AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
There. I said I would scream if I ever saw Reggie goto Kenny Thomas at C and Ron Artest at PF against anyone but the Suns, and now I have.
Ok, wanted to use one of my prefab themes tonight given that i expoect many peole are still away, and inspired by a game up in the Pacific Northwest, I have decided to go with: Pretty Places Pt I
Artest ( A- ) -- opened up with one big gorilla rebound which was maybe an indication that he was going to bring it on the glass this time out. Was doing an excellent job making our PFs look competent by hitting them again and again when they cut to the hoop. Began to dominate play as the game went along the way great players do. On the glass, and drawing so much attention at all times on offense that it opened it up for lesser players like Brad and Beno to do well. Spent most of the night keeping Roy under control on defense as well. But largely disappeared after midpoint of the 4th quarter as the Blazers took control (think the last play I remember by him was a three from the short corner at maybe the 6 minute mark). The belated reinsertion of Travis Outlaw by the Blazers may have had something to do with it (was by far the toughest defender on Ron tonight), but maybe he also ran out of steam a little. May have been ready to take our winning attempt with about 15 seconds to go iso'd over on the wing, but we called a timeout (yay! we actually had one!) to design something that ended up even worse (see Cisco below). Had one final, unfortunate, role to play in this one, as on our last gasp gotta have it jump ball opportunity at midcourt with three seconds to go, Brad won the tip and batted it toward Ron, but he could only get one hand on it and just tried to bat it back forward toward the Blazers side of the court. There was a scrum, the Blazers recovered, and that was that. Still a big game for ron again. Bigger than the numbers really, since most of what we did good on the night came from Ron drawing so much attention from the defense that eveyrbody else got open. One other note, he was 2-4 from 3pt land tonight, and that brought his season percentage DOWN.
Olympic National Park -- located outside of Seattle, this one is reachable to all of you West Coastites. And its just stunning. Been there once, keep on saying I will go back. And damnit have to get around to it one of these years. Catch the beaches at sunset or sunrise, and then spin around away from the water to stare up at the snow capped mountains and ancient forests towering over them. Like I say, just stunning.
Moore ( D+ ) -- aesthetically a much better looking game than those early ones for us: he seems to have largely got over the raging fumblethumbs. He has also discovered something he can do -- actually two things. First, he has worked the pick and roll well with Beno the last few games thye have been out there together, and second he again got another hoop or two just by cutting toward the basket and getting hit by attentive passes (tonight from Ron). Now those are not things you normally associate with great "talent", but they are classic roleplayer bread and butter plays. Now unfortunately the other roleplayer traits are normally a) defense; and b) rebounding. Well...that didn't go so well. When matched against Aldridge it was just a slaughter in there, and that whole rebounding thing completely escaped him. And when I say completely, I mean COMPLETELY. As in zero rebounds in 23min. Reef, eat your heart out. So that makes this grade a grand balancing act. On offense he largely played within himself, but he got squashed on defense and blanked on the boards. So its back to the Ds I'm afraid.
Crater Lake -- and while we're up in the Pacific Northwest, try out this beauty just north of the California border. Crater Lake used to be a volcano. A really really big volcano. About 8000 years ago the volcano went pop in a really really dramatic way, and threw out ash that covered the entire state of Oregon long before there was a state of Oregon. What was left was a massive 4000 foot deep caldera sitting atop the remains of an 8000 foot tall mountain. It filled in with rainwater, and now creates one of the deepest lakes in the world. I searched long and hard to find a picture which did the amazing color of the lake justice -- one fo the deepest richest blues you wil ever see, and of course a gorgeous mirror to reflect the sky and surrounding rim with. The island btw is the moutain slowly rebuilding itself to one day go pop again.
Miller ( D+ ) -- invisible first half watching Aldridge drum us to death in there, and then faced with the terror of his old nemesis Wiltzilla. Did not rebound, did not score (other than one of his newly discovered semi-postmoves), and gave us an anemic 2pts 2rebs in 17min in the first half. Ended up playing I think the entire second half, although it certainly wasn't because of anything that he was doing himself. Finished with 6pts 5rebs and 4TOs mostly off of really bad passes, in 41 minutes. Ugh. Down the stretch may have set a record as he was involved in three jump balls in the last four minutes, all of them critical to the outcome. Lost a key jump ball at the 4:30 mark or so, to little Brandon Roy of all people. It was a bad toss, so not all Brad, but still led to the Blazers canning a three, then adding a two, and suddenly it was a 5pt lead with 3:30 to go. Followed that up by winning anothter one at about the 2:00 mark, and came up with what could have been a huge play when with 5 seconds left he created a jump ball with Jarret Jack off of the inbounds, and then actually won the critical jumpball. Unfortunately Ron could not control, and it flew into a pack of Blazers and one Cisco, and the Blazers won the scrum. It should be noted that along the way Brad made me really grimace by making a play at about the 2:00 mark which really swung momentum our way and that could have led to our victory. Why grimace you ask? Because he cheated. A blatant flop against Aldridge where he stuck his nose on LaMarcus's shoulder and then when the kid turned, jerked the head and fell down like he was shot. Gave us the ball back, and turned things. Its our guy so...well, I will not shrug. It was notable because I was watching this with friends who are not Kings fans, and they were all over that play, and I was NOT going to defend it. Get your butt kicked all night by a guy, and then try to trick the refs to win in the end. Jeesh. Man up Brad. Also was the guilty party on a carry rotation with about 20 seconds to go that let Brandon Roy put the Blazers up by 1. All in all, not good.
Yosemite -- this one is of course right in Sacramento's backyard, and is so obvious I almost left it out. Noentheless, as one of the most photographed places in the world, I would have been remiss. Of course the huge issue wiht the valley is that its a victim of its own success. Such a great natural beauty that it is now constantly swarmed under by milions of little bipedal ants which detract from the very setting they come to admire.
Martin ( B- ) -- well for a quarter it looked like Kevin was back from vacation -- had a strong first, looking aggressive and benefitting from some clueless defense by the Blazers not knowing his tendencies (forcing him to his strong hand, leaving him open with his feet set at the three point line etc. -- do they not have scouting reports up there?). Was rebounding well as well, and it was fortunate he was coming back to help out, because lord knows our frontcourt wasn't going to grab anything off the glass. In fact led the whole team in rebounding at half with 7. But somehting happened in the second quarter, or even really in the late first, and all of a sudden pasive Kevin returned. He had no points at all in the second quarter (was still helping on the glass though), and started off the second half in a similar invisible mode. He was also turning the ball over there repeatedly It was not that he wasn't making shots, it was that he wasn't even getting them. And sure, the team needs to get him shots yadda yadda. But Kevin was getting them himself early in the game, and then...just quit. And gee don't I feel a sense of deja vu here, as we have had this exact same discsussion about Peja once upon a time. In any case, finally got back on the scoreboard with a technical FT, and followed that with a quick hit. From that point on, he got things here and there (normally against the Blazers SFs when they switched onto him), but nothing consistent, and until the end of the game, nothing that made a huge impact. Quit rebounding after half as well, but seven is still a strong outing for an OG no matter how distributed. When the game got late, Kevin again had a role to play, although maybe not always the part he wanted. We tried to hit him on the slash as the Blazers were making a big run late, but he could not come up with it and it only fed the Blazers run. He came back to hit a big open three in the last two minutes to put us up for the final time. But then he tried to seal it with the drive off of what may have been a designed play, and got the shot blocked -- that has been a problem here for him in recent weeks, lot of shots getting blocked. In any case, finished up as our leading scorer, second leading rebounder, shot 50%, had that last big three to put us up...and yet if you watched the game this was just...a shrug. Maybe partially a victim right now of his own hot start, and maybe this was really a B for normal Kevin as opposed to a B- for super Kevin. In any case in the first quarter he had an impact, but after that he just quietly accumulated numbers here and there, but never felt dangerous. And in the end, with a chance to be the hero and maybe ice it, Aldridge or maybe Outlaw sent it back, grabbed the rebound, and came back down the other way on us. So...ok game. Solid game. But not much impact. This was again much more of Ron's game, or even Cisco's.
Bryce Canyon -- I was pondering whether to include this one or not, as its not really for all tastes and may fall more in the interesting than beautiful category. In any case though it is a sight to behold. Overshadowed by the more famous Arches National Park to the north, and the more famous Grand Canyon to the west, Bryce Canyon is an unique place. The entire valley is filled up with these jagged sandstone spikes called "hoodoos". They positively glow red at sunset.
There. I said I would scream if I ever saw Reggie goto Kenny Thomas at C and Ron Artest at PF against anyone but the Suns, and now I have.
Ok, wanted to use one of my prefab themes tonight given that i expoect many peole are still away, and inspired by a game up in the Pacific Northwest, I have decided to go with: Pretty Places Pt I
Artest ( A- ) -- opened up with one big gorilla rebound which was maybe an indication that he was going to bring it on the glass this time out. Was doing an excellent job making our PFs look competent by hitting them again and again when they cut to the hoop. Began to dominate play as the game went along the way great players do. On the glass, and drawing so much attention at all times on offense that it opened it up for lesser players like Brad and Beno to do well. Spent most of the night keeping Roy under control on defense as well. But largely disappeared after midpoint of the 4th quarter as the Blazers took control (think the last play I remember by him was a three from the short corner at maybe the 6 minute mark). The belated reinsertion of Travis Outlaw by the Blazers may have had something to do with it (was by far the toughest defender on Ron tonight), but maybe he also ran out of steam a little. May have been ready to take our winning attempt with about 15 seconds to go iso'd over on the wing, but we called a timeout (yay! we actually had one!) to design something that ended up even worse (see Cisco below). Had one final, unfortunate, role to play in this one, as on our last gasp gotta have it jump ball opportunity at midcourt with three seconds to go, Brad won the tip and batted it toward Ron, but he could only get one hand on it and just tried to bat it back forward toward the Blazers side of the court. There was a scrum, the Blazers recovered, and that was that. Still a big game for ron again. Bigger than the numbers really, since most of what we did good on the night came from Ron drawing so much attention from the defense that eveyrbody else got open. One other note, he was 2-4 from 3pt land tonight, and that brought his season percentage DOWN.
Olympic National Park -- located outside of Seattle, this one is reachable to all of you West Coastites. And its just stunning. Been there once, keep on saying I will go back. And damnit have to get around to it one of these years. Catch the beaches at sunset or sunrise, and then spin around away from the water to stare up at the snow capped mountains and ancient forests towering over them. Like I say, just stunning.
Moore ( D+ ) -- aesthetically a much better looking game than those early ones for us: he seems to have largely got over the raging fumblethumbs. He has also discovered something he can do -- actually two things. First, he has worked the pick and roll well with Beno the last few games thye have been out there together, and second he again got another hoop or two just by cutting toward the basket and getting hit by attentive passes (tonight from Ron). Now those are not things you normally associate with great "talent", but they are classic roleplayer bread and butter plays. Now unfortunately the other roleplayer traits are normally a) defense; and b) rebounding. Well...that didn't go so well. When matched against Aldridge it was just a slaughter in there, and that whole rebounding thing completely escaped him. And when I say completely, I mean COMPLETELY. As in zero rebounds in 23min. Reef, eat your heart out. So that makes this grade a grand balancing act. On offense he largely played within himself, but he got squashed on defense and blanked on the boards. So its back to the Ds I'm afraid.
Crater Lake -- and while we're up in the Pacific Northwest, try out this beauty just north of the California border. Crater Lake used to be a volcano. A really really big volcano. About 8000 years ago the volcano went pop in a really really dramatic way, and threw out ash that covered the entire state of Oregon long before there was a state of Oregon. What was left was a massive 4000 foot deep caldera sitting atop the remains of an 8000 foot tall mountain. It filled in with rainwater, and now creates one of the deepest lakes in the world. I searched long and hard to find a picture which did the amazing color of the lake justice -- one fo the deepest richest blues you wil ever see, and of course a gorgeous mirror to reflect the sky and surrounding rim with. The island btw is the moutain slowly rebuilding itself to one day go pop again.
Miller ( D+ ) -- invisible first half watching Aldridge drum us to death in there, and then faced with the terror of his old nemesis Wiltzilla. Did not rebound, did not score (other than one of his newly discovered semi-postmoves), and gave us an anemic 2pts 2rebs in 17min in the first half. Ended up playing I think the entire second half, although it certainly wasn't because of anything that he was doing himself. Finished with 6pts 5rebs and 4TOs mostly off of really bad passes, in 41 minutes. Ugh. Down the stretch may have set a record as he was involved in three jump balls in the last four minutes, all of them critical to the outcome. Lost a key jump ball at the 4:30 mark or so, to little Brandon Roy of all people. It was a bad toss, so not all Brad, but still led to the Blazers canning a three, then adding a two, and suddenly it was a 5pt lead with 3:30 to go. Followed that up by winning anothter one at about the 2:00 mark, and came up with what could have been a huge play when with 5 seconds left he created a jump ball with Jarret Jack off of the inbounds, and then actually won the critical jumpball. Unfortunately Ron could not control, and it flew into a pack of Blazers and one Cisco, and the Blazers won the scrum. It should be noted that along the way Brad made me really grimace by making a play at about the 2:00 mark which really swung momentum our way and that could have led to our victory. Why grimace you ask? Because he cheated. A blatant flop against Aldridge where he stuck his nose on LaMarcus's shoulder and then when the kid turned, jerked the head and fell down like he was shot. Gave us the ball back, and turned things. Its our guy so...well, I will not shrug. It was notable because I was watching this with friends who are not Kings fans, and they were all over that play, and I was NOT going to defend it. Get your butt kicked all night by a guy, and then try to trick the refs to win in the end. Jeesh. Man up Brad. Also was the guilty party on a carry rotation with about 20 seconds to go that let Brandon Roy put the Blazers up by 1. All in all, not good.
Yosemite -- this one is of course right in Sacramento's backyard, and is so obvious I almost left it out. Noentheless, as one of the most photographed places in the world, I would have been remiss. Of course the huge issue wiht the valley is that its a victim of its own success. Such a great natural beauty that it is now constantly swarmed under by milions of little bipedal ants which detract from the very setting they come to admire.
Martin ( B- ) -- well for a quarter it looked like Kevin was back from vacation -- had a strong first, looking aggressive and benefitting from some clueless defense by the Blazers not knowing his tendencies (forcing him to his strong hand, leaving him open with his feet set at the three point line etc. -- do they not have scouting reports up there?). Was rebounding well as well, and it was fortunate he was coming back to help out, because lord knows our frontcourt wasn't going to grab anything off the glass. In fact led the whole team in rebounding at half with 7. But somehting happened in the second quarter, or even really in the late first, and all of a sudden pasive Kevin returned. He had no points at all in the second quarter (was still helping on the glass though), and started off the second half in a similar invisible mode. He was also turning the ball over there repeatedly It was not that he wasn't making shots, it was that he wasn't even getting them. And sure, the team needs to get him shots yadda yadda. But Kevin was getting them himself early in the game, and then...just quit. And gee don't I feel a sense of deja vu here, as we have had this exact same discsussion about Peja once upon a time. In any case, finally got back on the scoreboard with a technical FT, and followed that with a quick hit. From that point on, he got things here and there (normally against the Blazers SFs when they switched onto him), but nothing consistent, and until the end of the game, nothing that made a huge impact. Quit rebounding after half as well, but seven is still a strong outing for an OG no matter how distributed. When the game got late, Kevin again had a role to play, although maybe not always the part he wanted. We tried to hit him on the slash as the Blazers were making a big run late, but he could not come up with it and it only fed the Blazers run. He came back to hit a big open three in the last two minutes to put us up for the final time. But then he tried to seal it with the drive off of what may have been a designed play, and got the shot blocked -- that has been a problem here for him in recent weeks, lot of shots getting blocked. In any case, finished up as our leading scorer, second leading rebounder, shot 50%, had that last big three to put us up...and yet if you watched the game this was just...a shrug. Maybe partially a victim right now of his own hot start, and maybe this was really a B for normal Kevin as opposed to a B- for super Kevin. In any case in the first quarter he had an impact, but after that he just quietly accumulated numbers here and there, but never felt dangerous. And in the end, with a chance to be the hero and maybe ice it, Aldridge or maybe Outlaw sent it back, grabbed the rebound, and came back down the other way on us. So...ok game. Solid game. But not much impact. This was again much more of Ron's game, or even Cisco's.
Bryce Canyon -- I was pondering whether to include this one or not, as its not really for all tastes and may fall more in the interesting than beautiful category. In any case though it is a sight to behold. Overshadowed by the more famous Arches National Park to the north, and the more famous Grand Canyon to the west, Bryce Canyon is an unique place. The entire valley is filled up with these jagged sandstone spikes called "hoodoos". They positively glow red at sunset.
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