Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
That was considerably pathetic. Just never showed up and may be running out of steam here. Reke cannot get back soon enough to give us one more shot in the arm down the stretch of the season.
I was prepping a tsunami theme, but don't think adding extra depression on top of a loss like this is the right way to go. And really, normally these have meant girls. And gee wouldn't that be a tragedy. However, after some thought I have decided to make this theme: Words For Those With The Courage to Fight On
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D+ ) -- hit a couple of threes in the first quarter, and that was quite literally virtually the only statistical contribution he made in 22 miinutes of action. 6pts 1reb 1ast = yay? Did make a good
hustle play on the break to strip Iggy in the third, but come on now. Gave us little pretty much anywhere.
Cousins ( C ) -- got matched with Hawes onthe opening possession, and apparently not having listened to any teammates, settled for a long jumper. In fact seemed curiously reluctant to finish Hawes off in the post -- had him beat several times and flinched like Hawes was Dwight Howard or something. Fianlly got in there and drew a foul and was more aggressive therafter. Dribbeld the ball 3/4 court and dropped a great bounce pass to a cutting Beno, but in general too much of the 280lb Magic stuff, and was trying to do too much dribbling through people, and that needs to be tamed. Just another one of those where he looked clearly unfocused/disciplined early, and made it worse by missing all of his shots while the game was still going. Did drop some nice passes, but that was largely it.
Finally got a follow tip out of a timeout in the mid third with us already down 26 which seemed to awaken him, and did a big time garbagetime stat padding thing where he once again flashed all of his talents, including shaking Hawes wiht a grea tmove, then coming back wiht back to back power drives right through him to chase him from the game -- the stuff that there was no excuse for him not to be doing from the start. Had another good take after returning for the garbagetime and a brilliant spinning layup in there, but was getting shot over by Speights the other way and he was way way too late to the party for any of it to realy matter. So numbers were right there again, garbagetime play certainly was impressive, but while the game was on and the Sixers wee routing us, he was pretty bad, so I am going to split the difference.
Dalembert ( C+ ) -- here we have one of the very few players who came to play, but unfortunately perhaps for the same reason he came to play -- wanting to do well agaisnt the old team -- he did not play smart and pressed. Was scoring easily over Brand early, and intimidating him the other way wiht his length (Brand scored 10pts on the night). Throw in another strong rebounding night with 13 (I merely refer to these hohum 13reb nights of his as "strong" when we've had seasons where that would have been the season high for anybody in our entire frontcourt) and what's to complain? Well...the other end of the ball. Was taking some dumb shots out of the offense as he tried to her o it, and with nobody moving and the offense stagnate, began to take silly chances dribbling aorund like a guard. End result 3-10 shooting and 5 TOs. Still gets some grade for doing the things we pay him to do well -- in a competitive game his domination of Brand could have decided the game. As it was felt as unfocused on offense as everybody else
Thornton ( F ) -- there needs to be a new word for when wow meets ugh. Wough maybe? Because this was terrible. Merely saying it was his worst performance for us does not express its terrribleness fully. Poor sloppy start, and then went down with some sort of injury near the end of the first. Was down a long time, and almost got run over when Cisco ignored him and tried to force a break opportunity. Maybe he should have stayed down, as other than again showing that he isa good and smart passer on the fastbreak, there was nothing going on here. Maybe he suddenly developed cataracts or somethign, becuase it was like he could not see th ball on catches, dribbling, and he certainly had no idea where the hoop was. Missed all his threes, and Marcus Thronton, 20pt a night guy, was threatening to airball some of them. Did come up with some hustle steals, but on the toher hand Holdiay was killing us in the early going, and he was more Thronton's man than Beno's in the first half. Struggled so bad in the third was actually benched in favor of Taylor. I thought of calling this a D- or somethgin just to recognize the few good thing she did, but it wasn't -- this was an F. He was so off, so lost his basketball touch, that he effectively was a much leds talented player out there, and its hard to fathom what an F would be if this was not it. Oh, and with no Tyreke, and both Thornton and Cousins terrible when it mattered, we were doomed.
Udrih ( C ) -- well, at least gave us something while it mattered -- along with Daly maybe the only two guys to actually play like some sort of shadow of themselves while the game was on. Worked well with Cousins early, moving off the ball and letting Cousins do the creating with his passing for several early hoops. Then stepped out and his his own three and a little pullup, and his early scoring was basically all that was keeping a shaky looking squad in the early game. But it never led anywhere, he disappeared as a factor soon therafter, and overall this ended up as nothing more than an average game for him. Which still BTW left him standing heads and shoulders ahead of most of his teammates.
Bench
Taylor ( C- ) -- short ineffective first half stint. Got back in realtively early in the third, but never was able to get anythign going. Thinnk it underscore how well he has settled into a toleplayer's role -- that's a great thing gennerally -- means he can play alongside almsot any set of stars and complment rather than detract from them. But on a night like tonight where it all fell apart into one on one chaos, Taylor does not have those kind of skills to create a lot of shots by himself.
Thompson ( D+ ) -- ineffective early, and committed an offensive foul. Then slipped back into more of the fumbleflipping and missing chippees on another awful offensive night that had the crowd muttering. Beat by Young on defense as well. Got enough minutes that he eventually worked himself into a pretty strong boarding game, but that was about it. This man needs shooting touch in the worst way, and alas, I think its one of the things that jsut can't be taught.
Jeter ( D ) -- back to back misses with minimal passing in the second. Brought in for "defensive purposes" to close the thrid, and promptly watched his man can a three over him. Duh. When your 5'11" PGs biggest contribution on the night is rebounding, you know you had a problem game.
Casspi ( C ) -- until Cousins garbagetime charge, OMri may have been only the third King to give us anything at all (wiht Beno and Daly), but it wasn't smooth sailing. In the game and immediately got out on the break to take a pass from Thornton. Hit a standstill three off a Beno drive and kick. Later a backdoor cut and took the nice pass from Cousins for the +1. And somewhat uncharacteristically was moving the ball pretty well wiht his passing. On the other hand airballed not one, but TWO threes in the game, struggled from the FT line, shot only 4-11 (which has become far too mcuh his standard shooting night this season), and was never on the glass. But hey, on this night that practically qualifies him for one of the higher grades on the team.
Greene ( C ) -- finally into the game with 9 minutes to go and the game basically over. Why not earlier in this one? Who knows. Donte has at times this season outperfromed both the guys ahead of him in the depth chart, so on a night when they, and nobody had it, it seems rather dim not to see if he could help. Be that as it may he finaly did get in and was just, eh. Went down into the post, drew a foul and actually hit the FTs. Seemed reluctant to go up for lobs on offense but the Sixers were packing the paint and it wasn't open. Finally got a big dunk deep in garbagetime.
Jackson ( INC ) -- a +1 late in the garbagetime
I was prepping a tsunami theme, but don't think adding extra depression on top of a loss like this is the right way to go. And really, normally these have meant girls. And gee wouldn't that be a tragedy. However, after some thought I have decided to make this theme: Words For Those With The Courage to Fight On
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D+ ) -- hit a couple of threes in the first quarter, and that was quite literally virtually the only statistical contribution he made in 22 miinutes of action. 6pts 1reb 1ast = yay? Did make a good
hustle play on the break to strip Iggy in the third, but come on now. Gave us little pretty much anywhere.
Cousins ( C ) -- got matched with Hawes onthe opening possession, and apparently not having listened to any teammates, settled for a long jumper. In fact seemed curiously reluctant to finish Hawes off in the post -- had him beat several times and flinched like Hawes was Dwight Howard or something. Fianlly got in there and drew a foul and was more aggressive therafter. Dribbeld the ball 3/4 court and dropped a great bounce pass to a cutting Beno, but in general too much of the 280lb Magic stuff, and was trying to do too much dribbling through people, and that needs to be tamed. Just another one of those where he looked clearly unfocused/disciplined early, and made it worse by missing all of his shots while the game was still going. Did drop some nice passes, but that was largely it.
Finally got a follow tip out of a timeout in the mid third with us already down 26 which seemed to awaken him, and did a big time garbagetime stat padding thing where he once again flashed all of his talents, including shaking Hawes wiht a grea tmove, then coming back wiht back to back power drives right through him to chase him from the game -- the stuff that there was no excuse for him not to be doing from the start. Had another good take after returning for the garbagetime and a brilliant spinning layup in there, but was getting shot over by Speights the other way and he was way way too late to the party for any of it to realy matter. So numbers were right there again, garbagetime play certainly was impressive, but while the game was on and the Sixers wee routing us, he was pretty bad, so I am going to split the difference.
Dalembert ( C+ ) -- here we have one of the very few players who came to play, but unfortunately perhaps for the same reason he came to play -- wanting to do well agaisnt the old team -- he did not play smart and pressed. Was scoring easily over Brand early, and intimidating him the other way wiht his length (Brand scored 10pts on the night). Throw in another strong rebounding night with 13 (I merely refer to these hohum 13reb nights of his as "strong" when we've had seasons where that would have been the season high for anybody in our entire frontcourt) and what's to complain? Well...the other end of the ball. Was taking some dumb shots out of the offense as he tried to her o it, and with nobody moving and the offense stagnate, began to take silly chances dribbling aorund like a guard. End result 3-10 shooting and 5 TOs. Still gets some grade for doing the things we pay him to do well -- in a competitive game his domination of Brand could have decided the game. As it was felt as unfocused on offense as everybody else
Thornton ( F ) -- there needs to be a new word for when wow meets ugh. Wough maybe? Because this was terrible. Merely saying it was his worst performance for us does not express its terrribleness fully. Poor sloppy start, and then went down with some sort of injury near the end of the first. Was down a long time, and almost got run over when Cisco ignored him and tried to force a break opportunity. Maybe he should have stayed down, as other than again showing that he isa good and smart passer on the fastbreak, there was nothing going on here. Maybe he suddenly developed cataracts or somethign, becuase it was like he could not see th ball on catches, dribbling, and he certainly had no idea where the hoop was. Missed all his threes, and Marcus Thronton, 20pt a night guy, was threatening to airball some of them. Did come up with some hustle steals, but on the toher hand Holdiay was killing us in the early going, and he was more Thronton's man than Beno's in the first half. Struggled so bad in the third was actually benched in favor of Taylor. I thought of calling this a D- or somethgin just to recognize the few good thing she did, but it wasn't -- this was an F. He was so off, so lost his basketball touch, that he effectively was a much leds talented player out there, and its hard to fathom what an F would be if this was not it. Oh, and with no Tyreke, and both Thornton and Cousins terrible when it mattered, we were doomed.
Udrih ( C ) -- well, at least gave us something while it mattered -- along with Daly maybe the only two guys to actually play like some sort of shadow of themselves while the game was on. Worked well with Cousins early, moving off the ball and letting Cousins do the creating with his passing for several early hoops. Then stepped out and his his own three and a little pullup, and his early scoring was basically all that was keeping a shaky looking squad in the early game. But it never led anywhere, he disappeared as a factor soon therafter, and overall this ended up as nothing more than an average game for him. Which still BTW left him standing heads and shoulders ahead of most of his teammates.
Bench
Taylor ( C- ) -- short ineffective first half stint. Got back in realtively early in the third, but never was able to get anythign going. Thinnk it underscore how well he has settled into a toleplayer's role -- that's a great thing gennerally -- means he can play alongside almsot any set of stars and complment rather than detract from them. But on a night like tonight where it all fell apart into one on one chaos, Taylor does not have those kind of skills to create a lot of shots by himself.
Never give up, never surrender!
-- crew of Galaxy Quest
Thompson ( D+ ) -- ineffective early, and committed an offensive foul. Then slipped back into more of the fumbleflipping and missing chippees on another awful offensive night that had the crowd muttering. Beat by Young on defense as well. Got enough minutes that he eventually worked himself into a pretty strong boarding game, but that was about it. This man needs shooting touch in the worst way, and alas, I think its one of the things that jsut can't be taught.
Jeter ( D ) -- back to back misses with minimal passing in the second. Brought in for "defensive purposes" to close the thrid, and promptly watched his man can a three over him. Duh. When your 5'11" PGs biggest contribution on the night is rebounding, you know you had a problem game.
Casspi ( C ) -- until Cousins garbagetime charge, OMri may have been only the third King to give us anything at all (wiht Beno and Daly), but it wasn't smooth sailing. In the game and immediately got out on the break to take a pass from Thornton. Hit a standstill three off a Beno drive and kick. Later a backdoor cut and took the nice pass from Cousins for the +1. And somewhat uncharacteristically was moving the ball pretty well wiht his passing. On the other hand airballed not one, but TWO threes in the game, struggled from the FT line, shot only 4-11 (which has become far too mcuh his standard shooting night this season), and was never on the glass. But hey, on this night that practically qualifies him for one of the higher grades on the team.
Greene ( C ) -- finally into the game with 9 minutes to go and the game basically over. Why not earlier in this one? Who knows. Donte has at times this season outperfromed both the guys ahead of him in the depth chart, so on a night when they, and nobody had it, it seems rather dim not to see if he could help. Be that as it may he finaly did get in and was just, eh. Went down into the post, drew a foul and actually hit the FTs. Seemed reluctant to go up for lobs on offense but the Sixers were packing the paint and it wasn't open. Finally got a big dunk deep in garbagetime.
Jackson ( INC ) -- a +1 late in the garbagetime
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I am not sure this is the type of game where anything can be learned except that even sleep walking, Boogie puts up stats.
