Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well I can hardly disappoint: I TOLD YOU SO!!!!
There, got that out of my system so that when CD or whoever wants to come around and challenge me next I can respond with appropriate bemusement.
In any case, when your young hyper physical center puts up 24pts 14rebs and even more than the numbers show outplays his supposed peer on the other side of the floor on the same night that your young hyper physical PG puts up 25pts 12ast there should be no way you lose that game. Well, unless some completely inexperienced gerbil comes along 2 weeks onto the job without any feel for your team at all and trades away your 25pt 12ast physical PG for Grevis bleeping Vasquez. Then what happens is your young hyper physical center has to fight off your old hyper physical PGs team singlehandedly, gets victimized a bit by the refs, and with our young hyper physical PG-less guard line now the league's worst group of defenders, we give up 59pts to their trio of guards, and 113 on the night again. But hey, Marcus and Jimmer both gave us unusually strong games for them, so its all good right? Everybody with me on this one?? Woot!
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Rainmaker
Bajaden
Henkel
MassachusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 39min 11pts (2-12, 0-1, 7-8) 5reb 2ast 2stl 0blk 6TO
Gay ( D ) -- At some point Rudy Gay is going to have to start playing like Rudy Gay. This was another night where he offered little in the way of support to Cuz and as the guy brought in to be our second option, these 2-12 type nights kill us as we don't have near the talent to compensate for Rudy Gay no-shows. Really, nothing went right for Rudy tonight. Missed every single shot he took outside of the paint, whether spotted up off the ball in a catch and shoot situation or when he was iso'd and created a jumper for himself. When we needed him in the 2nd half of a close game, he provided 0-6 shooting in the 3rd and 4th combined. He did draw a double in the 3rd and hit Isaiah for a 3, but aside from that did little in creating for anyone else. Didn't do well on the glass and in general has left me wanting more in that area. Didn't look good defensively either. Spent time on Aminu, Anderson, Gordon and Reke and wasn't able to have much of an impact on any of them. The one positive is he did take it upon himself to force himself into the game a bit in the 3rd and started attacking and getting to the FT line, yet nothing really came of it. Didn't have any carry over effect. I'm not exactly sure what the deal is. What I think might be part of Rudy's problem is he's not getting enough touches early. He's not involved enough in the offense and he's not getting the ball where's he's most comfortable. Remember against Houston when on camera Malone asked, "Rudy, where do you want the ball, iso or pick & roll?" and Rudy responded, "pick & roll". He and Cuz had a great two-man game going that evening yet we haven't seen it since. Getting Rudy more touches early and getting him into some pick & rolls might help but either way, for his salary and as our #2 next to Cuz, we need more, period.--Rain
Stats: 27min 0pts (0-4, 0-0, 0-2) 3reb 2ast 0stl 3blk 2TO
Thompson ( D+ ) -- You know, I wanted to give Thompson a higher grade for tonight’s effort, but as well as he played his ‘role player’ game I just cannot excuse the empty stat line. 0 points (including 2 missed FT’s) and 3 rebounds in almost 30 minutes of basketball is hard to do, especially for a power forward. The points are one thing, Jason has never been a volume scorer, but I think it’s fair to expect more from him on the glass. That being said, his defense tonight was quite good. Ryan Anderson has hurt this team in the past, and Jason really made him a non-factor. He spent some time on Anthony Davis, and together with Cousins they really kept those guys in check. He had 3 blocks on the night to show for his defensive effort for his biggest statistical contribution. He was working hard as usual, and it’s sort of a shame that his contributions to the team consistently go unappreciated. It’s just hard to give to much credit to individual defense after another home loss. He’s just not much of a factor as a help defender, and that certainly could have helped as Evans, Holiday, and Gordon were getting to the basket at will. And despite the low grade, he wasn’t the problem tonight. He just didn’t contribute as much as you’d like. --Massl
Stats: 30min 24pts (7-15, 0-0, 10-17) 14reb 1ast 2stl 2blk 4TO
Cousins ( B ) -- Got off to the hot start with poor Anderson on him who just looked pitifully over matched all night. Also clearly inspired by a recent thread was doing a solid job on Davis, including a big time rejecting. In fact most of Davis points came off of guard penetration rather then any offense he was creating for himself. when he came back in the second was still the best big on the court but did contribute to the sloppy play with a couple turnovers, which despite overall better decision making remains a weakness. Still Cousins went into the half having single handily out play the Pelicans bigs in dominating fashion. Start off the second strongly as well but his biggest weakness showed up again tonight after being a non issue in the last handful of games. Pick up two quick fouls in the first four minutes and with that the best player on the court was headed for a 30 minute night. More of the same in the fourth as he put Anderson on the bench with foul trouble only to join him a short time later with his fifth foul. Clearly frustrated came back in and simple wasn't effective. Went 0-6 in the quarter although three of those shots came on one possession and he was still getting to the line consistently. Not a great night from he line, but with our play in the fourth it became a non issue. One dominate half followed by a half where he had little impact. Tough to grade a game like that, decided that his overall impact and the muscle he flexed in the early going was worth the mark. -- Henkel
Stats: 23min 3pts (1-2, 1-2, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
McLemore ( D- ) -- It was a rough night for Ben on both ends of the court. Actually, its hard to say that he was inept on offense, because in 23 minutes, despite being open on the perimeter 9 different times, only twice did he get the ball, and he made one of those shots. So we could say that he shot 50% from the floor. You could safely say, that Ben was the last resort on the offensive side of the ball. It didn't appear that his number was part of the offense. No screens were set for him. He wasn't part of any pick and rolls that I noted. In essence, he was an afterthought on the offensive side of the ball. On the defensive side, he struggled to stay in front of Gordon. Twice in the first quarter Gordon just blew past him for layups. A bit later he left Gordon to help in the post, and Gordon hit a three. The second half was more of the same, just more brief. He started by getting called for a foul for bumping Gordon. Then he was called for a blocking foul, a questionable call, since McLemore had already established his position and Gordon caught the pass and ran into Ben. Once again, he was open several times on the wings, and was ignored. While his stats would ordinarily dictate an F, I just can't in good conscience give him one. He's been shooting the ball well of late, but you can't shoot the ball, if you don't touch the ball. Thus the D-
Baja--
Stats: 35min 20pts (8-15, 3-6, 2-3) 5reb 5ast 3stl 0blk 4TO
Thomas ( C ) -- this was a game a lot more dissatisfying than the per normal statline. Really was never 100% on from the start of things. Took a lot of shots early in the game, but wasn't really playing selfishly, just was oddly often being left open as a spot shooter. Odder still the strategy seemed to semi-work for the Pelicans, as IT was just missing shots he has normally hit this season. Made a couple of spectacular plays, once scoring out of a timeout on a drive right into Brow's chest, once dropping a fancypants between the leg dropoff pass to Cousins rumbling down the lane on a break. but somehow just seemed to have a shaky handle and control of the game. Committed an instant turnover as soon as Reke entered the game, and just flat tripped and fell down on the final possession of the first quarter for another turnover. A little wild and out of control after returning in the later 2nd highlighted by throwing the ball right at Boogie's shoelaces for a turnover. On one of his better attempts to make a play may have done us a disservice, as he stepped in to try to take a chanrge on Gordon, who was just blowing by McLemore at will, and Gordon went up high and came down hard. Gordon was killing us at the time, but things got worse for us once Reke replaced him. Hit a catch and shoot three from Gay in the early 3rd, and up until that point of the game most of his jumper attempts had been off the catch and shoot. Whether just not feeling it, or whether consciously avoiding it, wasn't gunning off his dribble. Stepped up, or tried to, after Boogie had to leave the game with fouls. Began to get a little scoring push, made several hustle plays scrapping around the offensive boards on scramble plays. Dropped another nifty fancypants over the shoulder pass to Acy underneath for a dunk. But there was something just off in his game. A scattering of highlight plays, but a lack of effective control of the game. He actually wasn't the biggest defensive culprit against Reke, although there was one amusing sequence on the final Pelicans possession of the 3rd as IT got isolsated on Reke, and clapped his hands and dropped into a stance like he wanted some of that...so Reke promptly squared him up, crossed him over, and ran right over him to the hoop for the tying score. As we died late in the game again just seemed to have no control of the game on either side of the floor. The right guy (Cousins) wasn't getting the ball when and where he needed it. there were turnovers, shot clock issues, missed spot shooters, IT was flat shot over a few times, and in general this felt nothing like a 20-5-5 game as it turned into a late rout ( in fact it wouldn't have been a 20pt game had IT not padded his stats with a pointless three in the final seconds). At least he was in good company, as I felt Davis's statline was highly deceptive of his impact on the game too. --Brick
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Yeah he's practically Lebron........the results are damn near the same......
