Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
One monster-sized frontline? Check.
One guy to hit the clutch shots in the end? Check.
And that's all it took to make a game where we could not shoot straight and turned the ball over 21 times go our way.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( C- ) -- scared the Warriors so little that they threw little Stephen Curry out there against him on defense. Cisco obligingly hit his first jumper and more importantly drew several fouls, but there is really nothing in his game to particularly allow him to take advantage of such a matchup. Kept on missing his long bombs, and with his normal lack of boardwork and inability to slow Dorell Wright, made little argument for himself to continue to get minutes as the game wore on.
Cousins ( B- ) -- one of those interesting fill every corner of the stat sheet games for DeMarcus, and of course wiht him that means EVERY corner, even the dank cobweb filled ones you don't ant filled. Got off to the good little start, stealing the ball away on the opening tip, and later tipping in a Reke miss. Rebounding as well, and smoothly stroking jumpers. Back in and immediately drove the lane and set Beno up for a corner three. Several bad turnvoers in the third gave the Warriors a big push out to their lead. But teamed with Daly to dominate inside in the early 4th as we began our own push to get back into it. Nice strong hands inside, and knocked a big one away at the 3:30 mark to start a break that put us up 4. But bumbled into back to back bad bad turnovers sandwiched arounf the 2:00 mark, and fouled out a few seconds later at the 1:00 mark when he again tried to take a charge -- falling back into bad habits with how many charges he was taking tonight. But Ellis got injured on that play, and we got to insert Admunsen to take the FTs and he only split the pair. Another efficient shooting 15pts 13reb nigth, with 5 assists to grease our offense, 7 turnovers to grease the offense, and 6 gouls to grease the refs whistles. DeMarcus was a one stop stat shopping mart.
Dalembert ( C+ ) -- his first hoop came of a beautiful passing sequence Cousins to Thornton to Reke to Daly, and +1 FT. And yet on the night really struggled for some reason to finish inside despite the huge size advantage. And after getting his butt handed to him by Dalembert inside the last time out, David Lee, who apparently is a quick study, tonight proved to be one of those jumpshooting PFs against which Daly's length was of limited use defensively. That size and legnth though finally did start beombing a major factor late in the game. Came up with several offensive rebounds and a putback down the stretch of the third as we began our glass domination routine again, and teamed with Cousins to crush the Warriors inside in the early 4th as we made our push to tie the game back up and turn it into another dogfight down the stretch. Not a banner game for either of our bigs, but you could feel the crunch as our size overwhelemd the Warriors inside anyway.
Thornton ( B- ) -- if you got toi court you can argue your case, sometimes for weeks. You call witnesses, they call witnesses. You call experts, they call experts. But no matter how you've done during the trial, at the end you get one last chance to change the debate, to underline your strengths, or to try to make them forget about your blunders in a closing argument. Marcus apparently watches a lot of legal shows. The narrative tonight is all aobut hos Marcus saved us, how great he played etc. And yet for most of this night he pretty much sucked. But by stepping up to deliver a helluva closing argument, he made everybody forget all about that. Was off to another quiet offensive start, and I think the lack of confidence in his jumper was causing him to repeatedly overpenetrate again, and again and again get denies around the rim. Not getting it done defensively against Curry either, and was just flat out losing him. Talks a good defensive game, seems williing, but somehow its just not there yet and he always seems to be truning his head. Did a much better job running the end of the first quarter play, this time taking the jumper and only leaving 0.7secs -- textbook. Several bad TOs late in the half, wiht the ball just falling right out of his hand on one of them. Lost Curry again to start the 2nd half, and got the lead changing three drained in his face. This was the narrative until late int he game -- I had him sitting at a low C/D range until the 2 minute mark. And then all of a sudden, voila! Closing argument. After back to back Cousins TOs, stepped up and hit a long jumper to give us a little cushionm. Then drew a foul, and drained them. And finally closed things out with a step back jumper to put us back up 4 with 13 seconds to go. The grades aren't as forgiving as people's memories -- the whole game counts. But even they can't ignore a great closing argument.
Evans ( C- ) -- ok, 1) this was not Reke's night. Its possible some of that may have been injury related as he rolled his ankle in the early going and may have lost explosiveness, but he wasn't obviously limping so who knows. 2) Reke matched up on Monta Ellia, the league's 8th leading scorer at 24.1, and Ellis wasn't able to get ANYTHING going against him. But again...how much of that was Reke is hard to tell. Ellis just looked out of it. In a fog, and that was long before he collided with Cousins late in the game and truly did end up in a concussion related fog. For most of the game Reke's only contribution was his ability to draw fouls on repeated aggressive attacks of the rim. The jumpers were all short, and it was one of those everything rolls off inside nights. Picked up two quick fouls in the early 3rd, and had to sit with 4, and maybe the little break helped. When he returned he began to show up on the glass, and after we went to the three guard late finally broke through with a spectacular swooper in the mid 4th as we made our move. It was of course Thornton who carried us down the stretch, but it was Reke who got it started when he canned a huge three at the 3:40 mark to give us back the lead, which we never relinquished. Wish I knew how to interpret the Ellis struggles for this grade. As is, I am only going to factor them in slightly -- something just seemed off.
Bench
Thompson ( B+ ) -- looked slouggish on the boards early, but offensively this was about as efficeint as he gets. Used his size advantage for several nice quick post turnarounds inside, and was settled on his jumpers. Was having to guard perimeter people the other way and made several mistakes, including forgetting about VladRad at the three point line late in the half, wiht predictable results. Began really making up for lost time on the glass in the third as our three bigs combined for 35 rebounds between them.
Jackson ( INC ) -- missed a short open jumper late in the first, got a hoop racing out on the break for his only score
Udrih ( B ) -- actually got off to a ragged start to this one, not keeping Lin in front of him and getting stripped, blocked from behind, and in general not getting it done. But after a steadying timeout, canned back to back threes form Cousins and Evans and poked away a ball from Ellis and took it all the way the other way for the layup. In quickly in the 3rd with Evans in foul trouble and qucikly pushed the ball ahead to Thornotn on the break. Couple of little jumpers as well, and was a steady offensive presence. But his defense on Ciurry was as bad as Thornton's had been. Helped keep the ball moving in the three guard in the 4th, and hit a streaking Thornton with a perfect lead pass after Cousins knocked a ball away inside, giving us a 4pt lead with 3:20 to go.
Greene ( B ) -- going to be one of the more interesting cases this summer. Some guys I consider fairly obvious. But Donte has made an argument for himself this last month, and has the x-factor of prime cheerleader/chemsitry guy. Tonight he contributed again, draining two corner threes to begin the 2nd. But then made a defensive mistake, leaving Dorell Wright out at the 3pt line and warthing him get one of those threes back. Showed the difference between himself and Garcia when the Warriors tried to stick Ellis on him, and he just went into the post and used his power to finish over him. Gave us energy in his secodn stint, but borderline out of control. Came up with an athletic tip follow after a bad drive, but gave way to the three guard for the stretch run.
One guy to hit the clutch shots in the end? Check.
And that's all it took to make a game where we could not shoot straight and turned the ball over 21 times go our way.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( C- ) -- scared the Warriors so little that they threw little Stephen Curry out there against him on defense. Cisco obligingly hit his first jumper and more importantly drew several fouls, but there is really nothing in his game to particularly allow him to take advantage of such a matchup. Kept on missing his long bombs, and with his normal lack of boardwork and inability to slow Dorell Wright, made little argument for himself to continue to get minutes as the game wore on.
Cousins ( B- ) -- one of those interesting fill every corner of the stat sheet games for DeMarcus, and of course wiht him that means EVERY corner, even the dank cobweb filled ones you don't ant filled. Got off to the good little start, stealing the ball away on the opening tip, and later tipping in a Reke miss. Rebounding as well, and smoothly stroking jumpers. Back in and immediately drove the lane and set Beno up for a corner three. Several bad turnvoers in the third gave the Warriors a big push out to their lead. But teamed with Daly to dominate inside in the early 4th as we began our own push to get back into it. Nice strong hands inside, and knocked a big one away at the 3:30 mark to start a break that put us up 4. But bumbled into back to back bad bad turnovers sandwiched arounf the 2:00 mark, and fouled out a few seconds later at the 1:00 mark when he again tried to take a charge -- falling back into bad habits with how many charges he was taking tonight. But Ellis got injured on that play, and we got to insert Admunsen to take the FTs and he only split the pair. Another efficient shooting 15pts 13reb nigth, with 5 assists to grease our offense, 7 turnovers to grease the offense, and 6 gouls to grease the refs whistles. DeMarcus was a one stop stat shopping mart.
Dalembert ( C+ ) -- his first hoop came of a beautiful passing sequence Cousins to Thornton to Reke to Daly, and +1 FT. And yet on the night really struggled for some reason to finish inside despite the huge size advantage. And after getting his butt handed to him by Dalembert inside the last time out, David Lee, who apparently is a quick study, tonight proved to be one of those jumpshooting PFs against which Daly's length was of limited use defensively. That size and legnth though finally did start beombing a major factor late in the game. Came up with several offensive rebounds and a putback down the stretch of the third as we began our glass domination routine again, and teamed with Cousins to crush the Warriors inside in the early 4th as we made our push to tie the game back up and turn it into another dogfight down the stretch. Not a banner game for either of our bigs, but you could feel the crunch as our size overwhelemd the Warriors inside anyway.
Thornton ( B- ) -- if you got toi court you can argue your case, sometimes for weeks. You call witnesses, they call witnesses. You call experts, they call experts. But no matter how you've done during the trial, at the end you get one last chance to change the debate, to underline your strengths, or to try to make them forget about your blunders in a closing argument. Marcus apparently watches a lot of legal shows. The narrative tonight is all aobut hos Marcus saved us, how great he played etc. And yet for most of this night he pretty much sucked. But by stepping up to deliver a helluva closing argument, he made everybody forget all about that. Was off to another quiet offensive start, and I think the lack of confidence in his jumper was causing him to repeatedly overpenetrate again, and again and again get denies around the rim. Not getting it done defensively against Curry either, and was just flat out losing him. Talks a good defensive game, seems williing, but somehow its just not there yet and he always seems to be truning his head. Did a much better job running the end of the first quarter play, this time taking the jumper and only leaving 0.7secs -- textbook. Several bad TOs late in the half, wiht the ball just falling right out of his hand on one of them. Lost Curry again to start the 2nd half, and got the lead changing three drained in his face. This was the narrative until late int he game -- I had him sitting at a low C/D range until the 2 minute mark. And then all of a sudden, voila! Closing argument. After back to back Cousins TOs, stepped up and hit a long jumper to give us a little cushionm. Then drew a foul, and drained them. And finally closed things out with a step back jumper to put us back up 4 with 13 seconds to go. The grades aren't as forgiving as people's memories -- the whole game counts. But even they can't ignore a great closing argument.
Evans ( C- ) -- ok, 1) this was not Reke's night. Its possible some of that may have been injury related as he rolled his ankle in the early going and may have lost explosiveness, but he wasn't obviously limping so who knows. 2) Reke matched up on Monta Ellia, the league's 8th leading scorer at 24.1, and Ellis wasn't able to get ANYTHING going against him. But again...how much of that was Reke is hard to tell. Ellis just looked out of it. In a fog, and that was long before he collided with Cousins late in the game and truly did end up in a concussion related fog. For most of the game Reke's only contribution was his ability to draw fouls on repeated aggressive attacks of the rim. The jumpers were all short, and it was one of those everything rolls off inside nights. Picked up two quick fouls in the early 3rd, and had to sit with 4, and maybe the little break helped. When he returned he began to show up on the glass, and after we went to the three guard late finally broke through with a spectacular swooper in the mid 4th as we made our move. It was of course Thornton who carried us down the stretch, but it was Reke who got it started when he canned a huge three at the 3:40 mark to give us back the lead, which we never relinquished. Wish I knew how to interpret the Ellis struggles for this grade. As is, I am only going to factor them in slightly -- something just seemed off.
Bench
Thompson ( B+ ) -- looked slouggish on the boards early, but offensively this was about as efficeint as he gets. Used his size advantage for several nice quick post turnarounds inside, and was settled on his jumpers. Was having to guard perimeter people the other way and made several mistakes, including forgetting about VladRad at the three point line late in the half, wiht predictable results. Began really making up for lost time on the glass in the third as our three bigs combined for 35 rebounds between them.
Jackson ( INC ) -- missed a short open jumper late in the first, got a hoop racing out on the break for his only score
Udrih ( B ) -- actually got off to a ragged start to this one, not keeping Lin in front of him and getting stripped, blocked from behind, and in general not getting it done. But after a steadying timeout, canned back to back threes form Cousins and Evans and poked away a ball from Ellis and took it all the way the other way for the layup. In quickly in the 3rd with Evans in foul trouble and qucikly pushed the ball ahead to Thornotn on the break. Couple of little jumpers as well, and was a steady offensive presence. But his defense on Ciurry was as bad as Thornton's had been. Helped keep the ball moving in the three guard in the 4th, and hit a streaking Thornton with a perfect lead pass after Cousins knocked a ball away inside, giving us a 4pt lead with 3:20 to go.
Greene ( B ) -- going to be one of the more interesting cases this summer. Some guys I consider fairly obvious. But Donte has made an argument for himself this last month, and has the x-factor of prime cheerleader/chemsitry guy. Tonight he contributed again, draining two corner threes to begin the 2nd. But then made a defensive mistake, leaving Dorell Wright out at the 3pt line and warthing him get one of those threes back. Showed the difference between himself and Garcia when the Warriors tried to stick Ellis on him, and he just went into the post and used his power to finish over him. Gave us energy in his secodn stint, but borderline out of control. Came up with an athletic tip follow after a bad drive, but gave way to the three guard for the stretch run.
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