Artest ( A+ ) -- completely ridiculous game. At one point he was 15-19 from the field. The ONLY reason we won this one against a crap team. Was clearly feeling it from the very beginning, and wrapped up an excellent first half offensively which he spent attacking the rim and taking open threes. Spent a lot of time in the first half at the 4, defended it well, but probably part of the reason we were getting squished on the glass. Never missed a beat with the offense after half and more or less singelehandedly held off numerous Knicks surges by just knocking down anythinh and everything that left his hand. Boarded well after half too (got 8). Oh, and threw in 5 steals. Did I mention the completely ridiculous part? In any case, just a little reminder from Ron Ron that he is the greatest player In Kingsland. Or can be. Or could be. If he was sane. Which he's not. Anyway...no brainer A+.
Thomas ( B ) -- solid roleplaying game getting most of what he got because of the creative abilities of others. Too small to slow down the tall NY frontline without a lot of doubling and sagging from perimeter guys, but until a late arrival by Ron, was the only King even pretending to rebound in there. Got yanked down the stretch in one of those totally mysterious Muss brain farts that sometimes work out -- Corliss was inserted, scored some hoops, and so Kenny sat the rest of the way. Said something to Muss on the way to the bench it looked like. And you know what? In this case he may have been justified.
Miller ( C- ) -- fast start offensively, but on the other end got worked over by everybody he tried to guard in the post. Hit a shot to start the second half, and then had a massive attack of the stupids -- back came the Brad bitter beer face of years past, and after he thought he was fouled on a drive, he barked at the ref, got a T, refused to shutup, and so got himself tossed right out of the game maybe 3 minutes into the second half. Thx Brad. Left the game with 0 rebounds again too -- meaning he may last have had a rebound sometime before Christmas. Hard to impossible to grade, but did not want to wuss out with the Inc.
Martin ( B- ) -- strong and varied first half, working mostly off of cuts, and hitting several fo those running one handers. But started off the 2nd half not only being quiet offensively, but seeing Crawford light him up on the other end. That led to a quick insertion for Salmons and...well, that was it. Our leading scorer sat from the 6:00 mark fo the third right through the end of the game. Another thing that's tough to grade. Offense looked good for a half. Defenseively got schooled. Disappeared, and then was benched very early. Crawford quieted down after Salmons arrived too, although any of my fellow NY market types cna tell you you never know when he's going to heat up or cool off, so its nto a 100% correlation to the defense. In any case, kind of bailing here on the grade too.
Bibby ( B ) -- wavered but finally went with the solid B here because ike made a number of strong passes for assists tonight. Solid offensive first half capped by a lucky buzzer beating three. Some nice assists along the way too. Was very quiet for a long stretch of the second half, but then finally stepped up to hit a three in the 4th as Ron's hotness seemed to rub off on his teammates. Unfortunately then came right down next possession and forced a bad three in hero mode. In fact did that several times tongiht and it bothered me. Just dribbling over half court and chucking some ugly crap. May have been an overactive imagination but I kept on getting the impression he might have been tryign to compete with Ron. Maybe. Maybe not. But bothered me enoguh not to be terribly enthusiastic about this B.
Salmons ( C+ ) -- very tough grade -- a gentleman's "D" mitigated by a speculative defensive effect. Very quiet first half again, although did make one nice drive and dish, and a couple of defensive plays. Shaky decisionmaking too. But then after half suddenly got called upon to replace Kevin (as it turned out permanently) to try to slow down Jamaal Crawford, who was just lighting us up. And he did. Or at least Jamaal cooled. As one of the streakiest players in the NBA you can never really be sure what gets Jamaal going or stopping -- might also just have been that guy in the 7th rown eating his nachos with his left hand rather than right. Nonetheless, I'm giving all kinds of benefit of the doubt here to a guy who contributed a grand total of 2pts 3rebs 1ast and 3TOs in 29min, and giving him a grade on the theoretical defensive effect alone.
Reef ( C ) -- in the first half much like Brad got run over by Curry, and watched Lee grab 10 first half rebounds. Then unexpectedly got called upon in the early third as Brad's little hampster finally entirely jumped the wheel, and for the rest of the game it was Reef as a starting center trying to check big Eddie Curry. And actually, although he had all kinds of help (as in basically the whole team collapsing) it wasn't the slaughter it could have been if the Knicks for instance had a collective brain between them. Of course Reef did little or nothing himself, chipping in a few points (including one big power dunk on Curry in the late third) but almost no boardwork (2) and standing flatfooted as we got pummeled inside for most of the night..
Douby ( C+ ) -- solid 2nd quarter minutes. Hit a three. But nothing after half other than getting physically overpowered by Marbury on one play.
Garcia ( C- ) -- out of control 2nd quarter leading to nothing. So much for the heroes of the last game.
Williamson ( B- ) -- in the first half, brought in as a "big" to try to body up with Eddie Curry, but just giving up too much size. In the second half got mysteriously inserted -- ok, probably stupidly inserted -- by our wunderkind coach just out of the blue down the stretch of the game. Hadn't played in 30 minutes, was ice cold, the game was tight, he had looked bad in the first half, and he replaced our only rebounder on the night. And yet it worked, with Corliss quickly scoring a series of easy hoops off of good passes down the stretch.
Muss ( ) --
Thomas ( B ) -- solid roleplaying game getting most of what he got because of the creative abilities of others. Too small to slow down the tall NY frontline without a lot of doubling and sagging from perimeter guys, but until a late arrival by Ron, was the only King even pretending to rebound in there. Got yanked down the stretch in one of those totally mysterious Muss brain farts that sometimes work out -- Corliss was inserted, scored some hoops, and so Kenny sat the rest of the way. Said something to Muss on the way to the bench it looked like. And you know what? In this case he may have been justified.
Miller ( C- ) -- fast start offensively, but on the other end got worked over by everybody he tried to guard in the post. Hit a shot to start the second half, and then had a massive attack of the stupids -- back came the Brad bitter beer face of years past, and after he thought he was fouled on a drive, he barked at the ref, got a T, refused to shutup, and so got himself tossed right out of the game maybe 3 minutes into the second half. Thx Brad. Left the game with 0 rebounds again too -- meaning he may last have had a rebound sometime before Christmas. Hard to impossible to grade, but did not want to wuss out with the Inc.
Martin ( B- ) -- strong and varied first half, working mostly off of cuts, and hitting several fo those running one handers. But started off the 2nd half not only being quiet offensively, but seeing Crawford light him up on the other end. That led to a quick insertion for Salmons and...well, that was it. Our leading scorer sat from the 6:00 mark fo the third right through the end of the game. Another thing that's tough to grade. Offense looked good for a half. Defenseively got schooled. Disappeared, and then was benched very early. Crawford quieted down after Salmons arrived too, although any of my fellow NY market types cna tell you you never know when he's going to heat up or cool off, so its nto a 100% correlation to the defense. In any case, kind of bailing here on the grade too.
Bibby ( B ) -- wavered but finally went with the solid B here because ike made a number of strong passes for assists tonight. Solid offensive first half capped by a lucky buzzer beating three. Some nice assists along the way too. Was very quiet for a long stretch of the second half, but then finally stepped up to hit a three in the 4th as Ron's hotness seemed to rub off on his teammates. Unfortunately then came right down next possession and forced a bad three in hero mode. In fact did that several times tongiht and it bothered me. Just dribbling over half court and chucking some ugly crap. May have been an overactive imagination but I kept on getting the impression he might have been tryign to compete with Ron. Maybe. Maybe not. But bothered me enoguh not to be terribly enthusiastic about this B.
Salmons ( C+ ) -- very tough grade -- a gentleman's "D" mitigated by a speculative defensive effect. Very quiet first half again, although did make one nice drive and dish, and a couple of defensive plays. Shaky decisionmaking too. But then after half suddenly got called upon to replace Kevin (as it turned out permanently) to try to slow down Jamaal Crawford, who was just lighting us up. And he did. Or at least Jamaal cooled. As one of the streakiest players in the NBA you can never really be sure what gets Jamaal going or stopping -- might also just have been that guy in the 7th rown eating his nachos with his left hand rather than right. Nonetheless, I'm giving all kinds of benefit of the doubt here to a guy who contributed a grand total of 2pts 3rebs 1ast and 3TOs in 29min, and giving him a grade on the theoretical defensive effect alone.
Reef ( C ) -- in the first half much like Brad got run over by Curry, and watched Lee grab 10 first half rebounds. Then unexpectedly got called upon in the early third as Brad's little hampster finally entirely jumped the wheel, and for the rest of the game it was Reef as a starting center trying to check big Eddie Curry. And actually, although he had all kinds of help (as in basically the whole team collapsing) it wasn't the slaughter it could have been if the Knicks for instance had a collective brain between them. Of course Reef did little or nothing himself, chipping in a few points (including one big power dunk on Curry in the late third) but almost no boardwork (2) and standing flatfooted as we got pummeled inside for most of the night..
Douby ( C+ ) -- solid 2nd quarter minutes. Hit a three. But nothing after half other than getting physically overpowered by Marbury on one play.
Garcia ( C- ) -- out of control 2nd quarter leading to nothing. So much for the heroes of the last game.
Williamson ( B- ) -- in the first half, brought in as a "big" to try to body up with Eddie Curry, but just giving up too much size. In the second half got mysteriously inserted -- ok, probably stupidly inserted -- by our wunderkind coach just out of the blue down the stretch of the game. Hadn't played in 30 minutes, was ice cold, the game was tight, he had looked bad in the first half, and he replaced our only rebounder on the night. And yet it worked, with Corliss quickly scoring a series of easy hoops off of good passes down the stretch.
Muss ( ) --
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