Pts by quarter
1st: 36
2nd: 34
3rd: 10 ?!?
Not sure I have ever seen that before.
In the spirit of down and out soidarity, the theme tongiht will be The Ten Poorest Nations in the World. Might also put our own economic wows in perspective.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D- ) -- Cisco, who is at best a SG/SF swingman, and built much more like a guard, has been exposed a bit on this trip as teams with real SFs have begun to take advantage of him. Tonight it was Tayshaun Prince, who has hurt us in the past, and was just far too big/saavy for either Cisco or Casspi. So in order to justify his minutes Cisco would have needed to score on the offensive end, but that didn't happen either. Was really the forgotten man in the early going while Reke and JT were leading the huge early charge, but even when he was called upon, not much was happening. A night after starting to runaway from 3pt shots, today he only took 1 and still only shot 2-10 from the field. Started the third blowing a layup off a beautiful Cousins feed. Lone bright spot on the night came when he hit a big three at the 8:30 mark of the 4th to cut the lead back to 3. Played 33 minutes...why only Westphal knows as he's swapped his mad scientist cap for his stubborn toddler cap on ths issue. 6pts 4rebs on 2-10 shooting while getting lit up on defense with two young SFs behind you on the bench logically should not result in those kinds of minutes. Was our only player whon shot poorly on the night, we had 27 assists, only 1 of which was his.
#10 Afghanistan ($800 GDP per capita) -- it probably comes as no particular shock that Afghanistan should be on this list after decades of civil war and insurgency. It also of course makes the problem of how to convince average Afghanis, who live on $2 a day, to not get involved in the heroin trade (they are the world's largest exporter, and it pays for much of the Taliban) that much more problematic. Fun fact: only 3 in 10 Afghani policemen (and they are all men of course) can even read.
Thompson ( B+ ) -- got off to a huge start to this one as the primary beneficiary of and finisher for the great passing in the early going. Had a few little thigns of his own -- his first score was a nice post move along the baseline, he had some hustle o-rebs and finishes. But most of what he was doing was simply movign towards the hoop, keeping his hands up, and taking pass after pass for easy finishes inside. off to a big start nice move inside early, and a hustle offensive board and finsih. Got a big alley oop on the break from Reke and was playing with so much confidence that he hit his first 8 shots of the game. Defense was not as good as the offense unfortunately. Remained active in the early third even as we slowed down, got a finish from Beno, an o-reb and foul, but missed the FTs on a ngiht when he, and we, utterly sucked from the line. And then that was just it. That abruptly. It all stopped. The Pistons were obviously not interested in having him do that nay longer and no doubt made adjustments, but it also just felt like we had an entirely different tone to our offense after half and just compeltely forgot about Jason. The Pistons helped matters along by smallballing, especially after they lost Wilcox, and the upshot was that Jason had 20pts at half, and a grand total of 2 after half, and wasn't even three down the stretch as we tried to hold on and win it. That's a hard thing to grade.
#9 Central African Reublic ($754 GDP per capita) -- the incredibly generic name probably doesn't help inspire investment in this landlocked African cournty. Liek a number of the poorer countries in the world it actually produces enough food to feed its populace, but since that populace is incredibly poor and can't pay anything, most of that food gets exported and the people back home starve.
Cousins ( C+ ) -- strong early play that was sabotaged again by foul trouble that severely limited his mintues until he could lead us on a little late (very late) last gasp charge. Nice play, yes I said play, as we had both Beno and Evans flash throuh the paint and Cousins hit Reke beautifully for the first score of the game. Was in attack mode early, and his passing as well as physical play was helping to grease the early explosion. Fouls soon caught up to him however, and if he does not accelerate the elarnign curve there he's going to join JT in having the dubious honor of being the biggest hack in a 400 player league as a rookie. Halftimes are often deadly for us, and they were again as I don't know what hapened. Kids feeling fat and sassy after the first half? Westphal passing around a bong at halftime? I don't know, but whatever it was, Cousins exemplified it, just coming out of halftime flat as can be, missing a jumper and getting beat twice by Monroe to start the half before picking up his 4th foul on acharging call, and having to sit until the 4th quarter. Stated the 4th helping by hitting Casspi on a cut for a layup after our amazingly bad third. But got stripped for a turnover on his next post move, lost his cool and got a technicalm leading Westphal to immediately pull him. That was ok, at least in theory. But wiht us dying out there offensively again Westphal kept on sitting on him and sitting on him and sitting on him, until finally reinserting him in desperation time with the Pistosn threatening to put us down 10 and finsih it.Cousins performed pretty well after the late return, banging inside and getting o the line repeatedly, and even knocking down most of the FTs. But it was too little too late.
#8 Sierra Leone ($747 GDP per capita) -- ever see the movie Blood Diamond? It was based on the diamond trade in this country.
Udrih ( C ) -- one of the disadvantages of having a pod person take Beno's place for this last week is that you always knew that sooner or later the gig was going to be up and the pod person was going to abruptly disappear. The timing sucked however. Was quiet from the very start in this one, and while early you thought maybe it was just the quietness that comes from being not terribly needed while Reke played the full blown superstar, you eventually began to realize that this was more than him consciously stepping back, and he wasn't going to ignite after we slowed down. If he hand maybe we win this, but he never did make a push of any kind really. Hit a three on a Reke kick in the first, but when Reke had to leave with the cut mouth, we needed him to step up and there was just nothing there. By way of waking up in the thid made a great move to free himself...and then barely drew iron. Did eventually open one eye at least, hitting Jason with a nice pass, playing a little D, and getting one of his spin drives to fall. But the Pistons were doubling and trapping Reke up top shifted some of that same attention to Beno, and he turned it over triggering a Poistons break. Continued just being there into the 4th, missing a long three and struggling to contain Gordonm but coming up with a single hit late in the quarter. I C'd this, could have C-'d it I thought, but I don't think there was a single quarter where he was really much aboe those sorts of levels. Might have been most important just in not being Pooh Jeter, who apparently stole Will Bynum's Mini-Me suit before the game or something, because Bynum looked like he was determined to drive him right out of the game.
#7 Eritrea ($739 GDP per capita) -- this former chunk of Ethiopia is if nothing else a great place to get married, becuase then they'll come and do the doofy traditional marriage dance pictured to celebrate.
1st: 36
2nd: 34
3rd: 10 ?!?
Not sure I have ever seen that before.
In the spirit of down and out soidarity, the theme tongiht will be The Ten Poorest Nations in the World. Might also put our own economic wows in perspective.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D- ) -- Cisco, who is at best a SG/SF swingman, and built much more like a guard, has been exposed a bit on this trip as teams with real SFs have begun to take advantage of him. Tonight it was Tayshaun Prince, who has hurt us in the past, and was just far too big/saavy for either Cisco or Casspi. So in order to justify his minutes Cisco would have needed to score on the offensive end, but that didn't happen either. Was really the forgotten man in the early going while Reke and JT were leading the huge early charge, but even when he was called upon, not much was happening. A night after starting to runaway from 3pt shots, today he only took 1 and still only shot 2-10 from the field. Started the third blowing a layup off a beautiful Cousins feed. Lone bright spot on the night came when he hit a big three at the 8:30 mark of the 4th to cut the lead back to 3. Played 33 minutes...why only Westphal knows as he's swapped his mad scientist cap for his stubborn toddler cap on ths issue. 6pts 4rebs on 2-10 shooting while getting lit up on defense with two young SFs behind you on the bench logically should not result in those kinds of minutes. Was our only player whon shot poorly on the night, we had 27 assists, only 1 of which was his.
#10 Afghanistan ($800 GDP per capita) -- it probably comes as no particular shock that Afghanistan should be on this list after decades of civil war and insurgency. It also of course makes the problem of how to convince average Afghanis, who live on $2 a day, to not get involved in the heroin trade (they are the world's largest exporter, and it pays for much of the Taliban) that much more problematic. Fun fact: only 3 in 10 Afghani policemen (and they are all men of course) can even read.
Thompson ( B+ ) -- got off to a huge start to this one as the primary beneficiary of and finisher for the great passing in the early going. Had a few little thigns of his own -- his first score was a nice post move along the baseline, he had some hustle o-rebs and finishes. But most of what he was doing was simply movign towards the hoop, keeping his hands up, and taking pass after pass for easy finishes inside. off to a big start nice move inside early, and a hustle offensive board and finsih. Got a big alley oop on the break from Reke and was playing with so much confidence that he hit his first 8 shots of the game. Defense was not as good as the offense unfortunately. Remained active in the early third even as we slowed down, got a finish from Beno, an o-reb and foul, but missed the FTs on a ngiht when he, and we, utterly sucked from the line. And then that was just it. That abruptly. It all stopped. The Pistons were obviously not interested in having him do that nay longer and no doubt made adjustments, but it also just felt like we had an entirely different tone to our offense after half and just compeltely forgot about Jason. The Pistons helped matters along by smallballing, especially after they lost Wilcox, and the upshot was that Jason had 20pts at half, and a grand total of 2 after half, and wasn't even three down the stretch as we tried to hold on and win it. That's a hard thing to grade.
#9 Central African Reublic ($754 GDP per capita) -- the incredibly generic name probably doesn't help inspire investment in this landlocked African cournty. Liek a number of the poorer countries in the world it actually produces enough food to feed its populace, but since that populace is incredibly poor and can't pay anything, most of that food gets exported and the people back home starve.
Cousins ( C+ ) -- strong early play that was sabotaged again by foul trouble that severely limited his mintues until he could lead us on a little late (very late) last gasp charge. Nice play, yes I said play, as we had both Beno and Evans flash throuh the paint and Cousins hit Reke beautifully for the first score of the game. Was in attack mode early, and his passing as well as physical play was helping to grease the early explosion. Fouls soon caught up to him however, and if he does not accelerate the elarnign curve there he's going to join JT in having the dubious honor of being the biggest hack in a 400 player league as a rookie. Halftimes are often deadly for us, and they were again as I don't know what hapened. Kids feeling fat and sassy after the first half? Westphal passing around a bong at halftime? I don't know, but whatever it was, Cousins exemplified it, just coming out of halftime flat as can be, missing a jumper and getting beat twice by Monroe to start the half before picking up his 4th foul on acharging call, and having to sit until the 4th quarter. Stated the 4th helping by hitting Casspi on a cut for a layup after our amazingly bad third. But got stripped for a turnover on his next post move, lost his cool and got a technicalm leading Westphal to immediately pull him. That was ok, at least in theory. But wiht us dying out there offensively again Westphal kept on sitting on him and sitting on him and sitting on him, until finally reinserting him in desperation time with the Pistosn threatening to put us down 10 and finsih it.Cousins performed pretty well after the late return, banging inside and getting o the line repeatedly, and even knocking down most of the FTs. But it was too little too late.
#8 Sierra Leone ($747 GDP per capita) -- ever see the movie Blood Diamond? It was based on the diamond trade in this country.
Udrih ( C ) -- one of the disadvantages of having a pod person take Beno's place for this last week is that you always knew that sooner or later the gig was going to be up and the pod person was going to abruptly disappear. The timing sucked however. Was quiet from the very start in this one, and while early you thought maybe it was just the quietness that comes from being not terribly needed while Reke played the full blown superstar, you eventually began to realize that this was more than him consciously stepping back, and he wasn't going to ignite after we slowed down. If he hand maybe we win this, but he never did make a push of any kind really. Hit a three on a Reke kick in the first, but when Reke had to leave with the cut mouth, we needed him to step up and there was just nothing there. By way of waking up in the thid made a great move to free himself...and then barely drew iron. Did eventually open one eye at least, hitting Jason with a nice pass, playing a little D, and getting one of his spin drives to fall. But the Pistons were doubling and trapping Reke up top shifted some of that same attention to Beno, and he turned it over triggering a Poistons break. Continued just being there into the 4th, missing a long three and struggling to contain Gordonm but coming up with a single hit late in the quarter. I C'd this, could have C-'d it I thought, but I don't think there was a single quarter where he was really much aboe those sorts of levels. Might have been most important just in not being Pooh Jeter, who apparently stole Will Bynum's Mini-Me suit before the game or something, because Bynum looked like he was determined to drive him right out of the game.
#7 Eritrea ($739 GDP per capita) -- this former chunk of Ethiopia is if nothing else a great place to get married, becuase then they'll come and do the doofy traditional marriage dance pictured to celebrate.
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