despite Garnett just reaching and and pinning Ben to his hip with his arm.. Finally woke up with a 3 in the mid 3rd to get the lead back to 10, but went right away again and missed a three letting the Knicks go right back up 14 again as he became one of several Kings (Collison, Casspi as well) to miss big momentum shots at a point when we could have legitimately made a game of it. Was just along for the ride for the big Rudy/Cuz show in the 4th, but his defensive energy rose with the team's, and he made a nice return pass on the alley oop to DWill in the open court in the early 4th as those two renewed their ongoing open court bromance. But the shooting never did come around..again. The early hit, adn the one in the mid 3rd was it. He was 2-7 again, and missed the critical long open three from up top after his man fell down with 15 seconds to go and us down 5. It was the shot we needed to have to retain any hope. And nope. And he's now shooting 22.4% from 3pt land in January. Amongst our other problems, we just can't have that from our only real shooter. --Brick
Stats: 37min 16pts (6-13, 2-7, 2-2) 2reb 5ast 2stl 0blk 3TO
Collison ( C- ) -- baited into a veteran saavy 3pt foul on the first possession of the game by Jack who proceeded to run circles around him in the early going as it was far from his finest hour defensively. DC himself took a long time to get going, and did not record a stat of any kind himself until after the midpoint of the quarter. Then,as our defense collapsed to embarrassing levels again, he hit two threes, and notched a couple of assists. They were from up top again, so maybe his range is extending this year. Then again, he went 2-7 from out there on the night, so maybe not. When he came back in got a scooting layup, but as the boobirds really came out he also threw the ball directly out of bounds missing Casspi by 2 feet. Had trouble staying in front of Jack again early in the third and it helped hold us at bay. Missed a long three at a critical time in the mid third with a chance to cut it to 7. Instead Lopez went down the other way, got a 3pt play of his own, and the lead was 13 again. We had multiple guys just refuse to hi the big shot that would have got us back in it in the third. Darren perhaps first amongst them as he continued missing threes right into the early 4th, then finally got too scared to take one in the corner, so traveled trying to put it on the floor instead. Had some good hits in our late run to salvage the impression here somewhat, and once again, as always, to get right into that impossible to grade 16pt area. But we didn't in fact finish that comeback, and DC's defense and shooting tonight just weren't good enough. --Brick
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