Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Sry for the delay, had a quick bit of photoshopping to do.
Omri ****ing Casspi ladies and gentlemen. With our #2 and #3 guys out you knew somebody had to step up, and remarkably that somebody was almost the entire team. But nobody more than Omri who took his energetic bench bunny act into a starter's role and duplicated it over 36 minutes, fearlessly attacking Anthony Davis right in the chest and stealing his mojo. And it was an Omri led run that broke this thing open in the 4th. What a find for us this summer. Guy was almost out of the league, now he's just out of his mind, in the best of ways.
Big win, like many have already been. We lost our #2 guy, but SacKings don't care. We lost our PG and 3rd gun, but SacKings don't care. We're playing the favorite to win MVP, on the road...heck we even lost our coach. SacKings do. Not. Care. We're winning the ones top teams do night in and night out. Makes you wonder how long before you have to recognize the inevitable implications of that.
NOTE: the Grading Consortium is actively recruiting a new squad of graders for this season. Last chance -- only running this ad for one more night through Thanksgiving.
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 22pts (9-14, 1-2, 3-4) 4reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( A+ ) -- you know, there was almost nothing not to like here. I was scanning through my notes and realized that I only had a single negative note for the whole game, and that was when the game was virtually over at the 1:20 mark of the 4th and Omri rushed a fast break attempt into traffic when all we needed to do was pull the ball out and run clock and we win. But up until that point we would never have been in position to win if it ween't for Omri stepping up big as Cuz's new wingman. What added a cherry on top, was just how much of the good stuff he was doing he was doing right through Anthony Davis, as in Davis was his defender and Omri just laughed at the putative MVP and went right at his chest and scored through him repeatedly. His first score in another blazing first qurter for us was like that, just went right at A.D. on the break and swooped right past him for the hoop. He added a good drive. Came around a pick and made a real nice fake pass, opening the lane and going right to the rim. Made a nice little interior pas to Cuz, but Cuz missed the little layup. Just gave us that same all around and flat saavy (Omri Casspi = saavy is one of the real amazing stories of our seasons) boost we've been seeing off the bench, but now he was goosing the depleted starters. And having not 1, but 2 starters, and you can even throw JT in there on defense, who weren't scared of A.D. just had to play into this result. When the third quarter came around Cuz came out of the lockerroom like an angry bear and looked poised to take on the Pels all by himself, but who was it who stepped up to join him after a few minutes and start to open up a little lead? It was Omri of course. And down the stretch of the game, with us holding a small lead but not able to pull away as the Pelicans battled, who wa it who suddenly blew the thing open? It was Omri of course. A honeybadger amongst honeybadgers. he grabbed some big aggressive d-boards, went right at Davis again and scored through him, then got a steal up top and a breakaway hoop, and all of a sudden we were up 14 with 4min to go, and the game was pretty much over. I don't know where this has come from, but just keep on keeping on Omri. Bravo I say. --Brick
Stats: 33min 0pts (0-3, 0-0, 0-0) 7reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Thompson ( B- ) -- JT getting B-! did you watch the game at all. Yes I did, and what a game it was. When you start to evaluate Jason’s game, the first thing that hits you is: What did he do in the game? The guy plays 33 minutes without a point! You can’t evaluate JT’s game like that. He is not there to score. You have to see the big picture. People tend to forget what a great defensive team the Kings is. JT belongs to the starting lineup, because his defensive game keeps DMC in the court in the 4th quarter. JT was keeping the menace, Anthony Davis, at 14 points out of which 6 came from the stripe! That in itself is worth a B. He did very nice work on Anderson as well. JT collected 7 rebounds, one offensive, which is not fantastic, but you got to remember that DMC and Casspi were there as well collecting them. One assist and one block are nice too. I felt sorry for JT, when Casspi passed him a candy for an easy score, but he was fouled (non-shooting foul). One more game for the gray hard worker. I added the – sign only because of little lack of aggressive play in offense. Otherwise I like players like JT, who come to the game for the W and not for the stats line. --Kingston
Stats: 35min 22pts (8-18, 0-0, 6-6) 12reb 5ast 3stl 1blk 5TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- It was sort of the tale of two halves for Cuz. If you looked at his total points, boards, and assists, you'd think he had a great game. But then you'd have to ignore the five turnovers and the fact that he played most of the first quarter as though he was sleep walking. He started the game by posting up, and losing the ball for a turnover. After hitting an 18 footer, he then missed two 18 footers in a row. On his next possesion he missed at the basket off a dish from Casspi, fought for the rebound and saved the ball from going out of bounds, but thew it to the wrong team. The next sequence was very strange. Sessions drove into the lane with Cuz standing out at the three point line. One of the Pelicans poked the ball away, and it started rolling toward the Kings basket. Strangely, Cuz just stood there and watched it roll across half court before he seemed to realize that the ball hadn't changed possession, and our shot clock was still running. That seemed to wake up Cuz, because on his next possession he posted up on Anderson, backed him down, spun to the basket and slammed it home. He followed that with a beautiful pass to a cutting McLemore for an assist. A bit later he posted up on the left baseline and hit a high arching shot over Davis. He went to the bench just before the end of the 1st quarter and returned around 7:21 of the 2nd. Isolated against Asik at the top of the key, Cuz put the ball on the floor, drove past him, and laid it in. He followed that with another strange play, when Stauskas passed him the ball at the top of the three point line, and he apparently tried to pass the ball back to Nik, except he threw the ball to where he must have thought Nik was going to be, instead of where he was. Cuz seemed upset, so I have to assume that it was a broken play. Cuz started the second half by posting up Davis and scoring. He followed that by hitting a 14 footer on the left baseline. He then hit a step back 16 footer. After missing another 16 footer, he grabbed his own rebound, was fouled, and made both freethrows. After a series of misses or misses and a foul, he closed out his scoring by getting the ball at the right elbow, isolated on Anderson. He simply bulled his way right through Andersoon and laid it in. So, it wasn't one of his memorable games, but when your center can have, what to my mind was an off night, and still score 22 points, and grab 12 boards, its a testament to just how good he is. A couple of years ago, Cousins seemed to have a sense of urgency when it came to scoring, and forced a lot of shots. He'll still force an occasional shot, but he's far more patient now. First, I think he cares more about winning than scoring, and second, I think he knows the points will be there and he doesn't have to force things. He still had a pretty good game, and we won. I'll take it. I could get used to this! --Baja
Stats: 29min 10pts (4-6, 2-3, 0-0) 2reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( B- ) -- Ben did a bit of everything in the first quarter. On offense a steal, goes full court and reverse layup against Anthony Davis! then a catch and shoot 3 from head of key, then a quick baseline move wothout ball, gets pass for two-handed dunk. On defense he had Tyreke Evans for much of the night and shut him down, in the first at least then TE got his 20 by end of game mostly on drives to the basket (big surprise eh?). Had bit of tought time guarding Tyreke in the second as the Pels caught up outscoring the Kings in the paint when Cuz was not in. Both Ben and Nik are in to the 6:00 min mark of the 2nd period when Ben goes out and Nik picks up Tyreke, a very tough assignment. Ben comes in for Landry with 7.3 sec left in half. Bench and a new mix of players let Pelicans back in game tied at 49 at half. Early in 3rd Ben and Tyreke take turns driving at each other getting fouled. Ben's aggressiveness steps up this half on both defense and offense. Ben out for Nik at 4:22 mark who then guards John Salmons and his first encounter with the fish results in nice steal. In the 4th Ben comes back in for JT of all folk at 7:02 mark and shortly Kings are up by 9! Bens defense is getting better game by game. He plays out game. 4/6 with 2 three's, 2 reb, an ast and a steal but improving defense. --Cruz
Stats: 32min 15pts (4-13, 1-2, 6-8) 3reb 6ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Sessions ( C+ ) -- Sessions teetered on that ‘poor game, solid game’ line all night. He was in a tough spot to begin with. Collison has been so good and he has been so...lackluster, and now he had to start a game on the road going up against Jrue Holiday and the Pelicans (this time with Omer Asik) and without Rudy Gay as an offensive option. It could have been a lot worse. Sessions did what you would expect out of a typical Sessions game. Almost all of his offense came on drives to the basket, most of which he didn’t finish. He hit a few tough layups, but his offensive damage was done at the line. He was bailed out a few times, but I’ll take it. I thought Sessions played a lot more passive this time out. If you remember his last start with the Kings a few weeks back, he recorded 0 assists. Tonight, he had six, but beyond the raw assist numbers the ball was moving, and yea, I’m going to give the point guard some credit for that. He also contributed to the Kings ball protection. They only had 9 turnovers on the night, with 2 of those credited to Sessions. Not perfect, but one of those things the Kings absolutely needed to do in order to win this game on the road undermanned. In transition, Sessions went back and forth between ‘out of control’ and ‘aggressive’. Sometimes the Kings came away with free throws; sometimes they came away with nothing. His defense on Holiday was nothing to brag about. I thought Jrue took himself out of the game more than anything else. He just didn’t play well. Late in the fourth with the game still up in the air, Sessions hit a huge three pretty much sealing this one for Sacramento. It wasn’t pretty, and at times it was quite ugly, but Sessions was serviceable tonight, and the Kings won. That counts for something. He certainly didn’t make me confident that the Kings could survive an extended period of time without Collison, but tonight? It was shaky, but it was enough. --Mass
Omri ****ing Casspi ladies and gentlemen. With our #2 and #3 guys out you knew somebody had to step up, and remarkably that somebody was almost the entire team. But nobody more than Omri who took his energetic bench bunny act into a starter's role and duplicated it over 36 minutes, fearlessly attacking Anthony Davis right in the chest and stealing his mojo. And it was an Omri led run that broke this thing open in the 4th. What a find for us this summer. Guy was almost out of the league, now he's just out of his mind, in the best of ways.
Big win, like many have already been. We lost our #2 guy, but SacKings don't care. We lost our PG and 3rd gun, but SacKings don't care. We're playing the favorite to win MVP, on the road...heck we even lost our coach. SacKings do. Not. Care. We're winning the ones top teams do night in and night out. Makes you wonder how long before you have to recognize the inevitable implications of that.
NOTE: the Grading Consortium is actively recruiting a new squad of graders for this season. Last chance -- only running this ad for one more night through Thanksgiving.
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 22pts (9-14, 1-2, 3-4) 4reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( A+ ) -- you know, there was almost nothing not to like here. I was scanning through my notes and realized that I only had a single negative note for the whole game, and that was when the game was virtually over at the 1:20 mark of the 4th and Omri rushed a fast break attempt into traffic when all we needed to do was pull the ball out and run clock and we win. But up until that point we would never have been in position to win if it ween't for Omri stepping up big as Cuz's new wingman. What added a cherry on top, was just how much of the good stuff he was doing he was doing right through Anthony Davis, as in Davis was his defender and Omri just laughed at the putative MVP and went right at his chest and scored through him repeatedly. His first score in another blazing first qurter for us was like that, just went right at A.D. on the break and swooped right past him for the hoop. He added a good drive. Came around a pick and made a real nice fake pass, opening the lane and going right to the rim. Made a nice little interior pas to Cuz, but Cuz missed the little layup. Just gave us that same all around and flat saavy (Omri Casspi = saavy is one of the real amazing stories of our seasons) boost we've been seeing off the bench, but now he was goosing the depleted starters. And having not 1, but 2 starters, and you can even throw JT in there on defense, who weren't scared of A.D. just had to play into this result. When the third quarter came around Cuz came out of the lockerroom like an angry bear and looked poised to take on the Pels all by himself, but who was it who stepped up to join him after a few minutes and start to open up a little lead? It was Omri of course. And down the stretch of the game, with us holding a small lead but not able to pull away as the Pelicans battled, who wa it who suddenly blew the thing open? It was Omri of course. A honeybadger amongst honeybadgers. he grabbed some big aggressive d-boards, went right at Davis again and scored through him, then got a steal up top and a breakaway hoop, and all of a sudden we were up 14 with 4min to go, and the game was pretty much over. I don't know where this has come from, but just keep on keeping on Omri. Bravo I say. --Brick
Stats: 33min 0pts (0-3, 0-0, 0-0) 7reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Thompson ( B- ) -- JT getting B-! did you watch the game at all. Yes I did, and what a game it was. When you start to evaluate Jason’s game, the first thing that hits you is: What did he do in the game? The guy plays 33 minutes without a point! You can’t evaluate JT’s game like that. He is not there to score. You have to see the big picture. People tend to forget what a great defensive team the Kings is. JT belongs to the starting lineup, because his defensive game keeps DMC in the court in the 4th quarter. JT was keeping the menace, Anthony Davis, at 14 points out of which 6 came from the stripe! That in itself is worth a B. He did very nice work on Anderson as well. JT collected 7 rebounds, one offensive, which is not fantastic, but you got to remember that DMC and Casspi were there as well collecting them. One assist and one block are nice too. I felt sorry for JT, when Casspi passed him a candy for an easy score, but he was fouled (non-shooting foul). One more game for the gray hard worker. I added the – sign only because of little lack of aggressive play in offense. Otherwise I like players like JT, who come to the game for the W and not for the stats line. --Kingston
Stats: 35min 22pts (8-18, 0-0, 6-6) 12reb 5ast 3stl 1blk 5TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- It was sort of the tale of two halves for Cuz. If you looked at his total points, boards, and assists, you'd think he had a great game. But then you'd have to ignore the five turnovers and the fact that he played most of the first quarter as though he was sleep walking. He started the game by posting up, and losing the ball for a turnover. After hitting an 18 footer, he then missed two 18 footers in a row. On his next possesion he missed at the basket off a dish from Casspi, fought for the rebound and saved the ball from going out of bounds, but thew it to the wrong team. The next sequence was very strange. Sessions drove into the lane with Cuz standing out at the three point line. One of the Pelicans poked the ball away, and it started rolling toward the Kings basket. Strangely, Cuz just stood there and watched it roll across half court before he seemed to realize that the ball hadn't changed possession, and our shot clock was still running. That seemed to wake up Cuz, because on his next possession he posted up on Anderson, backed him down, spun to the basket and slammed it home. He followed that with a beautiful pass to a cutting McLemore for an assist. A bit later he posted up on the left baseline and hit a high arching shot over Davis. He went to the bench just before the end of the 1st quarter and returned around 7:21 of the 2nd. Isolated against Asik at the top of the key, Cuz put the ball on the floor, drove past him, and laid it in. He followed that with another strange play, when Stauskas passed him the ball at the top of the three point line, and he apparently tried to pass the ball back to Nik, except he threw the ball to where he must have thought Nik was going to be, instead of where he was. Cuz seemed upset, so I have to assume that it was a broken play. Cuz started the second half by posting up Davis and scoring. He followed that by hitting a 14 footer on the left baseline. He then hit a step back 16 footer. After missing another 16 footer, he grabbed his own rebound, was fouled, and made both freethrows. After a series of misses or misses and a foul, he closed out his scoring by getting the ball at the right elbow, isolated on Anderson. He simply bulled his way right through Andersoon and laid it in. So, it wasn't one of his memorable games, but when your center can have, what to my mind was an off night, and still score 22 points, and grab 12 boards, its a testament to just how good he is. A couple of years ago, Cousins seemed to have a sense of urgency when it came to scoring, and forced a lot of shots. He'll still force an occasional shot, but he's far more patient now. First, I think he cares more about winning than scoring, and second, I think he knows the points will be there and he doesn't have to force things. He still had a pretty good game, and we won. I'll take it. I could get used to this! --Baja
Stats: 29min 10pts (4-6, 2-3, 0-0) 2reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( B- ) -- Ben did a bit of everything in the first quarter. On offense a steal, goes full court and reverse layup against Anthony Davis! then a catch and shoot 3 from head of key, then a quick baseline move wothout ball, gets pass for two-handed dunk. On defense he had Tyreke Evans for much of the night and shut him down, in the first at least then TE got his 20 by end of game mostly on drives to the basket (big surprise eh?). Had bit of tought time guarding Tyreke in the second as the Pels caught up outscoring the Kings in the paint when Cuz was not in. Both Ben and Nik are in to the 6:00 min mark of the 2nd period when Ben goes out and Nik picks up Tyreke, a very tough assignment. Ben comes in for Landry with 7.3 sec left in half. Bench and a new mix of players let Pelicans back in game tied at 49 at half. Early in 3rd Ben and Tyreke take turns driving at each other getting fouled. Ben's aggressiveness steps up this half on both defense and offense. Ben out for Nik at 4:22 mark who then guards John Salmons and his first encounter with the fish results in nice steal. In the 4th Ben comes back in for JT of all folk at 7:02 mark and shortly Kings are up by 9! Bens defense is getting better game by game. He plays out game. 4/6 with 2 three's, 2 reb, an ast and a steal but improving defense. --Cruz
Stats: 32min 15pts (4-13, 1-2, 6-8) 3reb 6ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Sessions ( C+ ) -- Sessions teetered on that ‘poor game, solid game’ line all night. He was in a tough spot to begin with. Collison has been so good and he has been so...lackluster, and now he had to start a game on the road going up against Jrue Holiday and the Pelicans (this time with Omer Asik) and without Rudy Gay as an offensive option. It could have been a lot worse. Sessions did what you would expect out of a typical Sessions game. Almost all of his offense came on drives to the basket, most of which he didn’t finish. He hit a few tough layups, but his offensive damage was done at the line. He was bailed out a few times, but I’ll take it. I thought Sessions played a lot more passive this time out. If you remember his last start with the Kings a few weeks back, he recorded 0 assists. Tonight, he had six, but beyond the raw assist numbers the ball was moving, and yea, I’m going to give the point guard some credit for that. He also contributed to the Kings ball protection. They only had 9 turnovers on the night, with 2 of those credited to Sessions. Not perfect, but one of those things the Kings absolutely needed to do in order to win this game on the road undermanned. In transition, Sessions went back and forth between ‘out of control’ and ‘aggressive’. Sometimes the Kings came away with free throws; sometimes they came away with nothing. His defense on Holiday was nothing to brag about. I thought Jrue took himself out of the game more than anything else. He just didn’t play well. Late in the fourth with the game still up in the air, Sessions hit a huge three pretty much sealing this one for Sacramento. It wasn’t pretty, and at times it was quite ugly, but Sessions was serviceable tonight, and the Kings won. That counts for something. He certainly didn’t make me confident that the Kings could survive an extended period of time without Collison, but tonight? It was shaky, but it was enough. --Mass
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