Opponent FG% through 11/2:
1) Golden State .395
2) Atlanta .398
3) Houston .399
4) Chicago .401
5) Sacramento .407
Tonight, 11/3: Denver shot .385
Michael Malone took a big risk in this game. From the middle of the 3rd quarter on he started slowly removing his 3 stalwarts from the game, first Cuz, then Gay, finally Collison, until we were left with nothing but that shaky bench. And he stayed with it. And he stayed with it. The end of the third came and you thought ok, he's planning to just play Rudy and Cuz the whole 4th well rested and ready to close. But they didn't return. 10 minutes to go. Still nothing. 8 minutes to go...the backups had been in for nearly an entire quarter now, but STILL nothing. But on the court what you had was a reserve crew somehow coming together and getting it done, sloppy, seemingly with different approaches, but everybody began to do the things they can do. Reggie snatched every rebound, Casspi hustled and scrapped, Landry finally began to get tough inside hoops against guys 5 inches taller than himself. Sessions looked barely in control but got to the line again and again...and we held on and held on. And at the 6 minute mark we finally brought back the first team, battled on down the stretch, got the W, got minutes for McCallum, got contributions across the board, and the big risk (if we had lost Malone would have some questions to answer about why he threw away a 3-1 start) now turned into what could become a huge key game for the Kings. Now all of a sudden its not not Cuz and Gay and Collison trying to carry a bunch of scrubs. Now its a team, with everybody feeling invested and knowing they can contribute. Now we're 3-1, we have the same opponent back at our house in a few days, and now we might be getting dangerous.
Big ballsy move by the coach. not one I can even say I agreed with. I probably bring the big guns back to start the 4th and try to pound my way on home. But pulling it off this way...sometimes certain games become a foundation. Maybe this could be one.
Boxscore
Stats: 23min 14pts (4-13, 0-1, 6-7) 4reb 3ast 1stl 1blk 3TO
Gay ( C ) -- tough tough grade here, many of them are. Basically because of Malone's team building gamble Rudy only played half a game. And half of the half a game he did play wasn't very good. In fact it may even have been Rudy's first half struggles as much as anything that made Malone think hey, might as well use the bench if our stars aren't going to give us more than this. Just gave us almost nothing in the first half. Think he finished the half 1-8 from the field, and it was a fugly out of rhythm 1-8 too. The idea that Chandler might be able to bother him with his quickness may have been correct, certainly he was right up under him physically so that Rudy was often off balance when he elevated for his shots. But fatigue was also an obvious possible culprit. He just did not have bounce, and while Cuz was still making plays, Rudy just was not helping with his forces. Late in the half he made a couple of good plays going into halftime, saving a ball headed out of bounds nicely and the next possession setting up Casspi on an out of bounds play for our final score of the half. And when he came out in the third and immediately hit one of his in rhythm pullups you thought maybe those plays had gotten him going. But instead a couple of possessions later he tried a wraparound to JT and just missed him badly for a TO, and promptly redisappeared. Literally in a few minutes, as Malone's wild ride began at about the 6 minute mark of the 3rd and did not relent until the 6 minute mark of the 4th. So at that point, the grade wasn't good. This wasn't a star Rudy game we were getting. This was a tired out of rhythm player put on limited minutes by the coach. But after finally returning to the game at the 5:30 mark of the 4th, it was Rudy more than anyone who carried us down the stretch to the win. He was sitting on 5pts when he returned, and he'd score 9 points in the final 5 minutes, including clutch FTs in the final minute and a half, to finish the game with 14. He also dictated the lineup the Nuggets were forced to use, as Shaw was playing games and trying to go small, and Rudy punishing that tactic inside saw McGee brought back to add an extra layer of rim protection. So what grade do you give for half a game's work, and for half of that half a game's work being smelly? Well, when the good stretch is the one that wins the game for you late, you call it better than the numbers. Certainly not vintage Rudy, but one of many contributors on the night.
Stats: 23min 4pts (2-5, 0-0, 0-0) 10reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Thompson ( B+ ) -- played an excellent first half of basketball, as he at least did not look remotely tired, and for the third straight night he took a star or at least problematic PF out of the equation in the early going, completely negating Faried's bouncy energy game with his length. He stymied Faried's post attempt, which Faried has gotten a lot better at under Shaw. But JT is center sized, and you could immediately see that Faried would have been far more comfortable against a 6'9" guy than a 6'11" guy. And JT was active and hustling on the boards, and in fact was grabbing far more of them than Faried was. He was probably our best player of the first quarter. He did not have the same energy or effect when he came back out for the third however, and Faried began to get his energy bunny thing going, while JT merely picked up fouls and was actually the first of our starters to head to the bench after he notched his 4th. He returned for the final 5+ minutes with the rest of the starters and was quiet, but aside from one alley oop dunk so was Faried. In the final 2 minutes was in and out of the lineup as Shaw and Malone played patty cake with a series of silly after a while big/little anything you can do I can do too matchup substitutions. On our end, we kept flipping back and forth from Casspi to JT depending on who Shaw was subbing in (he was flipping McGee/Gee and Faried/Foye). Tonight JT finally added a statistical pop to his roleplayering, but his work the last three games in shuttering the West's best PFs has been a huge factor in how we have contained these teams. Second half taper drops this grade back down into the B's however.
Stats: 25min 19pts (6-13, 0-0, 7-9) 5reb 1ast 2stl 1blk 1TO
Cousins ( B- ) -- not a great game, which for Cuz means I'll just go ahead and score 19pts in 25 minutes anyway. Showed the great hands and agility to catch an errant entry pass and get a +1 through Mozgov in the early going, and in a foul riddled game was quickly putting them on another whole platoon of bigs being thrown his way (the Golden State approach to trying to slow him). Able to bang into position more when McGee entered, and despite not looking particularly fresh showed real defensive awareness again. Not grabbing boards himself, but did tip away several from Faried that JT then scooped up. Appeared to be playing solid post defense, but each of the Nuggets' center platoon managed to score at least one hoop on him with rudimentary post moves anyway. Had no problem with his passing game, and should have had another assist when he made a nice slick pass to Rudy on the break for what wouldhave been a big dunk, but Faried came racing back to commit the foul and spoil the fun. Nonetheless 3rd time in 4 games he's finished with only a single assist, so if he's going to meet Malone's 5ast/gm challenge we're going to have to be treated to some pretty spic triple double sort of action later in the year. Would help if Ben were not pathologically adverse to hitting wide open kickouts set up for him. Offensively seemed curiously reluctant to take the jumper, which was being given him almost every time but the Nuggets close to the hoop centers, and instead kept putting it on the floor to force action, and fouls inside. Not terribly efficient as a tactic, but did prevent Mozgov from ever getting really going, by flat preventing him from being on the floor. Got into a little something with the Nuggets' third string thug/center, some big lumbering rookie named Nurkic. Blocked one of his shots, drew an offensive foul when Nurkic tried to respond with over physicality. Got the quick hook in the third, I am not sure why. Certainly wasn't dominating, but he was still making contributions. In any case we wouldn't see him for over a full quarter as he sat out from the 6:50 mark of the 3rd to the 5:31 mark of the 4th. After he returned he immediately hit a tough jumper against the clock, and added a strong d-board and a pair of clutch FTs in the final 30 seconds. This wasn't a great game by Cuz standards, but to give you some idea, per 36 minutes this still comes out to 27pt s 7reb 3stl. And we won.
Stats: 19min 5pts (2-5, 1-3, 0-0) 5reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
McLemore ( C ) -- sigh. Well...first the big news, late in the 3rd quarter of this one Ben spotted up on a transition push by Collison moved to an open spot on the left angle, waited for a pass from Collison, and when it came knocked down an uncontested three point shot! He hit an open shot! In rhythm! Intentionally! Not even off the backboard! Literally the first planned non-accidental jumper he's hit all year, and hence = progress. Probably. Now he had of course started off this one being the Ben we've all come to know and er, love, bricking his first open shot, stepping out of bounds on the catch the next time someone dared pass it to him, and picking up a mystery foul called by Crawford I think because Crawford just likes to blow the whistle and hadn't done it for a few seconds. But amidst the blatant offensive incompetence was more evidence of solid defense, and then this time even capped by a couple of spectacular efforts, including a spectacular blocked shot in the final seconds of the half that I think incorrectly got called a foul (if you block the shot up top first, and then the guy's momentum carries him into your body, that's not a foul -- if it were it would be almost impossible to block a shot cleanly, all somebody would have to do is charge at you and you'd be screwed). He started the third of course blowing another Cuz assist, as Collison and Cuz combined to set him up wide open on the left side and he rewarded them in his usual fashion, but he then got a burst of non-awful play, beginning with getting a block on an Afflalo jumper, grabbing several rebounds, getting out on the break for a big dunk from Collison, and then, yes, hitting one of those "jumper" things you sometimes hear about other teams doing., Was still not enough to earn him the late minutes, as Malone said screw it, threw McCallum out there to try to patch the SG hole, got solid play out of him, and so just left him out there as to at least do no harm as we tried to win this. So FIVE points and FIVE rebounds, and he even hit a jumper? My lord, maybe his best game of the season. And given that he only played 19+min to get those numbers, I think worthy of a human level grade (please remember that these grades are at least partially given in relation to the expected production of each player, so Ben getting a C here doesn't mean he was as good as Rudy. Just that he did something at least and had a few minutes as a contributor.
Stats: 30min 21pts (5-9, 0-0, 11-13) 4reb 6ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Collison ( B+ ) -- nothing early and it seemed obvious that Lawson's matching quickness was going to prevent him from getting to his spots. Notably however, Lawson wasn't getting away to do anything either the other way, and this is similar tot he JT comment -- we've played 3 straight teams relying on star PFs, and JT has slowed them all. And we've played 4 straight teams reliant on star PGs, and Collison has slowed them all. When he returned late in the half he began to wake up and make an offensive contribution, getting to the line in saavy fashion, getting out on the break, and hitting a jumper. But he didn't really snap into gear until after half, and in particular when Malone began to rest the stalwarts it was Collison who first stepped forward to steady the reserves with a series of those little money elbow pullups, and in a game the refs turned into a fugly slog, nobody got to the line or converted as much as Collison. he wasn't a huge factor after he returned with the starters in late 4th, but his 3 FTs in the final 20 seconds (he missed a 4th) were the icers. Another good one from our "backup PG".
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