Another game, another one of our big three goes off. But this tme it was part of a teamwide effort, and of course against a ruined team playing multiple scrubs major minutes at this point, and so we got up on them early, wobbled as we lost our attention several times, but never let them really threaten anything.
Career tying 41pt night for Rudy. If Cuz would just quit getting overexcited in these matchups and putting himself on t e bench, it could have been something huge for him as well. Triple double maybe. In any case, he has clearly been more impressive than Davis in both their head to heads this season. Isaiah...well, Capt. gets that heat tonight. Suffice it to say he was cold, responded to that in Me fashion and insisted on throwing up crap because he has to get his FGA's...and yet at the same time he dished 11 assists, including multiple nice setups of the drive and dish inside variety, and was part of a strong passing attack through most of the night. And we won, so there's that. Note: in a bit of oddity Malone not only left in his main guys almost to the very end of a game that was constantly in the 15-20pt range after half, but he actually subbed Cuz back into the game for the final 4-5 min. very odd. We'll see if that has any consequences on the back to back/last game of the 6 game trip tomorrow.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Henkel
Capt. Factorial
MassachusettsKingsFan
and possibly...Spudfan
Boxscore
Stats: 42min 41pts (16-25, 5-8, 4-6) 8reb 5ast 0stl 0blk30TO
Gay ( A+ ) -- 's been a rough road trip for Gay. He's had to match up with two of three best players in the league along with a less then stellar home coming against a tough Grizzles team. Obviously upset with his recent play came out looking focused. Had his jumper going right from the start but he dominated the first quarter with his all around play. He had a couple of quick baskets a long with a couple of nice assists inside to JT getting us off to a hot start. Continued to pick his spots without forcing anything while doing a great job on the boards against Aminu, who despite all of his other faults is very good on the boards. Only took four shots in the first as he seemed as focused on getting guys involved as he was on scoring. Came back in after a short rest and immediately attacked the rim showing off his athleticism as he got up high and took the contact while finishing easily. Had another nice pass out of the double team to Jimmer for three. Then followed up on Jimmer's miss inside and suddenly he was in double figures early into the second. At this point it looked like things were about to get ugly for the Pelicans. Slight tangent but that crowd was nonexistent. As Kings fans know a long losing streak and terrible coaching can be disheartening, but still that was one of the most pathetic crowds I've seen in a while. Was playing the two for most of the second quarter and when matched up with Reke did a decent job. The same can be said for Reke who managed some respectable post defense on Gay. But tonight Rudy had his jumper going and could not be stopped. Confident catching and going straight up for the three off a nice pass by IT. Knocked down another one on a nice little mid range set up out of a timeout. Gay has shown off on the offensive side since he got here but his jumper has never looked better then it did tonight, especially in that third quarter. Started off third with a beautiful looking three, simple catch and shoot with his feet set but there was no hesitation. Had a nice throw down on the break followed by another good looking catch and shoot three. He was in such a groove that it was hardly a surprise when he nailed a 30 footer to close out the quarter. Finished the third with a ridiculous 32 points 5 rebounds 5 assists on 16 shots. Played well to finish things out but things got a little sloppy as they often do late in a blowout. Didn't help that he looked a bit gassed along with forcing things a bit as he got closer to a new career high, which you can't blame him for given his coach is running him out there late in a game that was already over. Still managed nine points to finish it out thus tying his career high of 41. Great bounce back performance as he continues to look like a legitimate number two next to Cousins.--Henkel
Stats: 36min 11pts (5-8, 0-0, 1-1) 8reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Thompson ( B ) -- how you felt about JT's game tonight directly corresponded to what quarter it was, and in a more particular sense, to how the team as a whole was playing at any given time. Tonight was a pureblood roleplayer game for JT, and he was doing it nicely in the early going, running the floor and keeping his hands up and helping along our big first quarter just by being an easy target and finishing everything he got. Of course more importantly was his work on the other end on Anthony Davis, who was coming off a 31pt 17reb night, and yet tonight looked very average as Jason crowded him and bumped him, taking away the space the Brow needs to thrive at this point in his career/body. Then the 2nd quarter came around, and our sterling teamwork began to break down into 1 on 1 play, and Jason, still playing the roleplayer, was completely uninvolved and ineffective. Around comes the 3rd, Cousins is back (which until the early 4th tracked nicely with our good stretches and bad), so is our teamwork, and as we blow the Pelicans back on out, Jason is flying as a roleplayer again, significantly bothering Davis, helping on the glass, and until he picked up his 4th foul, and once again complained himself right into a technical, providing very solid support for Gay and Cousins. Played a lot of minutes in the 4th as Malone really ran those starters into the ground, and had a few key plays including an offensive rebound soon after being reinserted to help us break a Pelicans run, and a dunk off an IT drive and dish that pretty much finished it late. Fouled out with a little over 2min to go, but whining and complaining or not, they were fouls well used as Davis was help to a 4-12 shooting night. --Brick
Stats: 29min 18pts (6-10, 0-0, 6-9) 11reb 6ast 3stl 4blk 3TO
Cousins ( A ) -- Kind of a tough game for me to associate with a letter grade. DeMarcus Cousins essentially played the perfect kind of game you play when one of your teammates is about to drop the easiest 40 points I’ve every seen. Cousins was never the focal point of the offense tonight. He just wasn’t. He still managed to drop 18 points on 10 shots, but these were Jason Thompson-type buckets. Most of them were around the basket and of the layup or dunk variety, usually off of good passes from his teammates. He was rarely asked to create for himself, and he never really needed to. His passing, particularly in the first quarter, was incredible. At the end of the first quarter Cousins had 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. He made two ridiculous bounce passes (one to Thornton, one to Gay) that other centers don’t even attempt. But all of this offensive stuff was just icing on the cake. Where Cousins really earned this ‘A’ was on defense. He blocked 4 shots and altered at least that many. It felt like he wanted to prove a point to Tyreke Evans (and Malone who blasted the team after the last Pelicans game for allowing Evans to get to the rim at will) and he was timing Evans drives perfectly all night. Evans still got to the rim; only this time he had Boogie waiting for him when he got there. Cousins was free to play this style of defense because his man (Greg Stiemsma) wasn’t a threat, so there is a little asterisk there, but Cousins was awesome as a help defender in this one. Not only did he block 4 shots, he also came away with 3 steals and 3 charges. He was responsible for 6 Pelicans turnovers. Considering how much of a (positive) impact Rudy Gay had on this game and the teams scoring load, I don’t know how Cousins could have played better with the minutes and opportunities he was given. It was genuinely nice to see DeMarcus voluntarily take the back seat to someone who was clearly on another level tonight. It wasn’t the dominant offensive DeMarcus Cousins we’ve grown accustomed to, and his stat line doesn’t look as crazy as it has in the past, but he was good in this one. Especially when the game was still being decided. --Mass.
Stats: 29min 6pts (3-7, 0-3, 0-0) 1reb 1ast 0stl 2blk 1TO
Thornton ( ) -- --Spud?
Stats: 39min 20pts (6-17, 3-8, 5-6) 3reb 11ast 3stl 0blk 4TO
Thomas ( B- ) -- The game started out with an interesting mix of PG by committee - there were enough fast breaks and transition opportunities pushed by Cousins and Gay that IT was really only on the ball about half the time. When he was, he was heavily feeding the post, he hit one of his two cutters on the night, and also had three drive and kicks, half of his game total. He was 2-2 from three and had 9 points at the end of the first, and we had complete control of the game, never to really give it up (though we tried a few times). But after that great first quarter, Isaiah really didn't keep it up. His second quarter was filled with miserable shooting (0-4), and for the rest of the game he was par for the course (4-9) but did take some poor shots. He did tally a total of eleven assists (I only credited him ten), six of those to red-hot Rudy, including hitting him for a thunderous dunk as the trailer on a fast break in the third. Defensively, I thought IT actually did a reasonable job tonight. He was not getting routinely killed on screens - by my count he actually successfully got through 60% of the screens set on him, and on one of those it was actually JT that got him, stepping in the way on a show at the three-point line. He had only allowed nine points (and that counts his technical) until Rivers hit back-to-back threes over him in garbage time. So it was a bad shooting night, a good passing night, and a pretty good defense night. --Capt.
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