Grand theft basketball.
Artest ( B ) -- started off the game active and once again doing a lot of good things on defense and the glass. On the other end of the court it was a different question as he was once again controlling action...in both good and bad ways. Directing traffic, being aggressive, but also flat out being selfish and just chucking up outside shots with little passing. For the second night in a row grabbed a ton of boards -- something he maybe could have always done at a much higher level throughout his career. Raised his grade consisderably down the stretch as he tried to play the hero. And it could so easily have gone awry and left him with a lousy grade as he was basically just insisting on taking all the shots again. But amidst the bad forces thast nearly sank us he also came up with back to back continuations in the final 2 minutes, and then a quick hitting layup in the final 30 seconds to set the stage for Mike's dramatic three. So end result, forced shots, but made enough big ones in crunch time to set the stage for Mike and Kevin. Without him pouring in 7 pts in the final 2 minutes, they never get a chance to star. So for a big board effort and clutch, if maybe selfish, play down the stretch, a solid grade. In fact the only wart, although its a big ole hairy golfball sized one on the end of his nose, is all the forced shots, and misses, he keeps throwing up.
Thomas ( F ) -- did absolutely nothing out there after a couple of early adventures trying to challenge Wallace inside. Missed a dunk in the early 4th in the face of the interior defense, and fouled out soon therafter after a remarkable 0pts (0-1FG 0-2FT) 3reb 2ast 3TO effort in 32 minutes. He's fortunate Reef was smelly too or this is starting lineup changing stuff.
Miller ( D+ ) -- started off looking very shaky on offense again. Was at least grabbing some boards, and when he finally woke up offensively near the end of the first half the end result was a solid looking statistical half, that was much less so out on the actual court. Started off the third continuing to miss shots and turn it over, but without the rebounding, and found himself on the bench for a long long stretch. Finally got back in once Kenny fouled out after a useless evening in the late 4th, and picked a good time to finally hit a jumper in the final two minutes.
Martin ( A ) -- there was a question whether to "+" this or not after he hit the game winner. Best early moments were on defense -- stepping in front of an errant pass for the easy breakaway, and getting back on the break defensively to step in for a charge. But on offense was struggling to finish in the face of the Bulls' interior shotblockers. But as the half wore on Kevin was about the only guy able to give us any offense at all with the occasional fastbreak layup or backdoor cut. And in the second half he was the guy along with Mike who came alive in the third to bring us back when it looked like we were ready to go down in one of the truly ugly defeats in Sacto franchise history. Lot of easy scores again, but also as his confidence grew was mixing in higher difficulty spinning drives to really put pressure on the Bulls. As did his drawing a lot of fouls (although frankly tonight he and Mike were displaying a healthy mastery of the art of the NBA mini-flop where any contact sends you flying). Still looked like it would all be for naught until an unlikely series of plays opened the door for us and Mike hit one of his huge clutch threes, setting the stage for Kevin to knock down his first (so far as I can recall) regular season game winner.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Almost impossible to grade -- 5-15 shooting? 11 Turnovers? 23pts 9ast and a clutch three wihtout which we are doomed? Impossible. In the first half hit his first two jumpers, then began to really struggle with the rest of the team. Was at least able to sneak in a few points from the line. Along the way tried for the incredibly dubious pts/ast/TO triple double, but came up short....in assists.
Appeared to be vulnerable to having his pocket picked and leaving the dribble behiond him -- maybe his thumb bothering him. And was annoying me by just horribly flopping all over the court on every bit of contact, unfortunately leaving the ball behind when he didn't draw the whistle. Yet it was he and Kevin who woke up in the third to save us, and who finished the Bulls off with clutch shots in the final seconds. MIke hitting the huge three to get us within one, and then ddrawing the Bulkls defense to kick to a wide open Kevin for the winner. As I said, impossible. So I end up giving a B type grade to a guy with 11 TOs. Wow.
Salmons ( C+ ) -- helped some on defense with his length, nothing on offense. But the defensive focus also got him into quick foul trouble.
Reef ( D ) -- was mildly aggressive offensively, but to little effect , and missed shots with Big Ben lurking. Grabbed an occasional board, but looked overmatched in there. Got beat several times in the final minutes by Nocioni inside and ended up gettign pulled in and out int eh final minutes.
Price ( INC ) -- didn't do much in a short first half stint, but the one thing he did do was come from behind on Nocioni for a spectacular basket saving block after Andres has grabbed an o-board on a foul shot. Got back in there finally for the final play and helped cause Duhon's final turnover wiht solid defense. So almost no minutes, but two good defensive plays in that span.
Garcia ( INC ) -- got in briefly in the midst of the early 2nd quarter ugliness after Salmons picked up his three quickies, missed an open three, and got himself banished soon therafter. Reappeared for defensive purposes int eh final seconds. Clearly a spot player with a ridiculously short leashg right now
Corliss ( INC ) -- got the surprise insertion for the first time with about 3 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, didn't do much, and threw up a couple of ugly shots in the face of a lot of attention he was drawing from the Bulls' defense.
Muss ( B- ) -- Let's see, he routinely plays Artest as a PF, his bench consists of basically 1 guy (Reef), and yet he pulls off a win. Hmmm...sounds familiar. First of all...we absolutely stole this one. We didn't so much win it as we lost it less against an opponent absolutely determined to give it to us. But you have to take those too over the course of a season. And ugly or not, there were once again good signs -- intense defense in the early going helped us survive absolutely horrible offense. And...well, we won. You have to give Muss credit for the defense...and if you do that unfortunately the offense too. Indeed until the final minute or so, it was hard to see Muss doing much of anything as we wonce again ran the main guys huge minutes, only went 1 1/2 deep into the bench, and rarely seemed to run an offensive play. I am not sure how/what to grade Muss on yet. Unsure of the scale. But we won, so a C or lower game where teh only good thing was the defense suddenly becomes a low B where the defense keyed an unlikely win.
Duhon ( A+ ) -- had an absolutely disastrous final minute, throwing the ball away to open the door for us with 15 seconds to go, then inexplicably leaving Kevin wide open for the game winning shot, and then turning it over again to cinch it for us. If we want a backup PG, we could probably pick up Duhon for a Big Mac and a coke right now. Maybe even for KT. Maybe.
Skiles ( ? ) -- helped us along mightily with some very strange substitutions, and then compounded it by drawing up some late game inbounds plays that looked like something you scratch out in the dirt in a pickup game.
Artest ( B ) -- started off the game active and once again doing a lot of good things on defense and the glass. On the other end of the court it was a different question as he was once again controlling action...in both good and bad ways. Directing traffic, being aggressive, but also flat out being selfish and just chucking up outside shots with little passing. For the second night in a row grabbed a ton of boards -- something he maybe could have always done at a much higher level throughout his career. Raised his grade consisderably down the stretch as he tried to play the hero. And it could so easily have gone awry and left him with a lousy grade as he was basically just insisting on taking all the shots again. But amidst the bad forces thast nearly sank us he also came up with back to back continuations in the final 2 minutes, and then a quick hitting layup in the final 30 seconds to set the stage for Mike's dramatic three. So end result, forced shots, but made enough big ones in crunch time to set the stage for Mike and Kevin. Without him pouring in 7 pts in the final 2 minutes, they never get a chance to star. So for a big board effort and clutch, if maybe selfish, play down the stretch, a solid grade. In fact the only wart, although its a big ole hairy golfball sized one on the end of his nose, is all the forced shots, and misses, he keeps throwing up.
Thomas ( F ) -- did absolutely nothing out there after a couple of early adventures trying to challenge Wallace inside. Missed a dunk in the early 4th in the face of the interior defense, and fouled out soon therafter after a remarkable 0pts (0-1FG 0-2FT) 3reb 2ast 3TO effort in 32 minutes. He's fortunate Reef was smelly too or this is starting lineup changing stuff.
Miller ( D+ ) -- started off looking very shaky on offense again. Was at least grabbing some boards, and when he finally woke up offensively near the end of the first half the end result was a solid looking statistical half, that was much less so out on the actual court. Started off the third continuing to miss shots and turn it over, but without the rebounding, and found himself on the bench for a long long stretch. Finally got back in once Kenny fouled out after a useless evening in the late 4th, and picked a good time to finally hit a jumper in the final two minutes.
Martin ( A ) -- there was a question whether to "+" this or not after he hit the game winner. Best early moments were on defense -- stepping in front of an errant pass for the easy breakaway, and getting back on the break defensively to step in for a charge. But on offense was struggling to finish in the face of the Bulls' interior shotblockers. But as the half wore on Kevin was about the only guy able to give us any offense at all with the occasional fastbreak layup or backdoor cut. And in the second half he was the guy along with Mike who came alive in the third to bring us back when it looked like we were ready to go down in one of the truly ugly defeats in Sacto franchise history. Lot of easy scores again, but also as his confidence grew was mixing in higher difficulty spinning drives to really put pressure on the Bulls. As did his drawing a lot of fouls (although frankly tonight he and Mike were displaying a healthy mastery of the art of the NBA mini-flop where any contact sends you flying). Still looked like it would all be for naught until an unlikely series of plays opened the door for us and Mike hit one of his huge clutch threes, setting the stage for Kevin to knock down his first (so far as I can recall) regular season game winner.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Almost impossible to grade -- 5-15 shooting? 11 Turnovers? 23pts 9ast and a clutch three wihtout which we are doomed? Impossible. In the first half hit his first two jumpers, then began to really struggle with the rest of the team. Was at least able to sneak in a few points from the line. Along the way tried for the incredibly dubious pts/ast/TO triple double, but came up short....in assists.
Appeared to be vulnerable to having his pocket picked and leaving the dribble behiond him -- maybe his thumb bothering him. And was annoying me by just horribly flopping all over the court on every bit of contact, unfortunately leaving the ball behind when he didn't draw the whistle. Yet it was he and Kevin who woke up in the third to save us, and who finished the Bulls off with clutch shots in the final seconds. MIke hitting the huge three to get us within one, and then ddrawing the Bulkls defense to kick to a wide open Kevin for the winner. As I said, impossible. So I end up giving a B type grade to a guy with 11 TOs. Wow.Salmons ( C+ ) -- helped some on defense with his length, nothing on offense. But the defensive focus also got him into quick foul trouble.
Reef ( D ) -- was mildly aggressive offensively, but to little effect , and missed shots with Big Ben lurking. Grabbed an occasional board, but looked overmatched in there. Got beat several times in the final minutes by Nocioni inside and ended up gettign pulled in and out int eh final minutes.
Price ( INC ) -- didn't do much in a short first half stint, but the one thing he did do was come from behind on Nocioni for a spectacular basket saving block after Andres has grabbed an o-board on a foul shot. Got back in there finally for the final play and helped cause Duhon's final turnover wiht solid defense. So almost no minutes, but two good defensive plays in that span.
Garcia ( INC ) -- got in briefly in the midst of the early 2nd quarter ugliness after Salmons picked up his three quickies, missed an open three, and got himself banished soon therafter. Reappeared for defensive purposes int eh final seconds. Clearly a spot player with a ridiculously short leashg right now
Corliss ( INC ) -- got the surprise insertion for the first time with about 3 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, didn't do much, and threw up a couple of ugly shots in the face of a lot of attention he was drawing from the Bulls' defense.
Muss ( B- ) -- Let's see, he routinely plays Artest as a PF, his bench consists of basically 1 guy (Reef), and yet he pulls off a win. Hmmm...sounds familiar.
First of all...we absolutely stole this one. We didn't so much win it as we lost it less against an opponent absolutely determined to give it to us. But you have to take those too over the course of a season. And ugly or not, there were once again good signs -- intense defense in the early going helped us survive absolutely horrible offense. And...well, we won. You have to give Muss credit for the defense...and if you do that unfortunately the offense too. Indeed until the final minute or so, it was hard to see Muss doing much of anything as we wonce again ran the main guys huge minutes, only went 1 1/2 deep into the bench, and rarely seemed to run an offensive play. I am not sure how/what to grade Muss on yet. Unsure of the scale. But we won, so a C or lower game where teh only good thing was the defense suddenly becomes a low B where the defense keyed an unlikely win. Duhon ( A+ ) -- had an absolutely disastrous final minute, throwing the ball away to open the door for us with 15 seconds to go, then inexplicably leaving Kevin wide open for the game winning shot, and then turning it over again to cinch it for us. If we want a backup PG, we could probably pick up Duhon for a Big Mac and a coke right now. Maybe even for KT. Maybe.
Skiles ( ? ) -- helped us along mightily with some very strange substitutions, and then compounded it by drawing up some late game inbounds plays that looked like something you scratch out in the dirt in a pickup game.
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