Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well I guess we have now answered the philosophical question of whether there is such a thing as a good loss, because we just experienced such a phenomenon first hand.
We came out and went toe to toe with a team we may be trying to emulate, and our defense never did falter. We went defensive possession vs. defensive possession against them, and earned numerous roars from the home crowd for our stands. In the end it was a bit of an honor to force the Spurs to give us their full championship python crush defensive attention. But when they did squeeze us, it was illuminating that Boogie was the only King who could play through it on offense, and he had to try to one man gang us on home, I believe scoring 23 of our 37 second half points.
Link to Boxscore
Starters
Gay ( B- ) -- hard to grade accurately, because for a half he was quite good. He was banging in there with Cuz, and made Kawhi hit tough shots. But in the second half the Spurs, and Kawhi, gave us the championship python squeeze, and only Cuz came through it as Rudy disappeared against the pressure.
Cousins ( A ) -- showed his quality again outscoring and outrebounding Aldridge and Pau combined. Started the game a little overhyped, took a couple of ill advised threes. But upon his return in the 2nd immediately ran off 7 points, and did the same thing again in the 4th when everybody else was strangled, and Cuz was the only offensive player big time enough to push through. Added some smothering defense at times against Aldridge and Pau. Wanted this one.
Koufos ( C+ ) -- tough grade because he put up numbers, but what people are going to remember is a whole string of flubs. Dropped passes, blew gimmes..and yet got 4 of them finally as the Spurs left him open and guys kept on trying to find him. Despite shakiness, could have used his size instead of the smallballers in the 2nd half. Coaching error actually.
Afflalo ( C ) -- is it better to be shaky with numbers, or solid without? For much of the game Afflalo was solid without, but he was the one guy to step up to help Cuz late in the game, when he came back in for Ben and knocked down several clutch shots to get his numbers and his grade.
Featured Grade
Lawson ( B+ ) -- During the first half when the Kings were outplaying the Spurs, Lawson was a major factor in the game. He made the second-ever basket in the G1C (one that will be much more quickly forgotten than Cousins' first), ran the offense smoothly and importantly played tough defense on the Spurs' point guards (who ended up 2-13, much of that due to Ty). A signature play in the second quarter had Lawson dogging Patty Mills, desperate to get open, for nearly the full 24 seconds, denying the pass completely - and then getting the rebound off of the Spurs' last-option shot and immediately hitting Cousins with a long pass to draw a foul on Aldridge. Lawson was often at his best passing the ball up the court in transition. However, the Kings had a pretty lackluster second half, and Lawson's effectiveness was hindered by the Kings not beating the Spurs down the court and not cutting on offense. In the fourth, Lawson had three quick assists (two to Cousins) in our push to go from ten down to tie the game, but in the end the Spurs were the Spurs, and if anything Lawson was far too selfless, not at all looking for his own shot in the second half despite the Kings having trouble scoring. Still, this is clearly far more than we could possibly have hoped to ask for out of a reclamation project backup PG. -- Capt.
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Bench
Tolliver ( D ) -- well, saavy isn't worth much if you are undersized and not hitting any of your shots, like ANY of them. And the end result is that like most of our non-Cuz bigs, Tolliver just gave us empty empty minutes out there. No shots hit, no rebounding, and being played over in there. Still some good defensive rotations though.
Barnes ( D+ ) -- and no. If Barnes were as good as Phx Barnes he'd be a star. Sometimes he is this instead. Missed his shots, and Joerger made a mistake having him trying to guard the full size and then some Spurs PFs, who wee shooting over him and overpowering him. Just didn;t have it.
Cauley-Stein ( D+ ) -- he did defend the rim, but his lack of offensive ability continues to look like a problem in this offense, he threw a bad pass, and now he's being outplayed by guys like Dedmond.
Featured Grade
Temple ( B- ) -- playing backup PG is really a defensive guard much more than playmaker or shooter. Tonight only played 12 minutes and all of it on Tony Parker holding him to zero stats: no FG, no Pts, no Ast until late in the 4th. Temple also had nearly zero stat night as well: no points and 3 assists but no TO. That was it but his defensive presence was noticeable for his limited minutes. Smart player, rarely out of position. -- Cruz
McLemore ( B- ) -- For the second game in a row Ben entered the game a new man, gunslinging the Texans and pouring in 10 points as we pushed out to a double digit lead. Then for the second game in a row everything changed as we tried to bring him back after half. Pop sicced Kawhi on him, and...well, if Ben ever does something to end up in prison at least he is knows about the soap trick now.
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Sean Cunningham @SeanCunningham 
James Ham @James_Ham 
