Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
And so there it is -- we clinch the worst record in the league (a first in the Sacramento era I believe) on a "colorful" piece of officiating. Oh well, its all for the greater good. And time to break out the party hats -- the next two games its safe to actually root for the team to win!
As I cannot imagine it getting much lower than this, tonight I'm going to clear off Great Historical Turning Points as a theme. When you hit rock bottom, there is nowhere to go but up, and the corner is turned by default.
Nocioni ( C- ) -- gunning early against Finley, but then disappeared. Kept on queueing up, and bricking 3pt bombs. Did little after half other than force a number of bad shots as I guess the Spurs defense was still tougher than it looked. Had a lot of foul problems as well. Was the guy who got caught down inside on a pick freeing up Finley for the game winning shot. That's what you get for only playing 24 seconds of defense instead of the full 25. Then had no prayer on the final desperation three back the other way with 1.5 seconds to go. Not one to write home about for Noc, unless the letter be "Mama, we got cheated!"
The French Revolution in 1789 -- when you talk about "The Revolution" in America, you are almost always referring to The American Revolution, which of course was rather important to us. But when you talk about "The Revolution" in Europe and much of the rest of the first world, you are talking about The French Revolution, which was a far more important event historically. America was still just some distant collection of half-civilized colonists. But when the French, right in the heart of Europe, overthrew their centuries old ancien regime, it changed everything. Autocracy, and a reflexive submission to the king and nobility had kept the social order relatively stable for a thousand years in Europe. And suddenly people realized that it did not have to be. That if they resisted they could win their freedom. Revolutionary thought swept through Europe for the next half century (and Napolen did so as well, himself an outgrowth of The Revolution) with rebellions and the threat of rebellions toppling regimes and forcing the survivors to democratize and pass the real power over to the people. It was the beginning of a democratic Europe.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- was a good battle in there early against Kurt Thomas on the glass -- too horribly hack prone scrappers. But got quiet as our true All Stars -- BJax, McCants and Diogu -- made themselves eveident in the 2nd quarter, combinging for 28 of our 36 second quarter points. Avoided his normal foul problems, but was no real factor as the Spurs defense was rather less eager to leave him open for tips and follows than have been many of our recent opponents. Think his only points after the early going were on a key tip in over Bonner's back in the late 4th that seemed to have us in good position to win this. Sans Duncan, nobody on the Spurs frontline hurt him muhc defensively, but then again, coming off getting his *** handed ot him by Brian Skinner everybody on the Spurs save Oberto couold have been a candidate, so I guess a step forward. Not a bad game overall, just no real impact and the gap between he and Thomas's impact felt larger than the gap in their numbers.
Fall of Constantinople in 1453 -- the Byzantine Empire is often lost to a sort of fuzzy middle for casual students of history. Neither East nor West, neither ancient nor modern, it was the critical bridge between the ancient world of Rome and the modern world of the European powers. Not only did it preserve much of the ancient knowledge of the greeks and romans, but it was also the heart of the Orthodox Church, and after the 8th century from its position straddling the Bosporus (the straight between Asia and Europe connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean) it served as Christianity's great bulwark against the tide of Islam that swept through the Middle East. For centuries it endured seige after seige as the greatest and most impregnable fortress/city of its age. So when it finally fell to the Turks in 1453, it was like a damn bursting. The Muslim Turks were at the height of their power and poured into Europe through the Balkans, reaching southern Russia, eastern Italy, and twice besieging Vienna in Austria.
Hawes ( A- ) -- with no Duncan out there got off to the fast start and was able to get up anything he wanted to comfortably. Although as often happens with Spencer, forgot to rebound along the way and only had 2 before half. Did much of our damage in the third, from both inside and out, and the Spurs various stubby yawners never really getting a hold of him. Was some factor inside defnsively too, helping keep Parker under control in the early going, and altering shots by Thomas and Gooden. Sat out for a key stretch of the 4th while the Spurs briefly took a lead, but after finally returning at the 4:30 minute mark quickly pushed us back into the lead with a couple of nice plays and the hoop to nudge his career high up by another point -- think its the 3rd time he's had his new career high in the last month, but he never explodeds it. I think first it was 20, then 22, now 24. Was not involved late as he, and the rest of the Kings, got to watch Beno go one on the Spurs.
Martin Luther Nails Up His 95 Theses in 1517 -- vandalism isn't always a great way to start a revolution, but when Martin Luther nailed up his 95 complaints against the church (and there was only one church before he did so, the Catholic Church) he had a tiger by its tail. Originally largely a complaint about the church's corruption through the sale of "indulgences" (basically you could buy your way out of your sins with enough grease money to your local clergyman), it blossomed into a full fledged theological reviolution that spawned all of the Protestant Churches to follow. Along the way he also translated the bible out of Latin into a modern language (german), helping establish that it should be accessible to everyone, and got married, thus setting the precedent that Protestant ministers could marry. There would be centuries of warfare to follow as a result, and a schism amongst Christinity that still lasts until today.
Cisco ( C ) -- fairly quiet first half mostly matched against the Spurs wing stoppers. More assist man than scorer. Picked up the scoring in the third, but never matched the decidely underhwleming man he was supposed to be guarding -- Roger Mason, who dropped 22 on us. Nothing in the 4th this time, and was late on the closeout on Mason's three that tied the game in the final minute and put the result in the refs hands.
Pearl Harbor Sneak Attack in 1941 -- this of course turned out to be quite the miscalculation by the Japanese -- basically it made us mad. And you don't wake the slumbering giant. But its implications went far beyond that one war or that one opponent (two once Germany followed the mistake by declaring war). Through that one action, it set the stage for the American era of international politics which we are still living in today. Many people do not realize that we were basically isolationaist before 1941. That despite everything that FDR tried to do to get us to commit ourselves, that the American people wanted no part of WWII and were content to sit and watch the rest of the world burn, convinced that the oceans would protect them. And then the Japanese came and proved that that wasn't true and the effect was jarring. America woke up, realized her power, and has never looked back.
As I cannot imagine it getting much lower than this, tonight I'm going to clear off Great Historical Turning Points as a theme. When you hit rock bottom, there is nowhere to go but up, and the corner is turned by default.
Nocioni ( C- ) -- gunning early against Finley, but then disappeared. Kept on queueing up, and bricking 3pt bombs. Did little after half other than force a number of bad shots as I guess the Spurs defense was still tougher than it looked. Had a lot of foul problems as well. Was the guy who got caught down inside on a pick freeing up Finley for the game winning shot. That's what you get for only playing 24 seconds of defense instead of the full 25. Then had no prayer on the final desperation three back the other way with 1.5 seconds to go. Not one to write home about for Noc, unless the letter be "Mama, we got cheated!"
The French Revolution in 1789 -- when you talk about "The Revolution" in America, you are almost always referring to The American Revolution, which of course was rather important to us. But when you talk about "The Revolution" in Europe and much of the rest of the first world, you are talking about The French Revolution, which was a far more important event historically. America was still just some distant collection of half-civilized colonists. But when the French, right in the heart of Europe, overthrew their centuries old ancien regime, it changed everything. Autocracy, and a reflexive submission to the king and nobility had kept the social order relatively stable for a thousand years in Europe. And suddenly people realized that it did not have to be. That if they resisted they could win their freedom. Revolutionary thought swept through Europe for the next half century (and Napolen did so as well, himself an outgrowth of The Revolution) with rebellions and the threat of rebellions toppling regimes and forcing the survivors to democratize and pass the real power over to the people. It was the beginning of a democratic Europe.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- was a good battle in there early against Kurt Thomas on the glass -- too horribly hack prone scrappers. But got quiet as our true All Stars -- BJax, McCants and Diogu -- made themselves eveident in the 2nd quarter, combinging for 28 of our 36 second quarter points. Avoided his normal foul problems, but was no real factor as the Spurs defense was rather less eager to leave him open for tips and follows than have been many of our recent opponents. Think his only points after the early going were on a key tip in over Bonner's back in the late 4th that seemed to have us in good position to win this. Sans Duncan, nobody on the Spurs frontline hurt him muhc defensively, but then again, coming off getting his *** handed ot him by Brian Skinner everybody on the Spurs save Oberto couold have been a candidate, so I guess a step forward. Not a bad game overall, just no real impact and the gap between he and Thomas's impact felt larger than the gap in their numbers.
Fall of Constantinople in 1453 -- the Byzantine Empire is often lost to a sort of fuzzy middle for casual students of history. Neither East nor West, neither ancient nor modern, it was the critical bridge between the ancient world of Rome and the modern world of the European powers. Not only did it preserve much of the ancient knowledge of the greeks and romans, but it was also the heart of the Orthodox Church, and after the 8th century from its position straddling the Bosporus (the straight between Asia and Europe connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean) it served as Christianity's great bulwark against the tide of Islam that swept through the Middle East. For centuries it endured seige after seige as the greatest and most impregnable fortress/city of its age. So when it finally fell to the Turks in 1453, it was like a damn bursting. The Muslim Turks were at the height of their power and poured into Europe through the Balkans, reaching southern Russia, eastern Italy, and twice besieging Vienna in Austria.
Hawes ( A- ) -- with no Duncan out there got off to the fast start and was able to get up anything he wanted to comfortably. Although as often happens with Spencer, forgot to rebound along the way and only had 2 before half. Did much of our damage in the third, from both inside and out, and the Spurs various stubby yawners never really getting a hold of him. Was some factor inside defnsively too, helping keep Parker under control in the early going, and altering shots by Thomas and Gooden. Sat out for a key stretch of the 4th while the Spurs briefly took a lead, but after finally returning at the 4:30 minute mark quickly pushed us back into the lead with a couple of nice plays and the hoop to nudge his career high up by another point -- think its the 3rd time he's had his new career high in the last month, but he never explodeds it. I think first it was 20, then 22, now 24. Was not involved late as he, and the rest of the Kings, got to watch Beno go one on the Spurs.
Martin Luther Nails Up His 95 Theses in 1517 -- vandalism isn't always a great way to start a revolution, but when Martin Luther nailed up his 95 complaints against the church (and there was only one church before he did so, the Catholic Church) he had a tiger by its tail. Originally largely a complaint about the church's corruption through the sale of "indulgences" (basically you could buy your way out of your sins with enough grease money to your local clergyman), it blossomed into a full fledged theological reviolution that spawned all of the Protestant Churches to follow. Along the way he also translated the bible out of Latin into a modern language (german), helping establish that it should be accessible to everyone, and got married, thus setting the precedent that Protestant ministers could marry. There would be centuries of warfare to follow as a result, and a schism amongst Christinity that still lasts until today.
Cisco ( C ) -- fairly quiet first half mostly matched against the Spurs wing stoppers. More assist man than scorer. Picked up the scoring in the third, but never matched the decidely underhwleming man he was supposed to be guarding -- Roger Mason, who dropped 22 on us. Nothing in the 4th this time, and was late on the closeout on Mason's three that tied the game in the final minute and put the result in the refs hands.
Pearl Harbor Sneak Attack in 1941 -- this of course turned out to be quite the miscalculation by the Japanese -- basically it made us mad. And you don't wake the slumbering giant. But its implications went far beyond that one war or that one opponent (two once Germany followed the mistake by declaring war). Through that one action, it set the stage for the American era of international politics which we are still living in today. Many people do not realize that we were basically isolationaist before 1941. That despite everything that FDR tried to do to get us to commit ourselves, that the American people wanted no part of WWII and were content to sit and watch the rest of the world burn, convinced that the oceans would protect them. And then the Japanese came and proved that that wasn't true and the effect was jarring. America woke up, realized her power, and has never looked back.
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