Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Boxscore
Stats: 37min 27pts (10-16, 1-3, 6-7) 6reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Summary: was on the same page with Rondo all night, and gave us a critical second source of points
Gay ( B+ ) -- Rudy is a very good player, but he's not a great player. Just about every game, he decides at some point that he's going to win the game by himself. How often he decides to do that, determine's how good a game he has overall. Tonight he did it too many times when the game was on the line to suit me. Every game, I find myself screaming at my TV as Rudy drives into traffic after dribbling the ball for 20 seconds, and either turning the ball over, or throwing up a wild looking shot. He scored 27 points tonight on 10 of 16 shooting. That sounds impressive, but he owe's a big thank you to Rondo, who got him some easy baskets. If all you do is look at his stat line, you'd have to give him an A. But personally, I think I'm being generous giving him a B+. I don't want to demean him too much, because he did have a good game, and was able to score when others were struggling. Except Cousins of course. Rudy's defense was decent to good, depending on which part of the game were talking about. Overall, it was a typical game for Rudy. A lot of good, with some bad sprinkled in. The only thing separating him from the next level, is his tendency to be the hero. There's some irony in that somewhere. --Baja
Stats: 8min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Summary: took an early knock on the noggin that has us playing Acy in his place while he was in the locker room getting checked out
Cauley Stein ( INC ) -- other than getting baited into a foul leaving his feet by Derozan, did a nice job on defense in the early going of this one. Even stayed in front of Lowry on several possessions. But on the other end he was looking distressingly like Jason Thompson, fumbling catch after catch and rebound after rebound. And the thing is, hand eye coordination isn't one of those things you can teach. Took an elbow to the head by Valanciunas and then despite having no symptoms got held out because everybody is terrified of concussions nowadays. --Brick
Stats: 41min 36pts (12-22, 3-6, 9-12) 10reb 3ast 1stl 3blk 3TO
Summary: from a dominant offensive first half where he was almost shrugging, he won this one in the late gong with great defense as well
Cousins ( A+ ) -- If he keeps this up through the roadtrip, I want him greeted with a much less tentative MVP chant when he gets home, because right now he's about one Curry rolled ankle from having a claim to it. I actually quit taking notes by the mid second because I was like Cousins in this one, just shrugging at the absurdity of it all. So your 6'11" 270lb center is standing out there bombing in threes at the same efficiency Klay Thompson was last year, and has become such a threat that he even had Kyle Lowry foul him on one of them for 3 FTs. Then every time somebody steps out toward him, your 6'11" 270lb center puts the ball on the floor, gets his man on his shoulder and trains to the hoop. If somebody gets in his way, your 6'11" 270lb center eurosteps around them and reverse flips up a nifty layup. If they don't, he pounces for a big dunk. Back when we first drafted Cousins, Pete Carril said something I have never forgotten, that "he plays a game with which I am not familiar." Which is quite a statement when its made by your 80yr old basketball guru who's been in the game since the 1950s. Well I've never seen this before either and really there's nothing to do but pump your fist as the big guy goes and does something else that no other big man should even be attempting, let alone executing. It was up to 23 points at halftime, and it got bad enough he just chased Valanciunas, a good 16-10 center, right to the bench. More attention, a more mobile Bismack Biyombo, and what looked like fatigue, slowed the assault in the 3rd, but down the stretch Boogie took over again and just carried us on home on both sides of the ball. that's what the "+" is about by the way. He didn't even have a great rebounding night, but Boogie's defense was strong all night, and down the stretch just smothering as he blocked and altered every attempt by the Raptors to get inside, then went down the other way and scored as well. Not counting the injury game vs. the Clips he's now averaging 30.5pts 11.3rebs and just got done back to back to back stomping maybe the three best centers in the East. There's really not much else to say: MVP! --Brick
Stats: 25min 8pts (3-6, 2-4, 0-0) 4reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Summary: was scared Ben again until Rondo practically forced him to take a three, and then wild rided in a weaving drive to help us win it late
McLemore ( B ) -- After playing his way into a bench spot at the start of the season Ben worked his way back into the starting lineup, and in this game he solidified that spot by bringing the perimeter defense that this team needs out of him. He didn't have a huge scoring night, but he did a great job of locking down DeRozan, who only went 2-5 against Ben and only really went off when the Raptors moved to a three-guard lineup slotting DeRozan at the 3. Ben also made at least four very good defensive plays in transition - on one he stopped the ball which ended up getting kicked out for a three, but nonetheless he stopped the ball. Ben did go 2 of 4 from deep, even if he had to be encouraged to shoot one of them by Rondo. But even though he played well in the first three quarters, Ben's best stint was his short one in the fourth when the Kings were pushing for the comeback. He came in and passed up another three, but this time to find an open Belinelli, and shortly thereafter he drove aggressively into the lane at the 1:40 mark to give us the lead and score what would prove to be the game winning basket, as the Kings D (with Ben Mac's help, certainly) held the Raptors scoreless from that point on. --Capt.
Stats: 43min 7pts (3-10, 1-3, 0-0) 7reb 14ast 2stl 0blk 7TO
Summary: threw the ball absolutely all over the gym in the first half, saw his man go into god mode in the third, and yet his leadership meant everything
Rondo ( B- ) -- you know, in the early going of this one Rajon Rondo was giving the ball to the Raptors as often as he was giving it to Kings, and yet somehow, I wasn't mad. And maybe that's partisan, but maybe there's more to it. Rondo exudes a certain level of calm, of being in control. Few of his turnovers are truly wrongheaded, and even the ones that are impress as sort of a more data for the computer, will adjust programming accordingly sort of thing rather than chronic mistakes resulting from a lack of talent or bball iq. And when he wasn't giving the ball to the Raptors, or committing an illegal screen (don't often see that one from a small guard), he was doing a lot of good stuff on both ends. He was slapping balls away and sneaking in for steals, hit a three, set guys up etc. In the early third he repeatedly found Rudy on backcuts for alley oops (which is the correct way to counter the Raptors very aggressive perimeter defenders jumping and poking at everything). There was also the minor issue of Kyle Lowry going bonkers from downtown in the third, but with one exception, those really weren't Rondo's fault per se. Other guys were guarding him, or they happened after we did our switch everything up top, and the guy who took Rondo's man suddenly was facing a hot Lowry above the arc. And while Toronto tried to bomb us out of the building, there was Rondo, going almost the whole way again, jsut keeping us in it, steadying the ship. he was working especially well with Rudy, ketp finding him behind the Raptors defense. One time Ben did not want the shot at all and passed it to Rajon who immediately threw it right back to Ben wit instructions to shoot it I'm sure, and it finally got Ben off the schneid. he still can't shoot, and even airballed a three in the early 4th as we tried to come back. But once again his steady patient generalship was a huge key late in the game, and he got an all out hustle steal at the 1:30 mark after we had taken a 1pt lead. There were still a couple of shaky moments therafter when people (looking at you Rudy) got dumb and forced things, but we held on, and the overwhelming impression was of rondo serving as Boogie's yoda and keeping our big weapon focused.--Brick
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