Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
And here is a surprise thread. Such a surprise that I myself did not know it was coming. But I received a PM from an Israeli fan that reminded me that while a great many readers actually got to watch the game, there are a great many others who did not. And especially in places such as Israel, where their guy set new career highs, and India, where...well, a Canadian guy is being marketed to them as Indian and got into his first game, there would naturally be interest. So I'll wing them again from memory since I did not take notes.
Note however that tonight's game, Cuz or no Cuz, will be very dicey. Have a preexisting obligation, and if I do have time to catch the game it will be on delay and quite late, and I may not see it altogether.
In any case, last night, here's generally what happened in the epic Sacto/TPup showdown:
Boxscore
Stats: 38min 33pts (9-17, 2-3, 13-15) 7reb 5ast 1stl 2blk 5TO
Gay ( ) -- Rudy had himself a game here, as did Kevin on the other side, and gee that was a shocker in a game when they were basically the only longtime proven professional NBA scorers on the floor. Wiggins has a rep as a guy who will be a good defender, but right now what he is is a skinny kid, and even in the modern era basketball is still enough of a contract sport that Rudy was simply able to overwhelm him physically in the post. Wiggins did get scored back the other way with quickness, but that wasn't all Rudy, and it was a far more scattershot performance than the one Rudy delivered.
Stats: 35min 31pts (12-20, 4-6, 3-5) 5reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( ) -- With Wiggins occupied with Rudy, Omri ended up being "guarded" by somebody named Adreian (mother couldn't spell either) Payne. And Omri abused that matchup so badly, and ignored the few feeble alternatives (Chase Budinger ftw) so badly that he had his career scoring night before the 3rd quarter was done. It started right from the beginning of the game as Omri just easily slashed right to the open rim for our first two buckets of the night. And all game long all Omri had to do was make the slightest upfake and his opponent was 100% guaranteed to lift up, at which point Omri was back to the rim one more time. And after half Omri perhaps even justified the Wolves overanxious defense on him, as he started raining threes as well. Really what this game came down to was 1) our forwards dominated their forwards; b) their guards dominated our guards; and c) our forwards were better than their guards. Defensively their maybe could have been some spiffing, and he shared player of the game honors with Rudy. But with an easy dominant career high in a win this would have had to have been an A if not an A+. On a metascale I've argued that these last 30 games have been an audition for out guys, and one guy who has really taken advantage of that audition is Omri. he wants to be back, and its hard to imagine why we wouldn't want him back. Works well with Cuz, and could allow us to just call the backup SF position adequately filled next season, taking one ? off the board.
Stats: 17min 4pts (2-4, 0-0, 0-0) 8reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Evans ( ) -- really was never terribly involved in this one. Made a few mistakes early for turnovers, both took and delivered passes to decent effect, and hsi rebounding game was back and easy vs. the likes of Hamilton. But he was barely needed, the Wolves "frontline" was barely worth calling that, and we as a team pummeled them so easily on the glass a rebounding specialist was barely called for.
Stats: 17min 7pts (3-7, 1-4, 0-0) 1reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( ) -- well the good news is that the majority of KMart's 37pts didn't against Ben. The bad news is that's because Kevin disposed of Ben so quickly with his floppy jerky game in both halves that Ben barely had time to get a few leakouts and finally hit a solitary three after half before being sent to the bench again. And with Stauskas rendered ineffective by either his back or his talent, we basically had no SG again and it was back to the Malone era experiments with SFs playing SG. There is simply no way we can go into next season risking a 37-7 beatdown at SG on any given night.
Stats: 36min 13pts (5-13, 2-6, 1-2) 9reb 4ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
McCallum ( ) --
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bench
Stats: 31min 18pts (8-12, 0-2, 2-4) 8reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Williams ( ) --
Stats: 31min 6pts (2-3, 0-0, 2-6) 8reb 1ast 0stl 2blk 0TO
Thompson ( ) -- ate up most of the big man minutes this time, and he was normally the only one out there for either team. At least the only NBA one. And rare for this game, Jason showed some real attention to rim defense. Its not his best trait, but he was taller than anyone else on the court until Sim arrived (not wider though as the Wolves have called up a real wide body to seat some big man minutes at the end of the season), and unlike the night before when Gobert could loom over him, here it was Jason who could play just a bit of the big monster. Just a bit. The game was played and won on the wings, JT was just a solid enough interior presence in this one to make sure we didn't give it away elsewhere.
Stats: 21min 4pts (1-2, 0-1, 2-2) 2reb 8ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Miller ( ) -- and this game brought us a return of the saavy vet running the second crew and setting up DWill phenomenon, and it made all the difference. Last year we let the bench rot with Jimmer and Ray as the "leaders". This year the first half of the season it was Sessions "leading" them into the tank. But on and off since we got the 40yr old pointguard we've had games like these where the bench function just fine because somebody out there is running the show and getting everybody the ball in the right places. Defense...there was little, and Dre at this point is not going to remotely stay with Zach LaVine or Kevin Martin anyway. But with two lottery teams full of kids who just wanted run and skip picking wildflowers on a sunny day, defense wasn't a topic anyway, and it came down to who executed best and got the best shots, and that was us.
Stats: 13min 0pts (0-2, 0-2, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Stauskas ( ) -- call it the back, call it what you will, but Nik showed almost nothing in this one, and we were back to having Rudy try to check Kevin at times.
Stats: 1min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Bullar ( ) -- almost unfair, but poor Sim finally gets into an NBA game...and there were 20 seconds left. All he got to do was inbound the ball once. Also of note: the weight is a real concern. If anything he looked FATTER than he was back during the summer, and just stuffed into that poor jersey. I certainly hope that's not the case, because that weight is everything for his NBA future. He's got the size, and he's not unskilled. But we need to hire him a chef and a workout guru stat.
Note however that tonight's game, Cuz or no Cuz, will be very dicey. Have a preexisting obligation, and if I do have time to catch the game it will be on delay and quite late, and I may not see it altogether.
In any case, last night, here's generally what happened in the epic Sacto/TPup showdown:
Boxscore
Stats: 38min 33pts (9-17, 2-3, 13-15) 7reb 5ast 1stl 2blk 5TO
Gay ( ) -- Rudy had himself a game here, as did Kevin on the other side, and gee that was a shocker in a game when they were basically the only longtime proven professional NBA scorers on the floor. Wiggins has a rep as a guy who will be a good defender, but right now what he is is a skinny kid, and even in the modern era basketball is still enough of a contract sport that Rudy was simply able to overwhelm him physically in the post. Wiggins did get scored back the other way with quickness, but that wasn't all Rudy, and it was a far more scattershot performance than the one Rudy delivered.
Stats: 35min 31pts (12-20, 4-6, 3-5) 5reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( ) -- With Wiggins occupied with Rudy, Omri ended up being "guarded" by somebody named Adreian (mother couldn't spell either) Payne. And Omri abused that matchup so badly, and ignored the few feeble alternatives (Chase Budinger ftw) so badly that he had his career scoring night before the 3rd quarter was done. It started right from the beginning of the game as Omri just easily slashed right to the open rim for our first two buckets of the night. And all game long all Omri had to do was make the slightest upfake and his opponent was 100% guaranteed to lift up, at which point Omri was back to the rim one more time. And after half Omri perhaps even justified the Wolves overanxious defense on him, as he started raining threes as well. Really what this game came down to was 1) our forwards dominated their forwards; b) their guards dominated our guards; and c) our forwards were better than their guards. Defensively their maybe could have been some spiffing, and he shared player of the game honors with Rudy. But with an easy dominant career high in a win this would have had to have been an A if not an A+. On a metascale I've argued that these last 30 games have been an audition for out guys, and one guy who has really taken advantage of that audition is Omri. he wants to be back, and its hard to imagine why we wouldn't want him back. Works well with Cuz, and could allow us to just call the backup SF position adequately filled next season, taking one ? off the board.
Stats: 17min 4pts (2-4, 0-0, 0-0) 8reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Evans ( ) -- really was never terribly involved in this one. Made a few mistakes early for turnovers, both took and delivered passes to decent effect, and hsi rebounding game was back and easy vs. the likes of Hamilton. But he was barely needed, the Wolves "frontline" was barely worth calling that, and we as a team pummeled them so easily on the glass a rebounding specialist was barely called for.
Stats: 17min 7pts (3-7, 1-4, 0-0) 1reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( ) -- well the good news is that the majority of KMart's 37pts didn't against Ben. The bad news is that's because Kevin disposed of Ben so quickly with his floppy jerky game in both halves that Ben barely had time to get a few leakouts and finally hit a solitary three after half before being sent to the bench again. And with Stauskas rendered ineffective by either his back or his talent, we basically had no SG again and it was back to the Malone era experiments with SFs playing SG. There is simply no way we can go into next season risking a 37-7 beatdown at SG on any given night.
Stats: 36min 13pts (5-13, 2-6, 1-2) 9reb 4ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
McCallum ( ) --
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bench
Stats: 31min 18pts (8-12, 0-2, 2-4) 8reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Williams ( ) --
Stats: 31min 6pts (2-3, 0-0, 2-6) 8reb 1ast 0stl 2blk 0TO
Thompson ( ) -- ate up most of the big man minutes this time, and he was normally the only one out there for either team. At least the only NBA one. And rare for this game, Jason showed some real attention to rim defense. Its not his best trait, but he was taller than anyone else on the court until Sim arrived (not wider though as the Wolves have called up a real wide body to seat some big man minutes at the end of the season), and unlike the night before when Gobert could loom over him, here it was Jason who could play just a bit of the big monster. Just a bit. The game was played and won on the wings, JT was just a solid enough interior presence in this one to make sure we didn't give it away elsewhere.
Stats: 21min 4pts (1-2, 0-1, 2-2) 2reb 8ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Miller ( ) -- and this game brought us a return of the saavy vet running the second crew and setting up DWill phenomenon, and it made all the difference. Last year we let the bench rot with Jimmer and Ray as the "leaders". This year the first half of the season it was Sessions "leading" them into the tank. But on and off since we got the 40yr old pointguard we've had games like these where the bench function just fine because somebody out there is running the show and getting everybody the ball in the right places. Defense...there was little, and Dre at this point is not going to remotely stay with Zach LaVine or Kevin Martin anyway. But with two lottery teams full of kids who just wanted run and skip picking wildflowers on a sunny day, defense wasn't a topic anyway, and it came down to who executed best and got the best shots, and that was us.
Stats: 13min 0pts (0-2, 0-2, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Stauskas ( ) -- call it the back, call it what you will, but Nik showed almost nothing in this one, and we were back to having Rudy try to check Kevin at times.
Stats: 1min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Bullar ( ) -- almost unfair, but poor Sim finally gets into an NBA game...and there were 20 seconds left. All he got to do was inbound the ball once. Also of note: the weight is a real concern. If anything he looked FATTER than he was back during the summer, and just stuffed into that poor jersey. I certainly hope that's not the case, because that weight is everything for his NBA future. He's got the size, and he's not unskilled. But we need to hire him a chef and a workout guru stat.
Last edited:
