Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Okay -- first of all yay, and a very nice teamwide response to the potential chemistry catastrophe of the Cousins incident. Interesting to see Donte in particular, maybe still on a testosterone high, play his best overall game in months.
Secondly my main grades computer is still down, so if necessary I will do it off of this one, but would rather not, and the other grades caught in limbo will come when the other one recovers.
Casspi ( C ) -- came up with what is becoming his completely traditional 10pts 7rebs on subpar shooting -- check out his last 6 games during our losing streak against the elites and now Phx: 8pts 7reb 3-8FG vs. BOS, 10pts 6reb 3-10FG v. Spurs, 10pts 7rebs 3-11FG v. UTH, 8pts 6rebs 4-7FG v. DAL, 14pts 9rebs 5-13FG v. OKC, and now 10pts 7reb on 4-13 v. the Suns. Tonight was faced with a minutes challenge from a resurgent Donte Greene, but got his normal 30+ when we basically decided to plkay the game with no backup guards at all -- Reke and Beno both played 43 min, and for the minutes when they were out Donte or Omri slid over to give us a huge size advantage at SG. Early in the game it looked like we were going to make some attempts to get him going in the post against Carter, but not much came of it. Was doing a nice job moving the ball in the early going, which you don't always see out of him, but it was rarely rewarded as nobody but Reke could hit the broad side of the ocean before the break. Was active but never really effective after half. Got out on the break for several times as guys foudn him streaking ahead for leakouts, but kept missing his threes (0-4 on the night) and on one play drove inside and missed three short little flips within 6 feet on one possesison (of course the good sign was he got those 2 offensive boards between). He was not terrible, but it was once again the Omri stadard -- some crap, 10pts 6-7rebs and bad shooting. Not an F or even a D without getting burned on defense, but just a pretty low level start as he, Beno and Jason weren't the guys to provide Reke with support on the night (nor Landry for a half).
Thompson ( B- ) -- big flying dunk on the break early, and hit his first 3 shots. Started missing chippees though and after he had to swing to center for Daly, was having problems stopping Gortat. Worse for his minutes, foul trouble loomed once more, and with Samkeem dominating the middle and Landry's bad case of incompetence clearing up, Jason's hackitis again limited him to less than 20 minutes. Was not really a bad night for Jason though -- mostly seemed to be helping, in particular when teamed with Daly to give us the big frontline size advantage. We just didn't need him with both Daly and Landry cleaning up inside after half.
Highlight vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHmkyFsguvk
Dalembert ( A ) -- hey, who needs a Boogie when you have a Samkeem? Check out the video clip above from espn for samples of the fun. Immediately in there for defensive boards from the beginning, but the Suns figured out the only wat to slow a stud of his magnitude, and he quickly had 2 fouls. But he, and we were going well, and we left him in there to try to play through it and did not pull him until he had obviously lost his rhythm and forced up a bad too quick turnaorund effectively triggering the Suns break. But all the Suns managed to do was make Sam mad, and you DON'T want to make Sam mad. Started the second half with a spectacular drive through traffic for the reverse. Kept on avoiding the fouls that would take him out of the game, and survived long enough to come ip with some foot offensive boad work, and a series of partial blocks and deflections on defense as our energy picked up and all of a sudden you could see us competing again with yet another better by record opponent. Showed the Suns who The Man was in the 4th, starting off wiht a nice hook, then a baseline jumper, a spectacular follow of a Casspi airball flip on the break. And then made you laugh coming up with maybe the sealer to push the lead back to 7 with a drive all the way to the hoop form the top of the key (in the highlight vid above). Seriosuly who knew he had all this stuff? Should be noted that most, but not all, off Gortat's best work came against other guys, and for Sammy you had a game with no holes. 18pts 15 rebs, shot great (8-12), played defense...seriously, who knew he had this much junk to his game?
Udrih ( C ) -- missed several little chippees early as this game was a huge struggle for him through about three quarters. In fact maybe the most amazing thing about it was that depsite his inability to get anything done on either end of the court through three quarters, he, like Tyreke, again went over 40 minutes as we just entirely gave up on our backup guards and ran the two main guys into the ground, with Casspi/Donte filling in the rest of the backcourt miutes. Got one early jumper off of nice ball movement with every King touching the ball, got a second one to rattle in off a Reke kick just before half. Otherwise missed everything, and was getting rather easily torched by Nash as well. Kept on missing chippee after chippee as he and Landry were anchors around our ankles for us in the first half. Began to wake up a little in the 3rd -- only hit one shot, a three set up by Reke early n the period. But as the Daly/Donte/Landry crew began to bring major energy to the game, Beno again picked up on it and began hustling around and scrapping. And when Reke finally had to sit down after playing the first 38 minutes of this one nonstop, Beno stepped forward with multiple asssits to just about everybody and directed us out to a semi-commanding lead. But ironically he also played a part in tearing down that lead a few minutes later with back to back errors as he turned it over, and then fouled Nash outside the three point line to singlehandedly break the momentum he'd help us build and get it back to a 2 possession game. Stepped up in the clutch to hit his final shot, another three, at the 2:40 mark BVut then cntinued his foul the 3pt shooter in the final seconds reign of terror, sending Nash to the line again for 3 FTs with 28 seconds to go. Just duh Beno. I mean DUH. Overall not a good game for Beno as he continued his weeks long struggle, but he did pick the best quarter (4th) for his best play
Secondly my main grades computer is still down, so if necessary I will do it off of this one, but would rather not, and the other grades caught in limbo will come when the other one recovers.
Casspi ( C ) -- came up with what is becoming his completely traditional 10pts 7rebs on subpar shooting -- check out his last 6 games during our losing streak against the elites and now Phx: 8pts 7reb 3-8FG vs. BOS, 10pts 6reb 3-10FG v. Spurs, 10pts 7rebs 3-11FG v. UTH, 8pts 6rebs 4-7FG v. DAL, 14pts 9rebs 5-13FG v. OKC, and now 10pts 7reb on 4-13 v. the Suns. Tonight was faced with a minutes challenge from a resurgent Donte Greene, but got his normal 30+ when we basically decided to plkay the game with no backup guards at all -- Reke and Beno both played 43 min, and for the minutes when they were out Donte or Omri slid over to give us a huge size advantage at SG. Early in the game it looked like we were going to make some attempts to get him going in the post against Carter, but not much came of it. Was doing a nice job moving the ball in the early going, which you don't always see out of him, but it was rarely rewarded as nobody but Reke could hit the broad side of the ocean before the break. Was active but never really effective after half. Got out on the break for several times as guys foudn him streaking ahead for leakouts, but kept missing his threes (0-4 on the night) and on one play drove inside and missed three short little flips within 6 feet on one possesison (of course the good sign was he got those 2 offensive boards between). He was not terrible, but it was once again the Omri stadard -- some crap, 10pts 6-7rebs and bad shooting. Not an F or even a D without getting burned on defense, but just a pretty low level start as he, Beno and Jason weren't the guys to provide Reke with support on the night (nor Landry for a half).
Thompson ( B- ) -- big flying dunk on the break early, and hit his first 3 shots. Started missing chippees though and after he had to swing to center for Daly, was having problems stopping Gortat. Worse for his minutes, foul trouble loomed once more, and with Samkeem dominating the middle and Landry's bad case of incompetence clearing up, Jason's hackitis again limited him to less than 20 minutes. Was not really a bad night for Jason though -- mostly seemed to be helping, in particular when teamed with Daly to give us the big frontline size advantage. We just didn't need him with both Daly and Landry cleaning up inside after half.
Highlight vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHmkyFsguvk
Dalembert ( A ) -- hey, who needs a Boogie when you have a Samkeem? Check out the video clip above from espn for samples of the fun. Immediately in there for defensive boards from the beginning, but the Suns figured out the only wat to slow a stud of his magnitude, and he quickly had 2 fouls. But he, and we were going well, and we left him in there to try to play through it and did not pull him until he had obviously lost his rhythm and forced up a bad too quick turnaorund effectively triggering the Suns break. But all the Suns managed to do was make Sam mad, and you DON'T want to make Sam mad. Started the second half with a spectacular drive through traffic for the reverse. Kept on avoiding the fouls that would take him out of the game, and survived long enough to come ip with some foot offensive boad work, and a series of partial blocks and deflections on defense as our energy picked up and all of a sudden you could see us competing again with yet another better by record opponent. Showed the Suns who The Man was in the 4th, starting off wiht a nice hook, then a baseline jumper, a spectacular follow of a Casspi airball flip on the break. And then made you laugh coming up with maybe the sealer to push the lead back to 7 with a drive all the way to the hoop form the top of the key (in the highlight vid above). Seriosuly who knew he had all this stuff? Should be noted that most, but not all, off Gortat's best work came against other guys, and for Sammy you had a game with no holes. 18pts 15 rebs, shot great (8-12), played defense...seriously, who knew he had this much junk to his game?
Udrih ( C ) -- missed several little chippees early as this game was a huge struggle for him through about three quarters. In fact maybe the most amazing thing about it was that depsite his inability to get anything done on either end of the court through three quarters, he, like Tyreke, again went over 40 minutes as we just entirely gave up on our backup guards and ran the two main guys into the ground, with Casspi/Donte filling in the rest of the backcourt miutes. Got one early jumper off of nice ball movement with every King touching the ball, got a second one to rattle in off a Reke kick just before half. Otherwise missed everything, and was getting rather easily torched by Nash as well. Kept on missing chippee after chippee as he and Landry were anchors around our ankles for us in the first half. Began to wake up a little in the 3rd -- only hit one shot, a three set up by Reke early n the period. But as the Daly/Donte/Landry crew began to bring major energy to the game, Beno again picked up on it and began hustling around and scrapping. And when Reke finally had to sit down after playing the first 38 minutes of this one nonstop, Beno stepped forward with multiple asssits to just about everybody and directed us out to a semi-commanding lead. But ironically he also played a part in tearing down that lead a few minutes later with back to back errors as he turned it over, and then fouled Nash outside the three point line to singlehandedly break the momentum he'd help us build and get it back to a 2 possession game. Stepped up in the clutch to hit his final shot, another three, at the 2:40 mark BVut then cntinued his foul the 3pt shooter in the final seconds reign of terror, sending Nash to the line again for 3 FTs with 28 seconds to go. Just duh Beno. I mean DUH. Overall not a good game for Beno as he continued his weeks long struggle, but he did pick the best quarter (4th) for his best play
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