Grades v. Bobcats 02/23

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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Trying to find a good format here to finish out the season's grades in more timely fashion. Bear with me.

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Ron Artest ( C+ ) : 47min 20pts (8-22 FG, 1-2 3pt, 3-4 FT) 9rebs 4ast 4stl 2blk 2TO
For the first half of this one it looked like Ron Artest was going to celebrate the discovery he had less trade value than Linas Kleiza by coming out and laying a big ole stinky turd. And in fact if it had not been for one fortuitous (bad word choice given the circumstances) Miki Moore elbow, I am not entirely concvinced might not have just laid a turd the entire game. You see, Gerald Wallace was kicking his ***. No other way to put it. And Ron was off, way off. He was 1-8 or 1-9 by the half. 1-11 by the time that Wallace was knocked from the game in the early third, and it was fugly. Once the Wallace impediment was removed however, Ron's game picked up tremendously against the Derek Andersons and Jared Dudleys that had to try to fill that void. And because the injury created such mismatches, the Cats were forced into numerous doubles on Ron that left shooters open all aroudn the perimeter (well...some of that is just that the Cats suck eggs and need to fire their coach -- you don't see the San Antonio's of the league leaving 3pt shooters open play after play no matter how much they have to double inside). You figure 1-11 for Ron to start, but 8-22 by the end, so that was 7-11 from that point out, and back to the familiar bully ball inside. On defense Ron started out harassing Richardson, but JRich was still scoring with ease in the early going. Got beat several times by Felton's quickness in the second half (obviously not a good matchup for Ron), including critically on the drive that tied the game at the end of regulation. But came up big to finally put away the team that should never have been there in overtime, stopping Jrich on one side, and then coming down to hit the game winner on the other on a short jumper. Grade is tough -- hard to give Ron too much credit here for winning this one late, first because the game he eventually had may have been largely due to us injuring the opposing team's best player who was causing him problems (a unique approach to getting your teammate freed up I must admit), and then because if Ron and Kevin hadn't been so terrible for so long there would never have been a need for the heroics in the first place. Nonetheless win it he did in the end, so there has to be some recognition of that gradewise. Note however Ron played a lot of mintes to get those numbers.

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Mikki Moore ( B ) -- 18min 5pts (2-5 FG, 0-0 3pt, 1-1 FT) 9rebs 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
A largely forgettable game "highlighted" by one huge perhaps game determining play that nonetheless has nothing to do with talent. In the early going used his size advanatage over the smallballing Cats on a few plays, but got into foul trouble as always. Think he should have gotten more minutes as our size was causing more problems for the Cats than trying to match them smallball for smallball. But was still out there long enough to make the (scary) play of the game for us in the 3rd quarter, KOing Gerald Wallace, who was just kicking our butt in the hustle/athleticism areas, with an elbow, and topping it off by getting GERALD called for the foul on it in true Kobe-style (against Bibby circa 2002). The Cats are a bad team already missing several rotation players to season ending injuries. Once Gerald, who may be their bets overall player, was gone...well you would have thought it would be automatic. Since I can't actually bring myself to award bonus points for sending somebody to the hospital...(well...maybe if it was somebody I really didn't like and it was done intentionally), this grade is based just on Mikki's limited minutes out there. And really he was not bad at all. As mentioned, taking him off the floor to leave the woeful Kevin and John and whoever else running aorund out there in smallball didn't make sense to me.

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Brad Miller ( B+ ) -- 40min 22pts (7-17 FG, 0-1 3pt, 8-10 FT) 14reb 6ast 1stl 3blk 6TO
Had a big ole statistical game, and on paper you would think it was something spectacular. But it really wasn't. He was again just too big for the Cats inside and just kind of waddled on in there and thrashed around for boards (this is one of the teams he dropped 20/20 on last month) and putbacks before beginning to get some of his regular game going. But he was struggling with his jumper and for every nice pass he made he threw a terrible one that had no chance. Also missed 1 of 2 at the line in the final seconds of regulation to set the Cats up for the tie and OT. Nonetheless, this was still 22pts 14rebs banging around and generally beating an undersized frontline. Okafor may be overrated at this point, and my lord did Nazr Mohammed look pathetically slow to react to the ball out there. And let's not even talk about Othella Harrington's Sean May imitation...gutwise that is.

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Kevin Martin ( D- ) -- 41min 15pts (1-8 FG, 0-2 3pt, 13-18 FT) 1reb 2ast 3stl 1blk 1TO
Hey, I've got a new entry in the Kevin nickname sweepstakes -- The Lightswitch. As in on, off, on, off. And man has it been ON, OFF, ON, OFF too these last few weeks. And this was an off as in OFFFFFFFFFF. So off in fact that you saw something going on out there that you don't often -- Reggie was visibly pissed at Kevin. Barking at him. Makng faces. Encouraging him. Shaking his head. Likely mirroring a lot of fans at home because Kevin...I don't know, how close is Charlotte to Western Carolina? Was he out partying? Because this was a strangely unfocused effort. Not just bad, but bizarrely so. Had I think 4 points at half, all on FTs (which he was missing along with everything else), and had hit no field goals. Which is of course easier to do when you barely take any. Of course you might say that this was one of those games where the opposing team starting quickness against him (the Cats start 2 PGs) made a difference -- quickness bothers Keivn much more than strength. But that explanation would ignore all of the slop to the rest of his game this time out. He fumbled balls repeatedly, didn't know the shot clock and turned it over with about 3 minutes to go. Missed 1 of 2 FTs to open the door for the Cats in the last 30 secoinds, and then amazingly got the call from Reggie to try to hit the game winning shot (got the distinct impression Reggie was intentionally trying to build up his confidence) -- mind you after not having hit a shot all night. He got double teamed, missed Ron popping open in the corner, and forced up a brick as we went to OT. He avoids the F for a couple of things. First, he "found a way to score" in the third quarter. But there was no honor in it. Basically he needed to score, so he ran around looking for people to bump into so he could get to the FT line. On a pickup court he would probably still have zero points. But be that as it may, he got points. Although such a display did really put to shame any of that silly "Kevin has xpts on xshots he's so efficient" stat -- tonight Kevin scored 15pts in only 8 shots! Amazing! Now he only shot 1-8, missed 5 FTs, and used closer to 20 possessions to get those 15 points, but hey. Second thing holding this above an F (other than his other recent Fs that show it can be even worse) was that he finally scored his only hoop of the game at a critical time late in OT. And so you think hey he hit a big shot when really needed right? No. He cherry picked. In OT. Yes it was that type of game for him. So Orlando is up next, and if the pattern holds, he'll score 25. We'll see.
 
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Beno Udrih ( B+ ) -- 40min 17pts (7-11 FG, 2-3 3pt, 1-2 FT) 8rebs 6ast 0stl 1blk 4TO
Solid first half running the team and spotting up. But only sporadically created, missed several guys, and had to force up a couple of crazy shots against the shotclock. Started off the third hitting several shots to fend off the Cats before we killed Gerald, and as the game dragged along emerged as one of the steadiest Kings, filling up the statsheet. Was having some problems staying in front of Felton though (hint Beno, you ain't quick, he can't shoot, back off a step and go under the screen) and threw one absolutely terrible turnover late that helped us dig another hole. Thsi was a good game, but I was almost going to go stratight B rather than B+. A good game, but not a spectacular one. However, as its also Beno Udrih we are talking about, and he was having to operate alone out there with a SG and SF who were playign like they were knocking back some brewskies the ngiht before, stayed wiht the +.

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Spenser Hawes ( B- ) -- 12min 4pts (2-4 FG, 0-0 3pt, 0-0 FT) 5rebs 0ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Had a good first stint, hit an inside shot, a jumper, blocked a shot. Used his length against a short Cats frontline. Was less good the second time around, sloppy, turned it over and got frustrated. One good thing was the one acceptable 18foot jumper aside, he was mostly trying to go inside this time rather than the 3pt shooting foppishness. Timing is still often off down there though, and he seems to get his footwork thrown off fairly easily when somebody with actual muscleds gives him a bump. That will come in time though -- if he keeps working at it rather than doing the soft and lazy drift outside.

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Anthony Johnson ( C+ ) -- 14min 4pts (2-3 FG, 0-0 3pt, 0-0 FT) 0rebs 2ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Finally hit a short baseline shot courtesy of Brad -- maybe the first he's had with us. Also made a nice pass ahead on the break. Hey, these are minor things, but its the first signs of life we've seem from the guy since he showed up in town. He's a solid vet too. Nothing more, nothing less. So even though its a new team, and a new system, you would expect him to settle in and start wowing us with 4pt 2ast nights semi-regularly here for the remaining 28 games of his second Kings career. Note however that when he was out there we considerably lost ground, and while he finally did a few minor things for us, and played some good defense at spots, with the flameout occuring throughout the wing players we depend upon, his solid stay out of the way and just fill in game was not helping much.

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Shelden Williams ( INC ) -- 5min 4pts (2-3 FG, 0-0 3pt, 0-0 FT) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Had a couple of inside hoops off of feeds in the first half, nothing else. Was back in for the final play and grabbed the final rebound, although it just fell in his hands off the Felton airball. Not sure 5 minutes a night was quite what he had in mind when he said he was glad to be coming to Sacramento so that he could get the playing time to show what he could do, but hey you know yoiu gotta do what you gotta do if you are Reggie to stave off the mighty Cats.
 
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Francisco Garcia ( A- ) -- 29min 23pts (8-12 FG, 6-8 3pt, 1-1FT) 1reb 1ast 1stl 3blk 1TO
There is really not much to say about this -- Cisco is simply on a ridiculous hot streak. Everything he shootsd goes in. And when you run into a comically inept defensive team that apparently does not include an advance scout(or anyboy with a subscription to league pass) he will get open look after open look and just knock almost everything down. He was not perfect, not very well rounded -- turning into just a shooter as the hot streak continues. Was not the player who finally won it for us. But there is no question he was easily the best King on the court, and the only one of the guys reciving good grades who did not receive a bump to his grade just for pure numbers. Cisco's impact was real, not statistical. When you hardly miss and rain in another 6 threes, how could it not be? One note: Reggie was an idiot tonight and shaved Cisco's minutes for no apparent reason. Played a lot. Should have played more.

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John Salmons ( D ) -- 18min 2pts (1-3 FG, 0-1 3pt, 0-0FT) 4reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Well nice to see that trade or no trade at the deadline made no difference for this guy. Well...nice if you are the other teams. Yoohoo! Johhhhnnn! Season's still on big guy. Well...kinda. Its over for us, but we're still playing games, so your occasional appearance would be appreciated. When I
predicted at the end of his starting tenure that his trade value would plummet, I did not think it meant down to D-league level. But those great starts seem a lifetime ago now as he just wanders around out there, lost if he's not featured and losing his backup minutes to Cisco. Left with a thigh injury, and gee was that a blow. This time out at least passed the ball and grabbed a few rebounds. That's where we are from a guy who was outplaying Kevin in December. Of course the way that Kevin himself is playing right now outplaying Kevin might still be within reach.

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Reggie Theus ( ) --
 
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The game winning play....like Brick said, would give an A if it was any number of any other players, but not for GW. Hope the kid is OK.
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It was an ugly game for King's fans, no doubt about it. Just seemed that, individually and collectively, the Kings were out of sync.
The only King to get a better than C grade on this night is Garcia.
 
Well nice to see that trade or no trade at the deadline made no difference for this guy. Well...nice if you are the other teams. Yoohoo! Johhhhnnn! Season's still on big guy. Well...kinda. Its over for us, but we're still playing games, so your occasional appearance would be appreciated. When I
predicted at the end of his starting tenure that his trade value would plummet, I did not think it meant down to D-league level. But those great starts seem a lifetime ago now as he just wanders around out there, lost if he's not featured and losing his backup minutes to Cisco. Left with a thigh injury, and gee was that a blow. This time out at least passed the ball and grabbed a few rebounds. Taht's where we are from a guy who was outplaying Kevin in December. Of course the way that Kevin himself is playing outplaying Kevin might still be within reach.

I would rather see more of Cisco than John. But that's just me...Plus, I really want to know what's going on with Kevin. It's really weird that it's become a this game that game thing with him.
 
I went to watch the kings in Atlanta last year and there was a group of about 12 that Kevin was talking to before the game all about his age and all seeming to be friends. So i they will come that far I am sure they would make the shorter trip to Charlotte.
 
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