Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
There have been nine 20-20-10 games in modern NBA history (since 1985-86 when database is searchable).
We have just seen 2 of them back to back.
We have lost both games.
Boogie is averaging 29.0pts 20.7reb 8.3ast 1.7stl 4.3blk in his last three games...and we have lost them all. Reread that. That's not possible.
So here we are, first hand witnesses to the blooming of a legend, and oh so incredibly unworthy.
Here is the all time list of 20-20-10 games:
4/3/2015 Demarcus Cousins 24-20-13
4/1/2015 DeMarcus Cousins 24-21-10
4/2/2010 David Lee 37-20-10
1/28/2004 Kevin Garnett 20-20-10
11/23/1999 Chris Webber 26-22-10
12/27/1993 Larry Johnson 29-20-11
4/20/1990 Fat Lever 20-22-11
3/02/1988 Fat Lever 20-20-12
4/04/1986 Charles Barkley 27-22-10
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 17pts (7-9, 0-0, 3-6) 3reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: well, tired hard, ran the floor and efficiently took Cuz passes, but nothing tonight.
Casspi ( B ) -- this was an odd one in a way for Omri. He again gave us enough points to be a mild salve for the missing Rudy, and he did it on far fewer shots than a primary weapon would take to get those points. The key to that is that most of his points came out in the open court, taking passes form Cuz especially, and working in around the rim. He never even attempted a three. Indeed seemed to intentionally avoid it on a couple of occasions. He attacked guys and got to the line, but missed his FTs. And he was at times smart in his attacks, as he was when he went right at Davis in the open court in the early 3rd perhaps knowing Davis had 3 fouls, and was able to get a layup right over him as A.D. could not afford to challenge. .And yet for all the efficiency in boxscore, the game at times still felt scrappy, scruffy and fugly with several near turnovers on passes and odd decisions on when to shoot, when to drive, who to pass to etc.. Part of it may have been the ridiculous first half shooting display put on by Quincy Pondexter, who hit 5 first half threes, all with Omri on the court and at least partly responsible for the decisions he made. But the thing was, after the first one, which was just a late halfhearted close, I couldn't be 100% sure Omri was messing up on the others. When Reke comes busting down the court, and Omri steps up to stop him from driving, at which point Reke whips it to the corner to Omri's man for a three...well... But it kept happening again and again, and Pondexter was Omri's man, and had 15pts against us in the first half alone just on those threes. And the other thing was that those other things Omri often adds, the rebounds, the asists, they weren't there tonight. The assists maybe because Cuz was the PG, and Omri was receiving not delivering. And generally that worked. In fact antoher raceout dunk on a full court Cuz pass got us within 2pts late in the game. And the rebounding...well we desperately could have used it but the Pelicans are so long inside that anything Cuz didn't grab they did. Still, the lack thereof stood out at times, and at a critical one in particular when with 1:40 to go Omri went inside and tried to grab a rebound that Cuz probably would have had himself, and instead fumbled it out of bounds to cost us a possession we desperately needed. It was 7 of 9, and several of them working well with Cuz (they seem to have a chameistry, and if Omri does want to come back as he says, it seems like a good idea) and completing his assists. And this is just our backup SF here. But magical as it is to have the big guy doing literally everything for us out there, a little help in other areas might have tipped this.
Stats: 16min 6pts (2-3, 0-0, 2-4) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Summary: well the boxscore will attest to the wonderful all around contributions, but did mostly stay with Davis.
Landry ( C ) -- Carl Landry is maybe 6'9", looks closer to 6'7", and when not scoring often plays like he's 6'5", and tonight we threw him out there against basically a twin towers set to guard Anthony Davis. And the funny thing was, it was the best thin he did on the night, by a lot. In the very early going he would hit 2 little assisted midrange jumpshots as a pressure release man. In the early 3rd he would twice get to the line, and twice split the pair. Against all the length he was completely pathetic on the boards. Assists are not in the vocabulary. But the one thing here which gave an anemic 6pt 1reb "start" a little value is that in general he became the latest King to do a good job on Anthony Davis. Obviously he's not long enough to remotely challenge A.D. up top, but he was just mobile enough to stay in front of him, which I think is the real key to bothering Davis. So despite very limited productivity of his own, and Boogie being out there absolutely alone on the glass, Carl's "production" came in A.D.'s lack thereof and inability to take over the game.
Stats: 42min 24pts (9-22, 0-1, 6-10) 20reb 13ast 1stl 4blk 5TO
Summary: ok, he's just getting silly now with back to back 20-20-10 games for the first time since the 60s.
Cousins ( A ) -- we're all witnesses now. funny hing was he didn't even really get off to that good a start. Mostly it was defense and passing early, including an electric full court chest pass to a streaking Omri. But guys were tipping boards away over him, and defensive breakdowns had him having to constantly have to run out to try to belatedly contest open corner threes for Pondexter. When he came back in he got a gift as the Pelicans decided, hey, we've been doing fine without that Ryan Anderson guy, let's sacrifice him! and threw him out there to guard Cuz, which resulted in a bang, bang, then split past Davis to the hoop. Meanwhile he was drawing multiple charges himself on the other end to make sure to round out his 20-20-10. Maybe got him too excited about the Anderson matchup as a few minutes later he made what was essentially a mental mistake and tried to drive past Anderson rather than bully him, and Anderson stepped in front for a charge. And was being forced/settling for too many turnaround on the baseline -- and there is actually one more spot to do the in prime game rounding thing with Boogie, and that's to develop those midrange post shots, the turnarounds and whatnot from 12-15 feet when the opponent builds a wall in there in front of him. Do that, and there is no answer. It wasn't until the third that we saw this one blossom from merely a potential triple double into another monster. And it was in basically every single way EXCEPT his own offense, which has been a little scruffy of late. The longer shots weren't falling, his FT shooting suddenly got shaky. But when he took over the game n the mid 3rd he took it over in spectacular fashion. piling up boards, assist after assist making all his guys look better, a big contest on Davis which actually got the 2 of them into a war of words. There was nothing more you could have asked of him other than hitting his damn FTs. What was frustrating was watching him hit such a peak, and be doing so much to get guys open shot after open shot, to have those guys hitting those layups and spots shots...and still to lose the game simply because of a lack of talent in the end. In a lot of ways that's why there have to be major changes next year. Your center is putting up historic lines every night, and you still lose. tehre's no realistic demand that can be made for Cuz to play at an even higher level, so not 100% of the improvement has to come from the rest of the roster. Cuz was merely being compared to Larry Bird (last guy to have back to back 20-15-10 triple doubles in 1985), but then in the final seconds he grabbed his 20th board, and so the comparison jumped to Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor in 1968 as the last 20-20-10 back to backs. So no problem. A once every half century feat.
Stats: 34min 17pts (7-15, 3-9, 0-0) 3reb 2ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: basically came down to, if Cuz set him up, he hit it. If anybody else did, he did not. Some big misses late.
McLemore ( B- ) -- got an early three, not much else. Most of his non-scoring output came all at once in the early 2nd, when he pulled down a couple of good boards, and got an assist setting DWill up for a little oop. The rest of the game though it really was notable how much more Ben was getting out of working with Cuz than anybody else, either on Cuz kickouts for threes, or Cuz kick aheads on the break. Meanwhile Ben's defensive work on Eric Gordon was a mystery, as he got outscored on the night and when you watched how it happened...lack of conviction is I think how I would put it. Ben kept on wandering around in space, taking one step to help this way, half heartedly closing that way, and just getting vaguely caught too far away to challenge Gordon's shots or cut off his angles. Meanwhile after a couple of full speed runouts in the early 4th where the Pels did not get back, Ben looked like he might help us pull this out and finally win one for the big guy. Was not to be however. Ben quite hitting basically anything. Missed multiple threes down the stretch, and with 40 seconds to go missed a tough inside shot that helped finish us. As it was with Omri, and this is both a good and a bad, it felt tonight like most of what Ben did well flowed from Cousins' game. Take away that and you mostly had a bunch of missed threes and some vague defense. However with Sauce's moment apparently receding, we needed Ben out there as much as possible to at least be able to compete.
Stats: 35min 14pts (6-12, 2-3, 0-0) 4reb 3ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Summary: got utterly abused by Reke all night but since Dre could not guard anyone, he kept on having to face it.
McCallum ( C- ) -- after these last couple of games probably came home to find that Reke had moved in, changed the locks, and was having a candlelight dinner with his girlfriend. After not fighting back at all before the break, after half was one of the recipients of Boogie's largesse and in the third began to at least give us some scoring. He pressed the break when he could and notched a handful of assists there, but otherwise, Ray was a small second shooting guard, and Boogie was running the team as a point center. The problem was on the other end, where Reke has just battered Ray and completely stolen his mojo. Ray just hasn't been able to do anything there. Reke goes through him, Reke goes around him, and its worse even than the direct stats say, because time and again Reke blew into the lane, the defense collapses, the ball gets kicked and boom. And time and again Reke slashes in, and even if he misses the layup Cuz is out of position after the challenge, and other Pelicans clean up. And Ray just could not stop it, not in New Orleans, not here at home. On the other hand Dre has been made to look very old in both Pels games, and was even worse on defense, and so Ray it was. He gave us some points, there was a stretch where he was very much one of the racers and leakout guys during Boogie's big 2nd half push. But overall the guy he was trying to guard was the single biggest reason we lost this game.
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