Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
First of all, let me say that even though far too many Kings fans showed up to Arco disguised as empty seats, I would like to congratulate everybody on crashing the server here post game -- good sign. 
Well..for the fanbase at least.
Way back in 1980, before many board members were born, the Brian Sipe led Cleveland Browns had an invigorating 11-5 playoff bound season in which 6 times in 8 weeks they won the game in the final 2 minutes, earning themselves the eternal nickname "The Kardiac Kids". If the Kings keep this stuff up we may have to think of something similar, because there are Kings fans having coronaries right and left.
Hey, it probably won't last but...homecourt advantage in the first round! Woot!
Official Boxscore
Casspi ( B ) -- well we got an answer to the "can he sustain" question for one night at least, as after a slow start Omri came on to provide many of the same things he did in the Cleveland win. It should also be noted that he did not provide many of the same things he did not provide in the Cleveland win -- sustaining here being not so much just playing well, as in choosing a whole playing style (although things such as his zero rebounds I don't think can be properly attributed to any intentional playing style). The shooting was actually off to start this one, and he missed three largely open threes in the first half, and as noted there were no rebounds all game long (he probably dedcided that he would rather keep both arms rather than stick one in there to have Reggie Evans tear it off). But the hustling was still there, and that can be the base for many good things. And the occasional bad thing: Made a mistake and fouled Kleiza outside the three point line with us down 10 in the early 3rd. that was really thre last wart though, as soon afterwards as we made our move he scooped up a loose ball up top and went hard full court dunking it through Anderson. And then in the 4th back came the threes again. Three more of them in crunchtime, one maybe a little ill advised and forced, but the next two working well with Reke on kickouts and canning big ones to give us our first lead, and then to put us up 8 with under two mintues to go. on a kick from a stumbling Reke to give us our first lead of the game, and his last inside the two minute mark. In between involved in a play that got the crowd to its feet as Reke lost the ball, had to go to the ground to recover it, hit Casspi with the pass from his knees, and Omri slid it to Cousins for a layup to put us up 4. A lot of verbage to say basically this: not the most well rounded game, again. But came to play when it mattered, again, and hit big shots down the stretch, again.
Landry ( D+ ) -- well somebody had to have a bad game here, and that somebody was Carl. It might be tempting from the boxscore to look at his now nightly 4rebs, then look at Tyreke's cousins' (Reggie Evans) board beasting and come to the conclusion that Reggie directly destroyed Carl on the glass. But for the most part that was not it. Westpahl wasn't about to try that matchup, and mostly avoided it when he coudl. Which of course means that you can throw some part of Bargnani's 28pts on Carl's tally ratehr than all of Evans' boards. Played the entire first quarter despite accomplishing little but a couple of early midrange jumpers. Ironically it may have been because he was at least trying on defense, and no matetr how empty the numbers, he and Beno I guess were the best things we had going in offense. the second quarter largely belonged to JT and Jackson, and he was largely invisible in the third. I should note, invisible, but not unfelt. You could feel the difference tonight when he was in there on our interior defense/rebounding. All of a sudden we were open for business. After returning in the 4th struggled with Amir Johnson playing over him, but scored back. And picked a good time to grab one of those rare boards with a big aggressive one in the 4th to snatch it from R.Evans. The last 2+ minutes were not kind, as he not once, but twice ended up with critical turnovers on his attempted moves, and he or Cousins blew the defense at 40 seconds and left Bargnani wide open to hit a three and make it a three point game. Did do a good job grabbing the loose ball on the final possession after Dalembert effected the inital shot, and throwing it ahead to Casspi. 4-13 with 4rebs and 2 critical turnovers is not a great way to get a strong grade though.
Cousins ( B- ) -- this is a tough grade, because for 36 minutes of this one DeMarcus largely got his butt kicked and it was the worst game of his young professional career. And then once again he displayed a sonderful sense of the moemnt, and came up big down the stretch. We started this one trying to run some offense through DeMarcus, and were treated to the sight of our 270lb+ center executing a drive and kick to our 6'3" PG/SG. Unfortunately the Raptors also started this one trying to run their offense through our center, and he was compeltely ineffective at closeing down the lane against DeRozan, Kleiza, Bargnani, or basiclaly anybody. Things got compounded when he got into instant foul toruble with 2 in the first 3 minutes, and he was actually being pushed around on the glass by Evans in his brief minutes. He sat out a long time before returning late in the half, and getting badly schooled by Bargnani, who bombed a three on him when he refused to guard it, and then blcoked DeMarcus's post move as well. Finally scored his first hoop on a drive, and played good defense on our second to last possession of the half, repeatedly cutting off Jack's penetration. Arms down defense after half isn't going to get it done agaqinst atheltes like Derosan. Got his butt kjicked on the glass by evans to start the second half too, and really played so poorly that Westpha had no choice bt to pull him. Think he had 6pts 1reb at that point. But after returning in the 4th it was a new Cuz who kept it simple and just simply would not be denied inside, repeatedly boring on in and overpowering Bargnani inside for tough physical o-rebs and layups. Still had one play where he missed a critical free throw line rebound that let Evans grab it and kick it to Kleiza for a three to take the lead back, but immediately came back with a stong post move and hook to score the other way and retake it. His big toilet bowl finish at the 45 second mark helepd seal it. So tough grade. Bad for 36, great for 12, and with an impressive per minute statline of 16pts 4rebs in 17min. I'm going to call it an impressive B-, althogh I was strongly tempted to make it a B.
Udrih ( B ) -- about the only guy scoring reasonably easy in the early going. Picked up a second foul, our 10th of the first quarter, on a true B.S. call as Calderon traveled, committed an offensive foul, and Beno got driven backward and called for the foul anyway. Despite the big offensive first quarter, the defense may again have mattered as he sat out almost the entire 2nd quarter with Head in his stead. Was failrly quiet after half, but hit a three on a Reke kickout in the late third to get us back to 10. And in a bit of deja vu got intentionally fouled and knocked down the 2 clutch FTs again with 12 second to go to push us back to 3. Only finished with a single assist one game after nabbing 11 vs. the Cavs, and the Raptors were playing the passing lanes well all night, and this was Reke's game while Beno's contribtution was mostly as a scorer in the early going helping keep us afloat until the engines warmed up. The fading into the background after half had me pondering B-, but it did not feel that Beno was failing so much as other guys were just stepping forward big time while he played a support role. And once agian he hit the cltuch FTs, so...B One note: our transition D sucks, and when Reke attacks the rim, Beno and Casspi would be the logical guys to have the responsibilities to get back, maybe Landry if he's at the elbows spotting up. I'm going to have to pay attention to the scheme against the Lakers, because whoever is not getting back is just killing us right now and certianly would warrant some docking.
Evans ( A- ) -- there we go! Three games into the season for Reke and maybe we can finally set aside the what's the matter with Reke questions. Star game that had me pondering straight A, and that only my respect for just how good he could be saw me go A- to leave myself a little more room up top for even bigger stuff. Started off shaky as he picked up two early fouls trying to make hustle plays and being overaggressive, but we left hm in there for a good long span anyway, and he managed to avoid the third, although that sometimes meant sticking his hands in his pocket when guarding DeRozan. Was continuing to miss the layups and flips in the early going, but then snapped to life, and not coincidentally so did we, as he carried us through the second quarter with 14pts, starting with back to back jumpers, and then running through a long streak of slashing layups pummeling the Raptors inside. Thing was it was all points. No rebs, no asists. Just attack, attack, attack, and yet they seemed to be the right decisions, and it was our highest scoring quarter of the game (35). Our problem was again on the other side of the court, but Reke kept us vaguely in touch. Turned out he was doing it with tummy troubles too, as he missed the start of the 2nd half with flulike symptoms that really underscored his value tongiht. We were floundering without him, and he returned and just whoosh! We were off and running, literally, as Reke immediately started grabbing d-boards and charging down court, once for a dish to Beno, then the second time drawing the foul. Got a little out of control with back to back plays where turnovers took place attributable to him, and seemed to be stumbling a lot late in the game, which almost had me wondering if his legs were not all there because of whatever it was. Or maybe not, as in the 4th he played maybe his finest all around ball of the season, not only continuing to attack the rim, but finding guys all over the court for kicks and dropoffs, continuing to rack up boards, and getting his hands on balls to make some great defensive plays inside. Maybe he should feel sick more often.
Well..for the fanbase at least.Way back in 1980, before many board members were born, the Brian Sipe led Cleveland Browns had an invigorating 11-5 playoff bound season in which 6 times in 8 weeks they won the game in the final 2 minutes, earning themselves the eternal nickname "The Kardiac Kids". If the Kings keep this stuff up we may have to think of something similar, because there are Kings fans having coronaries right and left.
Hey, it probably won't last but...homecourt advantage in the first round! Woot!
Official Boxscore
Casspi ( B ) -- well we got an answer to the "can he sustain" question for one night at least, as after a slow start Omri came on to provide many of the same things he did in the Cleveland win. It should also be noted that he did not provide many of the same things he did not provide in the Cleveland win -- sustaining here being not so much just playing well, as in choosing a whole playing style (although things such as his zero rebounds I don't think can be properly attributed to any intentional playing style). The shooting was actually off to start this one, and he missed three largely open threes in the first half, and as noted there were no rebounds all game long (he probably dedcided that he would rather keep both arms rather than stick one in there to have Reggie Evans tear it off). But the hustling was still there, and that can be the base for many good things. And the occasional bad thing: Made a mistake and fouled Kleiza outside the three point line with us down 10 in the early 3rd. that was really thre last wart though, as soon afterwards as we made our move he scooped up a loose ball up top and went hard full court dunking it through Anderson. And then in the 4th back came the threes again. Three more of them in crunchtime, one maybe a little ill advised and forced, but the next two working well with Reke on kickouts and canning big ones to give us our first lead, and then to put us up 8 with under two mintues to go. on a kick from a stumbling Reke to give us our first lead of the game, and his last inside the two minute mark. In between involved in a play that got the crowd to its feet as Reke lost the ball, had to go to the ground to recover it, hit Casspi with the pass from his knees, and Omri slid it to Cousins for a layup to put us up 4. A lot of verbage to say basically this: not the most well rounded game, again. But came to play when it mattered, again, and hit big shots down the stretch, again.
Landry ( D+ ) -- well somebody had to have a bad game here, and that somebody was Carl. It might be tempting from the boxscore to look at his now nightly 4rebs, then look at Tyreke's cousins' (Reggie Evans) board beasting and come to the conclusion that Reggie directly destroyed Carl on the glass. But for the most part that was not it. Westpahl wasn't about to try that matchup, and mostly avoided it when he coudl. Which of course means that you can throw some part of Bargnani's 28pts on Carl's tally ratehr than all of Evans' boards. Played the entire first quarter despite accomplishing little but a couple of early midrange jumpers. Ironically it may have been because he was at least trying on defense, and no matetr how empty the numbers, he and Beno I guess were the best things we had going in offense. the second quarter largely belonged to JT and Jackson, and he was largely invisible in the third. I should note, invisible, but not unfelt. You could feel the difference tonight when he was in there on our interior defense/rebounding. All of a sudden we were open for business. After returning in the 4th struggled with Amir Johnson playing over him, but scored back. And picked a good time to grab one of those rare boards with a big aggressive one in the 4th to snatch it from R.Evans. The last 2+ minutes were not kind, as he not once, but twice ended up with critical turnovers on his attempted moves, and he or Cousins blew the defense at 40 seconds and left Bargnani wide open to hit a three and make it a three point game. Did do a good job grabbing the loose ball on the final possession after Dalembert effected the inital shot, and throwing it ahead to Casspi. 4-13 with 4rebs and 2 critical turnovers is not a great way to get a strong grade though.
Cousins ( B- ) -- this is a tough grade, because for 36 minutes of this one DeMarcus largely got his butt kicked and it was the worst game of his young professional career. And then once again he displayed a sonderful sense of the moemnt, and came up big down the stretch. We started this one trying to run some offense through DeMarcus, and were treated to the sight of our 270lb+ center executing a drive and kick to our 6'3" PG/SG. Unfortunately the Raptors also started this one trying to run their offense through our center, and he was compeltely ineffective at closeing down the lane against DeRozan, Kleiza, Bargnani, or basiclaly anybody. Things got compounded when he got into instant foul toruble with 2 in the first 3 minutes, and he was actually being pushed around on the glass by Evans in his brief minutes. He sat out a long time before returning late in the half, and getting badly schooled by Bargnani, who bombed a three on him when he refused to guard it, and then blcoked DeMarcus's post move as well. Finally scored his first hoop on a drive, and played good defense on our second to last possession of the half, repeatedly cutting off Jack's penetration. Arms down defense after half isn't going to get it done agaqinst atheltes like Derosan. Got his butt kjicked on the glass by evans to start the second half too, and really played so poorly that Westpha had no choice bt to pull him. Think he had 6pts 1reb at that point. But after returning in the 4th it was a new Cuz who kept it simple and just simply would not be denied inside, repeatedly boring on in and overpowering Bargnani inside for tough physical o-rebs and layups. Still had one play where he missed a critical free throw line rebound that let Evans grab it and kick it to Kleiza for a three to take the lead back, but immediately came back with a stong post move and hook to score the other way and retake it. His big toilet bowl finish at the 45 second mark helepd seal it. So tough grade. Bad for 36, great for 12, and with an impressive per minute statline of 16pts 4rebs in 17min. I'm going to call it an impressive B-, althogh I was strongly tempted to make it a B.
Udrih ( B ) -- about the only guy scoring reasonably easy in the early going. Picked up a second foul, our 10th of the first quarter, on a true B.S. call as Calderon traveled, committed an offensive foul, and Beno got driven backward and called for the foul anyway. Despite the big offensive first quarter, the defense may again have mattered as he sat out almost the entire 2nd quarter with Head in his stead. Was failrly quiet after half, but hit a three on a Reke kickout in the late third to get us back to 10. And in a bit of deja vu got intentionally fouled and knocked down the 2 clutch FTs again with 12 second to go to push us back to 3. Only finished with a single assist one game after nabbing 11 vs. the Cavs, and the Raptors were playing the passing lanes well all night, and this was Reke's game while Beno's contribtution was mostly as a scorer in the early going helping keep us afloat until the engines warmed up. The fading into the background after half had me pondering B-, but it did not feel that Beno was failing so much as other guys were just stepping forward big time while he played a support role. And once agian he hit the cltuch FTs, so...B One note: our transition D sucks, and when Reke attacks the rim, Beno and Casspi would be the logical guys to have the responsibilities to get back, maybe Landry if he's at the elbows spotting up. I'm going to have to pay attention to the scheme against the Lakers, because whoever is not getting back is just killing us right now and certianly would warrant some docking.
Evans ( A- ) -- there we go! Three games into the season for Reke and maybe we can finally set aside the what's the matter with Reke questions. Star game that had me pondering straight A, and that only my respect for just how good he could be saw me go A- to leave myself a little more room up top for even bigger stuff. Started off shaky as he picked up two early fouls trying to make hustle plays and being overaggressive, but we left hm in there for a good long span anyway, and he managed to avoid the third, although that sometimes meant sticking his hands in his pocket when guarding DeRozan. Was continuing to miss the layups and flips in the early going, but then snapped to life, and not coincidentally so did we, as he carried us through the second quarter with 14pts, starting with back to back jumpers, and then running through a long streak of slashing layups pummeling the Raptors inside. Thing was it was all points. No rebs, no asists. Just attack, attack, attack, and yet they seemed to be the right decisions, and it was our highest scoring quarter of the game (35). Our problem was again on the other side of the court, but Reke kept us vaguely in touch. Turned out he was doing it with tummy troubles too, as he missed the start of the 2nd half with flulike symptoms that really underscored his value tongiht. We were floundering without him, and he returned and just whoosh! We were off and running, literally, as Reke immediately started grabbing d-boards and charging down court, once for a dish to Beno, then the second time drawing the foul. Got a little out of control with back to back plays where turnovers took place attributable to him, and seemed to be stumbling a lot late in the game, which almost had me wondering if his legs were not all there because of whatever it was. Or maybe not, as in the 4th he played maybe his finest all around ball of the season, not only continuing to attack the rim, but finding guys all over the court for kicks and dropoffs, continuing to rack up boards, and getting his hands on balls to make some great defensive plays inside. Maybe he should feel sick more often.
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) on my face.
