Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
We are now 0-16 in our last 16 games without Demarcus Cousins. Its ridiculous. Helpless as babes. But that was only the tip of the iceberg this time. Winning without Boogie has proven near impossible for us, but tonight we had to win without Boogie, and essentially without Collison, without JT, without Landry, and without a shred of defense. Tough.
On a more positive note Ben blew up for a while before turning back into a pumpkin. And a scrubby crew of Ramon Sessions, Reggie Evans, and Derrick Williams combined to try to hustle out an unlikely victory. But that is what we were reduced to. Coach throwing out random guys hoping for somebody, anybody, to catch fire and at least try on defense, and it was some of our least used personnel who did it. Which still equals a loss BTW when the league's best rebounder and your defensive captain is missing his 3rd straight game.
Boxscore
Stats: 39min 20pts (8-16, 1-1, 3-3) 6reb 10ast 0stl 1blk 4TO
Gay ( B+ ) -- you now...it hasn't been noted much, but Rudy has been undergoing a bit of a transformation of late. He and Cuz both have been apparently very consciously trying to extend their leadership to the point they create more shots for their less talented teammates than our PGs do. And after this game, in which Rudy set a career high with 10 assists, he is now averaging 4.4ast/gm, which is fully twice his 2.2 ast/gm career average. I think it was the right decision tonight. Toronto was loading up on him, he could have gone into inefficient chucking mode, could have gone into disappearing mode, instead he went into beat the pressure with a pass mode. He actually got off to a rough start, as he and Ben (who was a primary beneficiary of Rudy's passing, with 3 of his 8FGs assisted by him) went back to back throwing terrible attempted passes to each other for turnovers. Worse, his replacement in Toronto, Terrence Ross, gave a bit of an early scare when he suddenly started bombing away out there -- this you will remember is a guy who's really nothing special day to day, but who got so scorchingly hot once last year that he dropped in 51. Well, he got off to that kind of start here, bombing in 15 in the first quarter and making you go, *gulp*. Rudy himself started doing things, he had assists to Hollins, to Ben, to Reggie, he came up with a block on defense and a good outlet ahead to start the break. Late in the quarter he started heating up and hitting some tough shots. When he returned in the second quarter he resumed setting people up and now ended up[ in duel not with Ross, who faded back and would have only 5 more points, but instead with James Johnson, who was mysteriously able to blow right by both Ben and Rudy repeatedly for layups. At one point in the third, had 13pts and 8ast, which is more of a PG line than a major scorer line, and was rarely pressing the issue on offense. There were a few tough drives, but almost no dribble dribble dribble fallaway midrange jumper stuff. Did step up with 9min to go in the 4th to take and hit his only 3 and cut the lead down to 6. And made another strong play with 4 minutes to go grabbing a good offensive board on a missed Reggie FT to give us an extra possession. He was under control, he made unselfish plays and often smart ones...but the one thing he was not was a primary goto guy, and I couldn't help think that this style of play might be extremely useful once we get the big guy back, but without him, we needed a #1 option, and we didn't really have one and were left searching down the stretch, trying Ben, trying Rudy, and finally turning to much maligned figures like DWill and Sessions to try to win it. Another *gulp*. In any case 20-6-10 on 50% shooting is nothing to be laughed at. But the ease he was scored through early, and the sense that we needed him to force the issue just a little more if we were going to pull this one out leaves the grade down a bit. --Brick
Stats: 19min 4pts (2-3, 0-0, 0-0) 3reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Thompson ( C+ ) -- The start of the game for the Raptors was a bit chaotic. JT was part of it. Trying to move Amir Johnson was not very successful and the early offensive rebound and following tip in attempt were way off the target. In defense JT kept Johnson under control, but in the other end Johnson was able to easily box out JT. Trying to help out Hollins, something that he would not be required to do with DMC, brought him his first foul. In my opinion, JTs low scoring is partially due to the fact that he does not get touches in the offense. Once he got, he scored from the key. JT could not do much in his position against the Toronto 3-point barrage, his rebound released a fast break resulting in Casspi’s 2 points from the line. I couldn’t see why he got the second foul, which created the need to replace him, but the foul was changed to Gay. That foul resulted in 2 points by Johnson. Immediately thereafter JT committed an offensive foul and headed to the bench. He came back at the end of the 2nd quarter. Enough to sink a 2-pointer again from the key. The 3rd quarter began with a quick foul by JT on Valeanciunas. I’m not sure if it really was a foul, but it was recorded. A little while later Valenciunas dragged Thompson to the 4th foul. JT continued to run up and down the court until the 5th foul. In my opinion part of his low scores results from him not being part of the Kings offense at all. The ball simply doesn’t go his way. He worked hard in defense, but the Raptors 3-point play was out of his defensive range. --Kingston
Stats: 7min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Hollins ( D ) -- Hollins only played seven minutes, but it was a seven minutes that our team would rather forget. Hollins got the starting assignment and "anchored" a Kings team that was so moribund on both offense and defense that most DISH customers were probably regretting the recent Comcast agreement. He didn't do much - he missed an 8-foot jumper and somehow hit a "dunk" where he came up short driving down the lane and had to kind of release early. The big deficit early wasn't entirely his fault, but the team functioned so poorly while he was in that Malone didn't even give him the nod to start the second half. --Capt.
Stats: 39min 21pts (8-17, 1-5, 4-4) 0reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( B+ ) -- Ben got off to a rough start throwing an off target alley oop to Gay and then missing his first two shots. He made his third shot of the night, but his foot was on the sideline for a turnover. He followed that by driving the lane and missing a floater. Finally, before exiting the game at the 3:40 mark of the 1st quarter, Ben stopped and popped a 15 footer. He re-entered the game at 10:02 of the 2nd, and almost immediately drove the lane, and made a nice dish to Casspi for an easy basket. He then hit a corner three, and was off and running. The ESPN highlight reel was about to start. He grabbed a rebound and when end to end for a layup. On his next possession he drove straight down the right side of the lane and went through and over two defenders for a spectacular dunk, and one. He finished out the half by scoring off an alley oop from Gay, and then hitting a pullup 16 footer. In the second half, he started out where he had left off, by driving the lane, laying it in, and being fouled. He then stopped and popped from 14 feet on the left baseline. At this point, I'm thinking, maybe a star is being born before my eyes. However, he proved he was human a play later by missing a long three. After a short stint on the bench, he returned, but was fairly cold the rest of the way. Fortunately on two of his misses, D. Will was right there for the putback. On the other side of the ball, he played good defense most of the night. He got caught in a couple of screens, but except for that, he was solid. Cousins absence has obviously meant more shots for Ben, and so far, he's risen to the occasion. If he can continue to play this effectively, he has a chance to be special. --Baja
Stats: 19min 4pts (0-5, 0-0, 4-4) 3reb 4ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Collison ( D- ) -- not really sure what to say here. This was a weird effort, or should I say non-effort. This is our PG, our leader credited with stabilizing us and having a lot to do with the hot start. He has been if nothing else solid almost every night until the last one. And yet he came out here today and if I didn't know better, and I don't, I'd almost say he didn't want to be out there. Maybe he was planning to rest the leg until he heard Cousins was out, who knows. But for whatever reason he was out of it (in fact so was Carl, so not sure what was up). So much so that not only did Sessions take the bulk of his minutes and play the entire stretch run, Ramon actually DESEREVED to. DC's head just didn't seem in things from the beginning, he was trying to force too much too fast on offense, getting blocked, turning it over. And defensively he was getting blown by not just by Kyle Lowry, but by Greivis too, which just shouldn't happen. He just simply was not locked in. He did pick up a couple of gambling steals, he set a few people up. It was half a step from completely worthless. But he missed all his shots, and he got torched. And if it doesn't have something to do with that leg then Kyle Lowry is an even badder man than I thought he was (I spent years advocating picking him up before he was a star, and he's repaid me by crushing us every time we face them. Ingrate). DC was done by the mid third, and the amazing thing is I wasn't waiting with bited breath for him to return. He deserved to be out, and indeed may never have really arrived. Not sure why. And in the end the same PG who was outdueling CP3 and Lillard now got spanked 27 and 13 to 4 and 4. We basically played without Cuz OR Collison. --Brick
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