Artest ( A- ) -- a very mild statline and yet quite possibly the most important King on the floor tonight. Got off to the nice start on the first play picking LeBron clean, and was forcing LeBron to beat us with passing rather than shooting. But stuggled for much of the rest of the half, and wasn't looking comfortable on offense, again. Created shots for others once more, but when to shoot, and what to shoot were still eluding him. And a little lost on the evening was actually the job LeBron was doing back the other way on Ron -- he can match Ron's strength and he was making it very hard. But the second half was when Ron really stepped up to shine. And he did it while barely recording a stat. Was right there with LeBron the entire half. Not shutting him down precisely, but making it very difficult and obstructing LeBron's ability to just take over the game. And it was enough. One of those games where you just make the guy uncomfortable enough that everything is a little...off. And that was the way the entire second half was for LeBron. Could he have hit his shots? Sure. Lot of them were decent looks. But they weren't the looks he wanted or was comfortable with, and so Ron holds LeBron James to something like 2 or 3 points for a half, and we escape with a victory on a night when we really didn't play that well. There was one brief alarming moment when for a very short burst we saw a flash of the old bad Artest as he thought he got fouled under the hoop and started wildly gesticulating, punched the basket support, and could easily have gotten a T. But as I muttered *calm* to the TV like I would to an overexcited dog, Ron got control of himself and finished out the game in solid fashion. Not sure if he's gotten a T yet for us -- and that of course is remarkable for a former T master. He's trying. And tonight he kept King James from taking this one back away from us. So in the end one of the weakest statistical A- grades you're ever likely to see me give.
Thomas ( A ) -- scored early on hustle plays and by running the floor, Mike was looking for him a lot, and Kenny was the only guy moving. Came out in the thrid and was again aggressively scoring and really was doing more than any other King on offense to keep us alive. Also committed a good foul in the open court to prevent a layup early in the 3rd to help set a tone. Defensively...eh, let's just say he's lucky the Cavs were incompetent tonight. They missed a ton of shots right at the rim, and as always Kenny was just too small to effectively rotate and bother anybody. I was a little hesitant about the straight A , but damnit it is still Kenny Thomas, and 20-10's are pretty rare for guys of his ilk. And he stepped up in a road game and once again played a very strong roleplayer role doing the things he can do and not forcing the things he cannot. Important game for us, in theory at least. And so a straight A for having a sense of the moment as much as anything.
Miller ( B- ) -- defensively was lazy early, and incredibly passive offensively. By halftime I was very much of the opinion that somebody should just walk over and slap him awake and thinking geesh, what if he came out and laid a turd like this while playing on a team representing our country? But came out in the second half and considerably redeemed himself. Was much more active, played closer to his 7'0" on the glass. Drained another of those no-no-no-yes! threes. And hit the icing on the cake jumper to put us up 7 with about 40 seconds to go. I was mildy surprised that his numbers had crept up as far as they did by the end of the game, but he finished up pretty close to his season averages after just giving us nothing in the first half.
Martin ( C+ ) -- and now you can see the true beauty of the defunct Home/Road system, as this was clearly Road. Not a godawful Road. But Road. Briefly looked promising as he came right out and stroked his first jumper in front of his hometown fans, but then just disappeared again for the rest of the half and started to get worked over by Flip Murray, who the Cavs picked up almost for free and proved a couple of years ago he can really score if needed. Came back out in the second half and again confidently took a shot on what looked to be a called play. And then passivity again. Got one more freebie on the flying alley oop, but just a nonfactor and was losing large chunks of his minutes in front of his home fans to Garcia until Cisco abruptly hurt himself. But to his credit came back and hit a big three late in the 4th off of the setup by Artest. And really, looked confident when he did shoot tonight. He just showed no confidence or activity in TRYING to shoot. And hence "50%+" shooting, but of the fairly punchless variety. Its neck up of course. Am actually hoping the kid starts taking some bad shots here just to show that he is awake and try aggressive.
Bibby ( B- ) -- active start, getting assists as well as being a pest around the ball, but just could not get the shot going (hurt thumb?) and began to struggle through the half missing and looking confused doing so. Was at least racking up assists, particularly to the more limited guys like Thomas and making it easier for them. Came oout int he second half, not exactly a new man or dominant player, but at least an awake man making an offesnive contribution. Also committed a good foul to prevent a layup as he and Kenny both served notice we weren't going to just let guys lay the ball up down the stretch. And while it was far from Mike's best or most consistent game, as we tried to collapse one more time down the stretch, Mike finally stepped up and hit the big clutch backbreaking three to bring to a halt a 3+ minute scoring drought and put us up a commanding 5 with 1:30 or so left to go.
Garcia ( A- ) -- came in and was pretty much the guy who singlehandedly kept us in it during the second quarter as he ran off 11 points, including three threes -- this from a 27% 3pt shooter. In the second half couldn't immediately get it going and then suffered kind of an ultimate Kings injury -- in a freak play managed to randomly sprain his ankle trying to jump up to dislodge a dead ball stuck on the rim (landed on Brad's foot), and ended up getting carried off for x-rays. Finley sucks.
Reef ( C+ ) -- came in and scored decently, but the interior defense and rebounding was no better than Brad's and as a backup center he had no chance in there against the appropriately named Big Z. Thankfully we went away from that matchup, but he had some more defensive adventures in the second half as he was rotating off of Anderson Varejao and either he wasn't supposed to be, or everybody else was blowing the rotations. Because the kid was getting open layup after open layup. Got into major foul trouble which limited his minutes. Effective scoring effort and overmatched most of the Cavs mismatched platoon of PFs, but the defensive and glasswork adventures pull this one down.
Adelman ( B+ ) -- Well, good win for us. Or loss by the Cavs. We didn't exactly go take this one away from them. But to our credit we hung around, and while we tried to give it to them there with another 4th quarter drought, that newfound "defense" thing that we've caught like a disease from the crazy newcomer carried us through until Mike could step up and hit the big shot. The two man bench worked well tonight, although now the injury to Cisco looks to have scuttled that as soon as it got going. If Bonzi could just materialize in Atlanta, we could actually just move him in to start and bring Martin off the bench in Cisco's spot. Otherwise...will have to improvise. Such a short rotation does make the coaching hard to discuss though. Of course one minor ? was an early "experiment" -- Rick made a reasonably quick switch away from Reef having to guard the 7'3" Big Z, but of course you have to wonder how we possibly thought that was going to work in the first place. In any case, we came out strong, and apparently ready to play. But soon thereafter we realized we were on the road and were well on our way to collapse until Cisco bailed us out therre in the second half. And while I am not going to crow too much about this game given our shakiness, it could be an important building block just by getting that monkey off our back. Its like we have to learn how to win on the road all over again.
Thomas ( A ) -- scored early on hustle plays and by running the floor, Mike was looking for him a lot, and Kenny was the only guy moving. Came out in the thrid and was again aggressively scoring and really was doing more than any other King on offense to keep us alive. Also committed a good foul in the open court to prevent a layup early in the 3rd to help set a tone. Defensively...eh, let's just say he's lucky the Cavs were incompetent tonight. They missed a ton of shots right at the rim, and as always Kenny was just too small to effectively rotate and bother anybody. I was a little hesitant about the straight A , but damnit it is still Kenny Thomas, and 20-10's are pretty rare for guys of his ilk. And he stepped up in a road game and once again played a very strong roleplayer role doing the things he can do and not forcing the things he cannot. Important game for us, in theory at least. And so a straight A for having a sense of the moment as much as anything.
Miller ( B- ) -- defensively was lazy early, and incredibly passive offensively. By halftime I was very much of the opinion that somebody should just walk over and slap him awake and thinking geesh, what if he came out and laid a turd like this while playing on a team representing our country? But came out in the second half and considerably redeemed himself. Was much more active, played closer to his 7'0" on the glass. Drained another of those no-no-no-yes! threes. And hit the icing on the cake jumper to put us up 7 with about 40 seconds to go. I was mildy surprised that his numbers had crept up as far as they did by the end of the game, but he finished up pretty close to his season averages after just giving us nothing in the first half.
Martin ( C+ ) -- and now you can see the true beauty of the defunct Home/Road system, as this was clearly Road. Not a godawful Road. But Road. Briefly looked promising as he came right out and stroked his first jumper in front of his hometown fans, but then just disappeared again for the rest of the half and started to get worked over by Flip Murray, who the Cavs picked up almost for free and proved a couple of years ago he can really score if needed. Came back out in the second half and again confidently took a shot on what looked to be a called play. And then passivity again. Got one more freebie on the flying alley oop, but just a nonfactor and was losing large chunks of his minutes in front of his home fans to Garcia until Cisco abruptly hurt himself. But to his credit came back and hit a big three late in the 4th off of the setup by Artest. And really, looked confident when he did shoot tonight. He just showed no confidence or activity in TRYING to shoot. And hence "50%+" shooting, but of the fairly punchless variety. Its neck up of course. Am actually hoping the kid starts taking some bad shots here just to show that he is awake and try aggressive.
Bibby ( B- ) -- active start, getting assists as well as being a pest around the ball, but just could not get the shot going (hurt thumb?) and began to struggle through the half missing and looking confused doing so. Was at least racking up assists, particularly to the more limited guys like Thomas and making it easier for them. Came oout int he second half, not exactly a new man or dominant player, but at least an awake man making an offesnive contribution. Also committed a good foul to prevent a layup as he and Kenny both served notice we weren't going to just let guys lay the ball up down the stretch. And while it was far from Mike's best or most consistent game, as we tried to collapse one more time down the stretch, Mike finally stepped up and hit the big clutch backbreaking three to bring to a halt a 3+ minute scoring drought and put us up a commanding 5 with 1:30 or so left to go.
Garcia ( A- ) -- came in and was pretty much the guy who singlehandedly kept us in it during the second quarter as he ran off 11 points, including three threes -- this from a 27% 3pt shooter. In the second half couldn't immediately get it going and then suffered kind of an ultimate Kings injury -- in a freak play managed to randomly sprain his ankle trying to jump up to dislodge a dead ball stuck on the rim (landed on Brad's foot), and ended up getting carried off for x-rays. Finley sucks.
Reef ( C+ ) -- came in and scored decently, but the interior defense and rebounding was no better than Brad's and as a backup center he had no chance in there against the appropriately named Big Z. Thankfully we went away from that matchup, but he had some more defensive adventures in the second half as he was rotating off of Anderson Varejao and either he wasn't supposed to be, or everybody else was blowing the rotations. Because the kid was getting open layup after open layup. Got into major foul trouble which limited his minutes. Effective scoring effort and overmatched most of the Cavs mismatched platoon of PFs, but the defensive and glasswork adventures pull this one down.
Adelman ( B+ ) -- Well, good win for us. Or loss by the Cavs. We didn't exactly go take this one away from them. But to our credit we hung around, and while we tried to give it to them there with another 4th quarter drought, that newfound "defense" thing that we've caught like a disease from the crazy newcomer carried us through until Mike could step up and hit the big shot. The two man bench worked well tonight, although now the injury to Cisco looks to have scuttled that as soon as it got going. If Bonzi could just materialize in Atlanta, we could actually just move him in to start and bring Martin off the bench in Cisco's spot. Otherwise...will have to improvise. Such a short rotation does make the coaching hard to discuss though. Of course one minor ? was an early "experiment" -- Rick made a reasonably quick switch away from Reef having to guard the 7'3" Big Z, but of course you have to wonder how we possibly thought that was going to work in the first place. In any case, we came out strong, and apparently ready to play. But soon thereafter we realized we were on the road and were well on our way to collapse until Cisco bailed us out therre in the second half. And while I am not going to crow too much about this game given our shakiness, it could be an important building block just by getting that monkey off our back. Its like we have to learn how to win on the road all over again.
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