Another day, another loss. Ho Hum.
Apologies for the delay and limited grades -- been a busy day and I was aiming for the Mr. Irrelevant award.
Salmons ( C- ) -- and along with another day, another loss, we had another day, another John struggle with the sad fact that he is not and never will be Kobe. Although compared to his previous non-efforts, he at least showed up in this one for a while. Did not look comfortable, was not hitting consistently from outside, and has turned into a real complainer (at least in this somewhat Kobelike) every time he forces a drive and gets smushed. And this mostly matched up against undersized non-defender Ben Gordon (Sefalosha was often on Kevin). Was repeatedly stripped and generally still looking out of sorts. Nor did he bring much defense again in response. And this was the good performance in the recent string.
Moore ( C- ) -- starting now more just because Natt can't stand the thought of starting anybody under 30. Another grand total of 14 minutes outing. Was matched up across from undersized and lively Tyrus Thomas, who is still sloppy but still uber-athletic, and generally got worked. Did get his revenge though in a ridiculous third quarter sequence where Thomas threw down a monster slam that likely found Mikki himself extending his all time lead in poster sales, and s Mikki responded a few plays later with a big dunk of his own. Followed by the Mikki scream. And then the Mikki taunt, going on so long he got T'd up for it. Yes, you heard correctly -- somebody was just taunted by Mikki Moore. In a basketball game. Where Mikki finished with 4 pts and 1reb. Not sure we heard much from Mikki after that silliness, and it should be noted that with a minute to go in this one we were only down 3, and that 3 could have been 1 if we hadn't picked up a pair of stupid technicals earlier in the game (the other being Kevin's).
Miller ( B+ ) -- could not miss, until it mattered of course. Believe it or not, Aaron Gray actually is too slow to cover him, and after starting the game off by just overwhelming Brad in the pot, he was gone within 6 minutes with Brad peppering him at will. This may or may not have been a good thing, as the primary matchup for Brad therafter was undersized Drew Gooden, who isn't going to stop anybody in there either, but who worked Brad back the other way and played him to draw. After going 8-10 through 45 minutes, Brad pulled a Kings down the stretch, abruptly puckering up and finding that when it reallytmattered the hoop looked about half the size it had earlier.
Martin ( B- ) -- an interesting mess was this, good, bad, and...well, mostly good and bad. Good: 29 points. Bad: 7 turnovers. Good: scored most of those 29 in the 4th quarter. Bad: choked badly down the stretch. Good: drew a lot of fouls. Bad: because he flopped, and got a stupid technical when the refs had the audactiy not to send him to the line. Kind of went like this -- was going along solidly but unspectacularly through the first three quarters with the Bulls paying him a lot of attention and trying to keep defensive specialists on him (Sefalosha, Hughes). Started to resort to some embarrassing flopping by the mid third, and even more embarrssingly the refs were going for it -- sorry, do not care who he plays for, its cheating. The kicking his legs out from under him to fall down, the exaggerated jerks and snaps of the head, the jumping into guys and falling down wounded. Cheating whether its Kevin, Manu, Reggie whoever. And a variety of adventursome cheaing tonight too, as on one play it appeared he had actually reinjured the ankle while executing one flop, which would have been cruel irony. Got involed in an amusing bit of nonsense on another as he and Senor Flop himself, Andres Nocioni, ran into each other on one play, and man, it was awful as a hand grenade apparently went off between the two of them. Think if I was a ref I would have just tossed both of them out of the game and gotten back to the basketball. In any case flops or not, his points were what was carrying us back into a close game in the 4th quarter. But the adventure was not done yet, as the last 15 seconds went vey badly indeed for Kevin, and us. First at the 13 second mark, he bricks the second of two FTs to leave us 2 behind, then when we get the rebound, he gets a wide open corner three to maybe win the game...and chokes. And then with the game on the line the next possession with us down three and 9 seconds left, he makes a bizarre decision to a) not shoot the three, and b) not kick the ball to Brad Miller for the three, but c) instead to force a drive and brick the layup to close us off. No sense to it, and after dissecting postgame quotes the explanation doesn't appear to be any more complex than this: Kevin choked. So relatively one dimensional 29pt effort, with turnovers and late game choke? Tough grade.
Udrih ( C+ ) -- looked better than he has been, and its sign of how bad its been going that getting back to 6pts 5ast represents a recovery. But the 5 assists were generally good ones, the shots were solid ones, the turnovers were under control. Matched up against a vastly superior talent in Rose of course, and Rose put a lot of that on display in the first half. But Beno was semi-running things for us and Natt let him play for a few minutes consecutively, so baby steps I guess.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thompson ( B- ) -- more solid non-gerbil Thompson. At no point had any real impact stretches...but given how that impact can go for either side, that might have bene a good thing. Solid on the glass but not hyper-energetic. Got the majority of the PF minutes, and while he continues to struggle to pay defense without hacking like a madman, did not get lit up by anybody. Took mostly reasonable shots, although the shooting percentage wasn't great.
Cisco ( B- ) -- was going along with a quietly ineffective evening until he found his niche late in the game: Rose stopper. Rose was often spectacular durign the first half, an still sporadically good into the 3rd, but then we hit upon the idea of checking him wiht Cisco -- a move that cost Salmons some of his minutes. And Cisco performed well in the role, using his length to disrupt Rose (who is a big PG, not a dart). Evne threatened to be the hero at one point when he pciked Rose clean in the open court up at the top of the circle, and too the ball back the other way for a layup to pull us within one. THat's a mistake that Rose won't make in 3 years, but that's why you, AHEM NATT, play your kids -- so they learn these things. Cisco undid his heroness a few possessions later when the brainless gerbil Cisco reasserted itself on an uneccessary quick forced brick of the sort that has sunk us in close game after close game.
Hawes ( D ) -- hey, first game back from the abdomen and all, but certainly looked like the December struggles might still be with him. In pretty much a direct matchup with fellow 2nd year player Noah, lost the battle. Not that Noah was great by any means, but he hustled and got on the glass while Spencer...pretty much did nothing.
Brown ( C ) -- maybe learned a little something from old as dirt (well, old as me) Lindsey Hunter in this one. Not awful, but not good enough to steal minutes either and was getting out-saavied.
Jackson ( INC ) -- generally ineffective in his short minutes tonight, and Natt shorted him up
Apologies for the delay and limited grades -- been a busy day and I was aiming for the Mr. Irrelevant award.
Salmons ( C- ) -- and along with another day, another loss, we had another day, another John struggle with the sad fact that he is not and never will be Kobe. Although compared to his previous non-efforts, he at least showed up in this one for a while. Did not look comfortable, was not hitting consistently from outside, and has turned into a real complainer (at least in this somewhat Kobelike) every time he forces a drive and gets smushed. And this mostly matched up against undersized non-defender Ben Gordon (Sefalosha was often on Kevin). Was repeatedly stripped and generally still looking out of sorts. Nor did he bring much defense again in response. And this was the good performance in the recent string.
Moore ( C- ) -- starting now more just because Natt can't stand the thought of starting anybody under 30. Another grand total of 14 minutes outing. Was matched up across from undersized and lively Tyrus Thomas, who is still sloppy but still uber-athletic, and generally got worked. Did get his revenge though in a ridiculous third quarter sequence where Thomas threw down a monster slam that likely found Mikki himself extending his all time lead in poster sales, and s Mikki responded a few plays later with a big dunk of his own. Followed by the Mikki scream. And then the Mikki taunt, going on so long he got T'd up for it. Yes, you heard correctly -- somebody was just taunted by Mikki Moore. In a basketball game. Where Mikki finished with 4 pts and 1reb. Not sure we heard much from Mikki after that silliness, and it should be noted that with a minute to go in this one we were only down 3, and that 3 could have been 1 if we hadn't picked up a pair of stupid technicals earlier in the game (the other being Kevin's).
Miller ( B+ ) -- could not miss, until it mattered of course. Believe it or not, Aaron Gray actually is too slow to cover him, and after starting the game off by just overwhelming Brad in the pot, he was gone within 6 minutes with Brad peppering him at will. This may or may not have been a good thing, as the primary matchup for Brad therafter was undersized Drew Gooden, who isn't going to stop anybody in there either, but who worked Brad back the other way and played him to draw. After going 8-10 through 45 minutes, Brad pulled a Kings down the stretch, abruptly puckering up and finding that when it reallytmattered the hoop looked about half the size it had earlier.
Martin ( B- ) -- an interesting mess was this, good, bad, and...well, mostly good and bad. Good: 29 points. Bad: 7 turnovers. Good: scored most of those 29 in the 4th quarter. Bad: choked badly down the stretch. Good: drew a lot of fouls. Bad: because he flopped, and got a stupid technical when the refs had the audactiy not to send him to the line. Kind of went like this -- was going along solidly but unspectacularly through the first three quarters with the Bulls paying him a lot of attention and trying to keep defensive specialists on him (Sefalosha, Hughes). Started to resort to some embarrassing flopping by the mid third, and even more embarrssingly the refs were going for it -- sorry, do not care who he plays for, its cheating. The kicking his legs out from under him to fall down, the exaggerated jerks and snaps of the head, the jumping into guys and falling down wounded. Cheating whether its Kevin, Manu, Reggie whoever. And a variety of adventursome cheaing tonight too, as on one play it appeared he had actually reinjured the ankle while executing one flop, which would have been cruel irony. Got involed in an amusing bit of nonsense on another as he and Senor Flop himself, Andres Nocioni, ran into each other on one play, and man, it was awful as a hand grenade apparently went off between the two of them. Think if I was a ref I would have just tossed both of them out of the game and gotten back to the basketball. In any case flops or not, his points were what was carrying us back into a close game in the 4th quarter. But the adventure was not done yet, as the last 15 seconds went vey badly indeed for Kevin, and us. First at the 13 second mark, he bricks the second of two FTs to leave us 2 behind, then when we get the rebound, he gets a wide open corner three to maybe win the game...and chokes. And then with the game on the line the next possession with us down three and 9 seconds left, he makes a bizarre decision to a) not shoot the three, and b) not kick the ball to Brad Miller for the three, but c) instead to force a drive and brick the layup to close us off. No sense to it, and after dissecting postgame quotes the explanation doesn't appear to be any more complex than this: Kevin choked. So relatively one dimensional 29pt effort, with turnovers and late game choke? Tough grade.
Udrih ( C+ ) -- looked better than he has been, and its sign of how bad its been going that getting back to 6pts 5ast represents a recovery. But the 5 assists were generally good ones, the shots were solid ones, the turnovers were under control. Matched up against a vastly superior talent in Rose of course, and Rose put a lot of that on display in the first half. But Beno was semi-running things for us and Natt let him play for a few minutes consecutively, so baby steps I guess.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thompson ( B- ) -- more solid non-gerbil Thompson. At no point had any real impact stretches...but given how that impact can go for either side, that might have bene a good thing. Solid on the glass but not hyper-energetic. Got the majority of the PF minutes, and while he continues to struggle to pay defense without hacking like a madman, did not get lit up by anybody. Took mostly reasonable shots, although the shooting percentage wasn't great.
Cisco ( B- ) -- was going along with a quietly ineffective evening until he found his niche late in the game: Rose stopper. Rose was often spectacular durign the first half, an still sporadically good into the 3rd, but then we hit upon the idea of checking him wiht Cisco -- a move that cost Salmons some of his minutes. And Cisco performed well in the role, using his length to disrupt Rose (who is a big PG, not a dart). Evne threatened to be the hero at one point when he pciked Rose clean in the open court up at the top of the circle, and too the ball back the other way for a layup to pull us within one. THat's a mistake that Rose won't make in 3 years, but that's why you, AHEM NATT, play your kids -- so they learn these things. Cisco undid his heroness a few possessions later when the brainless gerbil Cisco reasserted itself on an uneccessary quick forced brick of the sort that has sunk us in close game after close game.
Hawes ( D ) -- hey, first game back from the abdomen and all, but certainly looked like the December struggles might still be with him. In pretty much a direct matchup with fellow 2nd year player Noah, lost the battle. Not that Noah was great by any means, but he hustled and got on the glass while Spencer...pretty much did nothing.
Brown ( C ) -- maybe learned a little something from old as dirt (well, old as me) Lindsey Hunter in this one. Not awful, but not good enough to steal minutes either and was getting out-saavied.
Jackson ( INC ) -- generally ineffective in his short minutes tonight, and Natt shorted him up
Last edited:
