Woohoo! We bad. Literally.
The bench was just godawful tonight. Hideous. In a 23 pt loss there was still something to be said for the games of each of the 5 starters (less for Brooks, but still). Virtually nothing to be said for the games of ANY of the 7 benchers. Tough to win when you only have 5 guys on your team that night. Tougher still when the coach insists on playing 7 guys who aren't for nearly 40% of the minutes, including waiting to sub back in our big centerpiece until the lead was safely 20 again and there was no more hope.
So, since we either win or embarrass ourselves anymore, by rule more girls it will be. but I'll add in a few boys for the ladies, Slim's requested lady from last time...and just anything else I can come up with.
Boxscore
Stats: 30min 5pts (2-4, 1-2, 0-0) 3reb 7ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Salmons ( B- ) -- retreated back to his normal offensive production this game, but his spirit/focus on passing remained the same. Was having little if any effect on Mayo defenisvely int he early going, as as expected Mayo and Kaman kicked our butts in the first half. Did fire back with a couple of scores, but most of his positive impact this game once again came from his passing, and in particular repeatedly found Cisco open for standstill jumpers. Defense picked up on Mayo in the third during the only stretch of the game where the Kings played acceptable D, but did not lead to much. Was subbed out and never returned because Smart likes his scrubs to all feel good about themselves. Not at alla great performance, in fact neither terribly effective offensively or defensively. But unselfish, and that's such a huge job description he earns some grade here based on it alone.
Somebody called for Claudia Lynx.
Stats: 30min 11pts (5-8, 0-0, 1-4) 12reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Thompson ( B- ) -- at no point a real factor, but solid, if erratic throughout. How is one solid but erratic? Well, that means that he came up with good plays on a pretty consistent basis, was our best rebounder, and seemed to be around a lot of plays for most of the night. But on the other hand, he was Jason, which means at any moment his hands and brain could have a short and he blew a number of easy/simple things we needed. Throw on continued helplessness whenever faced with Kaman -- this a career long problem -- and it wasn't a great night. Not bad, not great. Solid. He had a good block in the early going, got a little hoop with 4 minutes to go in the second quarter that was amazingly our first basket of the entire quarter. Added a little jumper in the ealy third as we tried to come back into it. But he also fumbled a critical rebound in the mid 3rd that cost us 2 points just as we were fighting and trying get over the hump and make it a single digit game, and bricked both FTs after he ended up on the line on a play where we should have had a dunk. There was good effort here, a solid performance, but he was less dependable than the numbers might suggest.
And last time we fell on our face, vs. the Clippers, Slim was asking for Tamala Jones.
Stats: 35min 25pts (10-17, 0-1, 5-6) 6reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 4TO
Cousins ( B ) -- what we had here was a good game by Demarcus, and an efficient one. But not an impact game. It was a pretty one dimensional night, as Boogie and Kaman were just flat out better than anybody else inside and scored easily and often from pretty much wherever they wanted to, and there wasn't much that either of them could do, or even tried to do, to stop the other. Wasn't a need for anybody to get spectacular. Just play smoothly with skill and keep on scoring. More perimeter oriented than Boogie's recent games, but the jumper just kept falling and was lightly challenged, so why not. Well except for a baseline airball he threw up just before exiting in the early 2nd (yes, Smart actually rode a hot starter into the early 2nd, just before our awful bench blew us out). In the early going was doing some good work hustling for loose balls around the offensive glass -- but not in his normal fashion of chasing after his own forces (again besides oine wild shot that basically amounted to a pass to himself off the backboard). Instead was hustling and battling and poking stuff away off of other's misses, and being a factor on that end. On the other end...not so much. Was little defensive focus or energy form the beginning for us, from anybody, and Cuz and Kaman were just cruising around out there popping in jumpers. Had a few good passes setting Cisco up on draw and kicks, but as the game went along began to alos throw some real loose low percentage pass attempts trying to squeeze balls through holes that jsut were not there. In one of thoise Smart specials, got pulled wiht a couple of minute to go in the third with 23 points, and was not returned until the game was safely out of reach and we were down 20 at the 6 minute mark of the fourth. Which is just idiotic. Either return him when there is still a chance(it was hovering around 14 for a bit), or not at all. Now for Uncle Bricklayer's Ray of Sunshine: Over his last 4 games Demarcus Cousins is averaging 34.5min 21.5pts (.523 .815) 11.3reb 2.0ast 1.2stl 0.8blk 3.0TO and only 2.3Fl. Over his last 5 games Tyreke Evans is averaging 33.4min 21.4pts (.520 .455 .828) 4.4reb 4.8ast 1.4stl 1.0blk 2.4TO. Now, if we could just get both of those guys out on the floor playing like that together...that's the core of a winning team.
China Chow
Stats: 31min 25pts (9-16, 7-12, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 3blk 0TO
Garcia ( A- ) -- I should probably give Cisco a straight "A" on this on the same theory as Salmons' "A+" the other night -- at this late stage in his career he may never score 25pts again. In fact at NO point in his career has he ever hit 7 3ptrs in a single game -- this was the career long bombing night as he and Cousins carried us. The hesitation comes because that was pretty much all he did, and in fact what he was going to hit or not hit ont he night was very predictable. Basically every single time he played off theball, spotted up, got his feet set, it was going down. He was that hot all ngiht long. Every roleplayer spot up was basically automatic. On the other hand every time he got overexcited and forced things even a little bit, which was a few more times than we needed, it was a tough brick triggering Mavs runouts the other way. Made some dumb defensive errors on Damon Jones, who is his same age, but made him look like an octagenerian wiht his athleticism, blowing right by him to the hoop. Notched 1reb and 1ast in a Kevin Martin/Nick Young worthy boxscore effort. But boy was he hot from outside, and to the degree we tried to make any push at all after half, it was Cisco's shooting that was making up the ground. When Reke returns it will be interesting now. Will Smart notice all this success has been as a SG? The true roleplayerness of it all? Has MT lost his place so dramatically as to actually get bumped by Cisco? Or will will ignore the fact he's a SG and make him the backup SF since that spot appears completely open again, thus restorign the same SG posing as SF/no rebounds or ability to guard big SFs ever platoon we had last year and wanted so badly to improve? Whatever it will be, Cisco is one of the guys who's playing like he deserves time now.
Nicole Paggi
Stats: 28min 9pts (3-8, 2-4, 1-1) 5reb 5ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Brooks ( C ) -- weakest game of any of our 5 starters, but hey, at least he wasn't a bencher. *shudder* Got off to the wonderful start being scored over by Fisher then making it worse by fouling him on a three the next time down the floor. Outscored 5 to nothing by a 97yr old scrub 3 minutes into the game. But not surprisingly given Fisher's arthritis Brooks was able to fire back, culminatd by a stupid three from 27 feet out after both teams just went completely crazy, defending nothing and bombing practice threes on each other. Still not a terribly selfish game from him -- not sure he has had a double figure shot game since taking over as the starter. But seemed willing to randomly force things every few minutes. Was also giving us a surprisingly bit of help running back in for defensive boards. In the third absolutely killed us when he dribbled right into a crowd for a turnover after we had actually cut the elad all the way down to 11. The Mavs scooped it up, went the other way, and we never got as close again -- you could jsut sense that was the game. Was removed for IT two possessions later after Boogie and he added 2 more turnovers as we peed all over our own comeback and slammed the door in our own faces.
Adrian Paul -- see? Trying to be inclusive
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Originally Posted by Mr. S£im Citrus
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