1st Quarter
DeMarcus Cousins first touch down low- He is doubled and passes back out. Cousins grabs the defensive board on the other end. He looks in as good shape as ever. Cousins with an open baseline look- but defender Jared Reiner closes quickly. So Cousins pump fakes him in the air and draws the foul inside. Next possession, Cousins gets it low block, right side- He gets a fadeaway to fall, plus the “and 1″ foul on Reiner. Next possession, Cousins fights hard on the offensive boards, but cannot get the tap(s) to go. Cousins with a nice interior over-the-shoulder pass off a teammate’s cut to the bucket. His teammate misses the bunny- but a good pass, nonetheless. Cousins drains the 10-footer. Later, Cousins misses the highlight offensive rebound-slam.
Hassan Whiteside blocks Austin Daye’s shot- but Ryan Thompson fouled Daye. Whoa!! Hassan with a spectacular help block on Greg Monroe! Whoa!! Hassan with another spectacular block on Daye!! Whiteside with the open 10 footer- but bricks it.
David Sloan with a couple nice drives so far. To this point, he is taking it to Terrico White. Sloan looks more athletic and fast-twitch than I thought.
Austin Daye airballs a 3-point shot. Like last game, Daye is shooting on every touch. Daye with another airball 3-pointer, off the forced shot!!
Greg Monroe gets it down low against DeMarcus Cousins, but cannot get a shot off. Greg with a fastbreak layup. Later, with another layup off the give-go. Monroe with the illegal screen. Monroe does not make plays with a body on him, but when he is running or passing. Even posting up, he has not been successful with getting buckets in summer league, so far.
Omar Casspi starting to light it up against Mac Koshwal and DaJuan Summers.
2nd Quarter
DeMarcus Cousins down low against Jared Reiner- He gets off the jumphook. He misses, but draws the clear foul. Cousins is not doing anything spectacular- He is using good fundamentals, skills and smarts, while playing hard. Wow!! Cousins with the ball down low and doubled-tripled- but he muscles through it and dunks it. Next possession, he drives, but gets whistled for traveling. Wow!! Cousins with a great pass off the post to Hassan Whiteside, who draws the foul.
Austin Daye forces up another missed shot. Somebody should tell him to quit shooting and instead be a team-player.
Elijah Milsap with a nice drive and dish. Milsap with a board. He takes it all the way down himself and draws the foul. He is very athletic.
Greg Monroe isolated on the post against DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins defending well, beating Monroe to the spot- and contesting the jumphook- but he bails Monroe out with the foul. Monroe runs the court on the fastbreak, but is called for the foul. Monroe with the nice steal off the entry pass for Cousins.
Hassan Whiteside in transition, goes up hard against Greg Monroe, who surprising contests hard. Hassan goes down hard (no dirty play) and is in pain. But to his credit he gets up fast and shakes it off.
Terrico White with a good first step and drive in the lane- but he misses the tear drop. White is perhaps not being aggressive enough.
Marquez Haynes with a great dribble-drive. He was very fast and got up high to lay it in.
Donte’ Green with a nice jumphook off the glass.
———-
DeMarcus Cousins: 9 points, 8 rebounds. Good post-scoring and post-passing. Moved his feet well on defense.
Greg Monroe: 7 points, 4 rebounds. Monroe most often scored off transition or using his legs.
(Note: They Cousins-Monroe often did not defend each other. Also, Cousins faced much more double-teaming.)
———-
3rd Quarter
Greg Monroe runs out to the perimeter to help defend, but fouls. Monroe about to get in post-up position against DeMarcus Cousins- but Cousins pushes him and Monroe suddenly wants no part of it- Not surprised.
Ryan Thompson with the nice drive. He gets the bucket “and 1″.
Austin Daye trying to force again and called for the offensive foul. Daye is playing like he thinks he’s Kobe. News Flash: Daye passed the ball??? for an alley-oop to Terrico White.
Hassan Whiteside about to block another shot, but the offensive player (Terrico White?) pushed off to avoid it- foul and Sacramento ball. Wow!!- Hassan with an unreal blocked shot on Austin Daye. The ball was at it’s high peak, and Hassan just grabbed it from the air, effortlessly- Wait, a foul called prior, so the block will not count. Still incredible.
DeMarcus Cousins barely misses an 18-footer off-the-dribble. A bit ill-advised- but it is obvious his confidence has grown.
Tyrese Rice flies high through the lane for the bucket.
4th Quarter
Tyrese Rice with another acrobatic drive, plus and “and 1″. I cannot believe he is only 6-1 tall.
Hassan Whiteside posts up Greg Monroe, spins and gets the finger roll. Impressive. On the other end, he blocks Monroe’s shot at its peak… and gets the fastbreak dunk. Hassan Whiteside has exceeded expectations more than anyone else in this game.
Overall Impressions
DeMarcus Cousins showed a complete post game. This included gaining position, scoring and passing. He is not a special athlete, but has great skills and understanding, which allowed him to make everything look very easy. He played within himself- but with his extensive “toolbox”, this allowed him to get a lot accomplished. What makes his evaulation difficult, is his often-times defender, Jared Reiner, looked awful and did not push Cousins enough. It will be interesting to see Cousins against a more gifted athlete, such as Dwight Howard or perhaps a Lakers frontline, to see if he has the vertical explosiveness to get inside shots off. This talk is perhaps unfair, after Cousins first summer league game- but he is good enough to speculate. Defensively, he had quick feet and guarded his man with tenacity. Cousins perhaps exceeded expectations.
Hassan Whiteside blew my expectations away. His length, jumping and timing were unbelievably impressive. He blocked and altered shots all game, by reaching balls that almost no NBA player has the right to. He also showed a motor and even a glimpse of offense. The 5 rebounds in 26 minutes could have been better- but this should improve. To play Devil’s Advocate, Detroit lacks physical players and that will be Hassan’s real test. Rarely did Detroit try to push him off position or put a body on him. But credit to Hassan, as he exceled.
Greg Monroe will get misleading “points” for his elbow bloodying Donte’ Greene. His final statistics also looked somewhat respectable, with 7 points and 7 rebounds (plus 7 fouls) in 25 minutes. But he lacks any physical element to his game- even allowing rail-thin Hassan Whiteside perfect position to score over him. On that score, Monroe did not stand his ground, but instead moved back with every foward step by Hassan- as if avoiding contact. This is unacceptable matador defense down low. Monroe’s greatest asset to this point, has been his enthusiasm to run the fastbreak. This is excellent, but not enough for a 6-11 player. He does not play off contact nor intimidate- but instead plays very “nice”.