Ah well, one step forward, one step back. Not sure who got slapped down harder, us, or the bat.
Halloween = an appropriate night for a horror story right?
Poor Bat. Probably a prank.
Mason ( B- ) -- nothing in his first stint, some scrappy play down the stretch of the second quarter as the Spurs put us away. Hardnosed play kept on the floor in the third, including a flying put back dunk. Did not slow down Jefferson at all (same way he did not slow down Durant -- he's not a stopper, just a guy who normally tries on that end), although with us constantly switching up the defensive assignments of our perimeter people, Mason was not always on Jefferson.
Thompson ( C- ) -- we kept trying to post him in the early going, sometimes to set up slashers, sometimes to let him go at Duncan
Did a nice job passing for the second night in the row, but unfortunately unless your name is Webber or Divac that's soemwhere way down there ont he lsit of things you really need out of your bigs, and Jason was largely rendered ineffective by Duncan, and checked off he boards for awhile by Blair as well. Did better going at Duncan in the third, but started picking up his dumb fouls as well and had to go to the bench. With Spencer reemerging it was Jason's turn to watch much of the late action (in this case just garbagetime) from the bench on his way to an ineffective 6pt 7reb night.
May ( C- ) -- in the early going bounced in a jumper courtesy of a Reke draw and kick, but otherwise struggled on defense against Duncan in his first stint. Was more active after he returned, but did make a bad careless backcourt pass that was picked off by The Beast (Blair) for an embarrassing freebie layup. On the positive side, did show the good high post passing once again, often setting up Mason. Lost some of his minutes with Spencer finally coming to play and finished up wiht an unimpressive 4pt 2reb night.
Martin ( B- ) -- finally got his offensive game going after shooting less than 30% through the first two games, but in many ways took a step back in every other aspect. Nudge me the next time you see anybody but Kevin come up with a 29pt 0reb 0ast statline. That takes effort, or rather lack of effort. That was kind of the distrubing thing about this one, and not just for Kevin -- felt a lot like game 1 with Kevin basically our only scorer while nobody else gave us anything, and even more unfortunately a lot like some of the games last year, with Kevin scoring a bunch of empty offensive points, yet doing nothing else and completely not mattering in a blowout where little defense was played. In fact if we are going to play the +/- game, Kevin came up with nearly as many minuses (-28) as points (29). In this one showed that it was going to be a different night offensively right from the beginning, getting off to a quick start scoring in a variety of ways and getting back to the line after the uncharacteristic shutout the night before. But the danger signs were there from the beginning as well, with nobody else getting involved at all -- Kevin finished the first quarter with 14 pts, nobody else had more than three. Largely shut down in the second quarter, and for the second night in a row got his jumpshot out near the three point line blocked by an opposing big with time tunning out. This time by Duncan in the final seconds of the 2nd quarter. Not effective helping bring the ball up. Continued adding points here and there as the Spurs coasted through the second half, and was somewhat inexplicably left out there to pad his stats up against the Spurs scrubs well after the game was over in the 4th, and even after we lost his backcourt mate to injury. Would have thoguht once Reke went down in a 20+pt blowout , that you get Kevin off the floor as quickly as possible just to make sure nothing freaky happens and you lose both guys in meaningless minutes.
Evans ( D+ ) -- sigh. So back to looking like a tentative rook like he did the first game. Knew what he wanted to do in this one, occasionally was able to do it, but the Spurs tried a variety of counters to keep Reke off balance, and he was never able to establish any kind of rhythm or impact until ironically just before he went down wiht a sprained ankle and had to leave the game. That obviously ended that. Started the game with a nice post, draw the double team, and kick to May for the open jumper. Wish any of our bigs understood that simple and yet devastating play. Of course it only works if you're abig enough load that the other team has to double you, and ironically our PG may end up being our most dangerous post presence. The Spurs were having trouble doubling him, so they began leaking Parker out to punish us the other way. And punish us they did -- Parker dominated this game back the other way, penetrating and scoring at will, and in the process getting Reke in foul trourble. Led to a long succession of desperate attempts to save Reke from further fouls by trying to guard Parker with Kevin, with Beno, with Omri Casspi believe it or not...none remotely worked. Meanwhile we were hiding Reke over on Jefferson to protect him, and he had the size to make that switch without it looking too ridiculous. Gave us a nifty spinning drive + kick to Beno for a three, but then picked up his third foul with about 4:00 min to go in the half, and coincidence or not we promptly fell apart and got blown out of the building -- what had been a close game was suddenly decided before half. Reke returned and started to come alive in the 3rd with a couple of strong drives, forcing the Spurs to call timeout, and then late in the quarter made back to back beautiful drive and dishes to Hawes along the baseline that are largely responsible for that "+". Got picked by Parker late, and then in the early 4th we had another Kings special -- a scary play when Reke went down grasping his ankle after stepping on Bonner's foot on a fast break attempt. Walked off the court but had to go to the locklrorom without shooting the FTs (Mason got to take them). Once again, like the first game, a game where you saw falshes fo great stuff, but where most of the minutes were a struggle to figure it out. He had a plan of attack, and sporadically it worked, but the Spurs not surprisingly were able to make it into an inefficient exercise where it would take four possessions of trying to work the post advantage to get one nifty play out of it. And meanwhile his opponent completely dictated play and just lit us up. In many ways, Reke still is in school. NBA PG school.
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Casspi ( C- ) -- bumped back up to first man off bench, but he may have preferred we didn't after a struggling night. Not able to get anything done on the offense in the first half, and found himself being forced to try to stay in front of Tony Parker for a long stretch of the second quarter, whcih not surprisingly did not work. Later got to guard Manu, and got scored over by him as well. This is where that injury to Cisco is tough -- Cisco was the backup SG, and now our choices are either a big PG (Beno) or poor Omri, who is 6'9" and was billed as a SF/Pf coming over, not a SF/SG. Let alone haivng to guard PGs. Added in a garbagetime three to make the stats look more respectable, but ineffective game on both sides of the ball.
Udrih ( C ) -- came right in for Reke and immediately splashed in a little jumper, but followed that by overpenetrating and throwing a pass to nobody up top that Parker picked up for an easy breakaway. Not surprsingly was just as ineffective as any other King at trying to slow Parker. Did not stand out for awfulness. Just kind of there.
Brockman ( C ) -- ah... Peaches vs. The Beast, Steelers vs. Seahawks, the matchup between two brahma bulls that everybody really wanted to see. An the winner was...well, probably The Beast. But during Brockman's minutes out there the two largely neutralized each other and Blair picked up the bulk of his numbers against others. Did get around Blair one time for a quick offensive board and follow, but otherwise largely checkd off the glass. Not really effective after half either against Blair or Ratliff. Still missing his FTs.
Hawes ( B ) -- Maybe a corner turned her. I hope. Played a poor first half in which he was still fluttering about and rushing things -- ineffective first stint and out of synch therafter. Got a few points, a few boards, but was turning it over left and right. But then suddenly Evans got him going in the third, and he seemed to settle in and get down to business. Might be an important moment for this team, and in a blowout loss of this type, might be the most significant development of the night (assuming Reke's ankle does indeed turn out to be minor). Was not just that he was able to finally be effective (quite a bit of it in garbage time), but that stylistically he played a lot closer to the way we need him too. Spencer is never physical, but tonight he did not shy from physical contact at least. He largely worked inside, used his height advantage over Blair in particular and did not go running screaming for mommy when The Beast bumped him. Finally did chuck up a three, just because he's a stubborn dip of a kid, but for the most part this was promising and he ended up putting together a 20-10 game (again largely in garbagetime after a struggle in the first half while the game was still in question, hence the lack of more enthusiasm). Tried to go in for the ultimate garbage stat -- a dunk with time running out in a 19pt loss (Sergio could have just run the clock out), and appropriately got it smacked back in his face by Ratliff for his troubles.
Nocioni ( D ) -- all that offense from last night? Was gone tonight in a 1-7 first half (0-4 from 3pt) . As were his minutes as I guess Westpahl continues to experiment. In any case, chucked up a lot of shots in his short minutes, missed nearly all of them. Made 1 or 2 scrap plays, but otherwise not much time and not much production.
Rodriguez ( C+ ) -- in by the 8 minute mark of garagetime and made a hustle steal on the baseline, only to negate it with a silly behind the back flip under our own hoop that was easily picked up for Spurs layup. Hit a corner three later. About it.
Greene ( INC ) -- in for the final 6 minutes, highly uneventful. Called for the ball, was largely ignored.
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Westphal ( ) --
Halloween = an appropriate night for a horror story right?
Poor Bat. Probably a prank.
Mason ( B- ) -- nothing in his first stint, some scrappy play down the stretch of the second quarter as the Spurs put us away. Hardnosed play kept on the floor in the third, including a flying put back dunk. Did not slow down Jefferson at all (same way he did not slow down Durant -- he's not a stopper, just a guy who normally tries on that end), although with us constantly switching up the defensive assignments of our perimeter people, Mason was not always on Jefferson.
Thompson ( C- ) -- we kept trying to post him in the early going, sometimes to set up slashers, sometimes to let him go at Duncan
Did a nice job passing for the second night in the row, but unfortunately unless your name is Webber or Divac that's soemwhere way down there ont he lsit of things you really need out of your bigs, and Jason was largely rendered ineffective by Duncan, and checked off he boards for awhile by Blair as well. Did better going at Duncan in the third, but started picking up his dumb fouls as well and had to go to the bench. With Spencer reemerging it was Jason's turn to watch much of the late action (in this case just garbagetime) from the bench on his way to an ineffective 6pt 7reb night.May ( C- ) -- in the early going bounced in a jumper courtesy of a Reke draw and kick, but otherwise struggled on defense against Duncan in his first stint. Was more active after he returned, but did make a bad careless backcourt pass that was picked off by The Beast (Blair) for an embarrassing freebie layup. On the positive side, did show the good high post passing once again, often setting up Mason. Lost some of his minutes with Spencer finally coming to play and finished up wiht an unimpressive 4pt 2reb night.
Martin ( B- ) -- finally got his offensive game going after shooting less than 30% through the first two games, but in many ways took a step back in every other aspect. Nudge me the next time you see anybody but Kevin come up with a 29pt 0reb 0ast statline. That takes effort, or rather lack of effort. That was kind of the distrubing thing about this one, and not just for Kevin -- felt a lot like game 1 with Kevin basically our only scorer while nobody else gave us anything, and even more unfortunately a lot like some of the games last year, with Kevin scoring a bunch of empty offensive points, yet doing nothing else and completely not mattering in a blowout where little defense was played. In fact if we are going to play the +/- game, Kevin came up with nearly as many minuses (-28) as points (29). In this one showed that it was going to be a different night offensively right from the beginning, getting off to a quick start scoring in a variety of ways and getting back to the line after the uncharacteristic shutout the night before. But the danger signs were there from the beginning as well, with nobody else getting involved at all -- Kevin finished the first quarter with 14 pts, nobody else had more than three. Largely shut down in the second quarter, and for the second night in a row got his jumpshot out near the three point line blocked by an opposing big with time tunning out. This time by Duncan in the final seconds of the 2nd quarter. Not effective helping bring the ball up. Continued adding points here and there as the Spurs coasted through the second half, and was somewhat inexplicably left out there to pad his stats up against the Spurs scrubs well after the game was over in the 4th, and even after we lost his backcourt mate to injury. Would have thoguht once Reke went down in a 20+pt blowout , that you get Kevin off the floor as quickly as possible just to make sure nothing freaky happens and you lose both guys in meaningless minutes.
Evans ( D+ ) -- sigh. So back to looking like a tentative rook like he did the first game. Knew what he wanted to do in this one, occasionally was able to do it, but the Spurs tried a variety of counters to keep Reke off balance, and he was never able to establish any kind of rhythm or impact until ironically just before he went down wiht a sprained ankle and had to leave the game. That obviously ended that. Started the game with a nice post, draw the double team, and kick to May for the open jumper. Wish any of our bigs understood that simple and yet devastating play. Of course it only works if you're abig enough load that the other team has to double you, and ironically our PG may end up being our most dangerous post presence. The Spurs were having trouble doubling him, so they began leaking Parker out to punish us the other way. And punish us they did -- Parker dominated this game back the other way, penetrating and scoring at will, and in the process getting Reke in foul trourble. Led to a long succession of desperate attempts to save Reke from further fouls by trying to guard Parker with Kevin, with Beno, with Omri Casspi believe it or not...none remotely worked. Meanwhile we were hiding Reke over on Jefferson to protect him, and he had the size to make that switch without it looking too ridiculous. Gave us a nifty spinning drive + kick to Beno for a three, but then picked up his third foul with about 4:00 min to go in the half, and coincidence or not we promptly fell apart and got blown out of the building -- what had been a close game was suddenly decided before half. Reke returned and started to come alive in the 3rd with a couple of strong drives, forcing the Spurs to call timeout, and then late in the quarter made back to back beautiful drive and dishes to Hawes along the baseline that are largely responsible for that "+". Got picked by Parker late, and then in the early 4th we had another Kings special -- a scary play when Reke went down grasping his ankle after stepping on Bonner's foot on a fast break attempt. Walked off the court but had to go to the locklrorom without shooting the FTs (Mason got to take them). Once again, like the first game, a game where you saw falshes fo great stuff, but where most of the minutes were a struggle to figure it out. He had a plan of attack, and sporadically it worked, but the Spurs not surprisingly were able to make it into an inefficient exercise where it would take four possessions of trying to work the post advantage to get one nifty play out of it. And meanwhile his opponent completely dictated play and just lit us up. In many ways, Reke still is in school. NBA PG school.
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Casspi ( C- ) -- bumped back up to first man off bench, but he may have preferred we didn't after a struggling night. Not able to get anything done on the offense in the first half, and found himself being forced to try to stay in front of Tony Parker for a long stretch of the second quarter, whcih not surprisingly did not work. Later got to guard Manu, and got scored over by him as well. This is where that injury to Cisco is tough -- Cisco was the backup SG, and now our choices are either a big PG (Beno) or poor Omri, who is 6'9" and was billed as a SF/Pf coming over, not a SF/SG. Let alone haivng to guard PGs. Added in a garbagetime three to make the stats look more respectable, but ineffective game on both sides of the ball.
Udrih ( C ) -- came right in for Reke and immediately splashed in a little jumper, but followed that by overpenetrating and throwing a pass to nobody up top that Parker picked up for an easy breakaway. Not surprsingly was just as ineffective as any other King at trying to slow Parker. Did not stand out for awfulness. Just kind of there.
Brockman ( C ) -- ah... Peaches vs. The Beast, Steelers vs. Seahawks, the matchup between two brahma bulls that everybody really wanted to see. An the winner was...well, probably The Beast. But during Brockman's minutes out there the two largely neutralized each other and Blair picked up the bulk of his numbers against others. Did get around Blair one time for a quick offensive board and follow, but otherwise largely checkd off the glass. Not really effective after half either against Blair or Ratliff. Still missing his FTs.
Hawes ( B ) -- Maybe a corner turned her. I hope. Played a poor first half in which he was still fluttering about and rushing things -- ineffective first stint and out of synch therafter. Got a few points, a few boards, but was turning it over left and right. But then suddenly Evans got him going in the third, and he seemed to settle in and get down to business. Might be an important moment for this team, and in a blowout loss of this type, might be the most significant development of the night (assuming Reke's ankle does indeed turn out to be minor). Was not just that he was able to finally be effective (quite a bit of it in garbage time), but that stylistically he played a lot closer to the way we need him too. Spencer is never physical, but tonight he did not shy from physical contact at least. He largely worked inside, used his height advantage over Blair in particular and did not go running screaming for mommy when The Beast bumped him. Finally did chuck up a three, just because he's a stubborn dip of a kid, but for the most part this was promising and he ended up putting together a 20-10 game (again largely in garbagetime after a struggle in the first half while the game was still in question, hence the lack of more enthusiasm). Tried to go in for the ultimate garbage stat -- a dunk with time running out in a 19pt loss (Sergio could have just run the clock out), and appropriately got it smacked back in his face by Ratliff for his troubles.
Nocioni ( D ) -- all that offense from last night? Was gone tonight in a 1-7 first half (0-4 from 3pt) . As were his minutes as I guess Westpahl continues to experiment. In any case, chucked up a lot of shots in his short minutes, missed nearly all of them. Made 1 or 2 scrap plays, but otherwise not much time and not much production.
Rodriguez ( C+ ) -- in by the 8 minute mark of garagetime and made a hustle steal on the baseline, only to negate it with a silly behind the back flip under our own hoop that was easily picked up for Spurs layup. Hit a corner three later. About it.
Greene ( INC ) -- in for the final 6 minutes, highly uneventful. Called for the ball, was largely ignored.
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Westphal ( ) --
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