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Starters
Gay ( A ) -- for much of this game had a "+" next to his A while playing one of the smartest and toughest games of #2 guy he's had since arriving in Sacto. he hustled, he attacked and attacked. But in the end he had the game on his fingertips not once, but twice in the final 15 seconds of OT, and both times he came up short, and hence there went the "+", and the "W".
Cousins ( A ) -- for part of the night Cuz had an A+ too, as through three quarters he had stayed strong, been a handful, and he'd kept relentless even in the face of mugging and cheapness from Meyers Leonard, of course. but when he returned in the mid-4th to close it out he initially failed badly, going 0-3 with 2 TOs. And did not recover the solid A until his heroics tied the game in regulation and put us up in OT.
Koufos ( B ) -- the incongruity of having Koufos start next to Cousins sometimes throws people off, but he again did a solid job of it again, and the Blazers have no offensive bigs to make it dangerous. Showed and recovered well, and with the Blazer bigs occupied with Cuz and Rudy, was able to use his fugly around the hoop game effectively.
Featured Grade
Afflalo ( B ) -- It was actually quite a good scoring night for Afflalo, hitting 5-9 shots and 5-6 free throws. He did a good amount of his damage in the paint, posting up the smaller McCollum, and on occasion Crabbe and Turner. But the unsung part of Arron's game tonight was hid defense. Let's look at it this way: Between Lillard, McCollum, Crabbe, and Turner (all of whom Afflalo covered tonight), the Portland backcourt scored 85 points tonight. Afflalo allowed 9 of those 85 - a contested three for McCollum, two jumpers for Crabbe, and a pair of free throws for Lillard. That's it. That's what the Blazers got against Afflalo. On top of that, he made perhaps THE signature defensive play of the game, stopping Harkless in transition with under 20 seconds on the game clock, allowing us to tie it up and get into OT. In a lot of ways it was a quiet game, but he definitely earned his 31 minutes. --Capt
Lawson ( D ) -- look, the Lawson thing has gotten...I don't know where the old "near All Star" that Grant and Jerry used to like to gush over went, but his complete inability to shoot is hurting us. He stuck his nose in thee for a couple of saavy steals, but that was about it, and sizewise he isn't challenging threes either.
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Bench
Casspi ( D ) -- you have to take advantage of your opportunities, and tonight Omri missed another one. Coming off a game where we could not shoot, in a back to back situation, there were first half minutes available for omri in an up and down game, and all he had to...but he didn't. He and Ben instead gave us almost nothing while the Blazers raced along at a near 70pt half pace.
Barnes ( C ) -- because Cuz's mid-4th rough patch, and Rudy's missed winners in OT etc. came later, its easy to forget that the real point we might have lost this game came right at the end of the third and early 4th where we started to muscle our way into control. Except Barnes missed tow open threes, Cuz missed two Fts, Collison blew something. So some hustling D, but damn we need the shots.
Cauley-Stein ( D+ ) -- annoyed me in his short stint by failing to challenge little guys at the rim, but did smoothy stroke a jumper. Not sure form conflicting reports if he's actually n the market or not.
Featured Grade
Collison ( B+ ) -- Collison didn't enter the game until the 4:54 mark of the 1st quarter and took his first shot about 2 minutes later, a long two. He followed that by driving to the basket and getting the ball stolen. So he was off to a poor start. However he hit a highly contested shot at the buzzer to close out the 1st quarter. After that he off and running, sometimes a bit too fast resulting in a turnover. If memory serves, he didn't take a three point shot in the game. He ended up going 9 for 16 from the floor and scoring 20 points. He also did a very good job defensively, especially in the 2nd half. Even when Lillard hit a shot, it was very well defended. With Cousins and Gay handling most of the scoring load, Collison's 20 pt contribution was a welcome addition. Sadly it was in a losing effort.
--Baja
McLemore ( D ) -- Ben & Omri got their chances after the DNP-CDs vs. the Lakers, but thee was nothing here. this was back to passive stand in the corner and stay out of the way Ben, and he made no case for further minutes.
Temple ( C+ ) -- tried to help with the defense, which continues to be a comfort, and if there was a problem with his lack of offense, it was a subtle one rather than a blatant one as he never took a shot. Barnes was more dynamic, but sloppier -- kind of the two defensive pieces who worked better than the tow offensive pieces (Omri and Ben)
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