Well ain't I just the lucky charm?
As I missed the last couple much better results, in lieu of a theme I'm just going to present all three grades (from the last three games) at once for each guy. Note that the second game (vs. Chicago) was watched in a basement common room while taking numerous phone calls, so notes are brief and impressions may have been flawed.
Ron Artest
Game 1 (NOH): 40min 24pts (11-22FG 0-0FT) 5reb 2ast 3stl 1blk 2TO
Grade: (A-) -- played an enormous first half, and gee, against Peja who would have thunk? But also got to abuse the woeful David West as well. Just dominated on offense, and helped shut everything down inside. Reduced the Hornets to jumpshooting. Cooled in the third, and it hurt us, but did come back to get the gimme at the buzzer to pushing it back to 14 after the Hornets fell asleep on the inbouds pass. Meanwhile Peja woke up and exploded on us for 25pts (Peja is not that player anymore and averages about 15ppg this season). But most of it was through a ridiculous 7-13 from 3pt range which is hard for a defender to do much about given Peja's range. Peja did his polite late disappearing act thing though as the Hornets came stoming back, so Ron got to keep the game ball.
Game 2 (CHI): 38min 28pts (10-20FG 5-6FT) 6reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Grade: (A-) Scored 28pts on 50% shooting and yet found himself only the second best King on a night when Wilt the Hick suddenly manifested (which still should have left him feeling better than Keivn, who scored 26 on 75% shooting and was only the third best player). Came alive late in the second quarter to play Brad's wingman, and was still helping in the third, but began to falter late. He and Brad created a lot of Kevin's early offense in this one -- our problem was our inability to stop the worst ofensive team in the NBA, not our own scoring.
Game 3 (SEA): 40min 20pts (9-22FG 1-4FT) 3reb 4ast 3stl 0blk 4TO
Grade: (B-) -- this was a tough one to grade. In the first half Ron was quite good on both ends, and as it turns out his quite goodness was the only thing bouying us up from a homecourt blowout. On the other hand, once he went cold in the second half (a recurring problem of late) we were dead, and part of it might have been because Ron's early activity helped freeze his teammates. Of course that is going too easy on those teammates -- Kevin and Mike in particular were just horrid and looked like they barely cared. Nonetheless, the feeling lingers --- Ron made this about himself. While he was going well, we hung in. When he cooled, he kept firing + missing and there was nobody else interested in being part of Ron's game.
Mikki Moore
Game 1 (NOH): 27min 10pts (4-5FG 2-2FT) 7reb 1ast 0stl 3blk 1TO
Grade: (A-) -- in the first half a couple of inside finishes and one ridiculous scream/flex dunk (at least I think it was a flex, hard tell with those arms), but more importantly continued right from where he left off last game on defense. Flying around inside and blocking and distracting various Hornets, especially his man David West who was exposed in all his undersized jump shooting non-defense playing no-way-do-I-deserve-to-be-an-All-Star-before-Baron_David glory. Not as effective after the break as West got going and Mikki, well looked like Mikki Moore matched against an All Star.
Game 2 (CHI): 25min 5pts (2-2FG 1-1FT) 2reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Grade: ( C ) ineffective first half, and outperformed by fellow skinny hair man Noah. Had a little burst in the early third, but generally very poor numbers, and gave us nothing at all on the glass. Did earn what grade he did for again, for the third night in a row, helping on defense. Foul trouble, always an issue, was prohibitive this time and led to him fouling out well before the stretch run.
Game 3 (SEA): 34min 10pts (4-9FG 2-3FT) 9reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Grade: (C) -- got the start at center in place of Brad, and racked up the minutes you would expect of a starting center. Nor do the numbers look terrible -- 10pts 9rebs is ok. But really not that terribly effective and I think exposed a bit in his Mikki Mooreness -- can be an effective roleplayer playing off of people, but put in the position to be the anchor...well, he's just not. Other than a couple of the normal dunks where he seemed to be fitfully trying to get himself, and us, going, he was largely invisible as the Sonics had few problems scoring inside.
Brad Miller
Game 1 (NOH): 39min 22pts (7-13FG 7-11FT) 14reb 4ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Grade: (A-) -- and this was the bad game from the Brad in the last week. Continued right on from where he left off last game, and he and Ron again were the engines in the first half explosion. Was going right over the back of Tyson Chandler, who really didn't look terribly enthusiastic about resisting the unstoppable hick. Brad slowed after the break though, and Chandler began to become a major factor with his Mikki Moore offensive game (i.e. run to rim, let teammate (Paul) hit you in chest wiht ball, dunk ball).
Game 2 (CHI): 39min 22pts (5-16FG 12-15FT) 20reb 4ast 4stl 2blk 2TO
Grade: ( A+ ) Ridiculous. We had one guy score 28, another 26, and neither one was on remotely the same planet as our best player. Most of our recent push has been Brad and Ron, and here they were again kicking butt and taking names (while we as a team actually played a poor game). Had an excellent first half passingwise -- Brad was so on that we should have maybe divvied up Kevin's points by about half and given them to Brad. Scrapped and scrapped and scrapped on the boards again -- almost funny these last few gameshow ridiculously active Brad has been. Just every play attacking, bouncing around. Just for kicks several times timed Noah's unsophisticated layup attempts for blocks. The guy shot 5-16 from the field, and I looked at that, and was legitimately tempted to go down to A. But you know what? Reminded me of when Webb would occasionaly have a shooting night like that. Did not matter. Brad shot 5-16, but he imposed his will on the game in every other aspect, dominated the game again. Now as a rule Brad's previous exertions of will have centered around getting another beer from the fridge, but he was simply out of the world feeling it again. Just two games ago he had his career game, and I said it was safe to say it would be his only 20-20 game. Well...
Game 3 (SEA): N/A
Grade: (N/A) -- see? this is what happens when you remove a nightly 20/20 Hall of Fame center from your lineup.
As I missed the last couple much better results, in lieu of a theme I'm just going to present all three grades (from the last three games) at once for each guy. Note that the second game (vs. Chicago) was watched in a basement common room while taking numerous phone calls, so notes are brief and impressions may have been flawed.
Ron Artest
Game 1 (NOH): 40min 24pts (11-22FG 0-0FT) 5reb 2ast 3stl 1blk 2TO
Grade: (A-) -- played an enormous first half, and gee, against Peja who would have thunk? But also got to abuse the woeful David West as well. Just dominated on offense, and helped shut everything down inside. Reduced the Hornets to jumpshooting. Cooled in the third, and it hurt us, but did come back to get the gimme at the buzzer to pushing it back to 14 after the Hornets fell asleep on the inbouds pass. Meanwhile Peja woke up and exploded on us for 25pts (Peja is not that player anymore and averages about 15ppg this season). But most of it was through a ridiculous 7-13 from 3pt range which is hard for a defender to do much about given Peja's range. Peja did his polite late disappearing act thing though as the Hornets came stoming back, so Ron got to keep the game ball.
Game 2 (CHI): 38min 28pts (10-20FG 5-6FT) 6reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Grade: (A-) Scored 28pts on 50% shooting and yet found himself only the second best King on a night when Wilt the Hick suddenly manifested (which still should have left him feeling better than Keivn, who scored 26 on 75% shooting and was only the third best player). Came alive late in the second quarter to play Brad's wingman, and was still helping in the third, but began to falter late. He and Brad created a lot of Kevin's early offense in this one -- our problem was our inability to stop the worst ofensive team in the NBA, not our own scoring.
Game 3 (SEA): 40min 20pts (9-22FG 1-4FT) 3reb 4ast 3stl 0blk 4TO
Grade: (B-) -- this was a tough one to grade. In the first half Ron was quite good on both ends, and as it turns out his quite goodness was the only thing bouying us up from a homecourt blowout. On the other hand, once he went cold in the second half (a recurring problem of late) we were dead, and part of it might have been because Ron's early activity helped freeze his teammates. Of course that is going too easy on those teammates -- Kevin and Mike in particular were just horrid and looked like they barely cared. Nonetheless, the feeling lingers --- Ron made this about himself. While he was going well, we hung in. When he cooled, he kept firing + missing and there was nobody else interested in being part of Ron's game.
Mikki Moore
Game 1 (NOH): 27min 10pts (4-5FG 2-2FT) 7reb 1ast 0stl 3blk 1TO
Grade: (A-) -- in the first half a couple of inside finishes and one ridiculous scream/flex dunk (at least I think it was a flex, hard tell with those arms), but more importantly continued right from where he left off last game on defense. Flying around inside and blocking and distracting various Hornets, especially his man David West who was exposed in all his undersized jump shooting non-defense playing no-way-do-I-deserve-to-be-an-All-Star-before-Baron_David glory. Not as effective after the break as West got going and Mikki, well looked like Mikki Moore matched against an All Star.
Game 2 (CHI): 25min 5pts (2-2FG 1-1FT) 2reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Grade: ( C ) ineffective first half, and outperformed by fellow skinny hair man Noah. Had a little burst in the early third, but generally very poor numbers, and gave us nothing at all on the glass. Did earn what grade he did for again, for the third night in a row, helping on defense. Foul trouble, always an issue, was prohibitive this time and led to him fouling out well before the stretch run.
Game 3 (SEA): 34min 10pts (4-9FG 2-3FT) 9reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Grade: (C) -- got the start at center in place of Brad, and racked up the minutes you would expect of a starting center. Nor do the numbers look terrible -- 10pts 9rebs is ok. But really not that terribly effective and I think exposed a bit in his Mikki Mooreness -- can be an effective roleplayer playing off of people, but put in the position to be the anchor...well, he's just not. Other than a couple of the normal dunks where he seemed to be fitfully trying to get himself, and us, going, he was largely invisible as the Sonics had few problems scoring inside.
Brad Miller
Game 1 (NOH): 39min 22pts (7-13FG 7-11FT) 14reb 4ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Grade: (A-) -- and this was the bad game from the Brad in the last week. Continued right on from where he left off last game, and he and Ron again were the engines in the first half explosion. Was going right over the back of Tyson Chandler, who really didn't look terribly enthusiastic about resisting the unstoppable hick. Brad slowed after the break though, and Chandler began to become a major factor with his Mikki Moore offensive game (i.e. run to rim, let teammate (Paul) hit you in chest wiht ball, dunk ball).
Game 2 (CHI): 39min 22pts (5-16FG 12-15FT) 20reb 4ast 4stl 2blk 2TO
Grade: ( A+ ) Ridiculous. We had one guy score 28, another 26, and neither one was on remotely the same planet as our best player. Most of our recent push has been Brad and Ron, and here they were again kicking butt and taking names (while we as a team actually played a poor game). Had an excellent first half passingwise -- Brad was so on that we should have maybe divvied up Kevin's points by about half and given them to Brad. Scrapped and scrapped and scrapped on the boards again -- almost funny these last few gameshow ridiculously active Brad has been. Just every play attacking, bouncing around. Just for kicks several times timed Noah's unsophisticated layup attempts for blocks. The guy shot 5-16 from the field, and I looked at that, and was legitimately tempted to go down to A. But you know what? Reminded me of when Webb would occasionaly have a shooting night like that. Did not matter. Brad shot 5-16, but he imposed his will on the game in every other aspect, dominated the game again. Now as a rule Brad's previous exertions of will have centered around getting another beer from the fridge, but he was simply out of the world feeling it again. Just two games ago he had his career game, and I said it was safe to say it would be his only 20-20 game. Well...
Game 3 (SEA): N/A
Grade: (N/A) -- see? this is what happens when you remove a nightly 20/20 Hall of Fame center from your lineup.
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Was our only offensive weapon going early, and most of his hits were the high percentage easy ones -- leak outs, back cuts, open threes. Got into a little chippy lovefest with Ben Gordon in the third after he gave him a shove out of bounds, and Gordon, not appreciating came back to stick the ball in his chest. And Kevin kind of disappeared after that -- not really suggesting the two things were connected, but Gordon got stronger and really came on firing up bombs, and Kevin...that was just kind of it for whatever reason. Missed several shots down the stretch, but also came up with a three that helped stave off defeat. Got 26pts but was actually our worst player on the floor tonight. Of course that's because we actually only had three players in uniform, and even 3 on 5 they all kicked various degrees of butt. Kevin just less than either Brad or Ron.
