Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Exhibit A of the dark side of smallball. You score more. But then again, so do they.
Well...that was different for us. But same end result. The interesting thing is whether this is just going to stand out as a 1 game blip, an oddity, or whether it signals a new little mini-epoch here.
Boxscore
I apologize for the unnecessary delay in the grades here. There will be no theme, as I've already put in my time on this one going back and rewatching the entire game and mapping out every defensive possession trying to see which of our guards was to blame. Funny thing is: the answer is both none of them and all of them. For the results of the mapping and reasons why I come to that conclusion, check the thread to come. But I will use some of the notes gleaned from it for the grades.
Evans ( B- ) -- with Thomas moved into the starting lineup Reke moved into the offensive SF slot, which also meant moving into the wheelhouse of a 6'10" long armed former Second Team All Defense member in Tayshaun Prince. Not exactly an ideal matchup for a guy who likes to play a power game to the hoop. As he often does when paired with IT, backed odd as the little guy dominated the ball, and settled into a support role, mmving the ball, finding open guys, keeping his head up. That's normally not enough for us as if he's not scoring, generally we're not scoring. But in the first half we had the offense perking along so well Reke as distriutor was keeping the wheels greased on the way to a 60pt half for us, and a season high in assists (of which 9 were Reke's). Some nice drive and dropoff passes to Cousins for dunks were especially promising, as you have to hope that will become a Scylla and Charybda for opposing teams for years to come. Help on Reke's drive and leave Cousins open for the dunk, or leave Reke's man on an island against him and stick to the big guy. His own offense never got going before half though. What points he did get were purely from otehr, which is obviously the opposite of the normal case. Defense was ok, but not as intense as you would like it. My little defensive mapping experiment showed that before half Reke's man scored on 5 of his 31 defensive halfcourt sets. We frequently switched the matchups with our guards and forwards around, but depsite playing SF on offense, the matchup was more often Stuckey for him as we tried to hide Thornton on Prince. Started the second half again coming up short on a drive, but also again setting up Thompson with assists. Started to get his offensie going as the quarter wore on, but also had his least effective defensive quarter with hs lack of size a SF a problem as he got scored over by Prince and Maxiel. Began to get the takes to the hoop in gear for the stretch run, and hit several big layups for us. Unfortunately also involved in back to back plays that may have finished us. On the first, the offense broke down and after dribbling for a few seconds settled for a contested three at the 2:00 mark in one of those going for the dagger plays that normally stabs you instead. And then down on the other end, left Stuckey to help Thronton after he got beat by Knight, and could not recover in time to prevent Stuckey from hitting the backbreaking three. THat was of course at least as much about Thornton getting blown by, and it was the only points scored against Reke in the 4th, but obviously a critical time for it. Came up with a big fullcourt rush to get it back to 2 with 25 seconds to go, but we couldn't get the ball back without fouling and never got any closer or had a chacne to tie or win it with a shot. The incredible screeching from the peanut gallery aside, Reke again put up across the board numbers, and was our major facilitator on the night playing at an odd position. Did some good things, the 9 assists obviously being primary amongst them, but never consistently forceful, and in the end the whole Reke needs to score 20 for us to win stat gained a little more strength.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- good night to be a roleplayer with the ball moving around for us as all JT had to do was keep his hands and head up and people were finding him. Also gave us just a bit of defensive backbone with 3 blocks on the night But it was just a bit on another brutal defensive night for us. Did not get on the boards though, and with us smallballing we needed the help. Despite Cousins pulling down 15 we got beat 48-40. Missed a key shot at the 1:00 mark we just needed to get.
Cousins ( A- ) -- came into Detroit and lifted his leg on Monroe to mark his territory. Aggressive from the start, and maybe he had this one circled too. Little wild in the early going, but quite productive and Monroe never got anythign going at all. tehe was obviosuly some team meeting about passing or whatnot after the knicks game, and it was a welcome sight to see some of that from Cousins again. Worked well with Reke as Reke set him up for a series of big dunks with little dropoff passes. After half just kept on getting stronger, eventually chasing Monroe and getting matched with what's left of Ben Wallace, who was only a multiple time DPOY winner. So Cousins was nice and taught that old dog some new tricks as he largely schooled him too. Late in game it was maybe an example of what his mature game may look like, and its going to be scary. Really physical, gathering himself aroudn the rim, and smootly stroking jumpers if they backed off him. There was some controversy about not using him enough down the stretch, which I would generally agree with. But the numbers weren't awful. Until the final 15 seconds of desperation heaves and whatnot, the final 4 minutes tally would be Cousins 2-2, Tyreke 2-3, Thornton 0-1 and Thompson 0-1. The two key plays were the Thronton miss on a blown fastbreak and the Reke miss on a settled for 3ptr against the clock. But not as if there was a bunch of chucking going on. We shot 4-8 down the stretch. We just made 2-3 bad plays and lost the game on defense.
Thornton ( B ) -- on and off selfish first half, but a prolific one. Took it upon himelf to be the #1 option, which is his comfort zone, and kept pace wiht Stuckey for a half. On defense had some early issues with Stuckey, so we moved him off to Prince, who got the shots he wanted over him but could not convert. Slowed offensively after half, and made some selfish decisions on the break. Had some more defensive misadventures in the early 4th when Gordon started lighting him up until we brought in Salmons. Bad mistake at the 2:30 minute mark set the stage for our fall, as he fumbled a ball on the break, then focred up a dumb selfish shot and missed it, and the Pistons raced back the other way for a three to take the lead. Add to that abruptly getting put on Knight in the final two minutes, and getting blown by repeatedly, setting up both Stuckey's three and a layup by Knight (something we have seen all year long is that despite his size, he can't stay in front of quick PGs) and you can see how a 24pt night as one of our two main weapons begins to lose some luster. Unable to hit the desperation threes we needed in the dying seconds to pull out a miracle.
Thomas ( B+ ) -- got his first NBA start and made an immediate splash in a first quarter that saw him put pep in our step. He scored, he passed, and while we kept him on fellow rookie Brandon Knight his size was not an issue on defense. By the end of the quarter he had 10pts and 2ast pushing pace. Things turned a bit near the end of the quarter where he started a stretch trying to guard Stuckey, and was just repeatedly physically overpowered. Begant eh third hitting a corner three, but it would be his last points fo the contest. Had some more good passes and was still pushing the ofense, but the Stuckey defensive problems reappeared, and somewhere along the line our Coach forgot about his success against Knight and decided to go 'big" with Salmons for the 4th insted (we are actualy small even with Salmons of course, but not tiny). Aside from Stuckey, in rewatchign the game with attention to defense the thing you noted was how much IT and Jimmer strugggled inn transition defense, which was really where the Pistons hurt us once again.
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Bench
Salmons ( C- ) -- in at the end of the first, and began the second again getting what looked like a set call for him out of the break, and bricking it. Had several more of those ball stopping plays where he jsut caught it and started looing for his shot and was going to take it no matter what. One thing if you are a star, if you are John Salmons...but of course that has always been an issue with him. He and Thronton seemed to feed off each other's selfish instincts there too. Maybe they should be kept apart, because together it looked like they wanted to get their own shot up before the other guy stole it from them. After a couple of early hits, was still missing that same stile of little pullup jumper he's been missing all season. Surprised however by getting the late minutes, and producing a great bullet pass for an assist. Didn't look terribly active on defense, but the derfenseive review showed him only getting scored over twice, and he stepped into the passing lanes for a couple of steals. Slightly improved, but still largely the same John Salmons show, just bringing his 5pts 1reb 1ast off the bench now rather than in the starting lineup.
Hickson ( INC ) -- largely with invisible with basically one standout bad play and one standout good plya before apparently getting pulled for lack of hustle and never returning. Turned it over turning into a double team on a post move for the bad play, and surprisingly made a nice interior pass to Hayes for the good. Pulled for not hustling on the break adn that was that. Got the feeling with some of the mvoes and whatnot that there is mounting pressure now for everybody to do this thing right.
Hayes ( ) -- while he only notched one assist, for one of the few times this year we saw some of his pasing ability as he rifled 3 or 4 passes to teammates, including a really nice pass grabbing a loose ball, spinning and firing to JT, who got blocked. The offensive ineptitude continued as he was again of no use at all as a dumpoff pass recipient, but the effort felt more solid this time, and he and Cousins were controlling the middle.
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Well...that was different for us. But same end result. The interesting thing is whether this is just going to stand out as a 1 game blip, an oddity, or whether it signals a new little mini-epoch here.
Boxscore
I apologize for the unnecessary delay in the grades here. There will be no theme, as I've already put in my time on this one going back and rewatching the entire game and mapping out every defensive possession trying to see which of our guards was to blame. Funny thing is: the answer is both none of them and all of them. For the results of the mapping and reasons why I come to that conclusion, check the thread to come. But I will use some of the notes gleaned from it for the grades.
Evans ( B- ) -- with Thomas moved into the starting lineup Reke moved into the offensive SF slot, which also meant moving into the wheelhouse of a 6'10" long armed former Second Team All Defense member in Tayshaun Prince. Not exactly an ideal matchup for a guy who likes to play a power game to the hoop. As he often does when paired with IT, backed odd as the little guy dominated the ball, and settled into a support role, mmving the ball, finding open guys, keeping his head up. That's normally not enough for us as if he's not scoring, generally we're not scoring. But in the first half we had the offense perking along so well Reke as distriutor was keeping the wheels greased on the way to a 60pt half for us, and a season high in assists (of which 9 were Reke's). Some nice drive and dropoff passes to Cousins for dunks were especially promising, as you have to hope that will become a Scylla and Charybda for opposing teams for years to come. Help on Reke's drive and leave Cousins open for the dunk, or leave Reke's man on an island against him and stick to the big guy. His own offense never got going before half though. What points he did get were purely from otehr, which is obviously the opposite of the normal case. Defense was ok, but not as intense as you would like it. My little defensive mapping experiment showed that before half Reke's man scored on 5 of his 31 defensive halfcourt sets. We frequently switched the matchups with our guards and forwards around, but depsite playing SF on offense, the matchup was more often Stuckey for him as we tried to hide Thornton on Prince. Started the second half again coming up short on a drive, but also again setting up Thompson with assists. Started to get his offensie going as the quarter wore on, but also had his least effective defensive quarter with hs lack of size a SF a problem as he got scored over by Prince and Maxiel. Began to get the takes to the hoop in gear for the stretch run, and hit several big layups for us. Unfortunately also involved in back to back plays that may have finished us. On the first, the offense broke down and after dribbling for a few seconds settled for a contested three at the 2:00 mark in one of those going for the dagger plays that normally stabs you instead. And then down on the other end, left Stuckey to help Thronton after he got beat by Knight, and could not recover in time to prevent Stuckey from hitting the backbreaking three. THat was of course at least as much about Thornton getting blown by, and it was the only points scored against Reke in the 4th, but obviously a critical time for it. Came up with a big fullcourt rush to get it back to 2 with 25 seconds to go, but we couldn't get the ball back without fouling and never got any closer or had a chacne to tie or win it with a shot. The incredible screeching from the peanut gallery aside, Reke again put up across the board numbers, and was our major facilitator on the night playing at an odd position. Did some good things, the 9 assists obviously being primary amongst them, but never consistently forceful, and in the end the whole Reke needs to score 20 for us to win stat gained a little more strength.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- good night to be a roleplayer with the ball moving around for us as all JT had to do was keep his hands and head up and people were finding him. Also gave us just a bit of defensive backbone with 3 blocks on the night But it was just a bit on another brutal defensive night for us. Did not get on the boards though, and with us smallballing we needed the help. Despite Cousins pulling down 15 we got beat 48-40. Missed a key shot at the 1:00 mark we just needed to get.
Cousins ( A- ) -- came into Detroit and lifted his leg on Monroe to mark his territory. Aggressive from the start, and maybe he had this one circled too. Little wild in the early going, but quite productive and Monroe never got anythign going at all. tehe was obviosuly some team meeting about passing or whatnot after the knicks game, and it was a welcome sight to see some of that from Cousins again. Worked well with Reke as Reke set him up for a series of big dunks with little dropoff passes. After half just kept on getting stronger, eventually chasing Monroe and getting matched with what's left of Ben Wallace, who was only a multiple time DPOY winner. So Cousins was nice and taught that old dog some new tricks as he largely schooled him too. Late in game it was maybe an example of what his mature game may look like, and its going to be scary. Really physical, gathering himself aroudn the rim, and smootly stroking jumpers if they backed off him. There was some controversy about not using him enough down the stretch, which I would generally agree with. But the numbers weren't awful. Until the final 15 seconds of desperation heaves and whatnot, the final 4 minutes tally would be Cousins 2-2, Tyreke 2-3, Thornton 0-1 and Thompson 0-1. The two key plays were the Thronton miss on a blown fastbreak and the Reke miss on a settled for 3ptr against the clock. But not as if there was a bunch of chucking going on. We shot 4-8 down the stretch. We just made 2-3 bad plays and lost the game on defense.
Thornton ( B ) -- on and off selfish first half, but a prolific one. Took it upon himelf to be the #1 option, which is his comfort zone, and kept pace wiht Stuckey for a half. On defense had some early issues with Stuckey, so we moved him off to Prince, who got the shots he wanted over him but could not convert. Slowed offensively after half, and made some selfish decisions on the break. Had some more defensive misadventures in the early 4th when Gordon started lighting him up until we brought in Salmons. Bad mistake at the 2:30 minute mark set the stage for our fall, as he fumbled a ball on the break, then focred up a dumb selfish shot and missed it, and the Pistons raced back the other way for a three to take the lead. Add to that abruptly getting put on Knight in the final two minutes, and getting blown by repeatedly, setting up both Stuckey's three and a layup by Knight (something we have seen all year long is that despite his size, he can't stay in front of quick PGs) and you can see how a 24pt night as one of our two main weapons begins to lose some luster. Unable to hit the desperation threes we needed in the dying seconds to pull out a miracle.
Thomas ( B+ ) -- got his first NBA start and made an immediate splash in a first quarter that saw him put pep in our step. He scored, he passed, and while we kept him on fellow rookie Brandon Knight his size was not an issue on defense. By the end of the quarter he had 10pts and 2ast pushing pace. Things turned a bit near the end of the quarter where he started a stretch trying to guard Stuckey, and was just repeatedly physically overpowered. Begant eh third hitting a corner three, but it would be his last points fo the contest. Had some more good passes and was still pushing the ofense, but the Stuckey defensive problems reappeared, and somewhere along the line our Coach forgot about his success against Knight and decided to go 'big" with Salmons for the 4th insted (we are actualy small even with Salmons of course, but not tiny). Aside from Stuckey, in rewatchign the game with attention to defense the thing you noted was how much IT and Jimmer strugggled inn transition defense, which was really where the Pistons hurt us once again.
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Bench
Salmons ( C- ) -- in at the end of the first, and began the second again getting what looked like a set call for him out of the break, and bricking it. Had several more of those ball stopping plays where he jsut caught it and started looing for his shot and was going to take it no matter what. One thing if you are a star, if you are John Salmons...but of course that has always been an issue with him. He and Thronton seemed to feed off each other's selfish instincts there too. Maybe they should be kept apart, because together it looked like they wanted to get their own shot up before the other guy stole it from them. After a couple of early hits, was still missing that same stile of little pullup jumper he's been missing all season. Surprised however by getting the late minutes, and producing a great bullet pass for an assist. Didn't look terribly active on defense, but the derfenseive review showed him only getting scored over twice, and he stepped into the passing lanes for a couple of steals. Slightly improved, but still largely the same John Salmons show, just bringing his 5pts 1reb 1ast off the bench now rather than in the starting lineup.
Hickson ( INC ) -- largely with invisible with basically one standout bad play and one standout good plya before apparently getting pulled for lack of hustle and never returning. Turned it over turning into a double team on a post move for the bad play, and surprisingly made a nice interior pass to Hayes for the good. Pulled for not hustling on the break adn that was that. Got the feeling with some of the mvoes and whatnot that there is mounting pressure now for everybody to do this thing right.
Hayes ( ) -- while he only notched one assist, for one of the few times this year we saw some of his pasing ability as he rifled 3 or 4 passes to teammates, including a really nice pass grabbing a loose ball, spinning and firing to JT, who got blocked. The offensive ineptitude continued as he was again of no use at all as a dumpoff pass recipient, but the effort felt more solid this time, and he and Cousins were controlling the middle.
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. another young mistake was leaving the hot hand. we tend to do this with hot 3 pt shooters, tonight we left stuckey and knight at the 3 when they were hot. if we fix decisions like this, we could have won this. i really feel if we play like this more often and learn to fix our "young" mistakes, we could win 2 out of the next 3 and more consistently after the break.
