Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( A- ) -- great little start picking Vlad Rad clean for the breakway steal and then coming back the next possession and draining a three. What Brad didn't score in the first quarter, Ron did. Was making a number of great defensive plays throughout -- blocks, steals, the spectacular stuff this time. Began to shoot too much as the Clippers clawed back into it in the third, but just as you started to say "Ron quit shooting the damn ball!" he hit back to back threes that were maybe the most important shots of the game -- the Clips had just caught up to us after we had led the whole game, and things could have gone either way. Ron's hits stemmed the tide and the Clips spent the rest of the game playing catchup from 5-10 down. That was kind of the pattern for the game for Ron -- too much gunning, but everytime it reached "Stop!" level, Ron would hit a big momentum shot. Could have gone "A" here as it was a night when Ron brought both defense AND offense, but sliding it to A- for the numerous forces and poor shooting %.
Thomas ( D- ) -- quiet start to this one that developed into absolutely nothing. Just unable to do anything against Brand, and completely enveloped of course by the 7'1" Kaman. Starting PF = 2pts 2rebs. Nuff said. Avoids the F simply because he didn't so much play awfully as just not show up to play at all. Wasn't screwing up so much as just not doing anything in the first place.
Miller ( A- ) -- quick start as we got off to the quick start. Scored a couple of hoops in the first few minutes, then canned back to back threes against the reluctant to come out of the paint Caveman. On the other side of the floor was getting beat as expected in the post, but the overall battle was going to Brad. In the 2nd half reemerged, but other than one really stupid three it was mostly slow rumbles to the hoop as Brad's decisionmaking was solid tonight. Rebounding was weak for most of the night, but picked upa handful down the stretch to at least make it respectable. Liek Ron, could have gone straight A here, but narrowly went the other way in light of Kaman's own 20-10 over Brad on the other side of the court.
Bonzi ( B- ) -- was playing the interesting role of distributor tonight as we ran a lot of offense through Bonzi in the post. Never did really get going offensively besides overpowering Alien inside a few times. But got the feeling that he was playing exactly the role we drew up for him on paper -- get the ball in low, wait for a double, kick it and initiate the offense. Statistically modest, although with a lot of assists (6pts 6rebs 7ast), but noentheless effective and part of why we pulled this one out.
Bibby ( B ) -- tough one to grade. Numnbers a bit deceptive this time out. Look good, and Mike certainly did not play poorly. But neither was he as good as the stats -- many of his points were relatively easy open shots created by others, the defense was inconcsistent, andhe got off to a slow start. Made some good passes in the first quarter, but did nothing at all offensively until finally hitting a three in the late second quarter that got him going a bit. In the third hit a pair of back to back strandstill threes off of great ball movement -- interesting set we were running there with Brad and Mike both standing at the three point line on one side of the court, and the the three post guys (Bonzi, Artest, Reef) trying to draw extra men on the other and then kick it over to the shooters. 22pts 7ast, good game. But one of those where other guys were controlling the game and Mike was just flowing along rather than dictating action.
Martin ( C+ ) -- maybe showed a little rust from the layoff as he airballed his first three, but we did a good thing and seemed to make a conscious effort to get him going and setting him up for shots. And while he did not make that many of them, he was attacking and not looking tentative. Reacted well to grab several offensive rebounds. Despite the poor shooting, was not that disappointed in this outing for a first game back. Looked pretty good, just could not finish or hit his shots.
Reef ( B+ ) -- Strong first half stint scoring the ball. And got to return early in the second half with Kenny in foul trouble (and totally ineffective as well), and played the remainder of the game -- and well. The positive of course would be 18pts on 8-10 shooting. Tough to beat that. The not so positive would be 4 anemic rebounds on a night when we go crushed on the glass (the only reason the Clips were even remotely in it). 3 of the 4 were on the offensive glass too as Reef was just completely absent as the Clips played pattycake off the glass on our end. A couple of loosish turnovers and the boardwork pulls this one down into B+ territory -- a good scoring effort, but not much else.
Garcia ( INC ) -- struggled to bring the ball up in the first half in his backup PG role, was pulled, and never returned. Not sure if this is indicative of the way its going to go with Bonzi + Kevin both healthy, if it was just a reaction to the poor play, or if there was a physical problme the coaching staff knew about. In any case, struggled for a few minutes and never returned.
Adelman ( A- ) -- good solid win this time out, and a game we needed with some likely losses cmoing up this week. Got off to the tremendous start, but like many such games, the other team eventually catches back up, and then you have to dogfight it the rest of the way. As usual, our starange ownage of the Clippers was on display again, and as normal, they simply could not stop us. May not have held us below 50% shooting this millenium. Besides having the team ready to go from the start, you could feel a lot of Rick's fingerprints ont his one again. We were definitely running an offense through our postup little guys this time out, with the ball then hopefully swinging out to the shooters. And again when Kevin came int he game there seemed to be a distinct effort to get him involved quickly. He did not shoot well, but looked comfortable and part of the team rather than being the passive bystander. Am a bit concerned with Cisco -- with Kevin back, Bonzi and Ron already out there, Cisco's minutes completely disappeared after a sloppy start. Could that be how its going to go now with everybody healthy? Not sure. Despite the fast start and what looked to be a strong gameplan, we actually still could have let this one slip away were it not for Ron in particular, but it was still a strong aesthetically pleasing effort. Now off to an ill-timed nasty roadtrip. Getting one of the next three is all that can be reasonably expected. 2 would be a nice bonus. All three a miracle that will doubtless get people a tad overexcited about us as contenders again. Take oour best shot agianst Dallas -- see if we can steal one. Be a nice way to start off and assure that no matter what happens thereafter, we'll come home over .500.
Thomas ( D- ) -- quiet start to this one that developed into absolutely nothing. Just unable to do anything against Brand, and completely enveloped of course by the 7'1" Kaman. Starting PF = 2pts 2rebs. Nuff said. Avoids the F simply because he didn't so much play awfully as just not show up to play at all. Wasn't screwing up so much as just not doing anything in the first place.
Miller ( A- ) -- quick start as we got off to the quick start. Scored a couple of hoops in the first few minutes, then canned back to back threes against the reluctant to come out of the paint Caveman. On the other side of the floor was getting beat as expected in the post, but the overall battle was going to Brad. In the 2nd half reemerged, but other than one really stupid three it was mostly slow rumbles to the hoop as Brad's decisionmaking was solid tonight. Rebounding was weak for most of the night, but picked upa handful down the stretch to at least make it respectable. Liek Ron, could have gone straight A here, but narrowly went the other way in light of Kaman's own 20-10 over Brad on the other side of the court.
Bonzi ( B- ) -- was playing the interesting role of distributor tonight as we ran a lot of offense through Bonzi in the post. Never did really get going offensively besides overpowering Alien inside a few times. But got the feeling that he was playing exactly the role we drew up for him on paper -- get the ball in low, wait for a double, kick it and initiate the offense. Statistically modest, although with a lot of assists (6pts 6rebs 7ast), but noentheless effective and part of why we pulled this one out.
Bibby ( B ) -- tough one to grade. Numnbers a bit deceptive this time out. Look good, and Mike certainly did not play poorly. But neither was he as good as the stats -- many of his points were relatively easy open shots created by others, the defense was inconcsistent, andhe got off to a slow start. Made some good passes in the first quarter, but did nothing at all offensively until finally hitting a three in the late second quarter that got him going a bit. In the third hit a pair of back to back strandstill threes off of great ball movement -- interesting set we were running there with Brad and Mike both standing at the three point line on one side of the court, and the the three post guys (Bonzi, Artest, Reef) trying to draw extra men on the other and then kick it over to the shooters. 22pts 7ast, good game. But one of those where other guys were controlling the game and Mike was just flowing along rather than dictating action.
Martin ( C+ ) -- maybe showed a little rust from the layoff as he airballed his first three, but we did a good thing and seemed to make a conscious effort to get him going and setting him up for shots. And while he did not make that many of them, he was attacking and not looking tentative. Reacted well to grab several offensive rebounds. Despite the poor shooting, was not that disappointed in this outing for a first game back. Looked pretty good, just could not finish or hit his shots.
Reef ( B+ ) -- Strong first half stint scoring the ball. And got to return early in the second half with Kenny in foul trouble (and totally ineffective as well), and played the remainder of the game -- and well. The positive of course would be 18pts on 8-10 shooting. Tough to beat that. The not so positive would be 4 anemic rebounds on a night when we go crushed on the glass (the only reason the Clips were even remotely in it). 3 of the 4 were on the offensive glass too as Reef was just completely absent as the Clips played pattycake off the glass on our end. A couple of loosish turnovers and the boardwork pulls this one down into B+ territory -- a good scoring effort, but not much else.
Garcia ( INC ) -- struggled to bring the ball up in the first half in his backup PG role, was pulled, and never returned. Not sure if this is indicative of the way its going to go with Bonzi + Kevin both healthy, if it was just a reaction to the poor play, or if there was a physical problme the coaching staff knew about. In any case, struggled for a few minutes and never returned.
Adelman ( A- ) -- good solid win this time out, and a game we needed with some likely losses cmoing up this week. Got off to the tremendous start, but like many such games, the other team eventually catches back up, and then you have to dogfight it the rest of the way. As usual, our starange ownage of the Clippers was on display again, and as normal, they simply could not stop us. May not have held us below 50% shooting this millenium. Besides having the team ready to go from the start, you could feel a lot of Rick's fingerprints ont his one again. We were definitely running an offense through our postup little guys this time out, with the ball then hopefully swinging out to the shooters. And again when Kevin came int he game there seemed to be a distinct effort to get him involved quickly. He did not shoot well, but looked comfortable and part of the team rather than being the passive bystander. Am a bit concerned with Cisco -- with Kevin back, Bonzi and Ron already out there, Cisco's minutes completely disappeared after a sloppy start. Could that be how its going to go now with everybody healthy? Not sure. Despite the fast start and what looked to be a strong gameplan, we actually still could have let this one slip away were it not for Ron in particular, but it was still a strong aesthetically pleasing effort. Now off to an ill-timed nasty roadtrip. Getting one of the next three is all that can be reasonably expected. 2 would be a nice bonus. All three a miracle that will doubtless get people a tad overexcited about us as contenders again. Take oour best shot agianst Dallas -- see if we can steal one. Be a nice way to start off and assure that no matter what happens thereafter, we'll come home over .500.
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