The “3 hours at the grindhouse” edition.
Banks – no burn, unless you count that seething feeling in his body at not getting PT.
Bargnani – 2 reasons I hope this injury isn’t one that sees him out of action for an extended period: it’s obvious he has become a major part of this offence by how lost we looked in the first half and, secondly, I never want to see that jacket again unless it’s on my maitre d at my local surf & turf.
Belinelli – here’s the thing with his game tonight: he attacked the bucket from time to time but never did so in his usual looks-like-he-was-just-shot-out-of-a-cannon way. His outside shot wasn’t falling, so he did the smart thing by bringing himself closer to the hoop, attracting attention and making it work for the benefit of his team. Good job.
Bosh – he had absolutely no lift tonight. The desire was there as you could see him visibly frustrated with himself and he may have used that a little to make himself a bit more of a distributor. That sequence late 4th where he seemed bound and determined to either score the bucket or get fouled could have been a disaster going the other way, but instead it proved the nail in the coffin.
Calderon – that wasn’t very pretty, was it? Can’t even think of the last time he played major minutes and came away with no assists. Until the final few minutes he looked like any other backup point guard in the NBA, which is a sad statement.
DeRozan – he seemed to fade into the background a bit tonight. Didn’t stand out, didn’t even get too showy on his breakaway dunk. Still, he produced, going 5 of 8 and showing his outside jumper is still in his arsenal.
Evans – I’d love to see “A Shot At Love with Reggie Evans”. Can’t you just see our man macking on the ladies, leaning like a cholo, talking like Barry White? You know you want it.
Jack – Jennings looked like he was going to use Jarrett as a chew toy again, but Jack seemed to remind himself that he was an NBA point guard, broke out of his shell and absolutely went freak nuts on the Bucks. 27 points, 12 trips to the line, the will to win that they make movies about.
Johnson – hello, my name is Amir, and I am a foul addict. On a nightly basis I put the W/L record of my friends in peril and I don’t know how to stop myself.
Nesterovic – If Jarrett hadn’t stepped up, Rasho was in the running for player of the game. It was like watching a real-life version of The Mummy. Guy has been wrapped up in sweats for weeks, gets the starting nod (well, makes sense in the “we are playing a big white guy” book of Triano), comes out and absolutely makes himself look like the second coming of Acie Earl. Yes, he missed 2 jumpers pretty badly, but his effort on the boards and that up and under move had me catching flies.
O’Bryant – what. the. hell. was. that. First of all, you get some playing time before the half for the first time since grade school and this is what you show your critics? Dude is going to have a lot of ‘splainin to do on formspring tomorrow.
Turkoglu- yes, a horrible shooting night, but for once you can’t knock his hustle. This one time it looked like he was trying anything possible, but it just wasn’t working. Personally, I have no issue with that. Obviously we need him offensively, but that slacking off style that we’ve seen all too much this season wasn’t there tonight. Get it together and the fans will come back.
Weems – one reason he didn’t play more than 4 minutes tonight? He sucked. He looked like he had his mind on what to order as his apps at the Pickle Barrel more than what he should do to cover his man.
Wright – his effort on the defensive end was good…on the offensive end? Well, let’s just say that if there were two buckets in front of him and one was full of water and had the label “Success” on it and there was another that was empty that said “Failure” on it and he chose one to wear as a hat, he wouldn’t have had a drop of water on him.
Driving The Bus: Jarrett Jack
Under The Bus: Patrick O’Bryant
Game Theme:
