Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Welcome back everyone!
Official Boxscore
Greene ( C+ ) -- not much in the first half, but hit a three and did a good job using his length on Beasely. In the third began to team with DeMarcus and Landry to overpower the Wolves inside. During his best stretch in the early 4th was making some nice passes to set people up, and using that size on teh glass for once. Went up very strong for a monster dunk midway through the quarter, and got met right at the apex by Anthony Toliver who turned the monster dunk into a monster stuff. Lost control of Beasely as the 4th ran on, and eventually gave way to Casspi for the stretch run. Still struggling from the line, including at critical times. Started slow, but not a disastrous outing by the end. Was a stretch there where he made good roleplayer cotnributions, rebounding, setting people up with passes, and defending. But the offense was not there at all, and I have gotten the feeling that Westphal's premature thou shalt be a roleplayer speech early in camp has oppressed our two yougn SFs somehwat, making them afraid to actually do anything for fear of it being wrong.
Landry ( B+ ) -- Strctly speaking assigning Carl Landry as your #1 goto guy is a way to fastrack yourself right to a loss. But tonight he was good, hung tough, and after beginning to fade, worked well with Cousins down the stretch to help seal this one. In the early going had to watch Love bomb threes on him (not really right to blame a PF when that happens) and was suffering from tunnel vision again, ignoring open shooters once he started his moves. Was aggressive and using a lot of moves, right from the beginning, but early results were mixed. A few of boards kind of fell to him, but was still playing physical in there and working around the offensive glass to come up with a lot of balls. Got teamed with Darnell Jackson in the mid second, and that was a mini-frontline which did not work at all and hopefully wont' be seen again. Was struggling to stay stable on his FTs as well. On the other hand when the starting trio came out after half (Donte, Landry and Cousins), they worked well together and began to dominate the interior. Began to settle for jumpers in the 4th when Love backed off him and gave him that shot, wasn't hitting them though, making the Love strategy the right one. Got a second wind when DeMarcus returned late and began to set Carl up with passes on the inside, and ended up scoring 9 of his 22 in the last quarter. Not a dominant performance, but a productive one, and notably defied his biggest weakness by grabbing 11 (mostly offensive hustle) rebounds on the night.
Cousins ( B+ ) -- well after those last few sloppy preseaon games, you weren't quite sure how Boogie was going to come out for this one, but I am happy to say that he remains the same big sloppy but oh so talented big man we have seen flashes of all along. And when it came time ot win this one he stepped forward and was as instrumental as anyone in us pulling it off. As always it was an adventure. Looked nice and mature on his first offensive move, taking his time and drawing a foul. Then turned around and wiped that impression away making his first NBA shot a three point chuck that barely drew backboard. Was in fact settling a bit too much for jumpers early. Did well when matched on Love in the 2nd qiuarter, both defending him in the post and blocking him out for boards. Followed up a nice follow dunk on a scramble play with another one of his stupid trying to draw a charge things, giving Johnson a 3pt play. Began to pick up the agressivenes inside in the 3rd quarter. Got doubled in the early third and hit a tough tough fallaway jumper from 16ft over two guys Then drew a charge on Love that put him on the bench -- I think it weas the only time it worked all night, but it was helpful that time.. Again picked up his 5th foul trying to draw a charge -- so many of the foul problmes are self inflicted for him, with at elast 2, and I thinnk maybe even 3 of his 5 fouls being dumb attempts to draw charges rather than stick those long arms in the air and try to disrupt the shots. But rather than wilt in the face of the potential foul out, picked his game up and carried us through a critical portion of the stretch run, matching the Wolves shot for shot and play for play. Hit two cluch FTs to reite the game at 100 with 5:30 to go, and was aggressive posting and attacking Darko down the stretch of the game. Set up several big shots for Landry down the stretch as well, including a couple of the nifty variety. Did get mushed inside several times in the 4th with that vertical problem of his, but the Kings have done well with guys with limited verts the last few drafts, and Cousins was a major impact player in his NBA debut, despite the slop moments.
Garcia ( A- ) -- we got about everything we could ask out of Cisco tonight. He knocked down shots, got out on the break, made good decisions, and came up with a few big defensive plays. Was aggressive, but not too aggressive, offensively early, and he and Beno had the offense humming in the early going. Did a nice job leading the break with Beno on the wing, dishing a perfectly timed dropoff pass for the layin. On the last play of the half was up top guarding the ball and calling out the defense, making sure Donte in particular had the corner covered (yes the opening night "crowd" in Minny was that quiet). Was nice to see somebody taking responsibility for the defense, but we still blew the possesion and got lucky when the Wolves missed the wide open three. Strong in the third and a key part of our 3rd quarter push with energy and hustle as much as points. Was our best player for much of the night but then was mysterously forgotten about for much of the 4th, and had we dropped this one there would have been some questions to ask of Westphal about why our leading scorer was playing cheerleader. After he did return came up with a big defensive block with two minutes to go to save a hoop and get us the extra possession.
Udrih ( B+ ) -- was very good for 3/4 of this one, largely disappeared in the 4th, but stepped up to drain the 4 clutch FTs we needed to hold on and secure the victory. Teamed with Cisco in the first quarter to push the offense along in the early going. Unfortunately was nowhere to be found on Ridnour in the open court, and watched him pull up and knock down long jumpers at will. And it wasn't watching from right in front of him eithe -- he was barely in the frame on some of those shots. Despite the poor individual defense, he was hustling and came up with a number of scramble plays and loose balls up top. Disappeared in the 4th after leading us through 3/4, but was the man when it came time to seal the deal in the fianl minute. Delivered a brilliant spin penetration and dropoff pass to Casspi to push the lead back to 3 with 35 seconds to go. Then went 4-4 on the clutch FTs to ice it as the Wolves went to intentional fouling with 30 seconds to go. Tyreke, Beno, Cisco, and now DeMarcus have all shown clutch abilities at various points, and maybe we are moving into a time when we start coming up with these close wins late in games.
Official Boxscore
Greene ( C+ ) -- not much in the first half, but hit a three and did a good job using his length on Beasely. In the third began to team with DeMarcus and Landry to overpower the Wolves inside. During his best stretch in the early 4th was making some nice passes to set people up, and using that size on teh glass for once. Went up very strong for a monster dunk midway through the quarter, and got met right at the apex by Anthony Toliver who turned the monster dunk into a monster stuff. Lost control of Beasely as the 4th ran on, and eventually gave way to Casspi for the stretch run. Still struggling from the line, including at critical times. Started slow, but not a disastrous outing by the end. Was a stretch there where he made good roleplayer cotnributions, rebounding, setting people up with passes, and defending. But the offense was not there at all, and I have gotten the feeling that Westphal's premature thou shalt be a roleplayer speech early in camp has oppressed our two yougn SFs somehwat, making them afraid to actually do anything for fear of it being wrong.
Landry ( B+ ) -- Strctly speaking assigning Carl Landry as your #1 goto guy is a way to fastrack yourself right to a loss. But tonight he was good, hung tough, and after beginning to fade, worked well with Cousins down the stretch to help seal this one. In the early going had to watch Love bomb threes on him (not really right to blame a PF when that happens) and was suffering from tunnel vision again, ignoring open shooters once he started his moves. Was aggressive and using a lot of moves, right from the beginning, but early results were mixed. A few of boards kind of fell to him, but was still playing physical in there and working around the offensive glass to come up with a lot of balls. Got teamed with Darnell Jackson in the mid second, and that was a mini-frontline which did not work at all and hopefully wont' be seen again. Was struggling to stay stable on his FTs as well. On the other hand when the starting trio came out after half (Donte, Landry and Cousins), they worked well together and began to dominate the interior. Began to settle for jumpers in the 4th when Love backed off him and gave him that shot, wasn't hitting them though, making the Love strategy the right one. Got a second wind when DeMarcus returned late and began to set Carl up with passes on the inside, and ended up scoring 9 of his 22 in the last quarter. Not a dominant performance, but a productive one, and notably defied his biggest weakness by grabbing 11 (mostly offensive hustle) rebounds on the night.
Cousins ( B+ ) -- well after those last few sloppy preseaon games, you weren't quite sure how Boogie was going to come out for this one, but I am happy to say that he remains the same big sloppy but oh so talented big man we have seen flashes of all along. And when it came time ot win this one he stepped forward and was as instrumental as anyone in us pulling it off. As always it was an adventure. Looked nice and mature on his first offensive move, taking his time and drawing a foul. Then turned around and wiped that impression away making his first NBA shot a three point chuck that barely drew backboard. Was in fact settling a bit too much for jumpers early. Did well when matched on Love in the 2nd qiuarter, both defending him in the post and blocking him out for boards. Followed up a nice follow dunk on a scramble play with another one of his stupid trying to draw a charge things, giving Johnson a 3pt play. Began to pick up the agressivenes inside in the 3rd quarter. Got doubled in the early third and hit a tough tough fallaway jumper from 16ft over two guys Then drew a charge on Love that put him on the bench -- I think it weas the only time it worked all night, but it was helpful that time.. Again picked up his 5th foul trying to draw a charge -- so many of the foul problmes are self inflicted for him, with at elast 2, and I thinnk maybe even 3 of his 5 fouls being dumb attempts to draw charges rather than stick those long arms in the air and try to disrupt the shots. But rather than wilt in the face of the potential foul out, picked his game up and carried us through a critical portion of the stretch run, matching the Wolves shot for shot and play for play. Hit two cluch FTs to reite the game at 100 with 5:30 to go, and was aggressive posting and attacking Darko down the stretch of the game. Set up several big shots for Landry down the stretch as well, including a couple of the nifty variety. Did get mushed inside several times in the 4th with that vertical problem of his, but the Kings have done well with guys with limited verts the last few drafts, and Cousins was a major impact player in his NBA debut, despite the slop moments.
Garcia ( A- ) -- we got about everything we could ask out of Cisco tonight. He knocked down shots, got out on the break, made good decisions, and came up with a few big defensive plays. Was aggressive, but not too aggressive, offensively early, and he and Beno had the offense humming in the early going. Did a nice job leading the break with Beno on the wing, dishing a perfectly timed dropoff pass for the layin. On the last play of the half was up top guarding the ball and calling out the defense, making sure Donte in particular had the corner covered (yes the opening night "crowd" in Minny was that quiet). Was nice to see somebody taking responsibility for the defense, but we still blew the possesion and got lucky when the Wolves missed the wide open three. Strong in the third and a key part of our 3rd quarter push with energy and hustle as much as points. Was our best player for much of the night but then was mysterously forgotten about for much of the 4th, and had we dropped this one there would have been some questions to ask of Westphal about why our leading scorer was playing cheerleader. After he did return came up with a big defensive block with two minutes to go to save a hoop and get us the extra possession.
Udrih ( B+ ) -- was very good for 3/4 of this one, largely disappeared in the 4th, but stepped up to drain the 4 clutch FTs we needed to hold on and secure the victory. Teamed with Cisco in the first quarter to push the offense along in the early going. Unfortunately was nowhere to be found on Ridnour in the open court, and watched him pull up and knock down long jumpers at will. And it wasn't watching from right in front of him eithe -- he was barely in the frame on some of those shots. Despite the poor individual defense, he was hustling and came up with a number of scramble plays and loose balls up top. Disappeared in the 4th after leading us through 3/4, but was the man when it came time to seal the deal in the fianl minute. Delivered a brilliant spin penetration and dropoff pass to Casspi to push the lead back to 3 with 35 seconds to go. Then went 4-4 on the clutch FTs to ice it as the Wolves went to intentional fouling with 30 seconds to go. Tyreke, Beno, Cisco, and now DeMarcus have all shown clutch abilities at various points, and maybe we are moving into a time when we start coming up with these close wins late in games.
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