Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Tough tough win that I wasn't sure we were going to get after Minny came out and talent blasted us in the early going, displaying many of the reasons a lot of people think they might be the future of the league. But one of the weapons Minny had little chance to show off was the biggest of all, KAT, as Boogie came up fired up (too fired up) and determined to show the kid who was top dog at the position. After being knocked back, Rudy recovered to start to even the matchup against Wiggins, and when the defense kicked in in the third, we went on a monster 24-1 run to blow into the lead and have the fans chanting MVP! during Cuz's FTs. Then we hung on to win the dogfight down the stretch. Through it all Matt Barnes proved himself maybe the truest heir to the Doug Christie crown, keying much of our turnaround with gritty and skilled play, hitting shots, making stops an making great passes to goose us out of offensive lulls.
For his efforts I hereby declare Matt:
Link to Boxscore
Starters
Featured Grade
Gay ( A ) -- Gay started the game by hitting his first shot, a 16 foot jumper. He then proceeded to miss his next three shots, two of which were forced. He finally got back on the board with a tough drive through traffic, a layup, and a foul. After that he was off and running. He had some help from Barnes, who ended up with 9 assists on the night. Rudy struggled in the first quarter trying to guard Wiggins, but rebounded well in the second half, putting good pressure on Wiggins and forcing some bad shots. Rudy ended up with 2 blocked shots on the night. He also made a clutch hook shot at the buzzer to close out the third quarter. All in all, it was a very nice game for Rudy after a bit of a rough start. All's well that ends well. -- Baja
Cousins ( A- ) -- you have to understand, DMC didn't just have another big game, he once again squished a hyped up media darling contender for his best big man throne. He was getting MVP chants by the third. But he loses a half for getting over excited, getting a tech, and nearly a second fouling out. A huge reason why we won it, but also could have cost us in the close one.
Koufos ( B- ) -- here's the tough thing: Koufos largely did his job, and when he was in his weakside rebounding behind Cousins was a huge factor. But on the other hand the Wolves scored too easily against us during his minutes, and we were better with Barnes out there in his spot.
Afflalo ( D ) -- we need Arron to show up at some point. Rubio really smothered him early, and while he finally stepped up to hit two late shots, he was invisible for most of his minutes.
Lawson ( C- ) -- showed some scrap, but climbs out of the Ds solely when, after missing shots all game long and even growing scared of taking them, he stepped up to hit the huge backbreaking three in the final minutes to give us our margin of victory. For much of the night though size was a problem, and the Wolves were intentionally leaving him open daring him to shoot
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Bench
Tolliver ( C- ) -- rapidly becoming one of those numberless guys that's hard to grade. But he has to hit a shot here at some point, and the lack of talent on our bench helped get us into real trouble in the first half. Second stint was better, made some hustle plays.
Barnes ( A ) -- yeah, and here came Good Matt again to the rescue, grimacing and holding his ribs repeatedly throughout the game. It was his heady plays as much as anything that stabilized us, and he made some great defensive saves and blocks for us down the stretch as we hung on.
Casspi ( C ) -- he got 11th man minutes n the first half, but looked like he was scared to make a mistake. Grabbed a few boards missed a three and got a ball knocked away inside, but mostly was just trying to stay out of the way and fit in.
Cauley-Stein ( C- ) -- 8min is long enough to try to give a guy a grade, but I think the best that can be said here is that he was a little better. Made one solid move on offense, got spoonfed a dunk on nice ball movement on the other. Still showing bad hands on the glass, but didn't feel as fluttery or lost. Just kinda like Omri, looked like he was trying not to make mistakes.
Temple ( B- ) -- with almost no numbers of any kind, and certainly no PG numbers, a grade this high seems suspect, but Temple was subbed in and out all game long to give us little bursts of defensive size and length, and you felt more secure when he was in there. We also won those more defensive minutes, which may not be a coincidence.
McLemore ( B ) -- went back and forth here. Ben screwed up quite a bit this game, but his successes often came right on the heels of his failures, and he kept at it, and eventually hit a couple of big shots in the early 4th to buy a little more time for Rudy and Cuz to rest. Finally left when Lavine began to heat back up against him, and Joerger wanted to vet up and cut down mistakes for the stretch.
Last edited:
DeMarcus Cousins @boogiecousins 
