Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( A ) -- not a perfect game, but 27pts 14rebs and great D just has to be an A. Had a solid first half as the only guy other than Bibby doing anything. But the things Ron were doing were as usual not going to jump off the statsheet the way Bibby's 19pt first half did. Got his hands on ball after ball, and played a tremendous defensive half even by his standards. Flipflopped after the break. Still a good defensive half, but made his mark by really coming on and getting aggressive offensively. Was having a strange offensive game where he fluxuated wildly from near airballs to clean swishes. And of course was using some of his bulk on the boards this time out. Played well offensively down the stretch, but missed the game winner (actually winners, as he got his first attempt blocked right back into his hands, and then missed a fadeway. Made a defensive mistake to actually open the door a crack for the Bulls with 7 seconds to go in OT when he left Nocioni open to drain a long jumper that was a toe length from being a three, and which got the Bulls back within two. But came back down on the next posession and blocked Nocioni's shot at the trey line again to seal it (a play actually of dubious intelligence given that we were up four and the ONLY way the Bulls could pull it out would have been to get fouled on a three pointer). Regardless, after Bibby cooled off Ron was the man who carried us until we finally got some late game contributions from the other guys.
Thomas ( B ) -- started off as kind of a classic Kenny game -- some good aggressive boards, but little else. But began to come alive offensively in the second half with what his newfound garbage game. Used to be KT was a bit of a gunner and really looked for his own offense. But ever since Ron has arrived in town he has increasingly shown a willingness to keep it simple. Get offensive boards, cut to the hoop, not get many silly one on one ideas with the ball in his hands. Made some really poor and random turnovers in this one, including a couple of blatant travels. Came up with a huge rebound at the end of regulation to give us the chance to win it. And added several more big rebounds in OT. FTs were a problem all night for him as he hit all of 6-12 of them, and most critically missed a pair at the end of OT to keep the door ajar for the Bulls. Mixed bag game but big numbers -- 16pts 13rebs -- and aside from the missed FTs, a nice rebounding contribution after Chandler left the game.
Miller ( B ) -- well, as near triple doubles go, this one wasn't that impressive. But it was still a near triple double, and while Brad struggled for most of the night he made some big plays when we needed them down the stretch. Very poor first half in which he did absolutely nothing for us and got pounded by Chandler on the glass. In the second half got more involved in all aspects but was still fitting himself with some goat hoarns as he airballed two threes and appeared to be leading our most recent choke parade in as close game on the road. But then Tyson Chandler rode to our rescue, and Brad, smart player that he is, immediately took note and attacked, coming up with a drive and three point play as soon as Tyson left the game. Then after we forced OT, hit a big 20ft jumper to break the Bulls back in OT.
Martin ( C ) -- back on the road, and it was oh so obvious. Maybe the answer as to who should start between Kevin and Bonzi is: both. Kevin starts at Arco, Bonzi starts on the road. Finally hit a three midway through the second after missing his first 6 shots. To make matters worse, Gordon got off ot the big start the other way and Kevin never was able to get any control of him. But stepped up to hit a three pointer in OT off the Artest penetration, and then hit a pair of FTs to keep the Bulls from pulling it out. So obviously not a good game, and looked nothing like an Arco outing for him. But did a few things for us down the stretch in OT that helped and recovered from the bad start to just sort of be there for much of the night.
Bibby ( A- ) -- hangs onto his A- by the skin of his teeth despite the huge start. Completely carried us in the first half, and in the first quarter caught fire for the first time in forever and more or less singlehandedly kept us in it. At halftime, heck, halfway through the third, there was absolutely no way Mike misses an "A" in this one. But as he started cooling off as the game wore on, Heinrich started heating up. And end result was that Heinrich dominated the matchup down the stretch and was just killing us with penetration for either his shot or open guys on the perimeter. Meanwhile Mike was consistently doubled after half and wasn't able to solve that late in the game. Did come back to hit the icer in OT, but the damage had already been done by others. Big bounceback game in the first half, when it loooked like it might be 40ppg "Super-Bibby" to the rescue. But slowed down after halftime, and actually lost the individual matchup to Heinrich. Could not B+ him though, because he and Ron WERE the Kings tonight for most of the game.
Garcia ( C ) -- quiet quiet game Played good defense but gave us absolutely nothing offensively as the bench was back to punchless tonight.
Reef ( C ) -- came in and was having difficulty finishing, but did grab some boards. Not sure where the confident Reef was who played against Atlanta went. But tonight his boxscore -- 4pts 5rebs on 1-5 shooting looked more like something KT was putting up early in the year.
Hart ( INC ) -- came in, badly missed a baseline shot, went out
Skinner ( C+ ) -- brought a little defense in his first half stint, but it was hardly spectacular, and did not catch Rick's eye for a retunr after halftime,
Adelman ( ) -- coming...
Chandler -- I'm not going to give Tyson a grade, because I'm not sure how it works out. Suffice it to say he made the single greatest contribution to our win tonight by fouling out on just a stupid play -- for the second time in the game picked up an offensive foul on a bizarre running screen where its almost like he just was running too fast to get into position and then was unable to put on the breaks. Problem was that the second time he did it there was only 1:40 left in the game and the Bulls were about to ice us. But Chandler gets the dumb foul, gives us the ball back, and fouls himself out to REALLY open the rim and glass up to us where they had been closed. Just a catastrophic play for the Bulls. Not giving him the grade becuase the reason it was catastrophic was because he had been cleaning up in the middle before that with 15rebounds in 30min.
Thomas ( B ) -- started off as kind of a classic Kenny game -- some good aggressive boards, but little else. But began to come alive offensively in the second half with what his newfound garbage game. Used to be KT was a bit of a gunner and really looked for his own offense. But ever since Ron has arrived in town he has increasingly shown a willingness to keep it simple. Get offensive boards, cut to the hoop, not get many silly one on one ideas with the ball in his hands. Made some really poor and random turnovers in this one, including a couple of blatant travels. Came up with a huge rebound at the end of regulation to give us the chance to win it. And added several more big rebounds in OT. FTs were a problem all night for him as he hit all of 6-12 of them, and most critically missed a pair at the end of OT to keep the door ajar for the Bulls. Mixed bag game but big numbers -- 16pts 13rebs -- and aside from the missed FTs, a nice rebounding contribution after Chandler left the game.
Miller ( B ) -- well, as near triple doubles go, this one wasn't that impressive. But it was still a near triple double, and while Brad struggled for most of the night he made some big plays when we needed them down the stretch. Very poor first half in which he did absolutely nothing for us and got pounded by Chandler on the glass. In the second half got more involved in all aspects but was still fitting himself with some goat hoarns as he airballed two threes and appeared to be leading our most recent choke parade in as close game on the road. But then Tyson Chandler rode to our rescue, and Brad, smart player that he is, immediately took note and attacked, coming up with a drive and three point play as soon as Tyson left the game. Then after we forced OT, hit a big 20ft jumper to break the Bulls back in OT.
Martin ( C ) -- back on the road, and it was oh so obvious. Maybe the answer as to who should start between Kevin and Bonzi is: both. Kevin starts at Arco, Bonzi starts on the road. Finally hit a three midway through the second after missing his first 6 shots. To make matters worse, Gordon got off ot the big start the other way and Kevin never was able to get any control of him. But stepped up to hit a three pointer in OT off the Artest penetration, and then hit a pair of FTs to keep the Bulls from pulling it out. So obviously not a good game, and looked nothing like an Arco outing for him. But did a few things for us down the stretch in OT that helped and recovered from the bad start to just sort of be there for much of the night.
Bibby ( A- ) -- hangs onto his A- by the skin of his teeth despite the huge start. Completely carried us in the first half, and in the first quarter caught fire for the first time in forever and more or less singlehandedly kept us in it. At halftime, heck, halfway through the third, there was absolutely no way Mike misses an "A" in this one. But as he started cooling off as the game wore on, Heinrich started heating up. And end result was that Heinrich dominated the matchup down the stretch and was just killing us with penetration for either his shot or open guys on the perimeter. Meanwhile Mike was consistently doubled after half and wasn't able to solve that late in the game. Did come back to hit the icer in OT, but the damage had already been done by others. Big bounceback game in the first half, when it loooked like it might be 40ppg "Super-Bibby" to the rescue. But slowed down after halftime, and actually lost the individual matchup to Heinrich. Could not B+ him though, because he and Ron WERE the Kings tonight for most of the game.
Garcia ( C ) -- quiet quiet game Played good defense but gave us absolutely nothing offensively as the bench was back to punchless tonight.
Reef ( C ) -- came in and was having difficulty finishing, but did grab some boards. Not sure where the confident Reef was who played against Atlanta went. But tonight his boxscore -- 4pts 5rebs on 1-5 shooting looked more like something KT was putting up early in the year.
Hart ( INC ) -- came in, badly missed a baseline shot, went out
Skinner ( C+ ) -- brought a little defense in his first half stint, but it was hardly spectacular, and did not catch Rick's eye for a retunr after halftime,
Adelman ( ) -- coming...
Chandler -- I'm not going to give Tyson a grade, because I'm not sure how it works out. Suffice it to say he made the single greatest contribution to our win tonight by fouling out on just a stupid play -- for the second time in the game picked up an offensive foul on a bizarre running screen where its almost like he just was running too fast to get into position and then was unable to put on the breaks. Problem was that the second time he did it there was only 1:40 left in the game and the Bulls were about to ice us. But Chandler gets the dumb foul, gives us the ball back, and fouls himself out to REALLY open the rim and glass up to us where they had been closed. Just a catastrophic play for the Bulls. Not giving him the grade becuase the reason it was catastrophic was because he had been cleaning up in the middle before that with 15rebounds in 30min.
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