Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
We good.
Artest ( B- ) -- 2nd game in a row where we started with an Artest in the post centered attack -- perhaps finally a strategy or plan. But he was sloppy early in the role, turned it over. And then went to the bench after 7 minutes and did not return the entire half, even as we got outscored 26-16 in the 2nd quarter and went into halftime down?? Came out to open the 2nd half very aggressive offensively, and in the third quarter he was the only player keeping us from another awful collapse, as he scored 12 in the quarter. Not able to keep the pace going though, and so we saved our awful collapse for the 4th. Along the way was only modestly effective on defense, average at best on the glass, and we went away from Ron as creater after half and it was just him creating for himself. Given that Ron was one of the few even sputtering bright points in yet another depressing loss, hard to get down on this effort. But it stood out only because most everybody else sucked, not because it was particularly brilliant.
Reef ( D ) -- decent scoring start, but that was kind of the extent of the contributions. Got beat by Randolph off the dribble -- not an easy feat. And then...nothing. No more offense. Three grand boards in 23min. Made a couple of passes, but another wipeout night at PF for us. 6pts 3rebs for our starter, 23 and 12 for theirs. Doesn't seem to matter who we start.
Miller ( D+ ) -- was actually dirsuptive in the early going...with his face. Drew back to back offensive foul calls with his nose in the opening minutes, but did little else before heading to the bench. Returned in the latter half of the 2nd quarter and set Kevin up on a by the book give and go. A minor play, and worth mentioning just because that was it. Not the end of Brad's minutes. But the end of him doing much of anything out there. Did not hit his shots, did not rebound. I suppose was adequate in a race to the bottom against the trio of ineffective guys the Blazers threw back at us the other way -- at least there was no Wiltzilla (indeed has not been all season for the Blazers).. But was barely more effective than our invisible PFs with 5pts 6rebs.
Martin ( B- ) -- good shooting start from the outside, but missed a lot of stuff in the paint. And while he filled up the stat sheet...it was not all in good ways. Had 5 first half turnovers and was at times sloppy, at times forcing what wasn't there. Was actually better after half when he limited his game to his strengths and just caught and shot. Better, but lacking in impact as we got beat by a bad team without too much fuss.
Bibby ( C- ) -- good shooting start, and I thought maybe we were going to see hot big scoring Bibby carry us to a victory over a disorganized young team that just lost its PG in the morning to a car accident. But that hope did not last long as Mike first cooled off and started missing everything, and finally starting forcing dumb action down int he paint flopping around like a fish looking for the foul. Miek Bibby plays 39min against nobodies and comes up wiht 13pts on 4-11shooting, 3rebs 4ast 2stl. Dan Dicaku and Sergio Rodriguez play 40 min combined againt Mike Bibby and come up with 17pts on 7-13 shooting 3eb 8ast 0stl. We just have to win that matchup, and badly, when we get it. We didn't.
Salmons ( B ) -- played a solid roleplaying game with absolutely no impact on the final outcome. Grabbed some boards in the early going, and became more of an offensive factor in the second half. Was around late to chip in some more points. Seemed to be subject to the same invisibility spell that Juan Dixon was casting on everybody else out there because he wasn't even in the picture on some of those jumpers Juan was draining on us while Salmons was supposedly checking him.
Thomas ( D ) -- struggled off the bench again in WTH fashion. Grabbed a few boards, got called for a 3 second vioaltion and maybe an offensive foul? Forgot the second. Was completely invisible otherwise. Reef sucked, Kenny sucked. I'm all for a Corliss Williamson/Justin Williams PF rotation at this point.
Douby ( INC ) -- short early stint wehre we tried him at PG. Got picked and easily beat to the basket by Sergio, and that was about it for him. Never returned.
Corliss ( B ) -- started off struggling in the first few minutes of his return, but recovered for a trio of hoops from inside and out. And from there on out might have been the steadest King. or close to it. Just steady as Corliss WIlliamson -- no superhero stuff. But just...dependable. He scored. Is too short to outrebound Muss, but at elast banged around. Played within himself etc. etc. nto a perfect outing. Not a great outing. Not a huge impact outing. But mayeb the one single dependable player we seem to have anymore. More than a certian amount of irony that you could have said the same thing about Corliss and the Kings the last time we were heading into a blow up the team and start over year back in '98. Respectable pro effort. The problem being that when he/its the best you are getting, you are going to lose a ton of games.
Cisco ( C+ ) -- ok 2nd quarter stint, and a long one. Didn't actually do much besides finsih several hoops set up by others, but ont he other hand did not make any mistakes either. Continues to feel like a declawed cat. Sure, he can't claw up your furniture anymore, but he also is no longer capable of causing damage to anybody else either. Like JWill, may have been better wild and stupid than restrained and neutered.
Muss ( D ) -- Hey, at least we had a really good practice, right?
So we go into Portland -- a 14-23 team before tonight -- and get beat in every major statistical category. We get outscored, outshot, out FTd, outrebounded (and out o-rebounded) outassisted, commit more TOs, out stolen, and out blocked. Nice. At least we were consistent. I was impressed at our proactivity in this one, as we jumped the gun and went ahead and did our 3rd quarter collapse in the 2nd quarter, and merely watched the, sad to say, better team pull away after half. And Muss...oh Muss. Not sure whether to bean you in the head wiht another rotten tomato or just to really pity you. This sucks. We started off the game for the second game in a row working through Ron in the post. Note: an emergin offensive plan/system! Woot! Then Ron was sloppy, got 2 fouls in the first 7 minutes, and...we mysteriously bench him for the entire rest of the half as we do our early collpase and the offense completely shuts down. Er...woot? Meanwhile Muss is busy playing the entire bench in random combinations. Except for Mo Taylor and Justin Williams who of course are maybe the only two Kings who by virtue of girth or length could matchup up wiht the Blazers up front. But anyway. Nor were there any Price or Hart or whoever was active minutes to try to check the 6'2" Juan Dixon, who killed us. There were a couple of Quincy Douby minutes, but just long enough to get him embarrassed trying to guard Sergio Rodriguez at the point, then he disappeared too. Maybe Muss is scared now about taking minutes from Mike or Kevin because of their reactions. And so we stumble on into half, having given up an early 11pt lead and fallen behind by the half. And come out of the half with Ron Artest back on the floor. Ecept now we no longer have an offensive plan, and instead Ron just tried to keep us in it scoring whenver he can while everybody else stands around like a bunch of lost puppies -- it being the rule on the Kings that if you don't have the ball you must immediately stop whatever you are doing, drop your hands down to your side, and stand rooted in one place. Ever so briefly Ron led an 8-0 run to surge in the third, forcing Portland to call a timeout. After which we immediately let them put together their own 8-0 surge, and I'm not sure they ever trailed after that. And so I think Muss himself looks like he's being proactive -- certainly looks like he's managed to accelerate his own pace. Took the Warriors nearly two years to quit on him. To all appearances these Kings seem to be quitting on him, and each other, in a little more than two months. Kudos.
Artest ( B- ) -- 2nd game in a row where we started with an Artest in the post centered attack -- perhaps finally a strategy or plan. But he was sloppy early in the role, turned it over. And then went to the bench after 7 minutes and did not return the entire half, even as we got outscored 26-16 in the 2nd quarter and went into halftime down?? Came out to open the 2nd half very aggressive offensively, and in the third quarter he was the only player keeping us from another awful collapse, as he scored 12 in the quarter. Not able to keep the pace going though, and so we saved our awful collapse for the 4th. Along the way was only modestly effective on defense, average at best on the glass, and we went away from Ron as creater after half and it was just him creating for himself. Given that Ron was one of the few even sputtering bright points in yet another depressing loss, hard to get down on this effort. But it stood out only because most everybody else sucked, not because it was particularly brilliant.
Reef ( D ) -- decent scoring start, but that was kind of the extent of the contributions. Got beat by Randolph off the dribble -- not an easy feat. And then...nothing. No more offense. Three grand boards in 23min. Made a couple of passes, but another wipeout night at PF for us. 6pts 3rebs for our starter, 23 and 12 for theirs. Doesn't seem to matter who we start.
Miller ( D+ ) -- was actually dirsuptive in the early going...with his face. Drew back to back offensive foul calls with his nose in the opening minutes, but did little else before heading to the bench. Returned in the latter half of the 2nd quarter and set Kevin up on a by the book give and go. A minor play, and worth mentioning just because that was it. Not the end of Brad's minutes. But the end of him doing much of anything out there. Did not hit his shots, did not rebound. I suppose was adequate in a race to the bottom against the trio of ineffective guys the Blazers threw back at us the other way -- at least there was no Wiltzilla (indeed has not been all season for the Blazers).. But was barely more effective than our invisible PFs with 5pts 6rebs.
Martin ( B- ) -- good shooting start from the outside, but missed a lot of stuff in the paint. And while he filled up the stat sheet...it was not all in good ways. Had 5 first half turnovers and was at times sloppy, at times forcing what wasn't there. Was actually better after half when he limited his game to his strengths and just caught and shot. Better, but lacking in impact as we got beat by a bad team without too much fuss.
Bibby ( C- ) -- good shooting start, and I thought maybe we were going to see hot big scoring Bibby carry us to a victory over a disorganized young team that just lost its PG in the morning to a car accident. But that hope did not last long as Mike first cooled off and started missing everything, and finally starting forcing dumb action down int he paint flopping around like a fish looking for the foul. Miek Bibby plays 39min against nobodies and comes up wiht 13pts on 4-11shooting, 3rebs 4ast 2stl. Dan Dicaku and Sergio Rodriguez play 40 min combined againt Mike Bibby and come up with 17pts on 7-13 shooting 3eb 8ast 0stl. We just have to win that matchup, and badly, when we get it. We didn't.
Salmons ( B ) -- played a solid roleplaying game with absolutely no impact on the final outcome. Grabbed some boards in the early going, and became more of an offensive factor in the second half. Was around late to chip in some more points. Seemed to be subject to the same invisibility spell that Juan Dixon was casting on everybody else out there because he wasn't even in the picture on some of those jumpers Juan was draining on us while Salmons was supposedly checking him.
Thomas ( D ) -- struggled off the bench again in WTH fashion. Grabbed a few boards, got called for a 3 second vioaltion and maybe an offensive foul? Forgot the second. Was completely invisible otherwise. Reef sucked, Kenny sucked. I'm all for a Corliss Williamson/Justin Williams PF rotation at this point.
Douby ( INC ) -- short early stint wehre we tried him at PG. Got picked and easily beat to the basket by Sergio, and that was about it for him. Never returned.
Corliss ( B ) -- started off struggling in the first few minutes of his return, but recovered for a trio of hoops from inside and out. And from there on out might have been the steadest King. or close to it. Just steady as Corliss WIlliamson -- no superhero stuff. But just...dependable. He scored. Is too short to outrebound Muss, but at elast banged around. Played within himself etc. etc. nto a perfect outing. Not a great outing. Not a huge impact outing. But mayeb the one single dependable player we seem to have anymore. More than a certian amount of irony that you could have said the same thing about Corliss and the Kings the last time we were heading into a blow up the team and start over year back in '98. Respectable pro effort. The problem being that when he/its the best you are getting, you are going to lose a ton of games.
Cisco ( C+ ) -- ok 2nd quarter stint, and a long one. Didn't actually do much besides finsih several hoops set up by others, but ont he other hand did not make any mistakes either. Continues to feel like a declawed cat. Sure, he can't claw up your furniture anymore, but he also is no longer capable of causing damage to anybody else either. Like JWill, may have been better wild and stupid than restrained and neutered.
Muss ( D ) -- Hey, at least we had a really good practice, right?
So we go into Portland -- a 14-23 team before tonight -- and get beat in every major statistical category. We get outscored, outshot, out FTd, outrebounded (and out o-rebounded) outassisted, commit more TOs, out stolen, and out blocked. Nice. At least we were consistent. I was impressed at our proactivity in this one, as we jumped the gun and went ahead and did our 3rd quarter collapse in the 2nd quarter, and merely watched the, sad to say, better team pull away after half. And Muss...oh Muss. Not sure whether to bean you in the head wiht another rotten tomato or just to really pity you. This sucks. We started off the game for the second game in a row working through Ron in the post. Note: an emergin offensive plan/system! Woot! Then Ron was sloppy, got 2 fouls in the first 7 minutes, and...we mysteriously bench him for the entire rest of the half as we do our early collpase and the offense completely shuts down. Er...woot? Meanwhile Muss is busy playing the entire bench in random combinations. Except for Mo Taylor and Justin Williams who of course are maybe the only two Kings who by virtue of girth or length could matchup up wiht the Blazers up front. But anyway. Nor were there any Price or Hart or whoever was active minutes to try to check the 6'2" Juan Dixon, who killed us. There were a couple of Quincy Douby minutes, but just long enough to get him embarrassed trying to guard Sergio Rodriguez at the point, then he disappeared too. Maybe Muss is scared now about taking minutes from Mike or Kevin because of their reactions. And so we stumble on into half, having given up an early 11pt lead and fallen behind by the half. And come out of the half with Ron Artest back on the floor. Ecept now we no longer have an offensive plan, and instead Ron just tried to keep us in it scoring whenver he can while everybody else stands around like a bunch of lost puppies -- it being the rule on the Kings that if you don't have the ball you must immediately stop whatever you are doing, drop your hands down to your side, and stand rooted in one place. Ever so briefly Ron led an 8-0 run to surge in the third, forcing Portland to call a timeout. After which we immediately let them put together their own 8-0 surge, and I'm not sure they ever trailed after that. And so I think Muss himself looks like he's being proactive -- certainly looks like he's managed to accelerate his own pace. Took the Warriors nearly two years to quit on him. To all appearances these Kings seem to be quitting on him, and each other, in a little more than two months. Kudos.
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