Grades v. Pistons 02/23/10

We played 12 men tonight, how do you think this rotation thing should be handled?

  • Play 7 men, set rotations

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Play 7 men, whoever is playing best gets the minutes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Play 8 men set rotations

    Votes: 8 12.1%
  • Play 8 men, whoever is playing best gets the minutes

    Votes: 4 6.1%
  • Play 9 men, set rotations

    Votes: 20 30.3%
  • Play 9 men, whoever is playing best gets the minutes

    Votes: 13 19.7%
  • Play 10 men set rotations

    Votes: 4 6.1%
  • Play 10 men set rotations, whoever is playing best gets the minutes

    Votes: 3 4.5%
  • Use the whole roster, whatever it takes every night

    Votes: 14 21.2%

  • Total voters
    66
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1
Theme = well, for a while there it looked like we were just going to lay down and we were going to get some girlies, but we fought back in the 4th, never threatened, but made them work, and so think we'll go with Cool Old Beasties instead.

Boxscore

Casspi ( D- ) -- bad bad outing, with the defensive woes reaching critical stage early, and offensive struggles adding to the misery late. Was just lit up by Prince early -- lit up as in attacked as the weak link, worked over, and scored on again and again until Westphal finally had to pull him from the game because of it. Before the banishment did hit the little jumper on the Reke kick -- several steps inside the three point line though, and maybe that was needed. Started the third on Rip, and got a J dropped in his face, then missed a jumper, and got worked again by Prince. Finally hit a three on the Reke kick to close the quarter. In the 4th picked up his defense, althoguh still got scored over was at least makng them work, but really struggled on offense. A layup rimmed out. Missed another layup after Dorsey started the break. Got the spin move on the break knocked away, but Dorsey mopped up again. Airballed the three off the Reke kick. Missed the running one hander, got it back, missed the follow. And as we tried for a desperate comeback, all these misses were just not things we could afford. Did give us some good defensive board work late, and was competing, but it was a bad night and was not helping.

Anomalocaridid -- if you went snorkeling 500 million years ago you might have run into one of these bizarre old beasties...and never wanted to go snorkeling again. They were actually an apex predator back in those super-primitive times -- a giant segmented arthropod that could reach 6 feet, with segmented shrimp like mandibles/tentacles, eyes on stalks, and undulating swimming fins along their sides.

Landry ( C ) -- one dimensional outing holds this grade down. Got off to a fast offensive start, just too mobile for Big Ben, who moves like his namesake anymore. Good take by Ben early, then drove past him and got fouled. But also quickly picked up 2 fouls the other way, adn was quickly off to the bench. In the 2nd was back in and missed a jumper. Hit the technical FT. Couple more FTs to get us back within 5, but then picked up his third foul and was gone again. In the third started with a bad pass turnover. Then got the ball and was doubled, but showed poor vision and missed Reke open along the baseline. Perhaps a larger problem was his lack of rebounding. Heading into the 4th Carl had 8pts...and ZERO rebounds. In that final quarter started with a bad pass turnover inside, but then got to the line, got a dunk on the break from Reke, and stroked a smooth jumper off the pick to make it 13. Closed his real scoring with a dunk from a Reke feed out of the double, but then in atrue dsipaly of meaningless stat padding, abruptly decided to attack the hoop, get fouled, and tack on 2 FTs with 1.3 seconds to go in a game where we were down 14 and looked to be just dribbling the clock out. Did scrabble together 3 rebs in the final quarter, but 18 and 3 isn't going to do it for a starting PF. When he grabs 7 or 8 you can squint hard and see a poor man's David West. When he grabs 3...its all the lottery nightmares of Shareef, or Wayman, or Antoine Carr all over again.

Jaekelopterus rhenaniae -- so 100 million years have passed, its the Devonian now, a mere 400 million years ago, and you've finally recovered from your Anomalocaridid snorkeling scare. So you break out the old gear, wipe the 100 million years of dust off the visor, and hop back in the water... at which point you run into a 9ft long giant sea scorpion, and may never swim again. Yes, scorpions started in the ocean, and are very very very old. Older than the first insects in fact. Don't think the early aquatic giants had venomous stings. Don't think they needed them, as they too were apex predators at the time until ever bigger and bigger vertebrates (fish) eventually drove them to extinction while their smaller relatives escaped to land to hide and thrive. Interesting thing though -- since it would be highly unlikely for different branches of scoprions to independently evolve poisonous stings, somebody back there way back early must have done it and be a common ancestor to all those who survive today.

Thomspon ( C+ ) -- and so JT's third game of keeping it simple went off a lot like the first two. Played the support role reasonably well, never had a huge impact either way, and generally it felt like something he could handle even if we were more effective with Dorsey taking over for the 4th. Had some good hustle plays early, but was missing all his shots, sitting down with 3 rebs and 0-4 shooting. After returning showed good recognition on one Detroit drive, cutting of the penetration, but showing good timing in stepping back and finding a player to block out. Minor thing that was noticeable just because so often we don't do it right. Took a hard fall on his back and had the wind knocked out of him going after a d-board. Was challenging a lot of shots defensively, even as we were largely ineffective defensively through the first three quarters. In the 3rd was one of the few players giving Reke anything to work with, contributing a post move to get it back down from 20, an offensive foul running over Big Ben, and a dunk off a Reke feed. Nonetheless we were getting blown out embarrassingly on our own homecourt, with the deficit reaching as high as 30, and JT started the final quarter on the bench as Westphal experimented with Dorsey in a "we don't roll over for anybody" lineup. It went so well that we almsot threated to get back into things late, and Jason never returned. Jason's giant -28 +/- jumps out at you after this one, but having watched the game, I can truthfully say that's more just an indication f the weaknes of +/- as a consistent indicator of anything. We were better with Dorsey, but JT played his role decently and in no way was the monster defecit all about him.

Cameroceras -- its fortuitous you decided to take a 100 million year break in your snorkeling after encountering the very weird Anomalocaridid and before runing into the nine foot long giant sea scorpion, or in between you might have gone in the water during the reign of the giant mollusks during the Ordovician period maybe 440-490 million years ago. The biggest of them found so far appears to have been this 35 foot long monster (its only a partial shell, so the length is a guess -- largest complete shell is of a smaller species that was only 13 foot long). Not the most maneuverable structure around -- the squid in a tube basically. What I want to know is what do you do if you suddenly get an itch 20 feet back there down your shell?? No wonder they died off.

Greene ( D- ) -- and the up and down continues with Donte as this one constitued a shot in the foot to his chances of hanging onto the starting position -- of course all the controversy here has highlighted what Westphal's normal response has been to a guy having a bad game -- insto benching. Showed some good hustle trying to save the opening tip, going to the floor chasing it, and after a missed a jumper, came up with a nice steal in the open court. But that was largely to be it for his positive contribution. never did have an impact on the defensive side of the ball. In the 2nd was back in after Landry went down with 3 fouls but did nothing other than miss the side jumper. Started the third with a bad pass turnover off the post drop off. Brought the ball up and forced a wild drive. And he and Omri combined to watch Rip light us up as the lead exploded. Left the game soon thereafter never to return. Very disappointing outing given the whole coming home for his birthday promotion or whatever. Would have thought he would have been amped unless the distractions around the team were weighing on people's minds.

Meganeura -- I mean, now who doesn't think a yard long dragonfly is cool? After surviving your ocean enounter with the giant sea scorpion 400 million years ago, you could have just waited around for a hundred million years until the monsters came up on land with you. This was only possible during that era BTW because of the oxygen level. We are all used to the oxygen level here today, but it was much higher back in the late Carboniferous period/Permian 300 million years ago. The reason? Plants came out of the water first and spread all over the planet. And plants pump out oxygen. Took millions of years for animals to follow and catchup and start sucking up all that oxygen and turning into into carbon dioxide. One result: big bugs. The main thing holding down their size is the way they breathe. More oxygen = bigger bug. And of course bigger bug = cool.
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Evans ( A ) -- well and of course here was our bright point, and when Havoc is bright, its pretty damn impressive. Easily his best game since the show in New York. Too hard off the glass on the first drive, but got the ball back from JT and laid it in. Is still misplaying that side pick and roll with Landry where teams keep doubling Reke -- going middle when he should look baseline for Landry rolling/popping. All I can think is that with the double on him, and another man rotating to Carl, that Reke is trying to swing it over to where our other three guys should only have two guys guarding them. But its not working. Stepped in to steal a ball and stop a Pistons break + feed Landry for the dunk. Baseline take past Rip. Good defense on Rip knocking the ball out. Then squared him up and blew by him again. Very strong early off to the 11pt 5ast first quarter. In the 2nd powered up the jumper +1 through Gordon. Missed a long three as we overpassed and left it to him. Back in after a rest, and had a wild drive for the miss. Was playing some very good position defense, and drew an offensive foul on Stuckey. Mistake to close the first half, with the 1-4 flat being called again, got nothing going, picked up the dribble, and did not find anybody until too late, with the 24 second violation resulting. In the third settled for a jumper that missed. Then another one against the clock as nobody was moving. Called for an offensive foul up against the shot clock again. Dunk on the break after Beno poked a ball away, and with nobody doing anything, finally just started taking care of it himself. Went through a long stretch where basically every good thing that happened was off of Reke's individual brilliance. Layup on the break. Again forced to hoist a jumper against the shotclock. Short on the driving post move. Then created a series of easy shots for teammates that had us showing the first bits of life. Drive and dish to JT, followed by the drive and dish to Beno, followed by the drive and dish to Omri. In the 4th a quick spin and was fouled, and hit the FTs. Drew two fouls on one possession and got to the line for another 2 FTs. Powered up the post move. Out on the break and a nice dish to Landry for his career high in assists (it would be 13 assists by the time this one was done). The out on the break again for the layin to make it 14 with 5:30 to go and force the Pistons timeout. Up fake and finish on the drive again. Got smacked in the mouth on defense, recoivered, stole the ball, led the break, and dumped the assist to Cisco. Beat the double with a pass to Landry for the dunk. Explosive layup on the break. Beat by Stuckey for the closing score. Just strong in this one from wire to wire on hsi way to the 28pts (11-19 shooting) 13ast 3reb 2stl night. Did everything he could, but had no help.

Dimetrodon -- I always thought these guys were cool. About the first of the great land predators in the Permian, maybe 280 million years ago, they could reach 11 ft long, and despite the wide waddling lizard stance, were actually one of the very first of our distant distant ancestors -- a pelycoasaur, which was one of the first creatures with the differentiated teeth which mammals late made use of. The sail BTW was probably a temperature control device.

Bench

McGuire ( INC ) -- in and good hustle on the o-glass, but then an incompetent follow attempt. Good drive and drop to Udoka for the layup. But the real reason he was in there so quick for Casspi was to try to cool Prince after the torrid start, and he succeeded at that. Was rewarded for his success by never getting a return call.

Pachycephalosaurus -- why these dinos were cool, other than by being named Pachycephalosaurus (18 letters!) was because they were boneheads, literally. That big knob on top of their head wasn't brains. It was bone. 10 inches of it. They weren't very big by dino standards -- maybe the size of a horse, and they probably weren't armored elsewhere, so the most likely explanation for their bone heads was macho mating ritual stuff like bighorn sheep go through. And of course mindlessly slamming your bony head into somebody else's bony head to show off = well, stupid. But I'll call it cool for the sake of this thread.


May ( C- ) -- surprisingly after the article got Spencer benched, Sean was our first big off the bench. Had a pick and pop jumper in the 2nd, took a charge. Did nothing else, and continues to look like whatever promise he flashed years ago in Charlotte is gone now, and he's Europe bound.

Terror Bird -- giant 10ft tall carnivorous birds that would have made YOU the Thanksgiving dinner? How could that not be cool. They lived for over 50 million years in South America/Patagonia while that continent drifted free from the rest of the world. They were the top predators down there and did not die out until a few million years ago when the continents got hooked up and they were exposed to large mammalian carnivores as competitors.


Udoka ( C ) -- layup from Mcguire early, corner three from Noc. Missed the corner in the third. Got long minutes trying to cool Prince and Hamilton. Not horrendously successful, but did better than the starting kids. Problem was of course that he can't score himself, so we brought him in, slowed the Pistons a little, slowed oursleves a lot.

Enteledont -- and while we're turning the tables, how about some giant carnivorous pigs? Enteldonts were a major carnivore for over 20 million years (from about 37 mil to 16mil years ago). They were the size of a horse. A horse with big nasty teeth. And like pigs today, a good size brain. They would have liked us if we had just evolved a little earlier. Humans...the other white meat.
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#3
Nocioni ( C ) -- in variously to provide an alternative to the strugglign kids and the foul ridden Landry, and...was Noc. Stepped off and let Hamilton have a three. Rip knocked down another jumper in his face. Then hit a three on the pass from Reke. Was slow to pass it to an open Udoka in the corner, but may have just been waiting for the defense to commit before swinging it. Drive and scoop to get the deficit down to 3 to close the first. In the 2nd was short on the jumper. Good move on the drive past Villanueva, but blew the layup. O-reb and set up Cisco for a three, which he bricked, missed the hook in the post over the taller man. Finsihed wiht an sbiolutely disgusting line of 5pts on 2-5 shooting and 2rebs. I HATE 5pt 2reb games. They ar enothign. Ungradeable. Give me something to work with, or just don't play. Shorten the damn rotations coach.

Ekaltadeta -- well if you can't appreciate the irony of killer birds or killer pigs...well, you suck. But I can up the ante even further. How about a killer kangaroo? Yep, you heard it right. Lived from about 25 milion to 10 million years ago in Australia, and had big nasty sharp teeth.

Udrih ( C ) -- was very quiet in the early going of this one after entering in the first. In the 2nd finally got a stop and pop, then missed a jumper and a three on the move. Of more concern was that the offense did not run any smoothr with him out there -- in fact his two main quarters, the 2nd and 3rd, were our two worst offensively, and he finished with 0 assists. In the 3rd poked a steal away against Rip, and hit the three on the kick from Reke. No minutes at all in the 4th of this one as the Reke/Cisco/Casspi/Landry/Dorsey crew played pretty well together -- certainly better than any other group had, and Westphal decided to just let them run it out.

Predator X -- the very exciting "Predator X" -- a superpredator only discovered a few years ago. 50 feet long, 100 tons of pure badass that lived 150 million years ago. This beastie had 12 inch long teeth, and they think its bite pressure might have been 4 times that of T-Rex (10 times stronger than anything alive today). A Great White would have been a dinner mint to this thing.

Cisco ( C+ ) -- had a brief stint in the 2nd where he did not do much, and then was inserted as part of the crew to start the 4th quarter that nearly turned the garbagetime into a real competition by the later 4th, and he ended up playing that whole quarter. In the first stint got the step but lost it on the drive, then got tripped on an attempted basline drive. In the 4th missed the three on the kickout, but got the layup on the break. Had a good steal on Gordon with us still down 20 in the mid 4th and got foueld. Hit the Fts. Layup on the break courtesy of Reke to make it 12. But then made the classic dumb Cisco error to sink the last comeback hopes by fouling a thre poit shooter, and not just any three point shooter -- Rip Hamilton, who calmly knocked down all three. I'm not sure we ever truly threatened, but that play kind of did us in and we did no more than trade baskets from there on out.

Glyptodon -- now this would have been my approach to all these big *** predators running around. Grow a big *** shell (they were the size of a Volkswagon), hide under it. Even grow a little bony cap to wear on your head. These things lasted all the way up until 10,000 years ago, not dying off until the suspiciously times extinction event that killed off all the fun old large mammals in the Americas just as e humans arrived. They think maybe we were hunting them and using their shells as huts. Humans suck.

Dorsey ( B ) -- got his shot, and made his case. Was inserted to start the 4th as part of the Reke/Cisco/Casspi/Landry don't lay down lineup, and became a key part of it, adding toughness and defense to the stubby frontline as we won the hustle battles. Immediately followed a Casspi miss with a dunk (that is roughly his range). Stole a ball and started our break. Fugly airballed hook after Casspi foolishly threw it to him in the post. Got a defensive basket interference that hurt, but hey, at least he was trying. Mopped up some more garbage on the casspi miss and got fouled, but in classic thug fashion is a bad bad FT shooter and missed both. Not a dominanting run by any means, but a good physial one giving us a shot in the arm of defense and toughness. As "flexible" as Westphal's rotations are, I would not be surprised to see him even as hihg as first big off the bench next game.

Argentavis -- the largest flighted bird we know of, these early condors lived 6 million years ago in, you guessed it, Argentina. They could stand over 6 feet tall and had a 21 foot wingspan.
 
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#5
Boooo!

13 assists from Tyreke though!

Needs to get his assists up to average 20, 5 and 5! :D

edit: Meant to put rebounds instead of assists!
 
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#6
Kings offense been really out of sync, but that's not surprising with new players. Hopefully the days off will allow them to get some practice together and they can get more comfortable.

THE ROOKIES HAVE REALLY HIT THE WALL. esp Omri Casspi, dude just looks dog tired out there and can't guard anyone anymore. The days off will also be good for the rooks.
 
#7
Kings offense been really out of sync, but that's not surprising with new players. Hopefully the days off will allow them to get some practice together and they can get more comfortable.

THE ROOKIES HAVE REALLY HIT THE WALL. esp Omri Casspi, dude just looks dog tired out there and can't guard anyone anymore. The days off will also be good for the rooks.
From the looks of the stats tonight, it seems like our defense was the one out of sync. 58% shooting?
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#9
Kings offense been really out of sync, but that's not surprising with new players. Hopefully the days off will allow them to get some practice together and they can get more comfortable.

THE ROOKIES HAVE REALLY HIT THE WALL. esp Omri Casspi, dude just looks dog tired out there and can't guard anyone anymore. The days off will also be good for the rooks.
Reke didn't look like he had much of a wall tonight.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#16
Kings offense been really out of sync, but that's not surprising with new players. Hopefully the days off will allow them to get some practice together and they can get more comfortable.

THE ROOKIES HAVE REALLY HIT THE WALL. esp Omri Casspi, dude just looks dog tired out there and can't guard anyone anymore. The days off will also be good for the rooks.
If that was Reke hitting the wall, then we'd best be expecting 50/10/20 next season.
 
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