Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I don't know. Maybe Rudy had tryptophan poisoning or something, but you aren't going to win too many games without EITHER of your top scorers, and that was our situation tonight. Throw in more struggles for Ben, Collison and Karl (yet another dumbass Acy cameo), and there was just no way, despite solid performances by the rest of the roster.
We're always right on the brink here. 2-3 wins away form nirvanna or disaster. And this is one we could not lose. With Cousins should not have lost. But we haven't seen much of Cousins this year. So 6-12 (after tomorrow night), and back to the concerns about mounting pressure. What if Dallas beats us, which they are capable of doing, and we go into Mexico City at 6-13? how will we react? Is it really hard to see us coming out it 6-14? As I said, we're right on the edge at all times. You can't just shrug through these losses because we are so far out of position and can't keep our franchise player on the floor.
Boxscore
Stats: 27min 2pts (1-13, 0-3, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: this was so bad it turned me into a valley girl. Like OMG! Gag me with a spoon! Grody to the max.
Gay ( D- ) -- This was not Rydy's night. He started with a miss and that would continue the rest of the contest. Rudy hit his only 2-pointer of the night at 5:30 minutes left in the first QT banking it in from about 12 ft. and that was it for the scoring. He was guarding Wiggins, but Wiggins appeared to be too fast for him. After Willie left the floor, Rudy switched to guard Payne. It is hard to understand what really happened to Rudy's shooting. Like there are bad shooting nights, but 1-13 is a bit extreme especially when Rudy usually takes command when DMC is out. He was giving a mediocre effort in defense and committed a bad foul on Wiggins shooting a long 2-pointer. His only foul, which shows how little he was involved. His low rebound score tells the same story. A game Rudy certainly prefers to forget. --Kingston
Stats: 25min 6pts (3-5, 0-0, 0-2) 3reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Summary: productivity has fallen off a cliff, got Karl-benched again after half, but started assulting the rim with gusto
Cauley-Stein ( B- ) -- Willie started by missing a easy dunk after getting a good pass from Gay. Guarding Garnett kept him busy. Willie tried to help Gay by double teaming Wiggins just to allow Garnett to hit his only 2-pointer of the evening. Willie was helping Gay to hold Wiggins and scored a great block when Wiggins was cutting to the rim. Willie was not active offensively in the first half, but handled both Payne and Dieng quite well. A little over eager committing a goal tending violation. Willie became more active offensively in the second half especially in the 4th QT. Unfortunately he missed his FT's. Not a great game for Willie, but he did the good with the opportunities when the presented themselves. --Kingston
Stats: 30min 16pts (5-10, 0-0, 6-6) 13reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 2TO
Summary: so boring Vivek may demand he's traded for a monkey with cymbals, but strong/solided KAT into irrelevancy with boards & defense
Koufos ( B+ ) -- a few flashy plays aside, Towns never mattered in this one, and credit for that largely should go to Kosta, who is kind of a one man no fun brigade in the middle of George Karl's junkball circus. The offense was what we have known it to be, little hooks and flips, all below the rim, many of them from Rondo, most slightly open as he's slipped little passes when the defense is drawn elsewhere. The touch is mediocre, its not dominant, it will win him no FG% crowns, but like Rondo's own offense its just enough, and it keeps the scoreboard moving. More importantly tonight, despite fumbling several with his mediocre hands, Koufos was strong on the glass (although several were follows of his own touchless misses), hustling out to pick up long offensive boards, and sneakily physical with Towns, bumping him down low, turning to get his hip or butt on him as he blocked him off. The kid made the more spectacular plays, but Kosta won the war tonight with saavy and physicality. --Brick
Stats: 26min 6pts (3-9, 0-2, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Summary: Rudy wasn't the only King who did not step up, but Ben at least had some defensive moments, and KMart looked washed up
McLemore ( D+ ) -- Another inconsistent game for Ben with improving defense and poor offense and spurts of real athleticism. in 26 min he had only 6 pts on 3/9 shooting, and played good defense about 2/3 time. Several times passing up open shots to distribute to someone else. In the first minute of the game had a steal and fast break bucket, but by mid-3rd had only 2 buckets. Throughout was as getting kaboshed by screens and, as a result, was losing/chasing his man on defense much of the time. Either played his man tight (sometimes) or was chasing his man (most of the time). Very inconsistent, often times invisible, other times still showing glimpses of what might be. When Bell and Omri are shooting 13/23 hard to give Ben more time. --Cruz
Stats: 36min 16pts (7-16, 1-2, 1-2) 4reb 16ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Summary: Rondo continues to try to carry the show with huge floor generaling games...and then we take the ball from him to give to DC
Rondo ( B+ ) -- things looked good early for Rajon early, not only was he again directing the team to the tune of an absurd number of assists -- 6 by the end of the first quarter, a ho-hum shrugworthy 11 by halftime, but he was having to do a lot of our early scoring himself as well. Him having to score is essentially a failure of our offense, as he's never going to be efficient doing it, but he was blowing by LaVine with ease until he abruptly got snuffed on back to back drives by Towns. But the Rondo effect wore off a bit in the 3rd, although he closed it in style wit an alley oop to WCS. And in the 4th that destructive two-PG lineup -- destructive to our chances to win that is -- again reared its ugly head, and for some stupid reason we were running it largely with Collison on the ball and Rondo off. the twin twerps were towered over by the Minny backcourt pairings too, and defenisvely it didn't work either. This was 16pts 16reb in basically 3/4 work...then we took the ball away from him, because, obvious. --Brick
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