Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Peja ( C+ ) -- huge part of our early burst, and then just totally disappeared for the entire middle part of the game. Did not reemerge until the 4th, when he got smart and started to attack the rim rather than throw up off-balance threes. Got to the line, and able to pick up some easy points that way. Also began to make some nice sharp passes in the 4th to set up teammates. Still too little, too late. And now we come to the broken record portion of Peja's grade -- Peja, will you PLEASE GET YOUR 6'9" 235lb BODY ONTO THE BLEEPING BOARDS!!! Had one rebound throuogh 35 minutes. ONE. Putting incredible pressure on our bigs. And with Miller really struggling, Webb was left fighting a one man battle against every Grizzly over 6'6". Finally stepped forward to grab a few big boards late. This one started out as as A for Peja, sank all the way down to perhaps a D, but thought he made some important contributions to our come from behind 4th, so let's say overall maybe a...C+.
Webber ( A+ ) -- Welcome back superstar! Thank god for Webb tonight -- legs looked really alive. Was a big part of our big early surge, and then tried to singlehandedly keep us close as the rest of the team went ice cold in the third. Finished the game off with a huge 4th quarter where he simply took over the way a superstar is susposed to. Was also the ONLY King anywhere remotely around the boards. Lot of inside hoops again -- the man has definitely changed his mix this year. Put a lot of pressure on the Grizzlies big men and hit big shot after big shot late. Andstepped up defensively late in the game with big stops on Gasol as well.
Miller ( D- ) -- wow. Bad scrappy effort. By bad and scrappy, I mean he was efforting out there, but the results were bad bad bad. Just looked horribly outmatched physically by the longer Gasol and Stromile Swift. Missed some chippies early on easy hoops set up by Webb passes, then kept on driving and getting his shot stuffed in his face. Got so desperate that he even broke out a pretty good looking post move...which he missed. Of greater concern though was his total absence on the boards and defense. Gasol and Swift were just running around him, going over him, whatever it took. In some ways I'm not sure what's an "F" if this wasn't for him. But he hung in there, was working, and we won. So a slight bump.
Christie ( B+ ) -- best effort of the season for Doug. Very active all over the court, and gave us a real boost on offense not only by scoring, but especially with his passing as well. Doug's assists are really the great x-factor that peopel don't always talk about wiht him. One of the best off guards in the league, and one of the reasons we are such a good passing team overall. On the other hand, not a huge impact defensively (was guarding JWill, and looked a step slow) again, and made some sloppy turnovers. Still a very encouraging game -- we need this guy if we're going to make any sort of run this year, and this was the first game Doug really looked like Doug.
Bibby ( B- ) -- started off the game hot, but cooled off as the game went along. Late in the game was really not helping -- not his traditional late game heroics. Still choking his FTs -- missed one late that could have hurt us. Overall still pretty good numbers. 18pts. No turnovers. But think he had 12-14 of those at half.
BJax ( B- ) -- bit of an erratic effort, but just about the only thing coming off our bench tonight. Hit some key shots, but did not pass at all. Grabbed a huge rebound with 8 seconds to go and the Kings up by 3 to ice the game. Well, not quite ice it -- was fouled and went down to the other end and choked the first FT to tease us. But sank the second, and game over.
Songaila ( C ) -- biggest thing Darius did was foul tonight. Scored a few hoops, but he's really contributing to our rebounding woes right now. Just too short and athletically challenged to contend ont he galss with the jumping jacks. Got burned badly by Brian Cardinal of all people on defense too. Now THAT'S embarrassing -- Petey Carril working on a his second six pack of the night can stay in front of Brain Cardinal.
Ostertag ( INC ) -- brief and largely ineffective stint on the first half, pretty active.
Barnes ( INC ) -- brief first half stint. Active defense. Couple of fouls, nothing else.
Adelman ( B ) -- well...we won. Wild game. We were obviously ready to go at the start of the game. But then not ready at all coming out of half? Then recovered. Short, short rotations. So not as if Rick was experimenting with different lineups. Pretty much played it straight and showed confidence in his main guys to get it done. Not that anyone off the bench was exactly arguing for more PT. Pissed me off again by pulling Webb for a last second shot on defense. Again, no, you don't want to give up the three, but who's going to grab the board?? Thankfully Bobby waded in there to save our butts. Don't want to be depending on your 6'1" backup PG to be grabbing the big boards that often.
Webber ( A+ ) -- Welcome back superstar! Thank god for Webb tonight -- legs looked really alive. Was a big part of our big early surge, and then tried to singlehandedly keep us close as the rest of the team went ice cold in the third. Finished the game off with a huge 4th quarter where he simply took over the way a superstar is susposed to. Was also the ONLY King anywhere remotely around the boards. Lot of inside hoops again -- the man has definitely changed his mix this year. Put a lot of pressure on the Grizzlies big men and hit big shot after big shot late. Andstepped up defensively late in the game with big stops on Gasol as well.
Miller ( D- ) -- wow. Bad scrappy effort. By bad and scrappy, I mean he was efforting out there, but the results were bad bad bad. Just looked horribly outmatched physically by the longer Gasol and Stromile Swift. Missed some chippies early on easy hoops set up by Webb passes, then kept on driving and getting his shot stuffed in his face. Got so desperate that he even broke out a pretty good looking post move...which he missed. Of greater concern though was his total absence on the boards and defense. Gasol and Swift were just running around him, going over him, whatever it took. In some ways I'm not sure what's an "F" if this wasn't for him. But he hung in there, was working, and we won. So a slight bump.
Christie ( B+ ) -- best effort of the season for Doug. Very active all over the court, and gave us a real boost on offense not only by scoring, but especially with his passing as well. Doug's assists are really the great x-factor that peopel don't always talk about wiht him. One of the best off guards in the league, and one of the reasons we are such a good passing team overall. On the other hand, not a huge impact defensively (was guarding JWill, and looked a step slow) again, and made some sloppy turnovers. Still a very encouraging game -- we need this guy if we're going to make any sort of run this year, and this was the first game Doug really looked like Doug.
Bibby ( B- ) -- started off the game hot, but cooled off as the game went along. Late in the game was really not helping -- not his traditional late game heroics. Still choking his FTs -- missed one late that could have hurt us. Overall still pretty good numbers. 18pts. No turnovers. But think he had 12-14 of those at half.
BJax ( B- ) -- bit of an erratic effort, but just about the only thing coming off our bench tonight. Hit some key shots, but did not pass at all. Grabbed a huge rebound with 8 seconds to go and the Kings up by 3 to ice the game. Well, not quite ice it -- was fouled and went down to the other end and choked the first FT to tease us. But sank the second, and game over.
Songaila ( C ) -- biggest thing Darius did was foul tonight. Scored a few hoops, but he's really contributing to our rebounding woes right now. Just too short and athletically challenged to contend ont he galss with the jumping jacks. Got burned badly by Brian Cardinal of all people on defense too. Now THAT'S embarrassing -- Petey Carril working on a his second six pack of the night can stay in front of Brain Cardinal.
Ostertag ( INC ) -- brief and largely ineffective stint on the first half, pretty active.
Barnes ( INC ) -- brief first half stint. Active defense. Couple of fouls, nothing else.
Adelman ( B ) -- well...we won. Wild game. We were obviously ready to go at the start of the game. But then not ready at all coming out of half? Then recovered. Short, short rotations. So not as if Rick was experimenting with different lineups. Pretty much played it straight and showed confidence in his main guys to get it done. Not that anyone off the bench was exactly arguing for more PT. Pissed me off again by pulling Webb for a last second shot on defense. Again, no, you don't want to give up the three, but who's going to grab the board?? Thankfully Bobby waded in there to save our butts. Don't want to be depending on your 6'1" backup PG to be grabbing the big boards that often.
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