Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( A ) -- Rarely has a grade shot up so much in the final 12 minutes of a game. Got off to an excellent offensive start in this one scoring 9pts in the first 6 minutes and feeling it from the outside. But then went silent and disappeared offensively for a long long time. Still had 9 pts heading into the late 3rd, and Battier and the twin towers had largely rendered him ineffective on the offensive end. On defense had his moments as always, and may have held Mike Miller down a bit, but particularly with Eddie Jones out Memphis is one of those teams without an identifiable wing player in need of stopping, and so its hard to measure how much was Ron and how much was the offensive mediocrity of those guys. Was being a pest as always in team defense, but as we headed down the stretch, likely was sitting upon another C game of some type. And then...Ron just exploded and put together an unstoppable fourth quarter with a pure power game inside. Crashed inside again and again, got the benefit of some whistles, and just dominated play from the post while sprinkling in a few jumpers. Finished with 19 4th quarter points, and may have been the only reason we hung on to win this one given that the Grizz, and Bobby Jackson in particular, kept on closing it to within 5 or 7 only to see Ron slam inside once again. Ron went from a poor offensive outing to a dominant close in the space of a quarter. And the grade goes form a C of some sort all the way up into the As.
Thomas ( B ) -- got off to the fast start taking advantage of the Grizzlies doubles to slash to the hoop, and of course getting on the glass. Slowed down somewhat as the half went on, and then mysteriously lost his temper and picked up a technical, and spent much of the rest of the half on the pine as Reef was having the strong half. In the second half finished up his double double, but not really much impact. Did however come up with a major dunk right in the face of Tsakalidis -- just the most recent King to posterize Big Jake (who to be fair actually began to have a large Tag-like effect on the game in the second half just by being bigger and stronger than any King on the floor and blotting out the hoop).
Miller ( D ) -- got off to a poor start, unable to hit anything, and even managed to give Big Jake Tsakalidis what might have been his first career 3pt play. And as the half wore on the poor shooting fed into his normal scared to shoot issue and he started struggling, passing up open shots, forcing passes etc. And never did get much better. Nothing would fall, and aside from a couple of clumsy gallops for continuations, the offense was completely missing. And on defense Gasol was chewing us up in there. Actually often Kenny or SAR's man, but Brad unable to bne effective ont he help or to switch over to slow down the 7-footer. Made just enough plays to keep this grade from getting real ugly. But 4-16 ain't pretty by any standards, let alone Brad's sweet-shooting ones.
Martin ( C+ ) -- slow start but settled in in the second quarter and began to pepper in shots to finish with the sold half. Never able to get much going in the second half. Did have one of his explosive exciting plays to get the crowd reved when he grabbed a loose ball and suddenly went bounding and bouncing down the lane for an explosive finish. Also had some struggles trying to guard the Grizz PG duo during those times when Mike was off the court. Neither a great effort nor an awful one. Scored some points for us, but just an afterthought for most of the night.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Didn't get much going offensively until the 2nd half. Came out in the third and came up with back to back sweet looking shots and thought maybe he was going to do the explosion thing again, but it kind of fizzled. He continued to score here and there and there and here, but none of those extended dominant runs. Was actually very prominent on defense early, both good and bad. Got back on the break, was involved in a lot of switches but fought the bigger men well, but on the other hand was getting beat off the dribble far too easily by Chucky Atkins. And in the 4th again had major problems with Bobby as we may have gotten fortunate that BJax apparently strained his abdomen again. 19pts and enough for the B- I think, but not a great outing.
Bonzi ( C ) -- tough effort off the bench, banging around grabbing boards, picking up steals, and playing the power game. But was having major problems finishing inside against the twin tower Grizzly defense (the drawbacks of a 6'5" post man) and is still having turnover problems. The aggression and toughness was good, and helped us win the battle of the boards again with 8 in 20 minutes as a guard, but sloppy and inefficient effort this time out.
Reef ( A- ) -- came in and during the first half was very aggressive against his old franchise, attacking at every opportunity and finishing with 11 first half points off the bench. Could not keep it rolling during the second half, but provided some welcome boardwork this time out. Perhaps did not really feel as effective as an A, but deserves some sort of major grade on numbers alone -- 13pts 9rebs in 22min.
Adelman ( A- ) -- And so we move within 1/2 game of the Hornets for spot #8. Not our best game certainly, but a win over a pretty good opponent and a team we could still theoretically catch. Maybe. Key to the game, other than Artest's huge 4th, may have been that while we again could do nothing with Gasol tonight, with Eddie Jones out we did manage to prevent any Grizzly from becoming that critical second gun/support player. Bobby went on a big run at the end of the game, but then hurt himself, and other than that, nobody could sustain. The 7 man rotation is pretty well set now, and in many ways almost unremarkable. After 3/4 of a season Rick has found his comfort zone with that group, and while he may vary the minutes therein its always going to be those guys. Without Garcia again, the Martin/Bonzi/Artest PGless backcourt worked better this time, although the real factor may have just been Bonzi and Reef dominating off the bench once again in the first half while those three were paired. Not sure to what degree going to Ron again and again in the 4th was a bench decision, but if it was, it certainly worked in a big way. Every win is big from here on out. This one wasn't huge, but back to .500 for the first time since November and within half a game of 8th doesn't stink. Now Dallas -- that would be a biggee as you would normally chalk it up as an L. So onward we go on our quest.
Thomas ( B ) -- got off to the fast start taking advantage of the Grizzlies doubles to slash to the hoop, and of course getting on the glass. Slowed down somewhat as the half went on, and then mysteriously lost his temper and picked up a technical, and spent much of the rest of the half on the pine as Reef was having the strong half. In the second half finished up his double double, but not really much impact. Did however come up with a major dunk right in the face of Tsakalidis -- just the most recent King to posterize Big Jake (who to be fair actually began to have a large Tag-like effect on the game in the second half just by being bigger and stronger than any King on the floor and blotting out the hoop).
Miller ( D ) -- got off to a poor start, unable to hit anything, and even managed to give Big Jake Tsakalidis what might have been his first career 3pt play. And as the half wore on the poor shooting fed into his normal scared to shoot issue and he started struggling, passing up open shots, forcing passes etc. And never did get much better. Nothing would fall, and aside from a couple of clumsy gallops for continuations, the offense was completely missing. And on defense Gasol was chewing us up in there. Actually often Kenny or SAR's man, but Brad unable to bne effective ont he help or to switch over to slow down the 7-footer. Made just enough plays to keep this grade from getting real ugly. But 4-16 ain't pretty by any standards, let alone Brad's sweet-shooting ones.
Martin ( C+ ) -- slow start but settled in in the second quarter and began to pepper in shots to finish with the sold half. Never able to get much going in the second half. Did have one of his explosive exciting plays to get the crowd reved when he grabbed a loose ball and suddenly went bounding and bouncing down the lane for an explosive finish. Also had some struggles trying to guard the Grizz PG duo during those times when Mike was off the court. Neither a great effort nor an awful one. Scored some points for us, but just an afterthought for most of the night.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Didn't get much going offensively until the 2nd half. Came out in the third and came up with back to back sweet looking shots and thought maybe he was going to do the explosion thing again, but it kind of fizzled. He continued to score here and there and there and here, but none of those extended dominant runs. Was actually very prominent on defense early, both good and bad. Got back on the break, was involved in a lot of switches but fought the bigger men well, but on the other hand was getting beat off the dribble far too easily by Chucky Atkins. And in the 4th again had major problems with Bobby as we may have gotten fortunate that BJax apparently strained his abdomen again. 19pts and enough for the B- I think, but not a great outing.
Bonzi ( C ) -- tough effort off the bench, banging around grabbing boards, picking up steals, and playing the power game. But was having major problems finishing inside against the twin tower Grizzly defense (the drawbacks of a 6'5" post man) and is still having turnover problems. The aggression and toughness was good, and helped us win the battle of the boards again with 8 in 20 minutes as a guard, but sloppy and inefficient effort this time out.
Reef ( A- ) -- came in and during the first half was very aggressive against his old franchise, attacking at every opportunity and finishing with 11 first half points off the bench. Could not keep it rolling during the second half, but provided some welcome boardwork this time out. Perhaps did not really feel as effective as an A, but deserves some sort of major grade on numbers alone -- 13pts 9rebs in 22min.
Adelman ( A- ) -- And so we move within 1/2 game of the Hornets for spot #8. Not our best game certainly, but a win over a pretty good opponent and a team we could still theoretically catch. Maybe. Key to the game, other than Artest's huge 4th, may have been that while we again could do nothing with Gasol tonight, with Eddie Jones out we did manage to prevent any Grizzly from becoming that critical second gun/support player. Bobby went on a big run at the end of the game, but then hurt himself, and other than that, nobody could sustain. The 7 man rotation is pretty well set now, and in many ways almost unremarkable. After 3/4 of a season Rick has found his comfort zone with that group, and while he may vary the minutes therein its always going to be those guys. Without Garcia again, the Martin/Bonzi/Artest PGless backcourt worked better this time, although the real factor may have just been Bonzi and Reef dominating off the bench once again in the first half while those three were paired. Not sure to what degree going to Ron again and again in the 4th was a bench decision, but if it was, it certainly worked in a big way. Every win is big from here on out. This one wasn't huge, but back to .500 for the first time since November and within half a game of 8th doesn't stink. Now Dallas -- that would be a biggee as you would normally chalk it up as an L. So onward we go on our quest.
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