Thompson ( C ) -- think the whole Jason as SF thing may be winding down now, and while it was a good patch to keep him getting minutes despite the frontcourt crowd, I doubt this little mini-era is going to be missed by many. Came out in this one hustling, making one great hustle play in particular in the first quarter that had him tipping the ball twice, then diving out after it onto the floor and saving it to a teammate. But his game never progressed past hustle player in this one. Never did get anything done offensively, and several times tried to post Tim Duncan, which had him learning his rookie lessons again. Actually spent a good chunk of his time at PF this time out, as this time when we brought in Douby we swung Jason up to PF rather than stick with Mikki. Good idea, but Jason wasn't much more effective at his natural position. Reggie gave him an unexpected chance to wash away memories of a thoroughly mediocre game by calling his number in the post with the game tied and less than 30 seconds to go...and could not get it to go over the Spurs set defense (Oberto was the primary defender). And so ended up as part of our three headed late game goat in this one instead.
Moore ( B ) -- a better performance from Mikki, who seemed to have a little extra spring in his legs and used it to actually get on the glass. Even got himself a block, which likely surprised him as much as the guy it was on, and overall the defense was not much of an issue against the revolving garbage that circles around Duncan (Miller seemed to have main Duncan duties), although I would like to add my own brief little scouting report on Matt Bonner for Mikki and the rest of our PFs: shoots threes. That's it. Crowd him. Lost minutes tonight not so much for anything he was doing as because Reggie swapped the rotation, and this time kept Jason in the game when Douby entered and slid him up to the PF spot, rather than keeping Mikki in and taking out JT.
Miller ( C+ ) -- a bit of a tough outing to grade for Brad, but in the end I think rounds out to: ok. Had the primary assignment against Duncan, and while Timmy rarely truly dominates anymore Brad still did a solid job at keeping his body between he and the hoop. On the other end did risk one of his waddling gallups to the hoop when he got up a full head of steam and had an angle on Duncan (who is no gazelle either), but otherwise largely just settled for the occasional 18 footer which he popped in at a middling clip. Joined the three headed goat club for us at the end of the game, when we drew up the second of our game-tying/winning attempts in the final seconds for Salmons/Miller. John did his job, drawing the defense and kicking the ball over to an open Brad for the 12-14 foot jumper from the side...and he airballed it. I made fun of Sean Singletary for choking so hard in the Phoenix game that he airballed a similar opportunity. But Brad's no rook and is an excellent midrange shooter. If Singletary's voice went up two octaves on his choke, Brad probably needs to be consulting with the dance team about where to get the best dilapitories. Went with the half grade drop for the choke.
Salmons ( A ) -- clearly our best player of the night, and not by a little. Pretty much carried us most of the way on offense, and did it extremely efficently too. In true exaggerated Kevin Martin fashion 31 points on 13 shots!!! But even taking away the exaggeration, he shot 10-13 from the firld, 3-4 from beyond the arc, 8-9 from the line...just shot the hell out of the ball from everywhere. Now it helped of course that the Spurs dire straits have them starting both Finley and Roger Mason to try to get some offense into the lienup, and hainvg steeply declining Bruce Bowen coming off the bench rather than harassing your best scorer. But even when Bowen returned he only sporadically bothered Salmons. The rest of the game wasn't really there -- John frequently dominated the ball as he is wont, dribbling and dribbling and dribbling looking for me myself and I, wasn't much ball movement, wasn't on the glass (more acceptable for these starts at OG than SF but 1 a game still ain't helping) and the defense wasn't up to his normal standards either. But offensively he was clearly and completely the man for us out there, and came within 1 point of his career high. The fact that he did not get a chance to go over that career high is interesting -- with John sitting on 31 points on 75% shooting, nobody else on the team having scored more than 16, and the game tied in the final 30 seconds, we first went to Jason Thompson (shot 4-13) then Brad Miller (John made the pass to set him up, so maybe he was supposed to shoot that one), and then Quincy Douby (shot 4-10 and just got done choking the game winner last time out against Phoenix). So John never got a shot at it. Odd. When handing out my grades I generally like my scorers to do something less self involved than just scoring points, but the proximity to his career high, as well as the degree to which he carried us makes the straight A warranted here.
Udrih ( B ) -- likely our second best player, and showed flashes of doing the ole stick it to his old team thing, but not able to sustain. Was aggressive early and repeately challenging, and generally beating, old teammate Duncan. Had a strong third quarter until San Antonio decided enough with the rookie George Hill at PG, and went to tough little vet Jacque Vaughn. They also began switching up the defense, and late in the game Bowen was actually out on him. As has happened several times before with Beno, while he was on the hot streak and facing single coverage, abel to atack at will. Once he came down of the streak, and the opponent adjusted with better personnel and more attention, he disappeared in the 4th. Not the negative assist/To ratio. Real tough stretch for Beno here hasn't it been? Aside from the slumbering Baron Davis, has faced CJ Watson, Goran Dragic, and now George Hill as his starting opponents this last week.
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Hawes ( C ) -- not one of his better outings. In fact one of his worst thus far. I'll give you one guess what he decided to do with his offense when faced with Tim Duncan. Except that his shot was not on. So now not only has your best/only post player made himself into a perimeter jumperhsooter, but now he's a missing perimeter jumpershooter as well, which basically means he was useless on offense. Should also be noted that he is 0 for his last 9 from 3pt land, which is a bad mini-slump for a shooting guard, but reaching ridiculous for a center with post skills. Quit shooting them. At a certain point that is on the coaching staff too. Was a better story on the other end fo the floor, where I felt he did a decent job against Duncan when he was on him (overpowered a few times but otherwise impeded him) and came up with a few more blocks -- in a surprise probably the most consistent part of his game thus far. Was solid on the glass as well, and so this was not a disaster, but someone has got to slap this kid on offense. When Brad runs to the perimeter its because his post game is sad and he has no answer. But Hawes could be good in there -- except he's too afraid to ever challenge anyone and runs away at the first sign of resistance.
Jackson ( D ) -- made a few hustle plays in the first half but that was largely it. Led to short minutes and little evidence he had een played.
Brown ( B- ) -- Thought I would copy/paste this here, as clearly this is all that needs to be said:
Hey Bricklayer Before You Grade Bobby Brown
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YOU NEED TO WATCH THE GAME VERY CLOSE HE GOT THE BALL TO THE RITE PEOPLE HE DID WHAT A PG IS SUPPOSE TO DO PUT PRESSURE ON THE BALL AND MAKE PLAYS FOR HIS TEAMMATE'S
Douby ( B- ) -- Quincy always seems to end up in this same place. In the more normal rotation this time as an answer to Kevin/Cisco being absent, but again his real adventures came after half. Came in in the third and had an immediate impact again, spacing the floor with threes and helping us balance things. But began to cool down, into the 4th, and other than stepping back up for one more three, was largely silent until Reggie suddenly called his number again for a chance at redemption -- a desperation three point heave at the buzzer to win it. Not close, and instead of redemption, the scrubby tweener guard who has spent most of the season not even on the active roster, now gets to wear back to back goat horns as the premier member of our rapidly expanding could've-won-it-but-I-choked club. 5 plays in the last two games against crippled playoff teams. Douby 0-2. Salmons 0-1. Brad 0-1. Thompson 0-1. Hell, before long we might as well give Kenny a shot.
Williams ( INC ) -- just a few brief minutes in the first half I guess as a failed experiment.
Moore ( B ) -- a better performance from Mikki, who seemed to have a little extra spring in his legs and used it to actually get on the glass. Even got himself a block, which likely surprised him as much as the guy it was on, and overall the defense was not much of an issue against the revolving garbage that circles around Duncan (Miller seemed to have main Duncan duties), although I would like to add my own brief little scouting report on Matt Bonner for Mikki and the rest of our PFs: shoots threes. That's it. Crowd him. Lost minutes tonight not so much for anything he was doing as because Reggie swapped the rotation, and this time kept Jason in the game when Douby entered and slid him up to the PF spot, rather than keeping Mikki in and taking out JT.
Miller ( C+ ) -- a bit of a tough outing to grade for Brad, but in the end I think rounds out to: ok. Had the primary assignment against Duncan, and while Timmy rarely truly dominates anymore Brad still did a solid job at keeping his body between he and the hoop. On the other end did risk one of his waddling gallups to the hoop when he got up a full head of steam and had an angle on Duncan (who is no gazelle either), but otherwise largely just settled for the occasional 18 footer which he popped in at a middling clip. Joined the three headed goat club for us at the end of the game, when we drew up the second of our game-tying/winning attempts in the final seconds for Salmons/Miller. John did his job, drawing the defense and kicking the ball over to an open Brad for the 12-14 foot jumper from the side...and he airballed it. I made fun of Sean Singletary for choking so hard in the Phoenix game that he airballed a similar opportunity. But Brad's no rook and is an excellent midrange shooter. If Singletary's voice went up two octaves on his choke, Brad probably needs to be consulting with the dance team about where to get the best dilapitories. Went with the half grade drop for the choke.
Salmons ( A ) -- clearly our best player of the night, and not by a little. Pretty much carried us most of the way on offense, and did it extremely efficently too. In true exaggerated Kevin Martin fashion 31 points on 13 shots!!! But even taking away the exaggeration, he shot 10-13 from the firld, 3-4 from beyond the arc, 8-9 from the line...just shot the hell out of the ball from everywhere. Now it helped of course that the Spurs dire straits have them starting both Finley and Roger Mason to try to get some offense into the lienup, and hainvg steeply declining Bruce Bowen coming off the bench rather than harassing your best scorer. But even when Bowen returned he only sporadically bothered Salmons. The rest of the game wasn't really there -- John frequently dominated the ball as he is wont, dribbling and dribbling and dribbling looking for me myself and I, wasn't much ball movement, wasn't on the glass (more acceptable for these starts at OG than SF but 1 a game still ain't helping) and the defense wasn't up to his normal standards either. But offensively he was clearly and completely the man for us out there, and came within 1 point of his career high. The fact that he did not get a chance to go over that career high is interesting -- with John sitting on 31 points on 75% shooting, nobody else on the team having scored more than 16, and the game tied in the final 30 seconds, we first went to Jason Thompson (shot 4-13) then Brad Miller (John made the pass to set him up, so maybe he was supposed to shoot that one), and then Quincy Douby (shot 4-10 and just got done choking the game winner last time out against Phoenix). So John never got a shot at it. Odd. When handing out my grades I generally like my scorers to do something less self involved than just scoring points, but the proximity to his career high, as well as the degree to which he carried us makes the straight A warranted here.
Udrih ( B ) -- likely our second best player, and showed flashes of doing the ole stick it to his old team thing, but not able to sustain. Was aggressive early and repeately challenging, and generally beating, old teammate Duncan. Had a strong third quarter until San Antonio decided enough with the rookie George Hill at PG, and went to tough little vet Jacque Vaughn. They also began switching up the defense, and late in the game Bowen was actually out on him. As has happened several times before with Beno, while he was on the hot streak and facing single coverage, abel to atack at will. Once he came down of the streak, and the opponent adjusted with better personnel and more attention, he disappeared in the 4th. Not the negative assist/To ratio. Real tough stretch for Beno here hasn't it been? Aside from the slumbering Baron Davis, has faced CJ Watson, Goran Dragic, and now George Hill as his starting opponents this last week.
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Hawes ( C ) -- not one of his better outings. In fact one of his worst thus far. I'll give you one guess what he decided to do with his offense when faced with Tim Duncan. Except that his shot was not on. So now not only has your best/only post player made himself into a perimeter jumperhsooter, but now he's a missing perimeter jumpershooter as well, which basically means he was useless on offense. Should also be noted that he is 0 for his last 9 from 3pt land, which is a bad mini-slump for a shooting guard, but reaching ridiculous for a center with post skills. Quit shooting them. At a certain point that is on the coaching staff too. Was a better story on the other end fo the floor, where I felt he did a decent job against Duncan when he was on him (overpowered a few times but otherwise impeded him) and came up with a few more blocks -- in a surprise probably the most consistent part of his game thus far. Was solid on the glass as well, and so this was not a disaster, but someone has got to slap this kid on offense. When Brad runs to the perimeter its because his post game is sad and he has no answer. But Hawes could be good in there -- except he's too afraid to ever challenge anyone and runs away at the first sign of resistance.
Jackson ( D ) -- made a few hustle plays in the first half but that was largely it. Led to short minutes and little evidence he had een played.
Brown ( B- ) -- Thought I would copy/paste this here, as clearly this is all that needs to be said:
Hey Bricklayer Before You Grade Bobby Brown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOU NEED TO WATCH THE GAME VERY CLOSE HE GOT THE BALL TO THE RITE PEOPLE HE DID WHAT A PG IS SUPPOSE TO DO PUT PRESSURE ON THE BALL AND MAKE PLAYS FOR HIS TEAMMATE'S
Douby ( B- ) -- Quincy always seems to end up in this same place. In the more normal rotation this time as an answer to Kevin/Cisco being absent, but again his real adventures came after half. Came in in the third and had an immediate impact again, spacing the floor with threes and helping us balance things. But began to cool down, into the 4th, and other than stepping back up for one more three, was largely silent until Reggie suddenly called his number again for a chance at redemption -- a desperation three point heave at the buzzer to win it. Not close, and instead of redemption, the scrubby tweener guard who has spent most of the season not even on the active roster, now gets to wear back to back goat horns as the premier member of our rapidly expanding could've-won-it-but-I-choked club. 5 plays in the last two games against crippled playoff teams. Douby 0-2. Salmons 0-1. Brad 0-1. Thompson 0-1. Hell, before long we might as well give Kenny a shot.
Williams ( INC ) -- just a few brief minutes in the first half I guess as a failed experiment.
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