Barnes ( C ) -- funny thing -- gave us little statistically in EITHER half, and yet was a world of difference in his effectiveness from the first (ineffective) to the second (hustle made a difference). A few hustle plays aside, didn't have much luck on defense.
Webber ( D+ ) -- got off to a catastrophically bad start to this one. Jumper, clang. Jumper, clang. Jumper, clang. Quick as you can say "brick" Webb was 1-12 and struggling so bad that the Bulls were blatantly running away from him and daring him to shoot. At least he was rebounding, something no other King could bring themselves to do until Brad showed up late a little. Came back in the third quarter a little more humble and much more settled. In no way dominated, but for the most part just settled back and took easy shots in the paint and passed around the rest. Joined the rest of our frontline in terrible foul trouble as the Bulls attacked and attacked and attacked our pathetic interior defense and ran around our little guys on the perimeter at will. Ironically again was easily our steadiest player down the stretch. Passed up an open jumper aware of his numbers, then turned around and hit three big shots, poked away a ball with those great hands for what should have been a steal (Evans blew it), and made several good passes that should have resulted in assists but our shooters blew them. Despite the ugly night, when he fouled out in the final minute it hurt. Got his shooting up to 7-21 with a 6-9 second half, but he looked positively depressed out there after the distressing start. If we'd won the strong stretch play here might have gotten him up into a C-, but as it was this game just felt so BAD from him, and for us as we lost, that I'm staying in the Ds.
Miller ( B+ ) -- felt like a steady if unspectacular game from Brad, but then you look up an realize that it was his turn to threaten a triple double. Passed well, and stepped up and was strong in the 4th. On the other hand, once again was worked on defense by both his man and any other Bulls player, assistant coach, or ballboy who decided to wander into the paint. Last two minutes of the game were a real adventure for Brad. Hesitated, doubleclutched, and ultimately airballed a critical shot at about the 1:30 mark. God I wish he'd just quit thinking so much and shoot the damn ball in rhythm. A minute later came back and made a huge three point play, and then conspiracy nuts take note -- unbelievably we were the victim of yet ANOTHER blown call by the refs in the final 40 seconds! Brad should have had a second 3pt play, but the refs called him for a charge on a play in which the defender's foot was within the restricted circle underneath the hoop. Amazing. Would have brought us to within 1 if he made the FT. Who knows how it goes, but its not impossible that late blown calls by the refs may have cost us three games in a week!
Mobley ( C+ ) -- scored a lot of points, but also forced some really dumb shots. In fact if there was a story of the first half beyond Webb's struggles, it was in our guards forcing up a bunch of one on one crap for no apparent reason. In fact decisionmaking overall generally sucked tonight. Compounded things by showing a total inability to keep Ben Gordon in front of him. Got us 20 tonight, but I was not at all happy with his overall game.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Mike started off the game aggressively, but maybe TOO aggressively as he seemed to get caught up in a personal battle with Chris Duhon and was forcing shots off the dribble without passing, making dangerous passes etc. Was erratic, but still was easily our most competent little man tonight. In fact even did a better job defensively than most of the other guards, which isn't saying much however. Made some sloppy and careless plays in the 4th quarter too -- this way not Grade A Bibby -- but also hit some big threes. Mike's abysmal FT shooting finally also jumped up and bit us in the butt, if it hasn't already this season. Choked two in the final 30 seconds tonight to help finish us.
Evans ( D ) -- for three quarters Mo was not only not good, but quite bad. Lacked his normal energy, and was joining the dumb parade and forcing one on one shots on offense. He's not that good. His game is taking the easy ones, not beating people one on one. Did come up with one inspired burst to start the 4th quarter where he came up with a couple of quick hoops and a steal. But remarkably, and this falls on the coaches or rest of the team as much as Mo, the next few times down the floor we actually more or less FORCED Mo to take low percentage one on one shots by dumping the ball to him in the post and then clearing out like he was a primary offensive weapon or something. Platooned with Matt as a SF, and grabbed a few OG minutes from Mobley in the third. Matt was nothing great tonight, but Mo was bad enough that I really wanted the Finest back in the game.
Songaila ( C+ ) -- got off to a hot start with the shot, but the game quickly devolved into a long series of fouls for Darius. And worse yet, Darius once again went out and gave us nothing at all on the glass as we got killed there again. I believe the tally is up to 4rebs in his last 67 minutes for us -- hell, I might be able to do that.
Martin ( B- ) -- got a little run in the first half. Immediately came in for a nice alley oop, and probably did as good a job defensively as any Kings guard or small forward tonight. Not much impact, but a solid little stint.
House ( B- ) -- came in in Microwave fashion once more and rapidly hit several quick shots for us and made a nice assist to Tag. But as usual always has to take that one dumb force before heading back to the bench. And as usual, did not get the return call in the second half.
Ostertag ( INC ) -- you know that its an erratic effort from Greg when he comes in for few minutes and is far more prominent on offense than defense.
Adelman ( C ) -- Let's see, ANOTHER team shoots +.500 against us, ANOTHER team crunches us on the boards, and ANOTHER ref blows a call in the final seconds. What a shocker that we lost.
Simply amazing that we scored our customary 100pts in this one because a strong third quarter aside, our offense looked like crap all night too. Offensive decisionmaking was terrible, and we forced up a bunch of garbage shots. Also seemed to be the gameplan to force bad postup shiots by our guards? Was that a coaching move to try to take advantage of their mini OGs? Not sure, but whatever it was it turned out ugly as Cat and Mo in particular ended up forcing up terrible low percentage heaves which repeatedly broke any rhythm our offense might have had. Went with basically a strict mechanical platoon of Matt and Mo at SF. Why so rigid? Matt plays 1 and 3, Mo 2 and 4, and didn't seem that we really cared how well they were playing. Did get the team back together after the ugly first half, and handled Webb's struggles well. In any case, we need this All-Star break in the worst way. Always worry about the emotional wear and tear on this team, so many disappointments over the years, so many injuries, so much controversy here recently and close loss after close loss -- burnout and doubt are always lurking, and we need to regroup and soon.
Webber ( D+ ) -- got off to a catastrophically bad start to this one. Jumper, clang. Jumper, clang. Jumper, clang. Quick as you can say "brick" Webb was 1-12 and struggling so bad that the Bulls were blatantly running away from him and daring him to shoot. At least he was rebounding, something no other King could bring themselves to do until Brad showed up late a little. Came back in the third quarter a little more humble and much more settled. In no way dominated, but for the most part just settled back and took easy shots in the paint and passed around the rest. Joined the rest of our frontline in terrible foul trouble as the Bulls attacked and attacked and attacked our pathetic interior defense and ran around our little guys on the perimeter at will. Ironically again was easily our steadiest player down the stretch. Passed up an open jumper aware of his numbers, then turned around and hit three big shots, poked away a ball with those great hands for what should have been a steal (Evans blew it), and made several good passes that should have resulted in assists but our shooters blew them. Despite the ugly night, when he fouled out in the final minute it hurt. Got his shooting up to 7-21 with a 6-9 second half, but he looked positively depressed out there after the distressing start. If we'd won the strong stretch play here might have gotten him up into a C-, but as it was this game just felt so BAD from him, and for us as we lost, that I'm staying in the Ds.
Miller ( B+ ) -- felt like a steady if unspectacular game from Brad, but then you look up an realize that it was his turn to threaten a triple double. Passed well, and stepped up and was strong in the 4th. On the other hand, once again was worked on defense by both his man and any other Bulls player, assistant coach, or ballboy who decided to wander into the paint. Last two minutes of the game were a real adventure for Brad. Hesitated, doubleclutched, and ultimately airballed a critical shot at about the 1:30 mark. God I wish he'd just quit thinking so much and shoot the damn ball in rhythm. A minute later came back and made a huge three point play, and then conspiracy nuts take note -- unbelievably we were the victim of yet ANOTHER blown call by the refs in the final 40 seconds! Brad should have had a second 3pt play, but the refs called him for a charge on a play in which the defender's foot was within the restricted circle underneath the hoop. Amazing. Would have brought us to within 1 if he made the FT. Who knows how it goes, but its not impossible that late blown calls by the refs may have cost us three games in a week!
Mobley ( C+ ) -- scored a lot of points, but also forced some really dumb shots. In fact if there was a story of the first half beyond Webb's struggles, it was in our guards forcing up a bunch of one on one crap for no apparent reason. In fact decisionmaking overall generally sucked tonight. Compounded things by showing a total inability to keep Ben Gordon in front of him. Got us 20 tonight, but I was not at all happy with his overall game.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Mike started off the game aggressively, but maybe TOO aggressively as he seemed to get caught up in a personal battle with Chris Duhon and was forcing shots off the dribble without passing, making dangerous passes etc. Was erratic, but still was easily our most competent little man tonight. In fact even did a better job defensively than most of the other guards, which isn't saying much however. Made some sloppy and careless plays in the 4th quarter too -- this way not Grade A Bibby -- but also hit some big threes. Mike's abysmal FT shooting finally also jumped up and bit us in the butt, if it hasn't already this season. Choked two in the final 30 seconds tonight to help finish us.
Evans ( D ) -- for three quarters Mo was not only not good, but quite bad. Lacked his normal energy, and was joining the dumb parade and forcing one on one shots on offense. He's not that good. His game is taking the easy ones, not beating people one on one. Did come up with one inspired burst to start the 4th quarter where he came up with a couple of quick hoops and a steal. But remarkably, and this falls on the coaches or rest of the team as much as Mo, the next few times down the floor we actually more or less FORCED Mo to take low percentage one on one shots by dumping the ball to him in the post and then clearing out like he was a primary offensive weapon or something. Platooned with Matt as a SF, and grabbed a few OG minutes from Mobley in the third. Matt was nothing great tonight, but Mo was bad enough that I really wanted the Finest back in the game.
Songaila ( C+ ) -- got off to a hot start with the shot, but the game quickly devolved into a long series of fouls for Darius. And worse yet, Darius once again went out and gave us nothing at all on the glass as we got killed there again. I believe the tally is up to 4rebs in his last 67 minutes for us -- hell, I might be able to do that.
Martin ( B- ) -- got a little run in the first half. Immediately came in for a nice alley oop, and probably did as good a job defensively as any Kings guard or small forward tonight. Not much impact, but a solid little stint.
House ( B- ) -- came in in Microwave fashion once more and rapidly hit several quick shots for us and made a nice assist to Tag. But as usual always has to take that one dumb force before heading back to the bench. And as usual, did not get the return call in the second half.
Ostertag ( INC ) -- you know that its an erratic effort from Greg when he comes in for few minutes and is far more prominent on offense than defense.
Adelman ( C ) -- Let's see, ANOTHER team shoots +.500 against us, ANOTHER team crunches us on the boards, and ANOTHER ref blows a call in the final seconds. What a shocker that we lost.
Simply amazing that we scored our customary 100pts in this one because a strong third quarter aside, our offense looked like crap all night too. Offensive decisionmaking was terrible, and we forced up a bunch of garbage shots. Also seemed to be the gameplan to force bad postup shiots by our guards? Was that a coaching move to try to take advantage of their mini OGs? Not sure, but whatever it was it turned out ugly as Cat and Mo in particular ended up forcing up terrible low percentage heaves which repeatedly broke any rhythm our offense might have had. Went with basically a strict mechanical platoon of Matt and Mo at SF. Why so rigid? Matt plays 1 and 3, Mo 2 and 4, and didn't seem that we really cared how well they were playing. Did get the team back together after the ugly first half, and handled Webb's struggles well. In any case, we need this All-Star break in the worst way. Always worry about the emotional wear and tear on this team, so many disappointments over the years, so many injuries, so much controversy here recently and close loss after close loss -- burnout and doubt are always lurking, and we need to regroup and soon.
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