Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Theme = The Law of Unintended Consequences
Boxscore
Casspi ( B- ) -- played better, but minutes were again limited as Donte reemerged and Cisco played well. Was aggressive to start. Dribbled into the paint and dished nicely to Specner for the dunk. Aggressive take to the hoop. Got torched by Westbrook off the dribble to pikc up his second foul and ended up sitting for the rest of th half. In the 3rd drove into the paint., had it knocked away, grabbed it, and laid it in. Got the d-board and did the selfish fullcourt gallup thing again. In the early 4th cut to the hoop and hit by May for the layup. Had good energy and generally competed, at least on offense.
Blame the Cats -- when the Black Death came to Europe in the mid-14th century, half of the continent perished. Entire families were wiped out, whole communities became ghost towns, and it would take 100 years for the population to recover. Of course they had no idea what caused it, and so they came up with a uniquely disastrous explanation -- it was the cats. Cats had long gotten a bum rap in medieval Europe as the familiars of witches, the devil etc., and been subjected to all kinds of inhumane butchery. So with people dropping like flies, they made a natural scapegoat. The plague of course was carried by rats, infected by fleas. And where go rats, cats are sure to follow -- people saw the cats, and blamed the very creature that could have helped the situation. By exterminating the cats, the rats spread like wildfire and Europe died. And you know, if you are going to be that stupid maybe you just deserve to at some point.
Landry ( B- ) -- got off to the slow start but showed up here and there after half and matched and a little more the wildly overated Jeff Green (this is a 14 and 6 guy people!). Got a layup off a nice Greene feed early, but we were generally having problems getting the ball to him in there against an aggressive featuring 4 payers taller than our PF. Got an offensive board and finish of a May miss before sitting. In the second threw up a wild post move, but did little else. Picked it up a bit in the 3rd after getting off to the shaky start. Missed the post move to start the qaurter, then had Green hit a three over him. But then hit the baseline jumper over Krstic, and got a dunk from Udrih. Somehow missed Beno in the wide open cut when Landry was up top surveying the defense. Hit a jumper late. In the 4th got a layup off a Reke feed. Strong d-board after the Thunder blew a 4 on 1. Got held for the foul at the 2:15 mark and hit both FTs. Got called for the critical offensive foul at the 1:15 mark after we ran the play for him out of the timeout. Grabbed an offensive board off a Hawes missed three at the 35 second mark and laid it in to cut the lead to 4. Finished the night with an ok 17 and 7. But not enough, particularly on the glass on a night when we got crushed, and smallness compared to the Thunder was making it hard to feed him the ball inside. This might have been a B. Kind of right on the border.
Great Sparrow Campaign -- ah, that wacky Mao Zedong. Think I may come back to him for a second one later as he was a complete idiot and specialized in colossal foulups. This particular one went like this: let's fix our food production problems by having all of our peasants run around and kill all the pests that interfere with food production. One of those pests was decided to be the sparrow, since sparrows will eat grain seeds. So off go millions of peasants, and they run around and kill the sparrows, break their eggs, kill their chicks etc. And in the short term it seems to actually work. Grain production goes up. That is until the locusts begin to swarm. Because you see sparrows eat more insects than they do grain, and once you kill all the birds eating all the insects... By the end of the disaster 30 million people starved to death while the locusts cheerfully chowed down on their fields, and it would take a decade for the ecological imbalance to finally correct itself.
Hawes ( D+ ) -- sigh. Dusted off the old lace panties again for this one. And I have nothing at all against lace panties (except the suspicion they must itch) -- I just don't want to see my 7'0" center wearing them on court (or off court). When your biggest player chucks up more three pointers in a game (4) than he grabs rebounds (3)...let's stay professional about this and just say "unacceptable". Started the game by missing a three on the kick from Reke, but turned the tables and set up Reke from the high elbow on the backdoor cut. Hit a little hook on the break, and then had a dunk from Reke off the drive and dish as he was active early. Repeatedly left Krstic to cover penetration, and got dunked on three straight times for his trouble. Had to force a three against the shotclock and rattled it out. Back in in the 2nd and knocked down an open baseline jumper. Turned it over in the post -- just looked like it dribbled away unforced, and in a high scoring half when we let the Thunder shoot 67% against us and got crushed on the boards, Spencer contributed a grand total of zero. Zilch. Nada. Against a team who starts Nenad Krstic. In the 3rd came up with a nice help block on Durant to trigger a break. Missed another three. Still no rebounding and Krstic with a dunk fest. Missed an ugly gallop against the clock. A dunk from Greene in the 4th as almost all his points on the ngiht came from guys hitting him moving toward the hoop. Missed another three at the 35 second mark because that's the shot we want down the stretch obviously. He had enough moments that the calls for F or whatever are misplaced. But the OKC cheerleaders were probably mocking him and giving him advice on brazilian cut v. thong, so no way this deserves much.
Prohibition -- great sign eh? If I could have gotten that promise in writing from those, er, "babes", I would have been off to hit the bottle immediately. So, Prohibition in the 1920s. The temperance movement perceptively notes that alcohol consumption leads to people (and in this case the people they were mainly concerned with were men) acting like *******s. So solution = let's just ban the stuff, by amending the Constitution no less. Except of course that when you try to ban anything, and especially anything that popular, you are instantly going to create a giant illegal black market. Violence and corruption ensue at the highest levels. Booze hauling gangs and speakeasys abound. You get war on the streets and make crime syndicates immensely wealthy. Same thing actually as goes on in the drug war with the ultra-violent cartels. And so finally after a decade of blood soaked headlines and public graft, you give up and give in to human nature and repeal the thing.
Udrih ( B- ) -- a quite but efficient roleplayer's game next to Reke with some major defensive deficiencies. Started the game with the side pop on the break from Reke. Missed a three off the dribble. A 24 second violation as he coudln't get the shot up and dumped it off to Landry too late. In the 2nd forced up the too quick foul line pullup after we fell back behind. Out of the timeout came up with the pass to Cisco for the three. Then drove and missed the layup and watched Westbrook race back the other way for the layup. In the third came up with one of his nifty spinning layups. Later had a nice entry pass to Landry. Contiually played Westbrook wrong whenever matched with him, getting up way too tight on him and being no match for the quickness. Was a bad enough problem we frequently slipped of into a zone. Came on in the 4th to give us an extra weapon. Hit the jumper and got fouled. Then got the ball knocked away, but picked it up and hit the turnaround. Turnover trying to get it to Reke along the baseline. Went in and really ripped down a board after our frontline guys were getting whipped. Should have given us a big Beno flex for that one. But then went down the other way and just threw the ball away missing the nearet King by 10 feet. Next time grabbed another d-board and went down and hit Cisco for the three. Rolled in the little jumper off the pick. This would be a B I think if not for the defensive problems.
Father Matthew "The Temperance Priest" -- and as long as we are talking temperance and its unforeseen effects, lets talk about Ireland's Father Matthew and his Total Abstinence Society. Quite the movment in the first part of the 19th century -- at one point he had over half the Irish population taking his Pledge of total abstinence. Which sounds like a great success, but of course there is a reason the Irish still have the rep for drinking they do 200 years after this event. Not only did it not exactly take in the majority of the Pledgers (the Great Famine of 1845-48 seemed to drive many of them back to the bottle), but the alcohol abstinence had an unforeseen effect when many of the pledgers, not wanting to break their vow, but wanting to get their kicks from something, took up the abuse of ether instead, which is a much more dangerous intoxicant.
Boxscore
Casspi ( B- ) -- played better, but minutes were again limited as Donte reemerged and Cisco played well. Was aggressive to start. Dribbled into the paint and dished nicely to Specner for the dunk. Aggressive take to the hoop. Got torched by Westbrook off the dribble to pikc up his second foul and ended up sitting for the rest of th half. In the 3rd drove into the paint., had it knocked away, grabbed it, and laid it in. Got the d-board and did the selfish fullcourt gallup thing again. In the early 4th cut to the hoop and hit by May for the layup. Had good energy and generally competed, at least on offense.
Blame the Cats -- when the Black Death came to Europe in the mid-14th century, half of the continent perished. Entire families were wiped out, whole communities became ghost towns, and it would take 100 years for the population to recover. Of course they had no idea what caused it, and so they came up with a uniquely disastrous explanation -- it was the cats. Cats had long gotten a bum rap in medieval Europe as the familiars of witches, the devil etc., and been subjected to all kinds of inhumane butchery. So with people dropping like flies, they made a natural scapegoat. The plague of course was carried by rats, infected by fleas. And where go rats, cats are sure to follow -- people saw the cats, and blamed the very creature that could have helped the situation. By exterminating the cats, the rats spread like wildfire and Europe died. And you know, if you are going to be that stupid maybe you just deserve to at some point.
Landry ( B- ) -- got off to the slow start but showed up here and there after half and matched and a little more the wildly overated Jeff Green (this is a 14 and 6 guy people!). Got a layup off a nice Greene feed early, but we were generally having problems getting the ball to him in there against an aggressive featuring 4 payers taller than our PF. Got an offensive board and finish of a May miss before sitting. In the second threw up a wild post move, but did little else. Picked it up a bit in the 3rd after getting off to the shaky start. Missed the post move to start the qaurter, then had Green hit a three over him. But then hit the baseline jumper over Krstic, and got a dunk from Udrih. Somehow missed Beno in the wide open cut when Landry was up top surveying the defense. Hit a jumper late. In the 4th got a layup off a Reke feed. Strong d-board after the Thunder blew a 4 on 1. Got held for the foul at the 2:15 mark and hit both FTs. Got called for the critical offensive foul at the 1:15 mark after we ran the play for him out of the timeout. Grabbed an offensive board off a Hawes missed three at the 35 second mark and laid it in to cut the lead to 4. Finished the night with an ok 17 and 7. But not enough, particularly on the glass on a night when we got crushed, and smallness compared to the Thunder was making it hard to feed him the ball inside. This might have been a B. Kind of right on the border.
Great Sparrow Campaign -- ah, that wacky Mao Zedong. Think I may come back to him for a second one later as he was a complete idiot and specialized in colossal foulups. This particular one went like this: let's fix our food production problems by having all of our peasants run around and kill all the pests that interfere with food production. One of those pests was decided to be the sparrow, since sparrows will eat grain seeds. So off go millions of peasants, and they run around and kill the sparrows, break their eggs, kill their chicks etc. And in the short term it seems to actually work. Grain production goes up. That is until the locusts begin to swarm. Because you see sparrows eat more insects than they do grain, and once you kill all the birds eating all the insects... By the end of the disaster 30 million people starved to death while the locusts cheerfully chowed down on their fields, and it would take a decade for the ecological imbalance to finally correct itself.
Hawes ( D+ ) -- sigh. Dusted off the old lace panties again for this one. And I have nothing at all against lace panties (except the suspicion they must itch) -- I just don't want to see my 7'0" center wearing them on court (or off court). When your biggest player chucks up more three pointers in a game (4) than he grabs rebounds (3)...let's stay professional about this and just say "unacceptable". Started the game by missing a three on the kick from Reke, but turned the tables and set up Reke from the high elbow on the backdoor cut. Hit a little hook on the break, and then had a dunk from Reke off the drive and dish as he was active early. Repeatedly left Krstic to cover penetration, and got dunked on three straight times for his trouble. Had to force a three against the shotclock and rattled it out. Back in in the 2nd and knocked down an open baseline jumper. Turned it over in the post -- just looked like it dribbled away unforced, and in a high scoring half when we let the Thunder shoot 67% against us and got crushed on the boards, Spencer contributed a grand total of zero. Zilch. Nada. Against a team who starts Nenad Krstic. In the 3rd came up with a nice help block on Durant to trigger a break. Missed another three. Still no rebounding and Krstic with a dunk fest. Missed an ugly gallop against the clock. A dunk from Greene in the 4th as almost all his points on the ngiht came from guys hitting him moving toward the hoop. Missed another three at the 35 second mark because that's the shot we want down the stretch obviously. He had enough moments that the calls for F or whatever are misplaced. But the OKC cheerleaders were probably mocking him and giving him advice on brazilian cut v. thong, so no way this deserves much.
Prohibition -- great sign eh? If I could have gotten that promise in writing from those, er, "babes", I would have been off to hit the bottle immediately. So, Prohibition in the 1920s. The temperance movement perceptively notes that alcohol consumption leads to people (and in this case the people they were mainly concerned with were men) acting like *******s. So solution = let's just ban the stuff, by amending the Constitution no less. Except of course that when you try to ban anything, and especially anything that popular, you are instantly going to create a giant illegal black market. Violence and corruption ensue at the highest levels. Booze hauling gangs and speakeasys abound. You get war on the streets and make crime syndicates immensely wealthy. Same thing actually as goes on in the drug war with the ultra-violent cartels. And so finally after a decade of blood soaked headlines and public graft, you give up and give in to human nature and repeal the thing.
Udrih ( B- ) -- a quite but efficient roleplayer's game next to Reke with some major defensive deficiencies. Started the game with the side pop on the break from Reke. Missed a three off the dribble. A 24 second violation as he coudln't get the shot up and dumped it off to Landry too late. In the 2nd forced up the too quick foul line pullup after we fell back behind. Out of the timeout came up with the pass to Cisco for the three. Then drove and missed the layup and watched Westbrook race back the other way for the layup. In the third came up with one of his nifty spinning layups. Later had a nice entry pass to Landry. Contiually played Westbrook wrong whenever matched with him, getting up way too tight on him and being no match for the quickness. Was a bad enough problem we frequently slipped of into a zone. Came on in the 4th to give us an extra weapon. Hit the jumper and got fouled. Then got the ball knocked away, but picked it up and hit the turnaround. Turnover trying to get it to Reke along the baseline. Went in and really ripped down a board after our frontline guys were getting whipped. Should have given us a big Beno flex for that one. But then went down the other way and just threw the ball away missing the nearet King by 10 feet. Next time grabbed another d-board and went down and hit Cisco for the three. Rolled in the little jumper off the pick. This would be a B I think if not for the defensive problems.
Father Matthew "The Temperance Priest" -- and as long as we are talking temperance and its unforeseen effects, lets talk about Ireland's Father Matthew and his Total Abstinence Society. Quite the movment in the first part of the 19th century -- at one point he had over half the Irish population taking his Pledge of total abstinence. Which sounds like a great success, but of course there is a reason the Irish still have the rep for drinking they do 200 years after this event. Not only did it not exactly take in the majority of the Pledgers (the Great Famine of 1845-48 seemed to drive many of them back to the bottle), but the alcohol abstinence had an unforeseen effect when many of the pledgers, not wanting to break their vow, but wanting to get their kicks from something, took up the abuse of ether instead, which is a much more dangerous intoxicant.
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