Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Yeah, whatever. Of course everything about the bleeping Detroit Pistons having Andre Drummond makes me just want to hunt down Geoff Petrie and kick his dog, and its not a wound that gets any better when Drummond comes along and for one of the very few times since Bogut early in the year, appears to basically kick Cousins ass on defense.
But of course there was more going on than just Cousins/Drumond. And if any of that more had actually resulting in us winning, hey, that would have been some balm. but no. We let Josh Smith, often pointed to as the terrible at the heart of the Pistons terrible, pound us tonight. Rodney Stuckey lights up everybody he faces, as he has repeatedly against the Kings over the years, and the Pistons Stuckey/Bynum pair of tough burley physical scoring guards lit up all our guards, including Ray McCallum. Who is kind of our only hope there. Meanwhile out offense dies after half against a team that can't defend. but they can defend Cousins. And Rudy can be selfish. And Isaiah can be bounced around. And when you only have three guys and all three are neutralized, you are toast.
BTW, Jason Thompson finally lost his starting gig tonight to Reggie Evans. Seemed to work for a while, not so much later. Do not know if its permanent or not, but if it is and with a summer of change looming, it could be the last time JT starts for us after 6 years on and off.
On the positive side Cousins really tried to bring it on defense, set a career high in blocks while grabbing 14rebs, and started this game obviously wanting to prove himself against the Pistons frontline. Which makes the failure to do so even more aggravating.
In another thread a Theme was suggested, but I have nothing prepared on it (did one on the initial disaster three years ago), and we have a game tomorrow. Besides, too depressing for a fugly depressing loss that even most Kings fans seem to have bailed on. Here, let's do something light and cheery that I do have prepared: Scenic Islands
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
MassacheusettsKingsFan
Capt. Factorial
Uncia03
Boxscore
Stats: 40min 20pts (8-21, 0-3, 4-6) 6reb 3ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Gay ( D ) -- like the Kings, was hot in the first quarter. And Gay, like the Kings, was basically terrible in the second and third before finally normalizing a bit in the fourth. After going 3-3 in the first quarter (scoring twice at the rim) Gay went only 3-13 in the next two frames - all three of his makes being dunks while seven of his misses were jumpers and the other three were all ugly attempts on drives. He somewhat returned to form in the fourth - scoring another dunk (this one on a breakaway after a steal) and a floater, while missing yet another jumper (1-9 on the night) and getting demonstrably stuffed on a drive by Drummond. Rudy (almost) repaid the Drummond block in short order by somehow making a flat-footed swat of Greg Monroe on a fast break as Monroe tried to step around him. The Kings suffered on assists tonight, and some of it was because of the guys shooting Gay's passes. Gay had at least seven set-ups fail to either the missed shot or a foul before finally recording two assists (both to Cousins in the lane) in garbagetime - Rudy did get credit for another assist, but either I missed it or there were several intervening dribbles and a generous scorekeeper. Rudy didn't do a great job on defense tonight (allowing 10 points on 6 shots) but the Pistons didn't really do a whole lot of attacking from the wing. If I've got any complaint, it's that with Detroit coming out of the locker room down two, Rudy left Josh Smith enough space to make two consecutive threes early in the third quarter and the Pistons grabbed the momentum, never to look back. So Gay was inefficient, and his D wasn't so great, and he went cold at the same time that the team was struggling. Maybe I'm being generous here with his grade.--Capt.
Hydra, Greece -- located south of Athens, this popular tourist destination is entirely too full of California/Mediterranean style dead yellow grass for my tastes, but the town is quaint and the ocean, secluded beaches, and views of other islands in the archipelago are spectacular. The whole island has been set aside as an historic preserve, and motor vehicles of any kind are prohibited.
Stats: 22min 6pts (3-6, 0-0, 0-0) 8reb 0ast 3stl 0blk 2TO
Evans ( B ) -- well, it finally happened. Again. Jason Thompson was replaced by yet another PF in the starting lineup (I may be forgetting a few, but over the years I can remember this happening at least half a dozen times -- Hickson, Hayes, Landry, Patterson, Dalembert, now Reggie Evans. And the result was...well, kind of like the results have always been with that tactic. Underwhelming. Started out looking promising, Boogie was energetic, Evans was helping him battle in there against the huge frontline, we were winning the battle of the boards, Greg Monroe was invisible. On one play the lane parted lie the red sea, And Reggie went rumbling straight down it for a big dunk. But I think a couple of things happened. First, with Boogie unable to dominate Drummond, we got inoffensive inside pretty quick (although with Boogie struggling Reggie notably notched back to back inside hoops himself, the second one stepping around Drummond). Secondly, with the offense completely dying off in the second half, and Reggie doing little more than picking up 3 second calls for camping in the lane waiting for us to brick another shot so he could go chase it, Malone went to the bench looking for answers, and Reggie isn't going to be your answer in that situation. I also think it was a little harder to discern Reggie's impact in this one as a starter. He was in there doing his thing, but because we started with that rather than it being a change of pace/energy thing, the impact did not feel the same. Nonetheless, you would have a hard time convincing me he was anything but solid in there, and you start Reggie Evans and have him outperform Greg Monroe in his minutes...well Reggie wasn't why this one went the way it did. --Brick
Seychelles -- right out in the middle of the Indian Ocean with nothing between you and Somalian pirates but open ocean, these scenic islands with their famous rock formations have been popular with Europeans as a vacation/honeymoon spot ever since the invention of the airplane. Like the Galapagos 10,000 miles away, their remote location has them home to some unique and giant fauna, like giant tortoises an coconut crabs (which will pop up in another theme someday when I want to scare you).
Stats: 38min 14pts (5-15, 0-0, 3-6) 14reb 1ast 1stl 6blk 5TO
Cousins ( C+ ) -- This is a really tough one to grade for Demarcus. He, and the Kings, went against the huge front line of the Pistons in Drummond, Monroe, & Josh Smith. And at the end of the day he led all players in Rebounding with 14 (Holding Drummond to 5 below his season average) and then surprisingly led all players in blocks with a career high of 6. Those were the really good things out of Cousins in this one. The problem? In the battle between Demarcus and Drummond, Drummond really had his way with Demarcus on the defensive end. Cousins got his first offensive opportunity two minutes into the game and faced Drummond up, Drummond stayed down and Cousins took and missed the jumper. I thought that if Cousins was going to settle for jumpers than the Pistons would happily accept that. About 3 minutes later had his best moment against Drummond as he took an inbound pass, spun off of Drummond and slammed it home. I was hoping that would free up Cousins to be aggressive and get into Drummond, but pretty much from there on out Drummond owned Cousins. Cousins wouldn’t get another half-court field goal make until 3:30 left in the game. Ouch! When Cousins went into the lane he was tentative and his shot would either get blocked, get hurried, or get stripped. Cousins ended up with 5 turn-overs as he traveled with the ball or lost control of it in the lane. Because the Pistons were playing him straight up, he didn’t have the passing opportunities that he normally has when teams are forced to double. And although he made a few nice passes, he only ended up with a single assist for the game. On the other end Drummond didn’t do anything to beat Cousins one on one, but just by running the floor hard, going after the offensive boards, and keeping his hands ready for interior passes Drummond ended the game with more points than Cousins (15 to Cousins’ 13) on far better shooting. (6-9 to Cousins’ 5-15). So even though our offensive work-horse dominated the rebounding match-up and more than held his own on the rim protection, he was ineffective in his most important duty of being the rugged engine that powers the Kings’ offense, and that ineffectiveness was solely due to Drummond’s ability to really get into his head and shut him down. 13 points on 33% shooting just isn't going to get it done, regardless of the rebounding and block numbers, especially if your non-scoring counterpart outscores you on a high percentage and the final result is another notch in the loss column. --Uncia
Moorea, French Polynesia -- overshadowed by its larger more famous neighbor Tahiti, Moorea features the same kind of beauty with fewer fellow tourists to clutter it up. Just pack a bag lunch, because local food specialties included raw fish doused in coconut milk. Blech.
Stats: 25min 9pts (4-9, 1-3, 0-0) 0reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( C ) -- started the game aggressive at least, but had some embarrasing fumbles in the early going, with just no other explanation but flat out terrible hands fumbling the ball for turnovers often credited to a passer who hit him in the hands. But because he was aggressive a few things happened positively. Got a conversion on the break, on one possession got a professional looking pullup along the baseline. Late in the half hit a feet set three from Cuz (the only player all night who actually hit a shot that Cuz set up for them). The cubbard wasn't entirely bare. It was just constantly surrounded by ill fated clutter. There were the fumbles, a pullup jumper he nearly airballed. A blown fastbreak in the early third as he appeared to change his mind midair -- rarely have I seen a guy this athletic find more ways to blow finishes. And there wasn't much o anything except for the handful of shots he hit. 9pts 0reb 1ast isn't exactly filling it up even without the sub .500 shooting and fumbled balls. Did make one real nice defensive play in the 3rd, when after blowing an open three on one end he raced back for what looked to me to be a flying block (uncredited apparently). But that was also a scary paly as his legs got hit and he came down hard and very awkwardly. Good way to tear something up there. Anyway, as Ben games go, this was not terrible. He did chip in with a few hoops. Was low level playable. But his opponents all did better again. --Brick
Los Roques, Venezuela -- (girl not included). Off the northern coast of Venezuela, Los Roques are actually a small archipelago of little islands, many of them little more than glorified sandbars, coral reefs, lagoons, etc. etc. But the beaches, of which some islands are composed of little more, are supposed to be glorious, and the water blue. Bring a snorkel. Just don't ever get caught out on them when a hurricane rumbles through.
Stats: 39min 19pts (6-15, 0-4, 7-9) 4reb 8ast 1stl 0blk 5TO
Thomas ( C+ ) -- The Kings got a mediocre-to-decent game out of Thomas tonight. Right from beginning of this one you could just tell that Thomas was playing more of a scorers’ role as opposed to your traditional facilitating point guard role. That is after all, when Thomas is at his best. Most of his offense consisted of mid range jumpers, transition layups, and free throws. It was sort of your typical Isaiah Thomas night minus the three pointers. And to his
credit, he was effective in the first quarter carrying the scoring load, accounting for 10 of the Kings 31 first quarter points. Of course, this meant that Thomas would only chip in 3 more points per quarter for the rest of the game, and on a night where the Kings only scored 89 total points, they could have used more of that offensive punch throughout the remaining three quarters. On a normal night you could probably criticize Thomas for playing a scorers role, but neither Rudy Gay nor DeMarcus Cousins had their offense going tonight. This always leads back to the Chicken or the Egg argument. You know, “Did Rudy and DeMarcus struggle because Thomas wasn’t passing effectively, or was Isaiah Thomas scoring because Rudy and DeMarcus weren’t shooting efficiently?” For the next three quarters Thomas definitely toned it down and started to defer to his teammates a little bit more, but the team just wasn’t playing very well. Thomas did manage to get his passing going as the game wore on. I don’t want to give him too much credit, as most of his assists tonight were off of very simple plays. Many of them came from pick and rolls, pick and pops, or lobbing the ball ahead in transition. They were solid, smart passes, just nothing to really get all that excited about. When Thomas tried to get away from these simple passes the turnover started to slowly pileup. I thought his defense on Brandon Jennings was actually pretty solid, but Jennings decision-making and shot selection is so poor that it’s hard to say that Thomas shut him down more than Jennings just having a poor game. As one of the only starters to win his matchup, Thomas deserves some credit here, but I just don’t know how much credit I can give for one big quarter, and his production slowed once Detroit took Jennings off the court and replaced him with Bynum who is a much more capable defender. The Pistons are bad, and the Kings are just as bad, but this was a winnable game that the Kings, Thomas included, should have played better in. He was far from the biggest problem tonight, but he could have been a bigger part of the solution.--Mass
Aran Islands, Ireland -- located off the west coast of Ireland with nothing between them and North America but the whole of the Atlantic, straight vertical fissures in the rock they are composed of mean that they are seemingly composed of nothing but sheer vertical drops into the sea.
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