Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
SPECIAL GRADING CONSORTIUM ANNOUNCEMENT
We have a new member! An intern if you will. Suicide King is in fact in the back fetching Cruzdude some bagels as we speak. So everybody put your hands together and give your best Oak Park Cheer for the new kid on the block:
Now onto the game:
Well...we played a game. It wasn't a great game. It wasn't a terrible game. But we played a game. We stayed mostly in control of an outmatched team throughout, but we never looked inspired to really put it away. There wasn't much chance of anything going wrong, and in the end nothing did. On the other hand if something HAD gone wrong, we would have had nobody to blame but ourselves.
Link to Boxscore
Starters
Gay ( B+ ) -- started the game gunning too much, think he was 3-8 in the first quarter alone. but he settled down, began to contribute in non-gunning ways, and even because a factor in our passing game, which is a rarity. Capped things by steeping back up offensively to close things out.
Cousins ( B+ ) -- first let's mention the wart: the rebounding. Man, its a concern now. One of the league's best boarders just isn't, and we're 1/9th of the way into the season. Also lost his focus once or twice. But for the most part, worked the Pels frontline, helped on Davis, and got big on both ends for the stretch run.
Featured Grade
Koufos ( C ) -- There's not really much to say about Koufos. He brings his lunch pail and goes to work. He scored 6 points, but his little hook shot suffered again. He missed several little chippy's from point blank range. As usual he he grabbed his share of boards, seven, and played very good defense in the post. Twice he bothered, or got a finger on a jumpshot. Most of his minutes came in the first half and I don't remember him touching the floor in the 4th quarter. Joerger probably thought that Willie could do a better job guarding Anthony Davis when Cousins was on the bench. Nothing spectacular, but another solid performance. --Baja
Afflalo ( B ) -- a solid game using his power as a post guard throughout, and then had the big 4pt play that may have sealed it down the stretch.
Lawson ( D ) -- responded to outlasting Farmar and facing an equally quick scrub by...doing nothing. Well once he outfought Davis for a rebound. But otherwise his offensive game has completely disappeared now, and a rusty and sloppy Darren Collison had to eat most of the minutes.
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Bench
Barnes ( B ) -- gave us quickness, toughness, and a shot of energy off the bench that the starters just didn't have. Missed most of his threes, threw a couple more of his terrible idea passes, but got on the boards, challenged on D, and found a few people passing,
Cauley-Stein ( B- ) -- it was sloppy and foul filled, but finally for maybe the first time this year came out engaged and with energy, and at least tried. beat and had to foul several times by Davis, but he got some blocks, Collison helped him with some passes on rolls to the hoop, and finally looked the young sloppy prospect rather than scrub. Minutes held down by hacking.
Collison ( C+ ) -- not sure he scored at all in his first half stint, which combined with Lawson meant the PGs gave us nothing. Did help WCS however, and with Ty never getting ontrack, forced to play a key 2nd half role giving us spotty scoring. looked rusty though, and kept making mental mistakes, taking it into traffic, trying to force dribbles through impossible spaces etc.
Temple ( B- ) -- he comes in and his defense is just comforting after so many years of guys at his position getting lit up. But on the other end missed his threes, and all he took was his threes. Had a slick pass to Cuz, but mostly out there filling space and making sure no Pelican did anything nutty to make a game of it.
McLemore ( C+ ) -- back in the rotation against an overmatched opponent, and Ben wanted to justify it by being solid. Only took a few shots, had one notably nice play sneaking in for a tip amongst the tall timber. But also made a couple of completely headslapping unnecessary mistakes that ruined the impression.
We have a new member! An intern if you will. Suicide King is in fact in the back fetching Cruzdude some bagels as we speak. So everybody put your hands together and give your best Oak Park Cheer for the new kid on the block:
Now onto the game:
Well...we played a game. It wasn't a great game. It wasn't a terrible game. But we played a game. We stayed mostly in control of an outmatched team throughout, but we never looked inspired to really put it away. There wasn't much chance of anything going wrong, and in the end nothing did. On the other hand if something HAD gone wrong, we would have had nobody to blame but ourselves.
Link to Boxscore
Starters
Gay ( B+ ) -- started the game gunning too much, think he was 3-8 in the first quarter alone. but he settled down, began to contribute in non-gunning ways, and even because a factor in our passing game, which is a rarity. Capped things by steeping back up offensively to close things out.
Cousins ( B+ ) -- first let's mention the wart: the rebounding. Man, its a concern now. One of the league's best boarders just isn't, and we're 1/9th of the way into the season. Also lost his focus once or twice. But for the most part, worked the Pels frontline, helped on Davis, and got big on both ends for the stretch run.
Featured Grade
Koufos ( C ) -- There's not really much to say about Koufos. He brings his lunch pail and goes to work. He scored 6 points, but his little hook shot suffered again. He missed several little chippy's from point blank range. As usual he he grabbed his share of boards, seven, and played very good defense in the post. Twice he bothered, or got a finger on a jumpshot. Most of his minutes came in the first half and I don't remember him touching the floor in the 4th quarter. Joerger probably thought that Willie could do a better job guarding Anthony Davis when Cousins was on the bench. Nothing spectacular, but another solid performance. --Baja
Afflalo ( B ) -- a solid game using his power as a post guard throughout, and then had the big 4pt play that may have sealed it down the stretch.
Lawson ( D ) -- responded to outlasting Farmar and facing an equally quick scrub by...doing nothing. Well once he outfought Davis for a rebound. But otherwise his offensive game has completely disappeared now, and a rusty and sloppy Darren Collison had to eat most of the minutes.
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Bench
Barnes ( B ) -- gave us quickness, toughness, and a shot of energy off the bench that the starters just didn't have. Missed most of his threes, threw a couple more of his terrible idea passes, but got on the boards, challenged on D, and found a few people passing,
Cauley-Stein ( B- ) -- it was sloppy and foul filled, but finally for maybe the first time this year came out engaged and with energy, and at least tried. beat and had to foul several times by Davis, but he got some blocks, Collison helped him with some passes on rolls to the hoop, and finally looked the young sloppy prospect rather than scrub. Minutes held down by hacking.
Collison ( C+ ) -- not sure he scored at all in his first half stint, which combined with Lawson meant the PGs gave us nothing. Did help WCS however, and with Ty never getting ontrack, forced to play a key 2nd half role giving us spotty scoring. looked rusty though, and kept making mental mistakes, taking it into traffic, trying to force dribbles through impossible spaces etc.
Temple ( B- ) -- he comes in and his defense is just comforting after so many years of guys at his position getting lit up. But on the other end missed his threes, and all he took was his threes. Had a slick pass to Cuz, but mostly out there filling space and making sure no Pelican did anything nutty to make a game of it.
McLemore ( C+ ) -- back in the rotation against an overmatched opponent, and Ben wanted to justify it by being solid. Only took a few shots, had one notably nice play sneaking in for a tip amongst the tall timber. But also made a couple of completely headslapping unnecessary mistakes that ruined the impression.
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) we need a defender quick enough to hedge and recover and still being able to stay in front of those guys and bother them with some length. Willie is physically able to do that and therefore has a key role for this team heading forward. We can't afford to once again let the potential of another pick go to waste. 
