My reaction to this win:
Fugly, sloppy, unfocused, selfish, and just flat stupid basketball. Got better after half. Never really good.
But if you missed the Shaq era, Cuz treated you to a reenactment tonight. Ben probably turned the game by suddenly getting hot in the third and finally giving us a shooter to loosen that zone. Rudy...was drunk. And at least now we know that he and Casspi are drinking buddies. And we fuglied together a win not nearly as impressive as the boxscore. So, when it makes you 8-5 you take it. But we do that again at any point on this remaining trip, and we are going to get our jocks handed to us, and deservedly so.
NOTE: the Grading Consortiuum is actively recruiting a new squad of graders for this season. And grading wins is more fun than grading losses. Give us a nudge if interested.
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 14pts (5-12, 1-5, 3-3) 6reb 6ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Gay ( C- ) -- I'm starting to think that I'am the kiss of death for Gay. He had a tough game tonight. He had four turnovers on the night. At least he balanced it somewhat with six assists. He took the first shot of the game, and it was indicative of how his night would go. It was an open three from the left corner that went in, rattled around, and popped out. He did follow it with a fifteen footer from the left elbow, but then he followed that by driving from the same spot, and turning it over. He went to the bench at 3:48 of the first quarter, and returned at 8:57 of the second quarter. He then dispensed of any hope I had for him righting the ship. He immediately drove the lane and threw the ball away. One of his best plays of the night came next, when he threw a beautiful alley oop from behind the three point line to McLemore who was cutting to the basket. He did start the second half on a good note when he hit a three. The next sequence was again indicative of his entire night. He missed and open straight away three, but we grabbed the rebound and kicked it back out to Gay, who then drove the lane and threw the ball away. On the defensive side of the ball, he had his hands full trying to guard Wiggins, who ended up having a career night. Not all Wiggins points were scored against Gay, but a significant number were. It wasn't for lack of effort on Gay's part, and several of Wiggins shots that went in, had a prayer look to them. He did manage to grab six boards, and had one steal. Amazingly he ended up 5 for 12 on the night, and I'll admit that it seemed worse than that. Thank god that Cousins was an absolute monster tonight. Hey, we won, and that's all that matters. --Baja
Stats: 18min 4pts (1-3, 0-0, 2-2) 3reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( D+ ) -- this was always going to be an awkward game for JT, even if the Wolves were healthy as they have decided to replace KLove with a pack of tweeners and blown up SFs. And in the very early going of this one we gave some thought to trying to take advantage of that by going to JT inside, but Minny was, oh noes!!!, in one of those awful zone thingies and it confused our poor little heads so much we just decided to throw the ball out of bounds rather than get it into the post. And unfortunately the matchups started to bite us on the other end, when Jason, seeing no All Star or HOFer out there to frustrate, instead went into sleep mode and let Bennett start knocking down open jumpers. After a touchless little brick thrown off the glass absolutely as hard as humanly possible, finally got his first hoop on a nice little Cuz dropoff just before leaving in the late first. He wouldn't return for the rest of the half as various other struggling frontcourters took over, including even, *gulp*, Derrick Williams who took most of the 2nd quarter PF minutes. JT was back to start the third, and hit while filling the lane on the break 2 min into the quarter, got to the line and hit both FTS to give us a 55-54 lead. Not entirely sure we ever relinquished it. Richard Crenna then decided the answer was to go smaller and smaller and soon JT was trying to post up Chase Budinger, which at least lead to a defensive 3 second call on the Wolves. Thankfully we pulled him before we got to see him work against Zach LaVine. This was nothing on top of nothing. I was thinking D, then thinking well, there wasn't much he could do under the circumstances so maybe C-, then finally just settled in between. He was pretty worthless, but not as damaging as some of our other guys were before being slapped around by the coaching staff at halftime.--Brick
Stats: 39min 31pts (11-15, 0-0, 9-10) 18reb 2ast 1stl 2blk 3TO
Cousins ( A ) -- That Cousins would be the best player on the floor was a given before the game even started. Pekovic, who has given him trouble in the past on both ends of the floor, was sitting the game out with a hurt wrist. It was almost guaranteed that Cousins would end with a beastly stat-line against the promising but raw Gorgui Dieng. And Cousins had a great, but not perfect, game in a somewhat ugly win against an injury-weakened team that isn't all that good when healthy.
The Timberwolves only hope to contain him was to play a zone defense to cut off entry passes into the post, and that's what they did right from the opening tip. The Kings were unable to get the ball down low and started out the game throwing up bricks from the outside in an ugly effort to start the game. Cousins started out the game well, including an offensive rebound and putback early in the quarter followed by an and-one layup from a nice inside pass by McLemore. He followed that with an acrobatic layup on the fast break after mishandling the initial outlet pass by Casspi in an impressive recovery. He finished the quarter with a strong stat-line of 8 points, 6 rebounds a block and a charge taken.
But it wasn't a perfect quarter. Cousins' lost the ball on the break at around the 8 minute mark in one of several dribbling misadventures on the night. He picked up a second turnover on a three second violation, and forced a last second shot in traffic after dribbling the length of the floor with six seconds left. These unforced errors aside, he was almost single handedly keeping the Kings in the game while the rest of the team was trying to figure out a way to score against the zone.
As has been the case for most of the season, when Cousins sits, the Kings suffer. In a bizarre coaching decision, Malone tried to out-small the Timberwolves, playing Landry at center with Williams, Casspi, Stauskas and Sessions filling in whatever slots they were filling in. It was a mess on both ends as the positionless basketball confused our team more than it did the T-Wolves and the game looked to be turning the wrong way. Cousins got four whole minutes of rest in the first half and, upon returning, immediately scored his second and-one of the evening, followed by some of the worst team execution the Kings have had all year. First McLemore and then Williams turned the ball over with inside passes to teammates who weren't Cousins and were actually better defended than Cousins at the time. Williams' pass in particular was a head scratcher as Cousins was posted up in good position with his man sealed and Williams threw the ball into traffic rather than give it to the big man.
Malone, to his credit, called an immediate time out and sorted the team on what was to happen with the ball. On the next two possessions, Cousins got the ball in good scoring position, first on a beautiful high-low pass from Gay for an easy layup. Second, on a post up in the paint just below the free throw line where he proceeded to move Dieng under the rim, then give him an up and under for a filthy two-handed dunk in the best play of the night.
Defensively, the first half was up and down for Cousins. He had a great block on Dieng and stopped a Wiggins drive cold with verticality. He also took a charge early on and managed to stay out of foul trouble the entire game. The problem was that in the second quarter the team defense was just awful and Cousins was not able to stop all the breakdowns that were happening on the perimeter. If one play of the half summarizes the Kings' first half defense, it would have to be the final Timberwolves' play where a 32 year old Mo Williams just waltzed past Ramon Sessions, forcing Cousins to rotate up to stop the drive and leaving Dieng open for the dunk to put the wolves up by 4 going into the break.
The third quarter started out as the Ben McLemore show as, apparently, the Timberwolves' defensive scheme was to just leave him open no matter how many points he was putting up (hint: it was a lot). Cousins didn't take a shot until the 6 minute mark of the third as he forced up a tough shot inside against a triple team after grabbing the offensive board. It took him until the three minute mark of the third to put up any points on a nice inside pass from Casspi.
Cousins' biggest impact was on the defensive end as the Kings finally decided to start beating this beatable team. Cousins started out the quarter by blocking a Dieng fadeaway which set the defensive tone for the team. The Kings only allowed the Timberwolves five field goals in the quarter, and would have stretched the lead out well into the double-digits without some questionable calls by the officials. In any case, it was a quiet quarter for Cousins, and other than another dribbling misadventure in the open court resulting in a turnover and a defensive three second violation, it was an effective one for Cousins and the team.
After playing almost the entire third quarter, Cousins sat for only the first three minutes of the third as Malone's small-ball rotation could not defend or rebound, as is usually the case with small ball. He hit his first shot of the quarter at the 8 minute mark, an elbow jumper as his first and only make of the night from outside the paint. He followed that with a beautiful made layup through a triple-team a minute later. He did the rest of his damage from the free throw line until the two minute mark when Derrick Williams did a very Derrick Williams thing and drove into three Timberwolves and failed so spectacularly that it gave Cousins the opportunity to seal the game which he did on a quick two-handed dunk. He capped the game off with a steal as Mo Williams was trying to force the ball upcourt for a quick shot in the last minute of the game.
In sum, it was a strong all-around game by Cousins, but you get the impression that he could have scored 50 on the night if given the chance. This would have gotten a normal player an A or A+, but those stupid turnovers on dribbling misadventures bring the grade down a bit --Hadlowe
Stats: 41min 22pts (9-17, 4-9, 0-0) 9reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
McLemore ( A- ) -- First quarter for Ben and the Kings was terrible but only resulting in a 2pt deficit. Was missing easy 3’s short and long, double dribbled on a quick move around an opponent. But got a bounce pass to Cousins for a layin and next play Ben went down low and got a garbage basket being in the right place at right time. Throughout game kept seeing Ben down low in rebounding positions. Finally a nice 3 from beyond 3 range. Most of the game Ben was guarding Cory Brewer, a crafty and good shooting 2-guard and at other times guarding 6-8 Budinger or 6-7 Super rookie Andrew Wiggins. Did ok on D thru 2nd,not great but ok. Ben returned for Nik at the 7:30 mark of 2nd and started things off as he DWill made TO’s on consecutive possessions both leading to Wolves baskets. But he then closed out first half with an alley Oop from Gay to salvagfe something. The second half was like a different ball game. Ben came out aggressive and began hitting his 3’s making 4/9 for the game. Feet set, squared away, good looking 3’s all now. Hit two quick 3’s and suddenly half-way thru 3rd Ben has 17 pts! A nice blow past Budinger with screen from Cuz. Throughout 2nd half Ben was very aggressive especially on rebounding down low and defending. A number of times his chest is rubbing on the other player making live difficult. Late in second guarding Wiggins and doing very well. At start of 4th Wolves made 2 consecutive 3’s and Malone had enough and let everyone know. Must have worked as by 5:47 mark of 3rd Ben was 8/14 with 4/8 from 3 and had 6 rebounds. Ben’s ball handling is also much improved these days as is his aggressiveness these last 2 games. Ben's minus is loosing track of his man a number of times on defense.--Cruz
Stats: 33min 19pts (6-10, 2-4, 5-6) 2reb 7ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Collison ( B+ ) -- Darren Collison came to the game looking sharp, but settling to 3-pt shots from the corner, which he missed. By all means the shots were legit shots since he had good looks. He collected one assist via Gay. While looking to have sluggish start stats wise he handled the ball very well. After the missed 3-pointers, Collison collected himself and started to move the ball instead of going for his typical 15-20 ft jumpers. Then he started to show off some brilliant drives. Man, is this guy fast. It is really a pleasure to see him kind of slowing down just to accelerate again past the guard like there was nothing between him and the hoop. For some reason, just when Darren was showing really nice ball distributing, Cousins decided to become a center-point guard, which did not look very good and resulted in turnovers. Coming back in the second quarter, Darren was balanced and started to shoot the ball well. There seems to be little synch problem with the team that is much slower than the pace Collison can control. He could bring the ball up much faster, but the team is unable to follow suit. In the 3rd quarter Collison continued to control the ball and saw his assist count go up. The drives to the hoop continued but there was also an unnecessary TO. I was actually pleased with the fact that he didn’t show some of his occasional trigger happiness and played controlled game. Collecting points from the line also the shots started to fall finishing 60% from the field and 50% from 3pt-range is very nice. Towards the end Collison got a bit relaxed and turned the ball over unnecessary. In the defensive end Mo Williams was able to go around him too easy. Considering Collisons speed, that should not happen that easy. In other words, some lack of motivation there. Occasionally trying to keep Brewer did not look too good either. All in all quite nice game for Collison. He is really very fast and Malone should think about some fast break plays for him. Unfortunately, the TOs in the end and some of the defensive relapses kept the score in the B area. --Kingston
Last edited:
