Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well...this was probably not even as close as the score makes it look. Cousins was completely dominant, on his way to a career night before sitting out the entire 4th again. IT was very good, and for a long spell threatened to have more assists than FGs, which is a rarity and indication of his tone tonight. We got just enough strong stretches from Reke and Patterson and Hayes and Douglas to keep things afloat while the dominant guys were out, and Phoenix looked like it cashed in early and was just playing out a lost season out there. We're not though. Still a .500 team ever since that Miami close call.
Highlights:
Two Legged Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
Boxscore
Stats: 38min 6pts (3-9, 0-2, 0-0) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Salmons ( D- ) -- John went out there tonight and did absolutely nothing for 38 minutes. He went 3-9, missing not only open shots but three layups, and managed a whole one assist and one other setup. It was an offensive night Emmanuel Lewis would have been proud of. But instead of doing anything on the scoring side of the floor, John played his typical D, right? Well...not really. He consistently slumped off of his man, and the Suns attempted 10 threes against him, hitting 5 of them, ultimately scoring 19 points on 14 shots. Players were repeatedly able to get free on screens, and on one occasion Salmons bit on a pass fake, leaving Wes Johnson wide open for a three. There was little reason for him to be out on the floor tonight, but given the solid win I just don't have the heart to give him an F. --Capt.
Stats: 19min 8pts (3-7, 0-0, 2-2) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Thompson ( C- ) -- we were again going to him inside in the early going and getting a lot
out of it. But then when we discovered we could go inside to an even bigger target, JT quickly faded into the background. Highlight play was probably running the floor with Cousins and taking a nice slip pass from his fellow big guy for the transition dunk. Never did help much on the boards though, and in fact despite dominating the glass for the game, there was a time when we were struggling badly with 9 of our first 16 rebounds grabbed by one man, and it wasn't JT. Played invisible man out there in the third before giving way to a more effective Patterson once again.--Brick
Stats: 30min 34pts (12-16, 1-2, 9-9) 14reb 2ast 1stl 1blk 5TO
Cousins ( A+ ) -- this may sound ridiculous given the absolute beatdown Boogie delivered on the Suns again (I know one city where they have to be Boogie believers), but there was a time early in this game when you weren't sure which way this was going to go for DeMarcus. He ended up shooting a three for his first shot after a JT postup fizzled, and despite a huge size advantage we weren't posting him, but rather having him drive from the perimeter and having to bob and weave to the rim. But he settled in and somewhere aroudnt eh middle fo the first quarter the assualt began in earnest. And when the Suns tried to slwo it down by bringin in big Hamadi, we got a taste of jsut what kind of night it was going to be for Boogie as he jsut started raingin jumpers on the big guy, and then capped it with a posterizing dunk on the break. Combined with strong boardwork, he was sitting on 17pts 7reb by the end of the first quarter alone, and started the 2nd with a beautiful post move around Hamadi again. Then with increased attention once he returned tot he game he set up Douglas nicely with a couple of cross court passes. He started the second half slowly with a couple of turnovers, and was beginngint o look like he was chugging out there...and then he chugged right back to life and began slapping the Suns around again, inclduign an explosive dunk off a nifty Reke wraparound pass that somehow did not make the highlights. By the time he picked up his 4th foul he was already sitting on 34pts 14reb on 12-16 shooting, and most of his TOs this time were offensive fouls from over aggression rather than sloppiness. And yet he never returned to the game, even when the Suns cut the lead down to 7 against our reserves Smart sat on his hands. And so a huge night for Boogie that could easily have been a career ngiht (his career high is 41, dropped against these same Suns last year) instead became merely his biggest scoring night of the year. --Brick
Stats: 33min 12pts (5-9, 0-3, 2-2) 3reb 6ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Evans ( B-) -- Tyreke had a very quiet 12 points tonight, scoring only four points on four shots in the first and third quarters (he sat the end of the first and the entire second, perhaps as a result of his recovery from illness, perhaps from Smart strategy). Once the fourth quarter came around and he was able to play as the lead guard he picked it up a bit, hitting two layups (one with a spectacular spin in the lane), getting fouled on a nice cut and hitting a jumper to bring his total up to the final count. Four of his five assists also came in the fourth as did two of his four other setups - one of those a nearly-beautiful alley-oop ruined by Patterson's inability to convert. Evans' fourth quarter was quite different than his first two, where the most notable play was probably the one that went down in my notes thus: "dribbledribbledribbleairballthreeatendofshotclock ". He wasn't remarkably efficient tonight (12 points on 10 shots) but it sure looked like he was unchained once he got on the floor with IT on the bench, and the inability for both of these players to thrive simultaneously in the last few games is becoming a matter of concern to me. Tyreke's D tonight was decent tonight but didn't generally stand out, allowing 11 points on 12 shots, and taking his eyes off of Scola on one transition play resulting in a layup but otherwise on par.--Capt.
Stats: 29min 23pts (6-10, 3-4, 8-8) 3reb 8ast 0stl 0blk 5TO
Thomas ( A- ) -- Well, he did it again. It had another big scoring night tonight, dropping 23 points on only 13 shots. That corresponds to an .885 TS%, which is pretty silly. Still, he wasn't just looking for his own shot - he had 8 assists on the game (all in the first half) and at least 6 other setups. Six of those assists went to the red-hot Cousins. His game was marred by five turnovers, three of those bad passes. IT was pretty much break-even on D tonight. He had his typical problems and two notably bad plays, but played good post defense on a couple of possessions before the Suns gave it up and was generally more up in his man's face and more effective at getting through screens than usual. For his bad plays, once he allowed the 2400 baud Kendall Marshall to drive right around him nearly at the half court line and to take the ball right to the hole. On the other, he simply refused to pick up ballhandler P.J. Tucker on the break despite the fact that he was the closest man, somehow assuming that his pointy-pointy finger was going to do something. Yeah, it did something - it gave up a layup. But in general, the D was good (he only allowed 8 points on 13 shots), and the scoring was great, and two bad plays and the TOs are the difference between an A- and an A.--Capt.
Highlights:
Two Legged Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
Boxscore
Stats: 38min 6pts (3-9, 0-2, 0-0) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Salmons ( D- ) -- John went out there tonight and did absolutely nothing for 38 minutes. He went 3-9, missing not only open shots but three layups, and managed a whole one assist and one other setup. It was an offensive night Emmanuel Lewis would have been proud of. But instead of doing anything on the scoring side of the floor, John played his typical D, right? Well...not really. He consistently slumped off of his man, and the Suns attempted 10 threes against him, hitting 5 of them, ultimately scoring 19 points on 14 shots. Players were repeatedly able to get free on screens, and on one occasion Salmons bit on a pass fake, leaving Wes Johnson wide open for a three. There was little reason for him to be out on the floor tonight, but given the solid win I just don't have the heart to give him an F. --Capt.
Stats: 19min 8pts (3-7, 0-0, 2-2) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Thompson ( C- ) -- we were again going to him inside in the early going and getting a lot
out of it. But then when we discovered we could go inside to an even bigger target, JT quickly faded into the background. Highlight play was probably running the floor with Cousins and taking a nice slip pass from his fellow big guy for the transition dunk. Never did help much on the boards though, and in fact despite dominating the glass for the game, there was a time when we were struggling badly with 9 of our first 16 rebounds grabbed by one man, and it wasn't JT. Played invisible man out there in the third before giving way to a more effective Patterson once again.--Brick
Cousins ( A+ ) -- this may sound ridiculous given the absolute beatdown Boogie delivered on the Suns again (I know one city where they have to be Boogie believers), but there was a time early in this game when you weren't sure which way this was going to go for DeMarcus. He ended up shooting a three for his first shot after a JT postup fizzled, and despite a huge size advantage we weren't posting him, but rather having him drive from the perimeter and having to bob and weave to the rim. But he settled in and somewhere aroudnt eh middle fo the first quarter the assualt began in earnest. And when the Suns tried to slwo it down by bringin in big Hamadi, we got a taste of jsut what kind of night it was going to be for Boogie as he jsut started raingin jumpers on the big guy, and then capped it with a posterizing dunk on the break. Combined with strong boardwork, he was sitting on 17pts 7reb by the end of the first quarter alone, and started the 2nd with a beautiful post move around Hamadi again. Then with increased attention once he returned tot he game he set up Douglas nicely with a couple of cross court passes. He started the second half slowly with a couple of turnovers, and was beginngint o look like he was chugging out there...and then he chugged right back to life and began slapping the Suns around again, inclduign an explosive dunk off a nifty Reke wraparound pass that somehow did not make the highlights. By the time he picked up his 4th foul he was already sitting on 34pts 14reb on 12-16 shooting, and most of his TOs this time were offensive fouls from over aggression rather than sloppiness. And yet he never returned to the game, even when the Suns cut the lead down to 7 against our reserves Smart sat on his hands. And so a huge night for Boogie that could easily have been a career ngiht (his career high is 41, dropped against these same Suns last year) instead became merely his biggest scoring night of the year. --Brick
Evans ( B-) -- Tyreke had a very quiet 12 points tonight, scoring only four points on four shots in the first and third quarters (he sat the end of the first and the entire second, perhaps as a result of his recovery from illness, perhaps from Smart strategy). Once the fourth quarter came around and he was able to play as the lead guard he picked it up a bit, hitting two layups (one with a spectacular spin in the lane), getting fouled on a nice cut and hitting a jumper to bring his total up to the final count. Four of his five assists also came in the fourth as did two of his four other setups - one of those a nearly-beautiful alley-oop ruined by Patterson's inability to convert. Evans' fourth quarter was quite different than his first two, where the most notable play was probably the one that went down in my notes thus: "dribbledribbledribbleairballthreeatendofshotclock ". He wasn't remarkably efficient tonight (12 points on 10 shots) but it sure looked like he was unchained once he got on the floor with IT on the bench, and the inability for both of these players to thrive simultaneously in the last few games is becoming a matter of concern to me. Tyreke's D tonight was decent tonight but didn't generally stand out, allowing 11 points on 12 shots, and taking his eyes off of Scola on one transition play resulting in a layup but otherwise on par.--Capt.
Stats: 29min 23pts (6-10, 3-4, 8-8) 3reb 8ast 0stl 0blk 5TO
Thomas ( A- ) -- Well, he did it again. It had another big scoring night tonight, dropping 23 points on only 13 shots. That corresponds to an .885 TS%, which is pretty silly. Still, he wasn't just looking for his own shot - he had 8 assists on the game (all in the first half) and at least 6 other setups. Six of those assists went to the red-hot Cousins. His game was marred by five turnovers, three of those bad passes. IT was pretty much break-even on D tonight. He had his typical problems and two notably bad plays, but played good post defense on a couple of possessions before the Suns gave it up and was generally more up in his man's face and more effective at getting through screens than usual. For his bad plays, once he allowed the 2400 baud Kendall Marshall to drive right around him nearly at the half court line and to take the ball right to the hole. On the other, he simply refused to pick up ballhandler P.J. Tucker on the break despite the fact that he was the closest man, somehow assuming that his pointy-pointy finger was going to do something. Yeah, it did something - it gave up a layup. But in general, the D was good (he only allowed 8 points on 13 shots), and the scoring was great, and two bad plays and the TOs are the difference between an A- and an A.--Capt.
Last edited by a moderator:
