Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
You see what the power of the Grading Consortium can do? For the first time since back when all the garbage started we had a full slate of graders tonight, and you see the end result. We take all due credit.
However if for some perverse reason you wanted to doubt our omnipotence, you might also note that we came out in this game and played DEFENSE, we attacked inside, we focused our attack around our stars and Landry off the bench, and in general this was about as Michael Malonesque a game plan as we have seen since the aforementioned coach was escorted out of the building. And really, it was the spirit of the thing that was such a stark change. Don't know if there was a team meeting or what, but this was the squad we watched play in that first month of the season. They played hard, played together, and flat smashed a good team with every reason to want to win this one. But we were in their heads early, Cousins in particular, and we never let up. It was impressive, and while after 8 years of endless nope I guess nots its silly to even say these things, it might even be a foundational win to end the spiral. Tonight we were a good team because we chose to be. We just need to keep on choosing.
Boxscore
Stats: 35min 28pts (9-19, 3-3, 7-8) 9reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Gay ( A ) -- This was a very nice bounce back for Rudy, as both he and KD were somewhat disengaged defensively and Rudy got the better of the scoring matchup in both points and efficiency. Rudy opened up the game by hitting an elbow jumper over Durant on a catch and shoot. Two trips later he had his jumper blocked by Durant, which Rudy recovered and made a running hook shot in the lane. He followed that up with a wide-open three (hitting all three of his shots from downtown on the night.) That kind of sums up how the night went for him. He hit shots from all over the floor, and never let himself get too aggressive or too passive in the game. Perhaps the biggest improvement on the night was the lack of turnovers. Over the last handful of games, Rudy has been careless with the ball, getting stripped in the lane or just mishandling the ball outright. Tonight he limited the turnovers to two. He only had one assist, but part of that is because his entry passes to Cousins resulted in the OKC frontline blocking Cousins shots or hacking him. I thought his ball movement was very good with maybe one or two exceptions where he took a more difficult shot than necessary. Rudy was also active on the boards all night, ending with 9 rebounds, including 4 offensive boards. More nights like tonight would be very welcome. --Hadlowe
Stats: 17min 2pts (0-3, 0-0, 2-4) 8reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Thompson ( C ) -- This score might seem a bit high for a player that only scored two points, but he only took three shots, two of which were at the basket, where the Ibaka monster lurks. Ibaka blocked 8 shots tonight, so no one was getting a free pass at the basket. So offensively JT didn't contribute much, but he did play good aggressive defense tonight. I had JT down for two blocks, but the official scorer only gave him one. JT also pulled down 8 rebounds in 17 minutes of play. I was pleased to see JT switch and show on pick and rolls that he was involved in. Something that didn't happen in the last game. A couple of days of practice seemed to help. JT's free throw shooting continues to be a mystery to me. In the first quarter he missed a put back and calmly sank two free throws. But in the third quarter when he drove the left baseline and was fouled. The threw up two god awful looking bricks. Most importantly, JT contributed to the win tonight. You might even say he impacted the game defensively. To be honest, they really don't need JT to do much more than he did tonight. --Baja
Stats: 38min 23pts (6-23, 0-0, 11-13) 15reb 4ast 1stl 3blk 6TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- here was a tough grade to figure out because what you had here was something you almost never see: this was a good game, almost a dominant game, by a player shooting 6-23 from the field. I mentioned in the preamble above that as much as anything this game was won by a renewal of spirit, and spiritually Cuz knocked this one out of the park. He sat back for a few minutes early working as a passer, getting teammates going (or trying to as thee was again a steady refusal to hit shots off his kicks), pumping guys up, responding to a huge Westbrook dunk with a nice spinning move to get fouled in the paint, and being extremely active defensively. It was really Thompson and Gay doing a lot of the tough work inside until maybe 6 minutes into this one when he and Westbrook began to get into it, and Cuz's response was amazing. He launched an all out assault inside, reckless at times, slamming his way inside, having words with Westbrook, with Perkins, and rapidly sending nearly the the entire OKC frontline to the bench with fouls. It was the focus of it that was eye opening...right up until the point Serge Ibaka waded into the fray. Because Serge Ibaka has ALWAYS had Cuz's number with his help blocks, and new skinny Cuz (seriously we may not be able to call him "big" again until next season) doesn't even have the truly overwhelming power advantage he normally does. So you want to know how 6-23 happens? 6-23 happens when Serge Ibaka has 8 blocked shots on the night, and Skinny Cuz has 8 blocked shots against him. Cuz didn't miss miss miss his way to 6-23. He attacked and attacked and attacked, and Serge swatted them and swatted them and swatted them, from in front, behind, to the side. And for a while there it finally damaged his calm as he attacked, battled, got blocked, got the ball back, missed, just could not get a finish in there, and came back to do it again and again. Frustration more than anything else caused him to finally hop in the air after he wanted a call and did not get it, and boom, T. But it wasn't a sign of a meltdown, Cuz did not go away. The largest effect was on that looming 5 Ts on the year goal. Think that may have been it. But Cuz himself? Returned to the game right back in the groove, immediately found Nik for an open three, which Nik of course missed, then drove to put the 3rd foul on Adams, the 3rd on Perk came a couple of minutes later. And after another extended sequence of Ibaka blocks finally finally got a spin power move through Ibaka for the +1 (with the missed FT) and a big flex. Not sure you can do the flex when the guy has swatted you 5 times, you get 1 strong finish, and then he promptly swats you again the next time you go inside, but still, Cuz was pumped all game long, and in the final 30 seconds of the half in an important play he finally got the 3rd foul on Ibaka too.
That play was made doubly important when 2 minutes into the 3rd quarter Cuz drew a charge on Ibaka for his 4th -- one of THREE straight Cuz drawn charges during an inspiring defensive run to stop OKC comeback hopes in their tracks in the early 3rd. Literally one minute later it was another drawn charge to put the 4th foul on Collison (theirs not ours), and the question began to become if any of OKC's stable of thugs and bangers was going to make it to the final buzzer. He ignored Perkins whispering sweet nothings in his ear, appeared to dismiss him actually, came up with 3 or 4 nice blocks, was aggressive chasing things off the glass, and as good as Gay and Collison (ours) were playing, was just at the spiritual heart of everything, as he has to be. But offensively things never really turned, even with the Ibaka impediment eliminated for a long stretch. He tried jumpers instead, but they wouldn't fall. So how can I call this an A except for effort? But its also no C or anything close. He set guys up and even the way he missed was impressive as his constant attack had the Thunder back on their heels and on the bench in foul trouble the whole game. That damn bug has destroyed his shooting percentages, but 6-23 or not, this sort of effort here is the sort of thing that will still get you into an All Star game.--Brick
Stats: 34min 11pts (5-9, 1-2, 0-0) 2reb 1st 4stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( C- ) -- The very first play of the game was a designed play where Ben came off a screen and curled into the lane and Cousins hit him with a bounce pass for an easy bucket. The only problem….? The spacing wasn’t great, the bounce pass wasn’t great, and Ben couldn’t hold on to the ball and the play went from an easy hoop to a TO. By and large that first play represented the entire game for Ben. In the first quarter he was really active, getting the ball in great spots to shoot, cutting into the lane for potentially open looks, and just getting into good spots to be effective. The problem…he didn’t score his first points till half-way through the 3rd quarter. He was active and playing good ball, he just couldn’t seem to finish off plays in a positive manner. His first basket is when he ran the ball all the way up the court, attacked the rim and finished and he ended the 3rd quarter with a nice weak-side offensive rebound and in-the-air put-back with 5 seconds left. Early in the 4th quarter, with the Kings struggling to score, he dribbled around and then took a highly contested high-air floating 3pt shot. It was one of those patented Jerry’s “A bad shot is better than no shot things…”(I don’t quite agree with that philosophy…but that’s ok) and it went in and put some points up on the board to stop what could have been a scoring drought. But while the game was still potentially an actual game, those were the points he put up. So active, but not really one of the reasons why we blew out the Thunder. His best contribution was that he ended up with 4 steals (though two were of the ‘gift’ variety) and it points to his activity. But he didn’t spend much of any time guarding Westbrook, spent 8 minutes guarding Roberson, and the rest just keeping close to Morrow and Waiters…so he wasn’t really having to shut anyone down in this one. We got the win, he didn’t hurt us, so a middling grade for him in this one. --Uncia
Stats: 38min 24pts (9-19, 5-10, 1-1) 1reb 7ast 2stl 0blk 3TO
Collison ( A ) -- This was Darren Collison’s night. Not much to write about it, the guy was simply excellent. I was especially impressed about his 3pt shooting. He took them with grace, without forcing them and balancing his feet before letting it go. It was really enjoyable to see Westbrook fly by and Darren just to take a step aside to release. After some over eager penetrations in the first quarter and getting denied by OKC’s excellent shot blocking capabilities, Darren was quick to realize the limitations he had there. I think that was great mind work and adjustment from him right there. Later he cut to the basket from the side, which gives more depth to operate (and even pass), and that was successful. Good fake and a bucket. Great passes, good work with the clock, steals completed the beautiful all around picture Darren provided tonight. Although BenMc was on Westbrook most of the time, the OKC guards were not able to get anything done. Darren was alert and returned fast to the defense. A total of 24 points (and especially 5-10 from down town), 7 assists and 2 steals is a very good production for the night. Beyond that, he shows good leadership qualities. He can make order in the offense. Love to see Darren develop and get better. Fantastic value for money player. --Kingston
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Blake Ellington @BlakeEllington 
