Its appropriate we included a Consortium member with Homer Simpson as his avatar for this one, because this was a major doh! effort, resetting enthusiasm and reminding everybody of just where we are. And where we were was in the land of the suck. Not only did we not get to see the new guys make their debuts, but we looked lackluster and out of sorts from the very beginning of the game, the Jazz compounded things by playing brilliantly at times (35ast 8TO really? Really??), and even the crowd got in on the suck. The offense was ragged, the defense was just, as Coach Malone said, embarrassing, and I don't think we made a single real run at making it respectable after the first quarter.
The good news is that I am shallow and always willing to take advantage of Kings misfortune to post more pics of Pretty Girls. Have to take your silver linings where you can find them.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Spudfan
Capt. Factorial
Henkel
Boxscore
Stats: 32min 13pts (6-11, 0-2, 1-2) 7reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Williams ( B ) -- Williams followed up his career night by having a solid, but not great, game. He didn’t make any perimeter shots in this one but managed to get double-digit points by using his athleticism. Most of his points came in transition when he either hustled down the court for an alley-oop slam, or grabbed the defensive rebound and took it coast-to-coast. The only half-court score he had was when he made a nice baseline cut under the basket and Cousins found him from the high post. Williams had to make an athletic move at the rim but got it to drop. He played quite a bit of PF in this one as he moved to PF when Cousins went out in the 1st quarter with foul trouble, and again when he slid over to replace JT in the 3rd quarter. He did a fairly good job guarding Jefferson though he did go under a screen and let Jefferson have space to knock down a 3pt shot and on another possession the ball got swung to Jefferson and Williams hurriedly jumped too close to him to close out and Jefferson was able to get by him. He was our 2nd best rebounder on the night pulling down 7 and shot above 50% on 6-11 shooting. So a decent night but though his transition dunks were really impressive, his overall game was solid but not spectacular.--Uncia
Rachel Bilson
Stats: 34min 11pts (3-8, 0-0, 5-5) 6reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( C- ) -- my only grade of the night turned out to be a scruffy one. Of course on this night it would have been pretty much impossible to avoid a scruffy one. With JT it was just...it looked kind of like him. But it was as if everything was just off. The shots just missed, balls were fumbled, the rotations were just a second late, or the way the Jazz were passing they found the man he had just left time after time and he was not able to recover. He always seemed to run out of the rebound's way tonight rather than into it, and was often caught standing out in space while the Jazz finished up the play behind him. Spent a lot of time at center on the short night by Boogie, and may have fared a little better there. Got several finishes to the hoop at least, and some aggression there got him to the foul line. He made some good passes to guys on the perimeter for open jumpers, but passing the ball to Ben right now might as well just count as a TO. The numbers look semi in his normal range here, but the game wasn't. Kind of a microcosm of the whole team I guess. --Brick
Valerie Garcia
Stats: 23min 21pts (7-14, 0-0, 7-11) 11reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Cousins ( C+ ) -- I'm a little split on where exactly Cuz's grade should fall given his limited impact in the first half. He had two quick fouls in this one and went to the bench with just under five minutes remaining in the 1st, not to be seen again until the 3rd quarter. While those two early fouls hurt us, where does the fault lie for him not having any more first half contributions? Do you lay it on Cuz for picking up those two early fouls and putting Malone in a position to sit him the rest of the half and protect Cuz from picking up a third foul before the end of the 2nd, or is it more on Malone for resisting putting his only star player back in a game which Utah was starting to run away with and should have subbed him back in despite the two fouls? Either way, DMC was largely invisible in the first half and had little impact as he finished the half with 4 pts/4 rebs. In the 3rd Cuz came out looking much more like himself and immediately started attacking the paint. Not once, not twice, not three times but scored four times at the rim in succession and it looked as if he was going to put the team on his back and get us right back into the game. Tonight however it was not meant to be as the Jazz loaded up on him, his teammates offered little in the way of support and a few questionable calls put this game out of reach by the end of the 3rd as well as visibly frustrated Cuz. After his regular 2nd half rest, came back and padded his stats a bit but the game was largely out of reach at that point. So he picked up two early fouls, sat out the rest of the half, likely for protection against a third foul, came out and had a very good start to the 2nd half while his teammates offered minimal support and within two minutes of being subbed out at the end of the 3rd the game was pretty much out of reach and garbage time had already kicked off. Add to that the shortened game-day roster due to the Vasquez visa complications and delayed physical along with the letdown the players likely felt, just as we fans did when we heard the new guys weren't going to play tonight and I'll chalk this up to "just being one of those nights". 21 points and 11 rebounds is a damn good night for most in this league. In fact there's only two other players league-wide averaging better than 21/10. This is yet another example of the talent this guy has as on a largely off-night where he spent most of the 1st half on the bench and received little help from his teammates he still put up 21/10 in only 23 minutes of action. --Rain
Miranda Kerr
Stats: 33min 4pts (1-8, 1-2, 1-2) 2reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( F ) -- Ben's game tonight can be summed up pretty easily: In the third quarter he went for one of his patented Doesn't-Work-Throw-Downs, and lo and behold! it didn't work. Then he came in in the fourth and immediately did it again. Ben did very little right tonight. To be kind, I'll point out that when a high skip pass on the perimeter took away his three-point shot, he drove into the lane for a nice drop-off to JT, who was fouled for free throws. Outside of that? Terrible offense, terrible defense, a game-low -34 on the +/-, I'm not wasting any more time writing it up. It sucked that bad. --Capt.
Heidi Klum
Stats: 36min 20pts (7-13, 1-3, 5-5) 3reb 7ast 1stl 0blk 5TO
Thomas ( C ) -- Played worse then his stats while the opposite could be said for Burke. A sloppy start which didn't help a starting group that came out flat. Didn't do a good job running the offense in the half court all game but particularly sub par early, which isn't out of step with what we've seen over the last few years. On top of all that wasn't hitting until late in the quarter as he helped incite a little run. And on top of that wasn't able to slow down Burke's penetration, which isn't all on him. Watching the Kings defend the pick and roll and rotations tonight, and despite the rhetoric like most nights, was painful. Alright in the second with a nice burst near the end of the quarter. Was still having a rough night defensively this time at the hands of Garret. Wasn't involved much early third as we fed a well rest Cousins. Sloppy overall again and as the Jazz heated up was part of a group that laid down defensively. Burke is going to be really good and he's already fun to watch but that was just too easy. Didn't take a shot in the fourth and his play was pretty passive, not that it mattered as the game was already decided. Still a tough cover but got a little bit exposed or at least his weaknesses as a starter showed up tonight.--Henkel
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
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