Not enough games like these anymore. Some people think good basketball is watching a bunch of little ballet dancers prance up and down the court throwing up shots and squeaking and falling down like they broke a nail as soon as somebody gets within 5 feet. I'll take the big brahma bull battle any day and twice on Sundays.
Fact is that we've shown this year, both early and late, when we are properly coached and inspired, we are one of the few teams in the league who are a good match for this Grizzlies team. We activated Reggie for this one, went to him behind an inspired JT and a battling ref pecked Boogie, and we won that battle inside against the Grizz's own bully trio. Throw in good work against Conley and Rudy carrying the offense when all seemed lost, and we flat beat the #2 in the West in a big physical brawly technical filled playoff type battle. Just too damned bad this roster will never get a chance to actually try it out in the actual playoffs themselves.
Boxscore
Stats: 35min 28pts (12-20, 1-5, 3-5) 5reb 6ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Gay ( A- ) -- had a few little hits early, but the thing you immediately noticed was that he was just scrappier than normal. The whole team was. Of course that scrappiness helped lead him into 2 early fouls. so there was a cost. After Cuz had to leave with fouls, really stepped forward very aggressive and scored 9 in a row late in the half. And then repeated that pattern in third as after Cuz left again with his 4th it was Rudy who stepped up to help us fight back. Hit inside, and several nice passes setting guys up. Maybe getting a little too 1 on 1 oriented in the late 3rd, but we needed the points, and he kept on knocking down big shots in the 4th as we pushed the lead. Made a few mistakes down the stretch again as he has looked almost our shakiest guy at those moments. Bad pass attempt trying to feed Cuz inside for an untimely TO, missed a forced shot that Cuz luckily gathered in for a layin. But generally stepped up exactly when needed tonight, stayed efficient, and his scoring held the Grizzlies at bay until the cavalry could arrive. --Brick
Stats: 33min 10pts (3-9, 0-0, 4-6) 11reb 1ast 1stl 4blk 2TO
Thompson (A- ) -- now see if this was the Jason actually on our roster we would have been a lot better team all these years. Did not get off to a very promising start, coming up with a reach in foul on Gasol (when he and Cuz were on the floor together it was mostly Jason on Gasol, Cuz on Randolph) immediately on the first play of the game. But he had energy and aggression from the early going, ran the floor and took a pass from Cuz for the dunk, got a mop up finish, and battled on the defensive glass. Back in and got another junk hoop, and a renewed defensive effort to start the 2nd with a block. Despite the strong physical play it wasn't perfect, as in the third in particular he responded to Cuz leaving with forces and misses. But JT, who along with Ben I think are our "delicate" players mentally, did not get check out from the neck up, continued fighting on defense, and played some excellent help D on Gasol after Cuz returned as the two of them smushed Gasol, Gasol fouled him from the ground, and JT went down the other way an hit both FTs. There was one stutter late as with 1:40 to go he airballed a shot, then lost focus on the other end and allowed an easy layin, but by that point the game was in hand, and JT played a major part in it both teaming with Cuz to give Gasol/Zach all they wanted, and holding down the fort while Cuz was out with fouls. --Brick
Stats: 24min 16pts (6-13, 0-0, 4-6) 9reb 6stl 1stl 1blk 2TO
Cousins ( B- ) -- had himself an adventuresome evening, but got the last laugh in the end. In the early going of this one was once again Magic Cuz, as this "dribble drive motion offense" biz appeared to be centered around our 270lb center doing the dribble driving, and dishing. But he did it efficiently. Both those TOs tonight came on offensive fouls. His passing was willing, sharp, and safe for the most part. Now unfortunately his won offense took a long long time to get going, and almost seeemed like an afterthought. He dribbled into a little jumper, but most of his drives were blocked, and his only attempt at a post move was too quick, something bothersome given that a new idiot coach now has Cuz practicing threes when he should be working on post moves. But beyond all that fouls and physical play became the huge story, in particular in the 2nd and 3rd quarters as an already physical Grizz team tried to bullyball their way out of deficit, and Cuz took it out on and killed a poor chair. In the third quarter things really ratcheted up, as Zach Randolph completely lost it, got a technical jawing at Cuz (and could/maybe even should have gotten a second), THEN clocked Cuz with a 2-elbow arm swingthrough for a foul, and finally the refs capped the sequence by putting the 4th on Cuz on a bad charge call going against Gasol, who was moving, sideways, and probably in the restricted zone. As it often does, that almost killed us, almost. But Rudy and Miller really stabilized us, we hung on, and Cuz returned for the 4th and gave us a dominant push, notching 12pts 5rebs and and several good defensive stands after returning in the final minutes (he put himself on the bench for a few minutes with a dumb play for his 5th foul). He finally fouled out in the final minute on a weird play where he got called for a moving screen in which he did not actually even touch anybody, but by that point the game was over. So fireworks, but a dominant push when it mattered, one dead chair, and one Kings victory. Because its Cuz and we expect the flat superstar line every night I'm not going too high here, but our guys, Cuz included, more than held their own against a frontline that could be in the WCF this year. --Brick
Stats: 32min 16pts (7-15, 2-5, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 2stl 1blk 4TO
McLemore ( B- ) --Ben came out in the first quarter and after starting 1-5 he went on an absolute tear, hitting four shots in a row: a corner three, a dribble-between-the-legs jumper, a quick stop-and-pop jumper off a handoff curl, and a drive to the hoop in a bit of an unsettled situation. At the end of the quarter he had scored 11 points while giving up 2 and it was looking like it was going to be a monster game for him. Unfortunately, from the second quarter on Ben only went 2-6 for five points (two of those misses by necessity at the end of the shot clock) while giving up 17 (on 12 shots) down the stretch. In the second quarter he gave way to Rudy despite his hot start and once he did that he never got it going again. Despite the scoring numbers from Memphis he played some pretty decent defense. He stopped Tony Allen on a one-on-one fast break and played excellent (optimal, even!) defense in the same situation on Conley, only for the Memphis PG to find a way to somehow score it anyhow. He gave good pressure to Courtney Lee on several occasions, and his hassling basically forced Z-Bo into bad position allowing RayMac to get an easy strip. But there were a few other lowlights. The four turnovers were too many, and he had no rebounds and no assists - in fact outside of a few post feed to Cuz that would not have resulted in assists, he only set up one shot in the entire game, getting the ball down to an relatively open JT in the paint for a foul and free throws. So once the first was over it was some good, some bad, and had we not pulled the game out I think he'd have to drop down into the C range. But a win against the Grizz is the rising tide that lifts all boats! --Capt.
Stats: 23min 10pts (3-7, 1-2, 3-4) 1reb 3ast 3stl 0blk 2TO
McCallum ( C+ ) -- Overall, not a bad game for Ray. He especially played well on both ends of the court in the first half. He got the ball up the court quickly, and got it into play. His first basket came on a breakaway where he split two defenders and rolled it in. A bit later, he he nailed a three. Where he was most impressive was on the defensive side of the ball. He hounded Conley all over the court, and held him scoreless during his time on the floor in the first half. He headed to the bench at the 3:11 mark of the first quarter and didn't re-emerge until almost the end of the second quarter. The third quarter was a different story. The Grizz came out and upped their defense, and doubled up on the physical play. At one point Cousins and Randolph got into it. For whatever reason, the Kings decided to abandon what had been working in the first half, and play Memphis game. A huge mistake. The lead they took into the locker room at the half, evaporated quickly. The ship was sinking and the band was playing, and McCallum, the leader of the band, didn't, or couldn't, get everyone to play the same tune. It wasn't all his fault, but he was the lead guard on the floor. Ben only had three assists to go against two turnovers, both of which occurred in the second half within a minute of each other in a sequence of events that's hard to describe. The finish being where the ball was knocked loose, and then seemed to exchange hands several times before ending up with Allen, from who Ray stole the ball, drove the length of the court with numbers, left his feet just past the foul line and threw the ball away. Ray also had three steals on the night, but only one rebound. All in all a good game, and if not for the debacle in the third quarter, he might have had a B. --Baja
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