Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
There seem to be a fair number of people in the Kings diaspora who seem to be rather exaggeratedly down on the Kings. Yes, we are all doomed and all that. Except that hasn't been the product on the floor. We continue to hang around and hang around, can win on any given night, are now 10-9 when we have Cousins, 10-7 when we have him until the end of the game. We jumped on the Raptors early, and then just sort of hung on, but we never let them really have control. It certainly could have gone other ways, but it didn't, and after our 1-7 start things haven't gone wrong at least as often as they have.
So off to Washington, which if we had been able to take better and quicker care of business here would have loomed as the most winnable game on the whole trip. Of course you never know with us, but that's a major step forward from years past. We'll be the better team on the floor tomorrow. The new question we have to answer every night is if we are going to play like it.
Boxscore
Stats: 41min 19pts (7-17, 1-5, 4-4) 9reb 1ast 3stl 1blk 2TO
Summary: unremarkable effort except in its being unusually determined.
Gay ( B- ) -- was about the only guy missing shots in the early going, but would return to play an important role trying to keep us moving at least a little ahead when Cousins went out with 2 fouls. Came in and immediately scored on a baseline turnaround, and would continue to scatter in hits from that same spot over Patterson (a small, but natural PF) all night. Had a few moments of renewed board weenieness that cost us two hoops, but on the night got back to sticking his nose in there. Drove and took a hard foul taking him out of the air in the mid-2nd, but shook it off and it looked worse when it first happened than it turned out to be. Down the stretch of the half was just about the only King still functioning after we re-lost Cuz to foul trouble and gave away most of our lead. Played a poor third, and finished it off by and tossing up a bad three point shot with 5 seconds to go that had no hope and almost let the Raptors drop a three back the other way, which would have made the lead only 5 and been a mini-disaster. Stepped up and hit a huge three up top -- his only made three on the night -- with 4min to go as the Raptors were smallballing and doubling Cousins and bit bit them in the butt.
Stats: 34min 15pts (6-8, 3-4, 0-1) 11reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Summary: hit his threes and made up for the terrible Minny boardwork, but wild turnovers continued
Casspi ( B+ ) -- began the game with a poor little awkward flip inside, but then started dropping threes as we tried to blitz the Raptors off the court. Was on the board this time, made easier by the Raptors being miniature beyond Biyombo, and aside from a handful of truly headshaking bad, no, let's make that terrible pass turnovers, stayed efficient. And when Cuz returned to the game in the 4th and it became winning time, Casspi worked better with him than anyone, spotting up or slashing off of the constant doubles the Raptors were throwing at Boogie, knocking down a three, making a strong drive at the 3:30 mark, and figthing for a strong d-board at the 2:15 mark. Syhnergy
Stats: 32min 15pts (5-13, 1-1, 4-8) 9reb 5ast 2stl 4blk 2TO
Summary: was a +33 in this one despite only 15pts as he dominated defensively and beat constant doubles with his passes
Cousins ( B- ) -- came out to play in this one, starting off the game again with the steal to start things, then a three, and he was a major menace on defense, blocking shots and repeatedly poking balls away up top to disrupt the Raptors offense.defense, boards. And in something that would come to define much of this game for Cuz, the Raptors knew they had nothing to stop him with, and so they were doubling him hard, and often off the ball, and Cuz's passing was great as we tried to blow them out. Very calm and mature, leading me to believe it was part of our gameplan coming into this one rather than something he was having to resort to after being surprised by the doubles. In any case he was picking the Raptors apart, and if foul trouble hadn't finally sent him to the bench, maybe we would have gotten the rout that we looked headed too -- when he was on the court we were +33, when he was off, -23. With the constant defensive attention was not scoring, but with everything else he was doing was dominating play anyway, and when he picked up his 3rd foul on a pick and roll after having played only 11 minutes in the half and threw his headband he got T'd up, and we began to collapse in alarming fashion once again. Another good pass in the early 3rd, but not hitting his very few shots and having to play arms straight up defense in the 3rd. Was doing a real good job of staying big though, and I don't think Biyombo ever did finish a shot over him. Began to look tired on offense despite the lack of minutes, slugging his way to the line. I've always had a theory that he's a bit like a star wide receiver when the ball isn't coming his way. When he returned to the game in the 4th the game took on a distinctive feel as the Raptors smallballed and doubled him incessantly, thus leaving our guys open play after play around the rest of the court. He threw down a couple of ferocious dunks, but otherwise the offense wasn't great. Nailed Casspi for a couple of passes though, and if he wasn't having another one of those too common struggling nights from the line would have gotten up around 20pts just by being too big for the Raptors smllballers (they were guarding him with Patrick Patterson much of the time. Slapped away another ball on defense with 1:15 seconds to go to set us off on the sealing break and a 12 point lead. And in the end it was all the other stuff he was doing, the blocks, the steals, the passes, and all the guys open as he got doubled, that drives this grade. Against a team determined to double him even without the ball he was never going to score much (although if he had been on, it would have been more than he did). But he made all the other contributions that keyed this victory, and when he was on the floor we were much MUCH better than the Raptors. When he was off, we were much worse. There's a decent grade in that observation.
Stats: 19min 12pts (5-7, 2-4, 0-1) 3reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Summary: Mysteriously short minuted here after a strong start, although he did lose control of DeRozon in the 2nd
McLemore ( B ) -- running the floor and taking passes from Rondo for dunks and threes in the early going, and smoothly hit another three in the early 2nd after he returned. But he began to lose control of DeRozan, who was the main reason the Raptors mounted their comeback. His second half minutes would be limited. He would score on one ore curl =1 in the 3rd, and again, as in Minny when it mattered, miss the FT. He picked up a couple of quick fouls in the early 4th, one when Scola got in front of him for a charge, the other on a DeRozaan baiting. And then he was gone and forgotten about again. While its deceptive because of his limited minutes, its also telling that Ben himself had a +22 in his 19 minutes -- that's because about half of them came in our early game blowout, and then whether he faded or we forgot about him, we never got that going again and had to struggle on home to the victory.
Stats: 39min 19pts (8-13, 1-4, 2-2) 2reb 13ast 1stl 1blk 5TO
Summary: Even before Lowry left often had total control of this one, and was able to squirt righ to the rim all night lone.
Rondo ( A ) -- briliant passing in the early going set the tone here, and he repeatedly took advantage of all the attention being paid Cuz to just gallop straight to the rim for little finishes. A full court gallop in the early 3rd in which he appeared to commit an uncalled offensive foul may have helped Lowry get so upset he got booted a couple of pays later. etc.
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