Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
My lord, its almost gotten funny, in a painful I just had to saw off my own foot with a spork sort of way:
Artest ( C+ ) -- Played a very strong first half. Note the use of the term "first half". And on both sides of the ball. Was bending the Cavs defense in the earlygoing, forcing Big Z to double down, and willingly swinging it around for assists all over the court. Only shot 2-7 in the first half, but the story was the 7 assists he had before the break, as well as good defense on LeBron -- caused LeBron a lot of problems last year too as I recall, and Ron remains one of the only guys in the league with both the strength and quickness to stay with him. Well, stay with him for a half. Because Ron seemed to forget about how he'd been having success in the third and began forcing his own offense. Had a brief stretch where he looked to take back over in the late third, and then that was the last we heard of him. Meanwhile LeBron just completely took over the game, and there was nothing Ron could do to slow him. Nor did he do anything on the other end where we one more time collapsed into one on one play with Ron a key part of it. After half Ron again shot 2-7, but this time with NO assists. So an A- type first half, a D type second half. For one half it was there and Ron was facing down one of the league's best. But by the end, more disappointment.
Reef ( D ) -- a lineup shakeup after recent KT ineptness resulted in a Reef sighting in the starting lineup. But it didn't make much difference as he did nothing to really justify it other than staying out of the way of the Ron/Mike/Brad show in the early going. Had 2pts 3rebs in the first half, and virtually all of that came on one play where he missed, stayed with it, missed, got it back, and finished. Continued ineffectiveness after half led to an early reinsertion of KT as the Cavs began our nightly pounding down in the paint. He never returned, and this time was actually losing minutes to Mo Taylor.
Miller ( B ) -- played a huge role in the first half with his perimeter jumpshots. Was left open, and on this night whenever he was left open he was going to convert. Was actually surprised at how poorly the defensive scheme was against him -- basically the Cavs were playing Brad in exactly the way you do not play Brad, like he was DeSagana Diop or something, and he lit them up on 6-7 shooting for their trouble before halftime. Did little else -- like Mike a one dimensional first half effort. He at least continued trying in the second half, but it was scrappier, harder, more fouls, less open looks. And Brad was missing his FTs. Disappeared late for us, but by then it probably did not matter. Despite the one dimensional first half play he was playing such an important role that if the game had ended at halftime I might have given him a low A for impact. But as things fell apart, and we got worked over inside, the lack of contribution beyond scoring began to become more glaring.
Martin ( A- ) -- had a quietish first half offensively, with the "highlight" being having the honor of getting chased down on the break by LeBron for a highlight block. Scored here and there, but as an afterthought behind the throwback half the Bibby/Miller combo was having. From the beginning though was giving us a welcome boost on the boards -- a nice return to more rounded basketball after a series of one dimensional games. Uncharacteristically joined the forced shot fest in the third quarter, and predictably did not hit. But finally came to life offensively in the 4th as we started our parade to the FT line thing, but also looked like he could have done more if he just would have shot the damn ball when he was open. Kept on catching the ball while open, and passing on the shots. Would have been nice if some others had been doing that, but Kevin was rarely getting good looks after passing on the open ones. And we needed those points. In any case, kind of an opposite game from the last few where the steady numbers were there, but the game was lacking in substance. This time did more than score, and when he did score it was at a time when we needed somebody to step forward. It was not nearly enough to turn things, but still a much better all around effort, and maybe our only player to play better after half.
Bibby ( B- ) -- getting to be a pat statement, but Mike started hot again. Not hot. Scorching. Everything he threw up was going in. Had 20pts in the first half, and could have maybe pushed 30 had he not sat for a spell in the second quarter. One dimensional effort though -- Ron was running the offense and Mike was just scoring. But oh boy was he scoring. Took a bad step near the end of the first half and its unclear whether that slowed him at all after half. Because then, like everyone else, the worm turned after half (another phrase I have no idea what it means). Mike was not only largely shut down after half, but he began to force shots that he should not have taken. Did create more, scrapped for a few things. Game got better rounded. But the offensive machine we had leaned on so heavily broke down and was replaced by...pretty much nothing. Got aggressive late in crunch time and was kinda/sorta helping us sneak back within miracle distance in the final minutes by getting to the rim/line. But not only obviously fell short, but may have sealed our defeat when he got picked clean by Larry Hughes at the top of the circle on a play we called out of a timeout. Meanwhile Mike might want to consider looking at some old tapes of when he and Damon Jones used to play together and note that the guy can shoot threes. He may also want to never let Eric frickin' Snow ever toast him off the dribble again. Just a thought. Anyway, despite the one dimensionality, almost certianly an A of some sort in that first half when his shooting was just deadly. But by the end, Mike puts up 26 and 6 and yet may have actively participated in our collapse and ultimate defeat by joining the one on one forced shot fest.
KT ( C+ ) -- in the first half played better off the bench then he has in some time as a starter. Was active on the glass, finished his only layup attempt. But after half, got an early opportunity with Reef sleepwalking his way to the bench, and not only did nothing, but saw the Cavs step up their pounding of us inside on his watch. Did not last long, and like Reef watched the rest of the game form the bench as Mo Taylor showed 'em how its done.
Well...kinda.
Salmons ( D ) -- do not fear Kings fans! Or at least do not fear John's most recent Mr. Invisible game. As many a Philly fan will tell you, its important not to get too high on John's good games, or too low on his bad ones. He's been wildly up and down his whole career. And so today was down. Really did nothing, although I guess it can be said part of that was him passing up several open threes that just aren't his preferred shot. Got a brief run at PG to open the 4th, but it did not work. Then we tried switching him over onto LeBron, which also did not work. In fact by the end it was pretty obvious that what was not working was Salmons being on the court at all.
Douby ( INC ) -- did little in his second quarter minutes. Passed up an easy shot to take a tougher one over the long Cavs frontline, was lucky to get the offensive board.
Taylor ( B ) -- got the 2nd quarter minutes that would normally go to Corliss, and showed pretty well for the second game in a row. Had one finish over/around Z, a couple of active boards, and looked solid. Back for the 4th, did little enough, but so did everyone else. And at least hit a nice little interior shot to help our...well, "comeback" is far too strong a word. So, how about our little minirun to make the margin of defeat look more respectable. Overall, not terrible, and that's two non-terrible efforts in a row from Mo. Yay x2.
Price ( INC ) -- got in for a few seconds at the end of the first half just to rest Bibby
Muss ( C ) -- Get this: for a half, Eric Musselman was in line for a good grade. For one of the very few times this season we came out, and it looked like we knew what we were doing. Like we had a plan, and were executing it. Mike and Brad were knocking down shots from all over the gym, and it looked like it was by design. Guys were 14-18 at half. Ron was carving up the Cavs defense from the block, and it looked like it was by design. To be sure Mike was putting forth a great individual shooting display, and Ron was making it tough on Lebron, but both had help from teammates who looked like actual teammates? Then disaster, otherwise known as the third quarter in Kingsland, struck again, and all of our mighty men turned into pumpkins at the stroke of midnight once more. We actually seemed to shrug off the normal ultra depressing Muss halftime speech for the first 3-4 minutes, came out strong, looked like we might finally finish somebody. Then looked up at the scoreboard, realized what quarter it was, and completely and utterly collapsed. The Cavs squeezed us, we squealed and panicked, and in the space of about 8 minutes we went form being 17 up, to being 5 down by the end of the quarter. The Cavs carved us up on the one end, the entire team started going one on one on the other, and the rout was on. Make no doubt about it, this was demoralizing. Not "almost had it" demoralizing. But completely embarrassing demoralizing. And where was Muss? Well... still around. Kinda. Doing his pouty thing alot. But tried a few things. Kept on switching through PFs looking for just one who wanted to play. Experimented with a big Salmons/Martin backcourt to open the 4th. Which did not work at all BTW. And after the loss was already on the books, Muss extended the game dramatically by intentionally fouling from the one minute mark on, and at a couple of points a completely blind optimist might have believed it could almost work. On the other hand, where was the timeout in the early 4th as the Cavs, and LeBron in particular, poured it on as we all went one on one? What DOES Muss say to these guys at half? And why do they seem to get so depressed by it, and then completely ignore what just has to be admonitions to pass the ball during the numerous timeouts? Where is the chemistry? The confidence? Certianly can't come from seeing your coach over on the sideline with his head held in his hands looking whipped every night. In any case, I am still unhitching the coach's grade from the team grade a bit here. There was a step forward tonight, lost in the mess. I actually recognized a real for true offensive plan! For a half. That we forgot about utterly. Nonetheless, Muss did one of the few rational things you can do with our team -- he gave the ball to Ron and let him create off the mismatch. It was a good plan, executed well for a while. But inherently unstable. As for the rest -- having any control, feel, inspirational ability etc...er...no. But hey! We had a plan! Whoopee and all that. So the loss sucked, we sucked. But for a while we almost looked like we knew what we wanted to do and just failed at it, which is infinitely better than not having a bleeping clue in the first place.
Pollard's Hair ( F ) -- nuff said.
Artest ( C+ ) -- Played a very strong first half. Note the use of the term "first half". And on both sides of the ball. Was bending the Cavs defense in the earlygoing, forcing Big Z to double down, and willingly swinging it around for assists all over the court. Only shot 2-7 in the first half, but the story was the 7 assists he had before the break, as well as good defense on LeBron -- caused LeBron a lot of problems last year too as I recall, and Ron remains one of the only guys in the league with both the strength and quickness to stay with him. Well, stay with him for a half. Because Ron seemed to forget about how he'd been having success in the third and began forcing his own offense. Had a brief stretch where he looked to take back over in the late third, and then that was the last we heard of him. Meanwhile LeBron just completely took over the game, and there was nothing Ron could do to slow him. Nor did he do anything on the other end where we one more time collapsed into one on one play with Ron a key part of it. After half Ron again shot 2-7, but this time with NO assists. So an A- type first half, a D type second half. For one half it was there and Ron was facing down one of the league's best. But by the end, more disappointment.
Reef ( D ) -- a lineup shakeup after recent KT ineptness resulted in a Reef sighting in the starting lineup. But it didn't make much difference as he did nothing to really justify it other than staying out of the way of the Ron/Mike/Brad show in the early going. Had 2pts 3rebs in the first half, and virtually all of that came on one play where he missed, stayed with it, missed, got it back, and finished. Continued ineffectiveness after half led to an early reinsertion of KT as the Cavs began our nightly pounding down in the paint. He never returned, and this time was actually losing minutes to Mo Taylor.
Miller ( B ) -- played a huge role in the first half with his perimeter jumpshots. Was left open, and on this night whenever he was left open he was going to convert. Was actually surprised at how poorly the defensive scheme was against him -- basically the Cavs were playing Brad in exactly the way you do not play Brad, like he was DeSagana Diop or something, and he lit them up on 6-7 shooting for their trouble before halftime. Did little else -- like Mike a one dimensional first half effort. He at least continued trying in the second half, but it was scrappier, harder, more fouls, less open looks. And Brad was missing his FTs. Disappeared late for us, but by then it probably did not matter. Despite the one dimensional first half play he was playing such an important role that if the game had ended at halftime I might have given him a low A for impact. But as things fell apart, and we got worked over inside, the lack of contribution beyond scoring began to become more glaring.
Martin ( A- ) -- had a quietish first half offensively, with the "highlight" being having the honor of getting chased down on the break by LeBron for a highlight block. Scored here and there, but as an afterthought behind the throwback half the Bibby/Miller combo was having. From the beginning though was giving us a welcome boost on the boards -- a nice return to more rounded basketball after a series of one dimensional games. Uncharacteristically joined the forced shot fest in the third quarter, and predictably did not hit. But finally came to life offensively in the 4th as we started our parade to the FT line thing, but also looked like he could have done more if he just would have shot the damn ball when he was open. Kept on catching the ball while open, and passing on the shots. Would have been nice if some others had been doing that, but Kevin was rarely getting good looks after passing on the open ones. And we needed those points. In any case, kind of an opposite game from the last few where the steady numbers were there, but the game was lacking in substance. This time did more than score, and when he did score it was at a time when we needed somebody to step forward. It was not nearly enough to turn things, but still a much better all around effort, and maybe our only player to play better after half.
Bibby ( B- ) -- getting to be a pat statement, but Mike started hot again. Not hot. Scorching. Everything he threw up was going in. Had 20pts in the first half, and could have maybe pushed 30 had he not sat for a spell in the second quarter. One dimensional effort though -- Ron was running the offense and Mike was just scoring. But oh boy was he scoring. Took a bad step near the end of the first half and its unclear whether that slowed him at all after half. Because then, like everyone else, the worm turned after half (another phrase I have no idea what it means). Mike was not only largely shut down after half, but he began to force shots that he should not have taken. Did create more, scrapped for a few things. Game got better rounded. But the offensive machine we had leaned on so heavily broke down and was replaced by...pretty much nothing. Got aggressive late in crunch time and was kinda/sorta helping us sneak back within miracle distance in the final minutes by getting to the rim/line. But not only obviously fell short, but may have sealed our defeat when he got picked clean by Larry Hughes at the top of the circle on a play we called out of a timeout. Meanwhile Mike might want to consider looking at some old tapes of when he and Damon Jones used to play together and note that the guy can shoot threes. He may also want to never let Eric frickin' Snow ever toast him off the dribble again. Just a thought. Anyway, despite the one dimensionality, almost certianly an A of some sort in that first half when his shooting was just deadly. But by the end, Mike puts up 26 and 6 and yet may have actively participated in our collapse and ultimate defeat by joining the one on one forced shot fest.
KT ( C+ ) -- in the first half played better off the bench then he has in some time as a starter. Was active on the glass, finished his only layup attempt. But after half, got an early opportunity with Reef sleepwalking his way to the bench, and not only did nothing, but saw the Cavs step up their pounding of us inside on his watch. Did not last long, and like Reef watched the rest of the game form the bench as Mo Taylor showed 'em how its done.
Well...kinda.Salmons ( D ) -- do not fear Kings fans! Or at least do not fear John's most recent Mr. Invisible game. As many a Philly fan will tell you, its important not to get too high on John's good games, or too low on his bad ones. He's been wildly up and down his whole career. And so today was down. Really did nothing, although I guess it can be said part of that was him passing up several open threes that just aren't his preferred shot. Got a brief run at PG to open the 4th, but it did not work. Then we tried switching him over onto LeBron, which also did not work. In fact by the end it was pretty obvious that what was not working was Salmons being on the court at all.
Douby ( INC ) -- did little in his second quarter minutes. Passed up an easy shot to take a tougher one over the long Cavs frontline, was lucky to get the offensive board.
Taylor ( B ) -- got the 2nd quarter minutes that would normally go to Corliss, and showed pretty well for the second game in a row. Had one finish over/around Z, a couple of active boards, and looked solid. Back for the 4th, did little enough, but so did everyone else. And at least hit a nice little interior shot to help our...well, "comeback" is far too strong a word. So, how about our little minirun to make the margin of defeat look more respectable. Overall, not terrible, and that's two non-terrible efforts in a row from Mo. Yay x2.
Price ( INC ) -- got in for a few seconds at the end of the first half just to rest Bibby
Muss ( C ) -- Get this: for a half, Eric Musselman was in line for a good grade. For one of the very few times this season we came out, and it looked like we knew what we were doing. Like we had a plan, and were executing it. Mike and Brad were knocking down shots from all over the gym, and it looked like it was by design. Guys were 14-18 at half. Ron was carving up the Cavs defense from the block, and it looked like it was by design. To be sure Mike was putting forth a great individual shooting display, and Ron was making it tough on Lebron, but both had help from teammates who looked like actual teammates? Then disaster, otherwise known as the third quarter in Kingsland, struck again, and all of our mighty men turned into pumpkins at the stroke of midnight once more. We actually seemed to shrug off the normal ultra depressing Muss halftime speech for the first 3-4 minutes, came out strong, looked like we might finally finish somebody. Then looked up at the scoreboard, realized what quarter it was, and completely and utterly collapsed. The Cavs squeezed us, we squealed and panicked, and in the space of about 8 minutes we went form being 17 up, to being 5 down by the end of the quarter. The Cavs carved us up on the one end, the entire team started going one on one on the other, and the rout was on. Make no doubt about it, this was demoralizing. Not "almost had it" demoralizing. But completely embarrassing demoralizing. And where was Muss? Well... still around. Kinda. Doing his pouty thing alot. But tried a few things. Kept on switching through PFs looking for just one who wanted to play. Experimented with a big Salmons/Martin backcourt to open the 4th. Which did not work at all BTW. And after the loss was already on the books, Muss extended the game dramatically by intentionally fouling from the one minute mark on, and at a couple of points a completely blind optimist might have believed it could almost work. On the other hand, where was the timeout in the early 4th as the Cavs, and LeBron in particular, poured it on as we all went one on one? What DOES Muss say to these guys at half? And why do they seem to get so depressed by it, and then completely ignore what just has to be admonitions to pass the ball during the numerous timeouts? Where is the chemistry? The confidence? Certianly can't come from seeing your coach over on the sideline with his head held in his hands looking whipped every night. In any case, I am still unhitching the coach's grade from the team grade a bit here. There was a step forward tonight, lost in the mess. I actually recognized a real for true offensive plan! For a half. That we forgot about utterly. Nonetheless, Muss did one of the few rational things you can do with our team -- he gave the ball to Ron and let him create off the mismatch. It was a good plan, executed well for a while. But inherently unstable. As for the rest -- having any control, feel, inspirational ability etc...er...no. But hey! We had a plan! Whoopee and all that. So the loss sucked, we sucked. But for a while we almost looked like we knew what we wanted to do and just failed at it, which is infinitely better than not having a bleeping clue in the first place.
Pollard's Hair ( F ) -- nuff said.
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