Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
CLASH OF THE TITANS
So, much better, and a helluva lot more fun, although you can see that so deep does our endgame phobia run that even in this, the ultimate confidence booster, we got the shakes and were searching for some way to give away a 22pt 4th quarter lead.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( B ) -- some nifty cleverness on the break early, but missing his threes and that was triggering Warriors breaks. In fact on the night Cisco was the only King other than Darnell Jackson who actually shot under .500, and Darnell was only 0-1. Just got right up on VladRad up top poked and swiped and took the ball away from him. Screwed up and fouled Dorell Wright behind the 3pt arc with 4:30 left in the half, somethign we've seen entirely too much of this season. Got picked cleanly himself up top in the mid third for a Warriors breakout by Al Thornton (who Cisco struggled to contend with). FINALLY hit the game capper with a three at the 50 second mark after we had just shut down and mildly threatened to blow the game somehow. Was a significant part of our passing and hustle tonight, but still in the range of his normal performances. If Casspi as a starter was routinely 11pts 6rebs on 4-11 shooting, Cisco as a starter is routinely 13pts 4rebs on 5-12. But tongiht it was also 6ast, 2stl and 2blk. In other words helped.
Cousins ( B ) -- destined to be an afterthought on this evening, but played a big role in stretches as our big frontline was jut impossible for the Warriors to match up with. Was getting his hands on balls on defense early, and beat a TRIPLE team with a pass to Thornton for an open three. Had several simply beautiful fullcourt bounce passes to Kings streaking out on the break -- and yes, that truly was remiscient of Webb. Just overwhelmed Admundsen to start the 2nd when the Warriors tried to smallball him, but picked up his secodn foul, and Westphal went with JT instead as we lost half of our overwhelming lead before halftime. Got into it with Biedrins in the early third and got the better of it foul-wise (Biedrins could do NOTHING on this night). After another amazing fullcourt pass to a streaking Cisco, added in an open court steal and went the length of the court for the layup. Just special moments flashing talent as a big man that basically nobody else has. Just started dominating inside in the third as the Warriors clearly had no answer. But started the 4th shaky with several turnovers to give the Warriros momentum, and picked up his 5th and had to sit. Was brought back late in an emergency measure as our benchers were doing everythign possible to pull off an epic collapse, and eventually fouled out in the last minute. Overall a game in which he was big for stretches, and just not involved or significant in others.
Dalembert ( A+ ) -- okay, it was the Warriors. That always has to be said up front in any game where somebody puts up monster numbers against this team. If the worst comes to pass I sincerely pity anybody in Sac who decides to try to switch their alleigance to that junkball joke of a franchise. But Warriors or not, Samuel Dalembert has been in the league 9 years, the majority of them as a starter, and tonight was his career night. Career best scoring night. Season high rebounding night. Just a monster game. Was strong offensively right from the beginning of the game, and was cleaning up the defenisve glass. Added a smush on Lee. Got the ball off a won tip by Cousins, and just powered on in for a +1 and was dominating inside with his size and length. Ran the court for an alley oop and pummeled the Warriors on the offensive glass. Part of a little mini scuffle at the end of the 2nd that you actualy like to see - it centered around his determinationn to protect the rim. Just kept on rolling into the third doing a lttle of everything, offense, challenging shots, then recovering in time to rebound. Added a big drive and dunk throgh traffic in the mid-4th to put an exlamation pt on things as the Warriors just had nobdy who could contend with him. Biedrins was awful, Lee too small and swallowed by our big frontline, Udoh is a rookie, and Daly just went right over and around all of them as if they were not here. Had a few thumblethumbs turnovers, but otherwise Samkeem was in the house, and when he is our frontline is as good as any in the league.
Thornton ( A+ ) -- heh -- just a wow game. The Warriors got out-Warriored. You want to run up and down the court and try to bury the other team with explosive scoring guards? Well have we got just the guard to beat you at your own game. And explosive was the word for this one from the beginning for Thornton, in particular on the break where he was just streaking out and exploding to the rim time and again for dunks and layups. And a lot of it was off of havoc he was creating back on the defensive end as he came up with steal after steal and was off to the races. While curiously he does not rack up boards, he was again in there battling hard using his strength and hops amongst the trees (well, maybe shrubs in the case of the Warriors). Started getting to the line in the 2nd as the Warriors just could not stop him, and exploded (there's that word again) out to a 26pt half. And if he slowed at all aftert half, it was only mildy. Hit a three to break a Warriros run in the early 4th and set his career high at 38 pts. A drive out of a timeout to get to 40, and if he had not sat for a stretch of the 4th when the game looked won he might have had an outside shot at 50, which you may recall a certain other Kings SG of recent vintage doing against the Warriors. Dynamic performance on both ends of the court. And yeah, it was the Warriors. Always should be noted. But Marcus outscored both of the Warrios high scoring guards put togetehr. I mean come on. May be the first career game/career game double A+ I have ever given.
Udrih ( B- ) -- came right out as if he was never away with 4 quick pts and an assist. Still showing a troubling tendency to feed Daly rather than Cousins in the post, but when Samkeem shows up, I guess you gotta feed that monster. Almost disaster as he was picked in the open court on the final play of the half and the Warriros raced the other way for a breakout that could have cut the lead to 10. Fortunately Wright went for the flashy dunk rather than just getting a shot up, and the buzzer went off. His passing was helping keep the machine greased in this one, but satisfaction wiht his overall game began to sink. Was losing control of Curry in the third, but another big push by us chased the Warriors starters for the last time, and a nice pass to Thompson charging down the lane on the break pushed the lead back to 23 in the mid 4th. If there was a negative to this one for us it was us again making shaking polays down the stretch and giving the Warriros hope, and Beno was right in the middle of that as the guy ho is supposed to be the experienced vet. Made up for it a bit though with a ncie drive and dish to Cisco for the game sealing three in the final minute.
Bench
Thompson ( C+ ) -- had a disappointing first half as he was very quiet as the third big in the second quarter and we lost a chunk of our lead. Finally came to life down te stretch of the third after Daly/Cousins pased him the memo that hey, these guys are midgets, crush them. And a nice spining turn aorund in the paint, a great hustle board in the final minute of the quarter, leading to a Head three, and then an exclamation point block to close the period. Was stronger after that, althoguh never as strong as either of his frontcourt mates.
Casspi ( C ) -- started the 2nd with a three and the lead was 21, and while he did precious little else of note afterwards , I felt like it was a better effort than the boxscore might indicate. Was getting beat on defense despite playing what looked to be strong defense. Just guys hitting tough shots over him. Less excuse on the glass, unless it just be that our big guys were eating them all up on the way to a crushing 46-24 rebounding domination. Head found him after he snuck backdoor and was wide open in the ealry 4th, but that was kind of it, and he did not look terrbily confident out there as part of a backup crew that started to blow our lead down the stretch of the game, necessitating a return of the starters.
Head ( B ) -- even Luther got into the act in this one with a nice drive and layup, but was risking getting too fancy
in the first half as the party spirit enveloped him. Bad turnover late in the half led to a Warriors runout and three to cut the lead to 13. Did some ugly stuff down the stretch of the half, including one of his crappy forced shiots. But if there was a tipping point for his one for Luther, it came in the third when he hit a three to cap a long sequence of good hustle and rebounding. He seemed to settle, and for the msot part played good solid ball afterwards. Beat the shot clock on a broken play in the mid 4th with a long jumper, and was allowed to try to run out the garbagetime down the stretch...except he and the reserves could not. The Warriors went on a bi tear to make this one look closer than it really was, and Luther and the gang had to head to the bench. Still a solid, efficient game with a only a few of his characteristic "WTH?" moments.
Jackson ( INC ) -- finally got into the game deep into garbagetime, and it was only to be part of the bad enough crew late in the game that the lead got cut to 12 and forced the return of the starters.
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