Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Given that I am late wiht these, and there is another game tonight, no theme for this one (except maybe sucktatude).
Artest ( C- ) -- this was back to the bad forcing Ron that you so often get when he decides he needs to save us. Started the game forcing shots while Maggette was doing a good job muscling him. On the other end Ron not surprisingly had him largely wrapped up until near the end of half, when Maggette was just starting to get his Kevinesque foul parade going. From that point on Ron was no better than Maggette, and maybe not as good. Still made a few defensive plays, but started forcing up junk in the third. Hit a few more shots, including a late three that was kind of our last gasp, but in general struggled, took too many shots, and too many tough shots, and didn't get much done with his passing, which is really the extra weapon he has that our other scorers do not. Also did not help much on the glass, and may have gotten distracted in running up and down the court and slamming around with fellow retrograde Ruben Patterson in the late 3rd/4th.
Moore ( B+ ) -- got off to a huge start running the floor unimpeded for offensive rebounds and follows (had 8 rebounds, 7 of them offensive). Had something like 10pts and 4 rebounds in the first quarter alone, which is better than his full game season averages. Of course part of it was doubtless the Clippers pathetic situation at PF, where basically they just rotate through the 17 SFs on their roster and hope of the best. And in truth Mikki was actually played pretty much to a statistical draw by Tim Thomas. But the impact was not remotely the same, and in the early going Mikki's energy plays might have been the key to the entire strong start to which we got off. But whatever hopefully legal energy supplement he used befroe the game faded, and all the activity as well as Kaman got him into foul trouble in the second half. Never really did establish a rhythm after half, got sloppy late, and was in and out of the lineup despite Reggie clearly having no confidence in any other big on the roster beyond Brad.
Miller ( B- ) -- was in an early early passing groove, and had a big impact first quarter in nearly every way with nearly half of a triple double before the first was done. Kaman was doing stuff back the other way, but in the early going he was all alone out there, and was drawing for more doubles and traps than Brad. But Brad stopped/slowed in the third, and Kaman did not and was working him over bigtime on the other end. Fouls and frustration piled up, and Brad was reduced to the rather sad spectacle of joining the rest of our big men in a beautiful Terry Mills inspired offense -- 7'0 250? 3pt shooter baby. The early part of the game was still interesting however, with Brad getting the ball really up high in a new offensive wrinkle -- too far out to be the Princeton, but same effect, clearing the middle and letting Brad sink back into his passing comfort zone. And while he was going good, Brad was trying to do the ole up fake and drive thing he likes to do against big centers like Kaman, but with the weight loss you can see how much quicker Caveman is this year and he was often able to recover. In any case, in the first quarter the center matchup was a high level contrast of styles with both guys going well. The remaining three quarters was largely a slaughter with the bigger and better player beating the stuffing out of us down inside.
Salmons ( C ) -- John certinaly put up an interesting boxscore this time out: 10pts 10rebs 5ast. But if you watched the game the overall impression was not of well roundedness, but of strugglingness. He simply could not finish today, and whether that is an aberration or a sign of things to come we will have to see -- fact is that he has been finishing AMAZINGLY so far this season, and there is certainly a lot of room for him to come back to earth rather than to continue being able to finish in amongst three opponents consistently. Also was one of the primary victims of Mobley deigning to dust himself off for one more big fourth quarter dagger performance. Tonight's run n gun wiht Denver should be a good opportunity for John -- that's his game, and he will be playing against his old nemesis A.I. However the thing to watch going forward is how well he responds to being out there with Ron. It was precisely the A.I. situation that taught us how delicate John's game is when faced with another player who dominates the ball.
Artest ( C- ) -- this was back to the bad forcing Ron that you so often get when he decides he needs to save us. Started the game forcing shots while Maggette was doing a good job muscling him. On the other end Ron not surprisingly had him largely wrapped up until near the end of half, when Maggette was just starting to get his Kevinesque foul parade going. From that point on Ron was no better than Maggette, and maybe not as good. Still made a few defensive plays, but started forcing up junk in the third. Hit a few more shots, including a late three that was kind of our last gasp, but in general struggled, took too many shots, and too many tough shots, and didn't get much done with his passing, which is really the extra weapon he has that our other scorers do not. Also did not help much on the glass, and may have gotten distracted in running up and down the court and slamming around with fellow retrograde Ruben Patterson in the late 3rd/4th.
Moore ( B+ ) -- got off to a huge start running the floor unimpeded for offensive rebounds and follows (had 8 rebounds, 7 of them offensive). Had something like 10pts and 4 rebounds in the first quarter alone, which is better than his full game season averages. Of course part of it was doubtless the Clippers pathetic situation at PF, where basically they just rotate through the 17 SFs on their roster and hope of the best. And in truth Mikki was actually played pretty much to a statistical draw by Tim Thomas. But the impact was not remotely the same, and in the early going Mikki's energy plays might have been the key to the entire strong start to which we got off. But whatever hopefully legal energy supplement he used befroe the game faded, and all the activity as well as Kaman got him into foul trouble in the second half. Never really did establish a rhythm after half, got sloppy late, and was in and out of the lineup despite Reggie clearly having no confidence in any other big on the roster beyond Brad.
Miller ( B- ) -- was in an early early passing groove, and had a big impact first quarter in nearly every way with nearly half of a triple double before the first was done. Kaman was doing stuff back the other way, but in the early going he was all alone out there, and was drawing for more doubles and traps than Brad. But Brad stopped/slowed in the third, and Kaman did not and was working him over bigtime on the other end. Fouls and frustration piled up, and Brad was reduced to the rather sad spectacle of joining the rest of our big men in a beautiful Terry Mills inspired offense -- 7'0 250? 3pt shooter baby. The early part of the game was still interesting however, with Brad getting the ball really up high in a new offensive wrinkle -- too far out to be the Princeton, but same effect, clearing the middle and letting Brad sink back into his passing comfort zone. And while he was going good, Brad was trying to do the ole up fake and drive thing he likes to do against big centers like Kaman, but with the weight loss you can see how much quicker Caveman is this year and he was often able to recover. In any case, in the first quarter the center matchup was a high level contrast of styles with both guys going well. The remaining three quarters was largely a slaughter with the bigger and better player beating the stuffing out of us down inside.
Salmons ( C ) -- John certinaly put up an interesting boxscore this time out: 10pts 10rebs 5ast. But if you watched the game the overall impression was not of well roundedness, but of strugglingness. He simply could not finish today, and whether that is an aberration or a sign of things to come we will have to see -- fact is that he has been finishing AMAZINGLY so far this season, and there is certainly a lot of room for him to come back to earth rather than to continue being able to finish in amongst three opponents consistently. Also was one of the primary victims of Mobley deigning to dust himself off for one more big fourth quarter dagger performance. Tonight's run n gun wiht Denver should be a good opportunity for John -- that's his game, and he will be playing against his old nemesis A.I. However the thing to watch going forward is how well he responds to being out there with Ron. It was precisely the A.I. situation that taught us how delicate John's game is when faced with another player who dominates the ball.
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