Make no mistake about it -- we lost this game. Blew the opportunity. In fact no matter who came out ahead on the scoreboard here it was going to be a case of the other team losing the game, because because teams stunk with the sharp fetid stench of week old gym socks left in a pool of raw sewage under a hot sun.
That was just pathetic. From beginning to end, relentlessly. Only the silly level greatness of DeMarcus Cousins even bought us an OT, and with him out of gas and the whole Wizards team appropriately ignoring the other ballboys wearing our uniforms, we now fall to 0-3 on the year in OT games. The basketball, on both sides, was terrible. If you watch these things on delay, just delete it unseen and use those precious hours of your life on something more enjoyable. Which is to say virtually anything.
Link to Boxscore
Starters
Gay ( D+ ) -- no energy or brains from the start. Which made him a perfect canary for the whole team tonight. Only looked more dead as things went along. Every once in a bit hit a shot, but led nowhere. And complete collapse late elft Cuz out there completely alone. Missed everything in OT.
Cousins ( A- ) -- Cousins' assault on the record books -- I forgot to mention he was working on the 17th best PER season of all time for a big man coming in -- continues with a 36-20 night, and yet the silly thing is I have to minus it. Started sluggish and like the rest of the team wild forces and bad decisions. Big time one man heroed us down the stretch with remarkable plays, but in the end maybe a career worst FT night could have made all the difference, and he ran out of gas in OT.
Koufos ( C ) -- might have played closet to his normal game of all the roleplayers, but that ain't much. Gortat wasn't a train in much need of slowing. At least Kosta boarded a little, because nobody else but Cuz showed anything at all on the glass.
Afflalo ( F ) -- early in the game I really didn't think that Beal's explosion was all on Arron. but as the game wore on, and Beal became the one single Wizard to play well as Afflalo just did absolutely nothing in return, that distinction died for purposes of this grade. Cuz just needed ONE wingman. One anybody to step up and hit a couple of shots, make a couple of smart plays. Arron most certainly did not.
Featured Grade
Collison ( C+ ) -- From an offensive point of view, Darren Collison just didn't show up tonight. For the first four straight possessions he brought the ball up, handed off to Cousins, and went to hide in the corner. The rest of the game was hardly better. His jumper was off, and outside of two nifty passes, one a behind-the-back look to Koufos and the other a quick whip down into the post to Cousins, he really was unable to elevate our pathetic offense. Defensively, he was quite a good sight better. John Wall simply was not able to get just about anything he wanted tonight, at least not when Collison was on him. By my count, Collison only gave up 5 points to Wall, and none until midway through the third quarter. He stifled John Wall's only post attempt, and after getting benched for most of the fourth quarter for a "curl-in-the-middle-of-his-forehead" Lawson, Collison came up with a huge block on Wall with the Kings down three with 1:45 left in the fourth that gave his lethargic team the opportunity to push the game into overtime. He wasn't exactly the reason that we lost, but he certainly didn't get us over the top.
--Capt.
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Bench
Lawson ( B ) -- the one King other than Cuz to cut through the sleeping sickness that was this game, and took advantage of an obviously stoned John Wall to notch multiple steals. But Ty knows a thing or two about intoxication too, and this grade is held down by some seriously stupid decisionmaking once he got the ball back and advanced it to our side of the court.
Barnes ( D- ) -- with a dead starting unit and not surprisingly no spark from koufos, we needed Matt to come through for us and did not. Missed wide open shots, was no on the board at all, showed he's not even truly a stretch 4 as he struggled to muscle with Markieff Morris.
Temple ( C ) -- I never want to see Temple play in Washington again. Pioneered a new approach to getting even against your old team, by instead starting off outlandishly bad, airballing shots and making lousy decisions. Late in the game moved the needle on this grade back up as he was the guy who finally managed to contain Beal, and wore him as a shirt for the final quarter+OT.
Casspi ( D ) -- Omri's inconsistency may have jumped up to bite him in the butt, as he simply is not deeply enough embedded in our rotations yet to survive such ineptitiude. Maybe sensed his shot was off, because sure didn't seem eager to let fly, and we needed him to. Made to look the D-leaguer by Oubre Jr., who completely smothered him in his second stint.
Cauley Stein ( C+ ) -- as Kings players went, and as Willie games go, actually came as close to helping us as any non-Cuz except Collison. Made some plays with his hands. Got a few of his dunks. Boardwork remained pathetic however, and multiple bad hands/lack of awarness plays keep the grade down.
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