Cousins ( B ) -- while he came on strong down the stretch, and the final numbers look pretty strong, for most of this one what was surprising was just how LITTLE DeMarcus was impacting this game. Against this Raptors frontline you would have thought he could simply overwhelm them, but for long stretches of the night all the Raptors had to do was trot out old Kings reject Joey Dorsey, who goes maybe 6'7"-6'8", and have him check DeMarcus 1 on 1, and they didn't even have to double. DeMarcus responded with a handful of highlights, inclduing a game opening alley opp to Taylor that was pretty much Taylor's only highlight of the afternoon. There was also a nifty post move, a nifty pass to Landry inside which Landry finished in even more nifty fashion -- there were flashes. But DeMarcus was never able to impose himself physically, made a lot of those loose/sloppy plays he makes, and wasn't getting fed enough by idiot perimeter people who fell far too easily into the run up and down and quickshoot trap that all teams like the Raptors want you to fall into. Worse, and I do mean much worse, was the alleged defense, of which he played none until very late. Time and time again he got caught up high on pick and rolls and was blown by with barely a wave. Given how often the perimter guys were getting beat on their own, it basically turned this into a layup drill for the Raptors, who barely had to shoot any threes in lighting us up until it came time to win the game in the 4th. To his credit DeMarcus got stronger as the game went along, and down the stretch of this one tried to save us by simply overpowering $34mill man Amir Johnson inside again and again with big power moves and flush finishes. Made you wonder where that had been all game. His defensive activity picked up late as well, whether out of a strong closing instinct, or because he knew he only had to make his fouls last a little while longer I do not know. Not sure but think he may have tried to miss the second FT at the 25 second mark and then tried to grab his own miss and ocnvert, but got called for the lane violation. In any case 19 and 10 on good percentages and a strong finish, but for most of the game you would not have said this was a strong effort for DeMarcus, and the defense holds this back as well, as it does for much of the team. It was just sad.
Blind Melon -- No Rain (1993) -- calling Blind Melon a one hit wonder is kind of shaky ethically, since they were largely a one hit wonder because their frontman was an addict and OD'd -- drugs be bad kids. Don't think you're immune, because you're not. In any case their one hit became almost as famous for the strange little bee girl running around in its video as for the song itself.
Taylor ( D ) -- well, this was kind of a tough situation to be put in for Taylor -- going from garbagetime to starter is a Westphal classic. An it was also kind of a blown opportunity, as he did very little for us, and after looking decent in acouple of shorter stints in rcent weeks, made no argument at all why he would be part of the rotation based off of this outing. His best play of the nigt was also his first, as we ran a backdoor alley opp for him from Cousins as our opening play of the night to christen his first career start, and it worked perfectly. But otherwise he was ineffective out there, completely ignored on offense -- several times I saw Beno, as Beno will do sometimes, see him open on the perimeter and just totally ignore him as an unknown entity. There were 4 guys, adn then "who are you?" Adn on the other end while he stayed vaguely around his man on defense, during in his minutes the Raptors I think shot 11-12 so obviously not much impact there. Was a little more offensively involved in the third, and once he got more involved you kind of wished he hadn't as it bordered on out of control. Got one tip basket and went to the bench for the final time having made no argument at all why Westphal hadn't simply moved Cisco to SG and started Donte or Casspi at the 3 instead.
One of Us -- Joan Osbourne (1995) -- despite my old relationship based reluctance to refer to her as a one hit wonder, she really pretty much was with this big hit from the winter of 95-96.
Udrih ( B+ ) -- this sort of statline not earning an A of some sort should tell you something about my feelings about the defense being played in this one -- and defense BTW is in fact 50% of the game, not 30% or 20% or some poor cousin or something, but flat out half the game. Beno was pretty good about attacking Calderon right from the beginniing, which is good given how imminently attackable he is, and also good given that Calderon was just easily, and I do mean easily taking him off the dribble at will the other direction. No resistance at all. Started increasingly just going one on one in the second quarter as everybody wanted to score individually because it seemed so easy (not surprsingly such tactics actually had the exact opposite effect). Hit a three late in the first half that was important to keep us in contact, and it was one of those increasingly frequent nights when he hits those. Just wish he could have during the first two months of the season while we were bottoming out. Tough drive and +1 finish in the mid 3rd as his good offense began to outweight the non-existent defense. And then the non-existent defense began to become at least semi-existent, and he came up with several steals up top, including starting the 4th with one before Pooh blew the resulting fastbreak. Not much of a factor at all down the stretch when it came winning time. Some of that was because we wer using our bigs to attack effectively at that point. Some, but not all.
In the Meantime -- Space Hog (1996)-- and now I'm coing to a part of this list with a lot of 90s alternative 1-hit wonders. Too many in fact for the humber of players I have to grade. So I'm going to pick and choose according to taste and true one hitness. This song by a group called Spacehog was actually pretty much ONLY a hit in the U.S., and then they never really came close afterwards.
Bench
Dalembert ( C- ) -- got the dunk at the first quarter buzzer to make it 34-31, but it was an awkward matchup when he entered with Bargnani, and really it was one of those games of late where Dalembert just did not look focused or ready to have an impact. Got a block and provided a little interior resistance otherwise lacking, but in no way was able to significantly slowdown the relentless rush to the rim from the Raptors in this one. Barely played after half as basically every good defender on the team was marginalized -- that 58% by the Raps shooting is not entirely coincidence. Remember the all defnsive team we were startig for a while? Dalembert played 9 min. Donte played 4 seconds. Head played 3 seconds. Evans was hurt. And so we went all offense and lost the shootout instead.
Sunny Came Home -- Shawn Colvin (1996) -- Shawn Colvin was already 41 years old by the time of this breakthrough hit that ran to the top of the charts in the U.S. and Canada (Europe did not seem to get it). Despite being somewhat of a figure on the American folk scene, she would never have another.
And so Divinyls is almost unanimously considered one fo the biggest one hit wonders of the decade because this was the one huge hit that broke free of Down Under, and made a big splash Up Over. And with a female lead singing those lyrics who can wonder why? My brother and his friends were intending to get up on stage and perform to this song as their entry in a big air band competition/concert that his high school put on at the end of every year, but chickend out. Very disappointing. The director of this video btw? Michael Bay. 
