Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Peja ( B+ ) -- no Patterson tonight, and Peja took advantage for an efficient offensive game. Had a cute play in the third quarter where he accidentally found himself in the paint faced by the mighty Joel Wiltbilla, who had already blocked something like 8 shots at that point. Peja stood there and gave about three or four little twitchy upfakes to confuse the MVP before laying it up over the side of the rim. Made what might of been his first hustle play of 2005 in the third hitting the floor to knock a ball ahead, and amusingly came up with a boo boo. Will he dare to hit the floor again this season and risk further floor burn agony? The world waits with baited breath. Did a solid job of defending Miles, although that is no more complex than backing off and not letting him dunk. Stats also say he nabbed five steals, but while he was active defensively, he was hardly that sort of whirlwind -- they were more of the teammate knocking them loose and Peja picking them up variety than true picks. Good overall game as Peja and Thomas were the primary vehicles of Portland's demise tongiht (beyond the incompetent Blazers themselves).
Thomas ( A ) -- got off to an excellent energetic start, and was consistently forcing his way inside (sometimes unwisely given the Blazers' shotblockers) rather than settling from outside. Has a bit of an attitude problem, but that's meant in a good way -- won't be intimidated, and while that has the potential to make him stupid, at least he's not scared. Was active on defense, but not always effective as his counterpart actually outscored him on a 25pt night. Our best boarder on a night when we got crunched again, but no match in there for the Blazers' newly minted HOF behemoth. Get the feeling watching him this last week that he is playing with a serious chip on his shoulder right now.
Ostertag ( B ) -- took a cue from Skinner and got off to a great start dominating the first few minutes of action. But the lack of shape showed up quickly as he was actually huffing by the 10:10 mark of the first quarter.
Was less effective thereafter, but still had moments. Was just having problems guarding Wiltbilla inside, and on the other end of the floor had his shot blocked 2 or 3 times. Banged around and tipped a lot of balls, but was a step slow on several occassions. Not a dominant performance by any stretch, but hopefully good enough to earn a little confidence from Rick to play him in the future when the situation calls for a big galoot.
Mobley ( C+ ) -- quiet first half beyond one spectacular behind the back pass to KT on the break. Got it going a little in the second half, but still a pretty quiet 19. Hard to say how much the injury effected him, because he did not look so much uncomfortable as just picking his spots (and truth be told, has he EVER not had some nagging injury since arriving in Sacto? Always something). Didn't have much luck on defense against Mighty Mouse in particular, and lost the rebounding matchup to his 5'10" opponent 11-1.
Bibby ( C ) -- keyed a revitalized passing attack in the first half, but never did get his own offense going. Still more than enough against an opponent intent on beating itself. For the second time in a week got matched up against a kid fresh out of high school -- Mike has to be feeling positively geriatric at the ripe old age of 26. Got the feeling that the energy wasn't high again, but after a while Mike faded so far into the background, and Sebastian Telfair was so irrelevant, that it was hard to tell.
Evans ( B- ) -- came in with tremendous energy again, and really gave us a spark on the glass...and then wasn't heard from again until the final two minutes of the game? Missed his shots, and his minutes came during our worst defensive quarter, but really now.
Songaila ( B- ) -- came in back in his comfortable reserve role and just kind of played his game...right up until the point where he realized the jersey he was wearing and got injured on a scary fall caused by being pulled out of the air by the King Konglike Wiltzilla on a blocked shot. Clean play, but a huge fall right on his back. Before going out got aggressive on the offensive glass again. Also was invisible on the defensive glass again. Would like to see that reverse itself actually. Whenever he's able to return that is.
Williamson ( B- ) -- could not get much going in the first half. Knocked a jumper down off the glass, but was mostly forced outside by the Portland shotblockers, and victimized on the other end for being too stubby. Shooting jumpers is just not his strength as a player -- he's pretty much a mismatch specialist with his post game. Had considerably more luck in the 4th, when we went with him for the entire quarter, and Mike was looking for him and setting him up for shot after shot. Didn't hit many of them, but worked his way into a nice scoring quarter, and even grabbed some boards along the way.
House ( B+ ) -- very nice first half stint offensively, knocked down a series of in control jumpers before forcing his final shot of the half. On the other end though was getting lit up by Mighty Mouse who settled into one of those grooves where everything he threw up went in. Added a couple of garbagetime minutes at the end.
Martin ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Daniels ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Adelman ( B ) -- Solid victory, albeit over just about the worst team in the NBA right now. We made very few mistakes on offense, other than charging in repeatedly to the rim in an apparent effort to let the Blazerrs set a shotblocking record. Thought Rick drew the rotation down unnecessarily short again -- in the second half we totally forgot about two guys who played pretty well in the first half in Evans and House, and still had our starters in there with 2 minutes to go in the game. Just so many minutes there -- do we REALLY need to play FOUR guys 40+ minutes on a night when we beat a team that has lost 14 of 15 by nearly 20 pts? If that's not an excuse to play some backups, there never will be one. Rick was kind of forced to play Tag in this one with all other available centers out with injury. And the big lug responded with good enough play to perhaps dispel that "he can't matchup" excuse for a while. Joel Przybilla joins the Kings all-nightmare team -- here's a thought to cause Kings fans many a sleepless night: imagine a team composed of Joel Przybilla, Jason Richardson, Nick Van Exel, Bruce Bowen and Eddie Griffin with Robert Horry off the bench. We'd be like the Washington Generals.
Thomas ( A ) -- got off to an excellent energetic start, and was consistently forcing his way inside (sometimes unwisely given the Blazers' shotblockers) rather than settling from outside. Has a bit of an attitude problem, but that's meant in a good way -- won't be intimidated, and while that has the potential to make him stupid, at least he's not scared. Was active on defense, but not always effective as his counterpart actually outscored him on a 25pt night. Our best boarder on a night when we got crunched again, but no match in there for the Blazers' newly minted HOF behemoth. Get the feeling watching him this last week that he is playing with a serious chip on his shoulder right now.
Ostertag ( B ) -- took a cue from Skinner and got off to a great start dominating the first few minutes of action. But the lack of shape showed up quickly as he was actually huffing by the 10:10 mark of the first quarter.
Was less effective thereafter, but still had moments. Was just having problems guarding Wiltbilla inside, and on the other end of the floor had his shot blocked 2 or 3 times. Banged around and tipped a lot of balls, but was a step slow on several occassions. Not a dominant performance by any stretch, but hopefully good enough to earn a little confidence from Rick to play him in the future when the situation calls for a big galoot.Mobley ( C+ ) -- quiet first half beyond one spectacular behind the back pass to KT on the break. Got it going a little in the second half, but still a pretty quiet 19. Hard to say how much the injury effected him, because he did not look so much uncomfortable as just picking his spots (and truth be told, has he EVER not had some nagging injury since arriving in Sacto? Always something). Didn't have much luck on defense against Mighty Mouse in particular, and lost the rebounding matchup to his 5'10" opponent 11-1.
Bibby ( C ) -- keyed a revitalized passing attack in the first half, but never did get his own offense going. Still more than enough against an opponent intent on beating itself. For the second time in a week got matched up against a kid fresh out of high school -- Mike has to be feeling positively geriatric at the ripe old age of 26. Got the feeling that the energy wasn't high again, but after a while Mike faded so far into the background, and Sebastian Telfair was so irrelevant, that it was hard to tell.
Evans ( B- ) -- came in with tremendous energy again, and really gave us a spark on the glass...and then wasn't heard from again until the final two minutes of the game? Missed his shots, and his minutes came during our worst defensive quarter, but really now.
Songaila ( B- ) -- came in back in his comfortable reserve role and just kind of played his game...right up until the point where he realized the jersey he was wearing and got injured on a scary fall caused by being pulled out of the air by the King Konglike Wiltzilla on a blocked shot. Clean play, but a huge fall right on his back. Before going out got aggressive on the offensive glass again. Also was invisible on the defensive glass again. Would like to see that reverse itself actually. Whenever he's able to return that is.
Williamson ( B- ) -- could not get much going in the first half. Knocked a jumper down off the glass, but was mostly forced outside by the Portland shotblockers, and victimized on the other end for being too stubby. Shooting jumpers is just not his strength as a player -- he's pretty much a mismatch specialist with his post game. Had considerably more luck in the 4th, when we went with him for the entire quarter, and Mike was looking for him and setting him up for shot after shot. Didn't hit many of them, but worked his way into a nice scoring quarter, and even grabbed some boards along the way.
House ( B+ ) -- very nice first half stint offensively, knocked down a series of in control jumpers before forcing his final shot of the half. On the other end though was getting lit up by Mighty Mouse who settled into one of those grooves where everything he threw up went in. Added a couple of garbagetime minutes at the end.
Martin ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Daniels ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Adelman ( B ) -- Solid victory, albeit over just about the worst team in the NBA right now. We made very few mistakes on offense, other than charging in repeatedly to the rim in an apparent effort to let the Blazerrs set a shotblocking record. Thought Rick drew the rotation down unnecessarily short again -- in the second half we totally forgot about two guys who played pretty well in the first half in Evans and House, and still had our starters in there with 2 minutes to go in the game. Just so many minutes there -- do we REALLY need to play FOUR guys 40+ minutes on a night when we beat a team that has lost 14 of 15 by nearly 20 pts? If that's not an excuse to play some backups, there never will be one. Rick was kind of forced to play Tag in this one with all other available centers out with injury. And the big lug responded with good enough play to perhaps dispel that "he can't matchup" excuse for a while. Joel Przybilla joins the Kings all-nightmare team -- here's a thought to cause Kings fans many a sleepless night: imagine a team composed of Joel Przybilla, Jason Richardson, Nick Van Exel, Bruce Bowen and Eddie Griffin with Robert Horry off the bench. We'd be like the Washington Generals.
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