REBOUNDS! Kings -- 31. Celtics -- 53.
Artest ( B+ ) -- Welcome Ron! Like the team in general, I am struggling to figure out an appropriate grading scale for Ron. Was this a great game by Ron's standards? No. Was it a great effort under the circumstances (new team, no practice, has not played in 6 weeks)? Well, a very good one certainly. So going to go on feel this time. A good effort under the circumstances, but if Ron can keep from losing his head, we'll see many better ones from him. I was pretty happy with it overall. As you might expect showed beautiful defensive fundamentals, quick feet, and may have been the first Kings player to actually get beat and race back to recover since Doug in his prime. Harassed Pierce all night long, also rotated, trapped, and generally did everything he could do defensively. But had some nice offensive moments as well. Not as effective in the post as on the perimeter. And may have worn down and started missing as the game went along. But also hit some jumpers right in people's faces. Came out quickly to start the second half and made a couple of plays that hint at how great he can be, poking away balls, grabbing steals, once throwing a beautiful half court bounce pass on the break.. Drew the defensive assignment on Delonte West in the 4th -- turns out yes he can guard PGs. Began to force offensively late, and not able to do much offensively to pull us out of our death spiral. Nonetheless, a strong effort and the defense just brought a smile to my face. Finally a King who gets it! Also happy to see him call the guys together a few times. Much as the idea of Ron as leader is terrifying, he became the defensive leader the moment he walked on the court, and tonight we did play much more responsible defense, if nothing else.
Thomas ( C ) -- value to us tonight lay in his boardwork. Was the ONLY King who did anything on the glass. And despite the numbers, Kenny was anything but dominant. Rest of his game was pretty ugly. Put up some numbers at least, but really not a smooth game. Just sloppy -- had decent energy, but was making dumb errors, forcing, turning it over, looking out of rhythm. Made a number of really bad "what the hell was that" type passes for turnovers. As our only guy grabbing any rebounds (Kenny 12, Artest 6, Martin 4, nobody else with more than 2!) deserves some sort of grade, but really not a very impressive effort.
Miller ( C ) -- whether it was the arrival of his old friend Artest or just his normal wild circadian rhythms, Brad played a nice first half. Was aggressive offensively, including some gallops into the lane, made some nice passes as well. Defensively effort looked better, although he was still being physically beaten in the post. Thing he was not doing again was rebounding, as we got completely crushed once more. And was having a heck of a time in there against Kendrick Perkins of all people. In the second half remained the only guy who could score, but it was an ugly struggle. And he came up with nothing on the glass. He was there, seemed to be fighting for them. But with those little hands of his just couldn't grab anything. Just a frustrating effort to watch. 22pts = good. Our only real scorer other than Ron. Gettiing only 2 rebs from your 7'0" tall 2-time All-Star center against a pile of scrubs and kids however...
Martin ( D ) -- And so we go back to Bad Kevin in this wonderful up and down season we are having. Grabbed a few boards, but did not give us anything offensively and looked very passive again. And yes, it probably was Artest. Just doesn't seem to take much to get Kevin to back off and just do nothing for us. Here's his last 8 games: 22pts, 25pts, 7pts, 7pts, 5pts, 20pts, 21pts, 5pts....will the real Kevin Martin step forward please? Feast ofr famine. Ironically despite the lack of offense it may have been some defensive lapses against Wally Szczerbiak that cost him minutes in the second half -- neither Cisco or Hart were doing much either, but they seemed to be a little quicker to realize that yes, Wally is a shooter.
Bibby ( D- ) -- And so the SS Bibbyberg came crashing back to Earth once more. Like a yoyo, up, down, up, down. Bad time for the down. Played a very poor out of rhythm game, offensively at least. Last three games -- 44pts, 35pts, 6pts??? Sigh. However he did let out a dirty secret tonight to save himself from the "F" -- he can actually defend when so inspired, and was competing well on that end if nothing else. Might very well have been inspired by Artest's prsence there. But nice as that is, and it was nice, we need his offense more than his defense. Would love to have both. But think I'll take his 35 and 10 from last time out rather than his 6 and 4 this time, defense or no.
Reef ( D+ ) -- still not looking very good. Struggling to finish, getting muscled off the glass. Did come up with a help block. Overall just looked overmatched in there against the Celtics' energetic kids.
Garcia ( D+ ) -- struggled in the first half. Not able to stop Pierce, and missed his shots. Just no impact. Came up with a little burst of life in the early 4th, but that was it. More energy than Kevin, but neither kid gave us much this time out.
Hart ( D- ) -- played some defense in a short first half stint and otherwise stayed out of the way. But unveiled the full Jason Hart repertoire in the 4th as the wheels fell off again (I have had to use that phrase all to often this year, think I need to find some synonyms). Missed dumb shots, blew a fastbreak for us, generally ran around out there like a chicken with his head cut off. As with several Kings, defensive effort saves him from the F. But in Jason's case, just barely.
Adelman ( C ) -- well, this couldn't have been the plan. Get the new guy who hasn't played in 6 weeks, have him walk off the plane in the morning and be the only guy who gives you a decent game that night? We lost this one, and are now threatening a really painful 1-5 roadtrip against the dregs of the East, with our only win in OT against the awful Knicks. But it wasn't Ron's fault. He stepped right in, played his trademark smothering defense, gave us some nice offensive bursts. But the rest of the team just abruptly looked awful and untalented. And that''s before we even get to the rebounding, which was just pathetic. One thing we did do was show much better intensity on defense. And a positive to bring from this game is that maybe Artest is already having an impact there, not only with his own defense, but by inspiring other guys to step it up too. If that happens, you figure sooner or later the offense has to come back around. I hope. Thought Rick used Artest well, started him as was appropriate, and then used him in short bursts therafter to try to keep him fresh (remember he hasn't played in the better part of two months and conditioning may be an issue). Wasn't as happy with some other decisions. Notably us once again ignoring Brian Skinner on a night we were getting punked on the glass. Say what you will about Reef's courage playing with a broken jaw, and as a former victim of that injury I do have some appreciation, the fact is he wasn't rebounding when he was healthy, and just simply does not have the stuff right now to play back up center and take care of the glass. Reef is still Reef. He's better than Brian. But not when what you need is somebody to grab a board and give you some muscle in there. And then of course there is Corliss. An awkward duplicative fit with Ron on the court. But with the kids doing nothing, Ron resting, and the offense falling apart, why not? Maybe he gives you a spark. Certainly could not have made it any worse. In any case, there was absolutely nobody who Rick tried who gave him anything to work with. Amongst the rotation players, Rick did what he could. The problem, if problem there was, lay in him not searching deeper into the bench for answers. So 0-1 in the true Artest era (1-1 if you count NY with no Artest, but that's not really accurate). But some promising things emerged from the game anyway, most notably of course Mr. Artest himself showing up and showing flashes of his greatness. Wish this was still December so we could happily accept a few losses while trying to get into a rhythm with Ron. But right now its a bit scary -- every loss pushes us further from a playoff spot and makes the rebound back the other way that will be necessary that much larger. 18-26 now. To reach .500 and have a playoff shot that means 23-15 from here on out. time to go to work guys.
Artest ( B+ ) -- Welcome Ron! Like the team in general, I am struggling to figure out an appropriate grading scale for Ron. Was this a great game by Ron's standards? No. Was it a great effort under the circumstances (new team, no practice, has not played in 6 weeks)? Well, a very good one certainly. So going to go on feel this time. A good effort under the circumstances, but if Ron can keep from losing his head, we'll see many better ones from him. I was pretty happy with it overall. As you might expect showed beautiful defensive fundamentals, quick feet, and may have been the first Kings player to actually get beat and race back to recover since Doug in his prime. Harassed Pierce all night long, also rotated, trapped, and generally did everything he could do defensively. But had some nice offensive moments as well. Not as effective in the post as on the perimeter. And may have worn down and started missing as the game went along. But also hit some jumpers right in people's faces. Came out quickly to start the second half and made a couple of plays that hint at how great he can be, poking away balls, grabbing steals, once throwing a beautiful half court bounce pass on the break.. Drew the defensive assignment on Delonte West in the 4th -- turns out yes he can guard PGs. Began to force offensively late, and not able to do much offensively to pull us out of our death spiral. Nonetheless, a strong effort and the defense just brought a smile to my face. Finally a King who gets it! Also happy to see him call the guys together a few times. Much as the idea of Ron as leader is terrifying, he became the defensive leader the moment he walked on the court, and tonight we did play much more responsible defense, if nothing else.
Thomas ( C ) -- value to us tonight lay in his boardwork. Was the ONLY King who did anything on the glass. And despite the numbers, Kenny was anything but dominant. Rest of his game was pretty ugly. Put up some numbers at least, but really not a smooth game. Just sloppy -- had decent energy, but was making dumb errors, forcing, turning it over, looking out of rhythm. Made a number of really bad "what the hell was that" type passes for turnovers. As our only guy grabbing any rebounds (Kenny 12, Artest 6, Martin 4, nobody else with more than 2!) deserves some sort of grade, but really not a very impressive effort.
Miller ( C ) -- whether it was the arrival of his old friend Artest or just his normal wild circadian rhythms, Brad played a nice first half. Was aggressive offensively, including some gallops into the lane, made some nice passes as well. Defensively effort looked better, although he was still being physically beaten in the post. Thing he was not doing again was rebounding, as we got completely crushed once more. And was having a heck of a time in there against Kendrick Perkins of all people. In the second half remained the only guy who could score, but it was an ugly struggle. And he came up with nothing on the glass. He was there, seemed to be fighting for them. But with those little hands of his just couldn't grab anything. Just a frustrating effort to watch. 22pts = good. Our only real scorer other than Ron. Gettiing only 2 rebs from your 7'0" tall 2-time All-Star center against a pile of scrubs and kids however...
Martin ( D ) -- And so we go back to Bad Kevin in this wonderful up and down season we are having. Grabbed a few boards, but did not give us anything offensively and looked very passive again. And yes, it probably was Artest. Just doesn't seem to take much to get Kevin to back off and just do nothing for us. Here's his last 8 games: 22pts, 25pts, 7pts, 7pts, 5pts, 20pts, 21pts, 5pts....will the real Kevin Martin step forward please? Feast ofr famine. Ironically despite the lack of offense it may have been some defensive lapses against Wally Szczerbiak that cost him minutes in the second half -- neither Cisco or Hart were doing much either, but they seemed to be a little quicker to realize that yes, Wally is a shooter.
Bibby ( D- ) -- And so the SS Bibbyberg came crashing back to Earth once more. Like a yoyo, up, down, up, down. Bad time for the down. Played a very poor out of rhythm game, offensively at least. Last three games -- 44pts, 35pts, 6pts??? Sigh. However he did let out a dirty secret tonight to save himself from the "F" -- he can actually defend when so inspired, and was competing well on that end if nothing else. Might very well have been inspired by Artest's prsence there. But nice as that is, and it was nice, we need his offense more than his defense. Would love to have both. But think I'll take his 35 and 10 from last time out rather than his 6 and 4 this time, defense or no.
Reef ( D+ ) -- still not looking very good. Struggling to finish, getting muscled off the glass. Did come up with a help block. Overall just looked overmatched in there against the Celtics' energetic kids.
Garcia ( D+ ) -- struggled in the first half. Not able to stop Pierce, and missed his shots. Just no impact. Came up with a little burst of life in the early 4th, but that was it. More energy than Kevin, but neither kid gave us much this time out.
Hart ( D- ) -- played some defense in a short first half stint and otherwise stayed out of the way. But unveiled the full Jason Hart repertoire in the 4th as the wheels fell off again (I have had to use that phrase all to often this year, think I need to find some synonyms). Missed dumb shots, blew a fastbreak for us, generally ran around out there like a chicken with his head cut off. As with several Kings, defensive effort saves him from the F. But in Jason's case, just barely.
Adelman ( C ) -- well, this couldn't have been the plan. Get the new guy who hasn't played in 6 weeks, have him walk off the plane in the morning and be the only guy who gives you a decent game that night? We lost this one, and are now threatening a really painful 1-5 roadtrip against the dregs of the East, with our only win in OT against the awful Knicks. But it wasn't Ron's fault. He stepped right in, played his trademark smothering defense, gave us some nice offensive bursts. But the rest of the team just abruptly looked awful and untalented. And that''s before we even get to the rebounding, which was just pathetic. One thing we did do was show much better intensity on defense. And a positive to bring from this game is that maybe Artest is already having an impact there, not only with his own defense, but by inspiring other guys to step it up too. If that happens, you figure sooner or later the offense has to come back around. I hope. Thought Rick used Artest well, started him as was appropriate, and then used him in short bursts therafter to try to keep him fresh (remember he hasn't played in the better part of two months and conditioning may be an issue). Wasn't as happy with some other decisions. Notably us once again ignoring Brian Skinner on a night we were getting punked on the glass. Say what you will about Reef's courage playing with a broken jaw, and as a former victim of that injury I do have some appreciation, the fact is he wasn't rebounding when he was healthy, and just simply does not have the stuff right now to play back up center and take care of the glass. Reef is still Reef. He's better than Brian. But not when what you need is somebody to grab a board and give you some muscle in there. And then of course there is Corliss. An awkward duplicative fit with Ron on the court. But with the kids doing nothing, Ron resting, and the offense falling apart, why not? Maybe he gives you a spark. Certainly could not have made it any worse. In any case, there was absolutely nobody who Rick tried who gave him anything to work with. Amongst the rotation players, Rick did what he could. The problem, if problem there was, lay in him not searching deeper into the bench for answers. So 0-1 in the true Artest era (1-1 if you count NY with no Artest, but that's not really accurate). But some promising things emerged from the game anyway, most notably of course Mr. Artest himself showing up and showing flashes of his greatness. Wish this was still December so we could happily accept a few losses while trying to get into a rhythm with Ron. But right now its a bit scary -- every loss pushes us further from a playoff spot and makes the rebound back the other way that will be necessary that much larger. 18-26 now. To reach .500 and have a playoff shot that means 23-15 from here on out. time to go to work guys.
Last edited:
