Ironic, that we had to blow the huge lead in order to even justify individual grades -- I was seriously considering just mailing in a Team A+ if we'd dropped a 40 point blowout on them.
Peja ( B ) -- no luck at guarding LeBron at all, in fact so much so that we started switching Cat over after awhile. But scored back the other way well enough (especially early) to take some of the sting off of it. Struggled from deep though, and many of his made hoops were spoonfed. Got quiet late, although can't really say that he was particularly needed with such a huge lead, so not really a "disappeared when needed" situation. Mostly just a scoring effort again + being matched with LeBron sort of threw into stark contrast the Peja =star LeBron=SUPERstar differential.
Thomas ( B+ ) -- very aggressive start to this one again, very very active and flying around for boards and scores. Not as interested on defense though (even most of his rebounds were offensive). Slowed down as the game went along, which may have been a good thing offensively, where he once again led us in shots in the first quarter before calming down. But not as good a thing on the boards, where I think he only had 2 or 3 after the first quarter. Dominated the matchup vs. Drew Gooden in the first half, but Gooden counterpunched in the second.
Skinner ( C+ ) -- Big Z was just TOO big for Brian early. Never returned for the remainder of the half as everyone else just exploded offensively. Played through both the good and the bad of our third quarter run, before we went back small for the remainder of the game. Nothing really special here -- stood out for not standing out on a night when so many of our guys did.
Mobley ( A- ) -- hit a couple of threes in the first half, and then joined the shooting party in the second quarter. Seemed to hit everything he threw up, but resisted the impulse to get crazy and start throwing up garbage heat check shots in response. Numbers don't show it, but also seemed to be joining the gang rebounding by the second unit in that critical second quarter. Good passing night as well. Ended up having to guard LeBron a lot with Peja having his problems there, which had to be a lot of fun given that he was giving up 4-5inches and 30lbs of muscle. Started to get sloppy on defense when we got our big lead, as the whole team's intensity just flew out the window.
Bibby ( A- ) -- One of those games where, with the exception of one rough patch at the end of the third/early fourth, Mike appeared to really have control of the game in all ways. Got off to an excellent start distributing the ball and creating most of our early offense, and was again unusually active and pesky on defense. Continues to annoy by leaving his own man open, but the last couple of games he's being the sort of pesky gnat up top that you have to make a point to squash if he's on the other team. Despite the passing, was actually just about the only King to not be scorchingly hot from the field in the first half, and while we made our mega-run in the 2nd quarter, Mike sat on the bench with the rest of the starters and watched. Finally stepped up offensively late in the game when remarkably the Cavs threatened to make things tight (also had a key late block to help thwart any miracle Cavs comeback). Gets this grade not for his shaky shoting again, but for controlling the game, setting the tone early, and then sealing it late.
Ostertag ( B- ) -- slowed down LeBron briefly after entering, and also posed more of an obstacle for the 7'3" Ilguaskas than did Brian "Tiny" Skinner. One of those games where the numbers weren't there, but Tag probably still gave us what we needed to slow down the Cavs early attack -- just a big ole roadblock. Never returned to the game, but more because he was never needed again with our offensive explosion than because of any real problem with his play.
Evans ( A ) -- was having one of his mysterious impossible to predict "on" performances, giving us a huge burst in the second quarter as we *gasp* dominated the boards in that period. And when Mo has a game like that, it almost always results in us winning the battle of the boards. Just wish we could bottle it or something, because its as unpredictable as a lightning strike. Even in this one, he returned with the second unit to open the 4th quarter and was not nearly as effective. Maybe just a little extra hop in the legs or something, because if he could do this all the time not only would he be starting, they'd be calling him The Worm Jr. (a reference to Dennis Rodman for any of you non-decrepit fans out there too young to remember Wormy).
Songaila ( B ) -- broke out of a "hustle slump" in a big way in the first half. Darius is not much of a boarder, but in recent games the problem had gotten acute. Tonight though energy was very high in the second quarter (and it must be said the Cavs energy was shot), and Darius was a big part of our big explosion. Came back and got all of the 4th quarter minutes again as well, but really didn't earn those and did nothing with them. Think he had 8 and 5 at the end of the 2nd quarter. 9 and 6 by the end of the game. Guess it was kind of extended garbagetime, but really now. Kind of averaged out his hot start.
Williamson ( A- ) -- very strong scoring stint off the bench, repeatedly attacking bigger men with success this time. Did not give us anything on the glass, but tonight at least that was taken care of by others. Delivered a couple of nice hard fouls defending the hoop, which seems like a minor point in a game in which you score 128, but which might be more important in the long run since the total number of softie scoring teams to win the title remains at zero. Any signs of annoyance at the other team getting easy hoops by anybody in a kIngs uni just has to be taken as a significant positive.
House ( B+ ) -- came in and kept the offense rolling so well that we were able to sit Bibby for just about the entire second quarter despite Mike's own hot start. Second half stint was aborted very quickly as we suddenly started to lose momentum and almost got ourselves into trouble.
Martin ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Daniels ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Adleman ( A ) -- given this game, its hard to go with any other grade. He had the team ready, and ready in a big way after being strangled in Detroit. Now Cleveland is not Detroit, nor even likely a playoff team in the West, but they were still at home, still have a superstud, and we still took out our frustrations on them. The whole team just caught scorching fire in the second quarter, but Rick made an important contribution to our big run as well by switching to a zone to take advanatage of the Cavs lack of outisde shooting (the Cavs eventually managed to break that by going to seldom used reserves Pavlovic and Welsch, raising the question of why they are so seldom used on a team that can't shoot). Rick also stuck with the reserves that were playing so well in the 2nd quarter rather than reflexively going back to the starters. And the result was a 41 point explosion that effectively decided the game -- Cleveland outscored the Kings by 3 points in the other three quarters, but were destroyed 41-19 in the second. We noticeably lost our mental focus after getting up big -- a season long issue with seemingly no easy solution. Disappointing, and dangerous against a better team. But tonight, did not matter. Important blowout on the road. And game 1 of 3 pivotal ones in the book. Now two toughies at home, where we have been playing much better recently. Win both, should just about wrap up the playoffs. Lose both...we'll probably still make it with Minny going down tonight, but we could still be in danger of falling to 7th or even 8th.
Peja ( B ) -- no luck at guarding LeBron at all, in fact so much so that we started switching Cat over after awhile. But scored back the other way well enough (especially early) to take some of the sting off of it. Struggled from deep though, and many of his made hoops were spoonfed. Got quiet late, although can't really say that he was particularly needed with such a huge lead, so not really a "disappeared when needed" situation. Mostly just a scoring effort again + being matched with LeBron sort of threw into stark contrast the Peja =star LeBron=SUPERstar differential.
Thomas ( B+ ) -- very aggressive start to this one again, very very active and flying around for boards and scores. Not as interested on defense though (even most of his rebounds were offensive). Slowed down as the game went along, which may have been a good thing offensively, where he once again led us in shots in the first quarter before calming down. But not as good a thing on the boards, where I think he only had 2 or 3 after the first quarter. Dominated the matchup vs. Drew Gooden in the first half, but Gooden counterpunched in the second.
Skinner ( C+ ) -- Big Z was just TOO big for Brian early. Never returned for the remainder of the half as everyone else just exploded offensively. Played through both the good and the bad of our third quarter run, before we went back small for the remainder of the game. Nothing really special here -- stood out for not standing out on a night when so many of our guys did.
Mobley ( A- ) -- hit a couple of threes in the first half, and then joined the shooting party in the second quarter. Seemed to hit everything he threw up, but resisted the impulse to get crazy and start throwing up garbage heat check shots in response. Numbers don't show it, but also seemed to be joining the gang rebounding by the second unit in that critical second quarter. Good passing night as well. Ended up having to guard LeBron a lot with Peja having his problems there, which had to be a lot of fun given that he was giving up 4-5inches and 30lbs of muscle. Started to get sloppy on defense when we got our big lead, as the whole team's intensity just flew out the window.
Bibby ( A- ) -- One of those games where, with the exception of one rough patch at the end of the third/early fourth, Mike appeared to really have control of the game in all ways. Got off to an excellent start distributing the ball and creating most of our early offense, and was again unusually active and pesky on defense. Continues to annoy by leaving his own man open, but the last couple of games he's being the sort of pesky gnat up top that you have to make a point to squash if he's on the other team. Despite the passing, was actually just about the only King to not be scorchingly hot from the field in the first half, and while we made our mega-run in the 2nd quarter, Mike sat on the bench with the rest of the starters and watched. Finally stepped up offensively late in the game when remarkably the Cavs threatened to make things tight (also had a key late block to help thwart any miracle Cavs comeback). Gets this grade not for his shaky shoting again, but for controlling the game, setting the tone early, and then sealing it late.
Ostertag ( B- ) -- slowed down LeBron briefly after entering, and also posed more of an obstacle for the 7'3" Ilguaskas than did Brian "Tiny" Skinner. One of those games where the numbers weren't there, but Tag probably still gave us what we needed to slow down the Cavs early attack -- just a big ole roadblock. Never returned to the game, but more because he was never needed again with our offensive explosion than because of any real problem with his play.
Evans ( A ) -- was having one of his mysterious impossible to predict "on" performances, giving us a huge burst in the second quarter as we *gasp* dominated the boards in that period. And when Mo has a game like that, it almost always results in us winning the battle of the boards. Just wish we could bottle it or something, because its as unpredictable as a lightning strike. Even in this one, he returned with the second unit to open the 4th quarter and was not nearly as effective. Maybe just a little extra hop in the legs or something, because if he could do this all the time not only would he be starting, they'd be calling him The Worm Jr. (a reference to Dennis Rodman for any of you non-decrepit fans out there too young to remember Wormy).
Songaila ( B ) -- broke out of a "hustle slump" in a big way in the first half. Darius is not much of a boarder, but in recent games the problem had gotten acute. Tonight though energy was very high in the second quarter (and it must be said the Cavs energy was shot), and Darius was a big part of our big explosion. Came back and got all of the 4th quarter minutes again as well, but really didn't earn those and did nothing with them. Think he had 8 and 5 at the end of the 2nd quarter. 9 and 6 by the end of the game. Guess it was kind of extended garbagetime, but really now. Kind of averaged out his hot start.
Williamson ( A- ) -- very strong scoring stint off the bench, repeatedly attacking bigger men with success this time. Did not give us anything on the glass, but tonight at least that was taken care of by others. Delivered a couple of nice hard fouls defending the hoop, which seems like a minor point in a game in which you score 128, but which might be more important in the long run since the total number of softie scoring teams to win the title remains at zero. Any signs of annoyance at the other team getting easy hoops by anybody in a kIngs uni just has to be taken as a significant positive.
House ( B+ ) -- came in and kept the offense rolling so well that we were able to sit Bibby for just about the entire second quarter despite Mike's own hot start. Second half stint was aborted very quickly as we suddenly started to lose momentum and almost got ourselves into trouble.
Martin ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Daniels ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Adleman ( A ) -- given this game, its hard to go with any other grade. He had the team ready, and ready in a big way after being strangled in Detroit. Now Cleveland is not Detroit, nor even likely a playoff team in the West, but they were still at home, still have a superstud, and we still took out our frustrations on them. The whole team just caught scorching fire in the second quarter, but Rick made an important contribution to our big run as well by switching to a zone to take advanatage of the Cavs lack of outisde shooting (the Cavs eventually managed to break that by going to seldom used reserves Pavlovic and Welsch, raising the question of why they are so seldom used on a team that can't shoot). Rick also stuck with the reserves that were playing so well in the 2nd quarter rather than reflexively going back to the starters. And the result was a 41 point explosion that effectively decided the game -- Cleveland outscored the Kings by 3 points in the other three quarters, but were destroyed 41-19 in the second. We noticeably lost our mental focus after getting up big -- a season long issue with seemingly no easy solution. Disappointing, and dangerous against a better team. But tonight, did not matter. Important blowout on the road. And game 1 of 3 pivotal ones in the book. Now two toughies at home, where we have been playing much better recently. Win both, should just about wrap up the playoffs. Lose both...we'll probably still make it with Minny going down tonight, but we could still be in danger of falling to 7th or even 8th.
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