Alright, DeMarcus has my permission to go into the lockerroom and slap around some "teammates" this time. Our guardline got atrociously selfish for no reason at all (selfishness comes off better if you don't combine to shoot 12-35) on the Boogiemonster's career night. Maybe we lose anyway, but when your center chews up the oppostion to the tune of 38pts 14rebs on 15-26 shooting, you know where the ball should go just about every frickin time?
Grrr.
Boxscore
Evans ( C+ ) -- got off to such an amazing start to this one that everythign that came after was a disappointment. Was using quickness and skill to overwhelm Parson early. and getting his hands on absolutely everything on defense with steals and blocks triggering our early break -- had 3steals and a block within the first 6 minutes of the game, on his way to a career high 6 steals for the game. But the offense never did get on track, as he was having problems getting the ball from his sticky fingered teammates, and when he did he was blocked several times in the early going by the Rockets goalies (and fouled at least once too on a blatant no call). Turnovers started piling up as you could see the problems with him not getting the ball, and he was forcing whenever he did. Stepped into a passing lane to grab another steal, his 5th of the half, on the final play before halftime, and raced out for the open court layup. Came out in the third and maybe trying to help too much, as he was out of position and Parsons got three early layups. Just forcing too much, not able to finish himself and not getting the calls but set up guys pretty well. Got froze out by his coach again in the 4th as a coach who specializes in bizarre rotations apparently consaiderd Reke and Williams a pure platoon, played IT and MT until they dropped, and as long as Williams remained hot, Reke sat. Which is to say almsot the whole 4th. Added a Couple layups in OT.
Greene ( B ) -- competed well against Scola in the early going, and had a spectacular drive from the three point line for a big reverse jam. Then out on the break threw a behind the head pass to Cousins for the finish on the break, and a big offensive rebound flush as well. Was all over th offensive glass in the early going and triggering our running game explosion. Maybe got a little too encouraged and shot happy after a bit though and while he was competing well on defense the whole game o a matchup that did not look great (Scola) he slowed way down in other aspects. Was missing the corner threes he needs to hit. Got back in late in OT with Hayes punchless play finally getting our attention, and did a good job looming over Boykins at the 1:00 mark of OT forcing a TO.
Cousins ( A+ ) -- Boogiemonster. So basically tore into a Rockets team featuring not one, but two defensive stoppers in the middle (Dalembert and Camby) and dominated them on the way to his career game. And it felt EASY. Got off to the much bigger more active start against Daly after the debacle of their first meeting this year. Made nice plays on either end on one early possession, stripping a guard on one end to start the break, then running out and touch passing the ball to Thornton on the other end for the finsih on the break. Back in as we had to emergency sub in our starters for an incompetent bench and immediately hit Hayes with a great pass for a layup, then followed it with a jumper from the side. Didn't want to pick up offensive fouls, so was cutting off his drives rather than charging. Then just stepped outside and starting draining midrange jumpers, leaving the Rockets with truly no answer. Started the second half immediately driving by Daly for the +1, but missed the FT. Went into full beast mode as he dominated in the early 4th again, racking up 11 points in the first half of the quarter alone. But somewhere in here a fly apeared in his ointment, in the person of former Kentucky teammate Patrick Patterson. Now Patterson is not a center. And he's not a particularly special player. He's a tough, undersized PF. But he knows DeMarcus's and his game made it personal, and wasn't working with the burden of having already carried a team for 3/4 or having to fight his chucking guards for the ball. And he went right at a tiring Cousins using his mobility and facing game and probably actually outplayed Boogie from the mid-4th onward. Largely because Patterson was fronting him, and nobody was willing or able to feed him, suddenly DeMarcus's offense went away late, and if I were the sort of grader who would knock the + off of a young center's career 38pt 14reb game that would have been the excuse to do so. But again, I am not that grader. Nonetheless, in the end the other guy closed, not Cousins. Stole the ball at the 2:00 mark up top and went down the other way and got fouled -- should have dished though. Split the pair, but grabbed the monster follow of his own miss and finshed for his 36th point. At the end of OT added one more silly iimpressive play with a one handed snatch of an offensive rebound and finish over the rim.
Thornton ( B- ) -- scored a lot of poiints, but played this game like he had a shot quota to meet or something. Was struggling to finish layups in the early going over Dalembert and lost Lee several times early as Lee was the ony Rocket scoring. Sure was gunnng though with something like 9 first quarter shots alone, and eventualy they began to fall. Yet another blown end of quarter play for us, going too quick, committing an offensive foul, and just generally not what we wanted. Very strong and aggressive aroudn the offensive glass again -- think that's 8 offensive rebounds and no deensive rebounds in the last two games as he's been exploding in there after loose balls to finsih up. Again misplayed the end of half opportunity, driving too early and turning it over trying to dish to Hayes -- have to ask Coach Smart is Marcus Thronton really the decisionmaker you want running end of quarter plays for you? Played selfishly in the third as our offense ground to a halt with the ball stuck firmly in the hands of whichever guard touched it first. Boogie carried us through the early 4th, but down the stretch Marcus seemd to get a really bad case of the heroes, possibly aided and abetted by the bench. Wasn't looking to pass, wasn't going to pass, was goign to win the game 1 on 1 damnit. And while it was mostly brick after brick, he did make one impossible ugly force that somehow went in to put us up with 20 seconds to go -- a competent defensive team could have and should have rode that to victory. We are not however. Missed the three for the win at the buzzer as again he considered that his shot and we was going to take it. 27 points in this one, but this was not a satisfactory team game from Marcus and the selfishness down the stretch especially by our guards just killed us. You could feel the difference in thi one in tone from anything we've done for the last couple of weeks.
Thomas ( C ) -- just quicker than Dragic in the early going forcing the Rockets to turn to Earl Boynkins. Was also doing an excellent job all game long of little man rebounding, coming up with 8 of them mostly along the defensive baseline. But there were flashes of too much shot happiness from early in the game as he threw up some real junk rather than give the ball up. Was a bad matchup for Dragic right until he wasn't, but found that Boykins was even quicker than he was and got beat off the dribble several times in the 3rd. Made a difference when he switched into passing mode in the early 4th, and all of a sudden our offense unfroze and Boogie was dominating the game. But then started shooting again and we restalled. Things got compounded as Dragic seemed to figure him out, and began to take over late in the game. Poor decisionmaking down the stretch killed us again. Bad turnover up top at the 4:00 mark, and compounded it by fouling Dragic from behind and givng the Rockets a 3pt play to cut the lead to 1. The defensive issues and sticky fingers on offense actually saw him repeatedly subbed out for Williams in the late going. Got his three blocked in the early OT, ad dwas again replaced by Wiliams for part of the OT. Back in at the 1:00 mark, fed Cousins in the post despite him being fronted, but was too small to finish on the give and go. Made a final dumb mistake at the 22 second mark, trying to pressure Boykins, with us down 3 and 7 seconds difference between the game and shot clocks -- all we had to do was play solid defense, get the ball back, and we'd have a chance to tie the game and force a second OT. Instead IT jumped all over Boykins, who you aren't going to strip anyway, and fouled him for no reason thus putting us down 5 and it was goodnight.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bench
Hayes ( C ) -- basically WAS our bench until our Coach suddenly and rather bizarrely discovered terrence Williams again in the 4th. Ealry game was defined by what he was trying to do, but failing at, as he was one of the few Kings really trying to pass, but he just missed and missed again throwing guys bad passes at their feet, behind, them, into traffic, on miscommunications. Got credited with 3 TOs, but had at least a couple of more that went into the ledgers of the guys he was passing to. Basically split time with Donte at PF, and was modestly effecitve if that. Grabbed some reobunds tonight, so there was that. But not terribly effective defensively against his old mates, as Scola and Patterson chewed Cousins and Hayes up in the 6th, scoring 20 of the 28 Houston points int he quarter. And the other way Chuck's lack of offense was posing a problem as the Rockets were soft doubling Cousins with their bigs and just ignoring Chuck behind them. In what were probably the two most critical defensive plays/mistakes of the night, Chuck twice got setiched off onto Dragic in the final minute -- both times because Terrence Williams decided to swithc plays rather than follow his man. The Rockets scored both times, and to OT we went.
Salmons ( INC ) -- was thinking 1 on 1 after entering, and the reserves only lated 3 1/2 minutes before we went back to the starters. John never returned because of a sore something or other.
Fredette ( INC ) -- we let him play this time, thinking that Dragic was a matchup he could handle. But he sand the backup creew only lasted 3 minutes before Smart had seen enough. Bakc in in the final 20 seconds for desperation three chucking time, and missed one at the OT buzzer.
Outlaw ( INC ) -- part of the all backup crew that was so bad that we had to emergency sub back in basically the entire starting lineup. Managed to fit a turnover and msised shot into his 3 minutes of time.
Garcia ( INC ) -- only got a couple of minutes out there with the wildly ineffective bench group in the second before we emergency subbed the starters back in en masse. Back out there in the final desperation seconds, and missed a deperation three.
Last edited:
