Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Peja ( C+ ) -- adequate game, nothing more, nothing less. Was better in the first half than the second. Had a couple of moments of aggressive offense including an uncharacteristic play in the 2nd quarter where he drove hard, stopped, spun to shake the defender, missed the shot, grabbed on o-board, got blocked, grabbed the o-board again, and finally converted. Had problems at times with Al Harrington's superior athleticism, but was steady down the stretch. Made a huge defensive rebound for us in the last minute blocking out Harrington and getting fouled off of a Tyrone Lue missed three.
Webber ( B+ ) -- we would've been lost without him, but I just find it hard to give Webb any sort of an A just because of some really, let's say, "casual" defense at times. Was scorching hot to start the game, quickly putting to rest memories of the Toronto ugliness. Started muscling in for some ugly inside work in the third quarter, and finished that quarter with a rush that opened up a gap for us. Briefly left the court early in the 4th and looked like he might be sick or something? Not sure. But when he returned after that for the stretch run was pretty quiet.
Miller ( C ) -- complete lack of offense tonight hurt us, and he certainly didn't dominate the glass either. Showed some poor recognition of the shotclock. Still passed well, made some big plays for us down the stretch, and seemed to feed off of Darius while picking up the defense as the game went along. I may not be "C" unhappy with Brad's game actually, and thought about giving him a "+". But your starting center, a theoretical All-Star candidate just gave you two points. Just can't go higher.
Christie ( C ) -- started off hot offensively, but simply unable to match up with Josh Smith athletically at this point in his career. Made a couple of good plays and a couple of atrocious plays down the stretch of the game. Was involved in a simply embarrassing play with Bibby at a critical point with 5 minutes to go, where Bibby just dumped a little routine bouncer to Doug while bringing the ball upcourt -- just meant as a way to switch over who brought the ball upcourt. But Doug never even looked for the ball, and Bibby had to scramble on over to try to keep it from rolling out of bounds (and failed to do so). A couple of minutes later tried his damndest to throw away an inbound play with us up by only 2 and less than a minute to go. Sometimes I just don't know where his head is.
Bibby ( A ) -- at one point early was perhaps the goat of the game, but just started pouring it on in the second half. Started the game playing very loose, made a host of unconscioinable turnovers, was unable or disinterested in stopping Tyronne Lue on defense. In fact enough to be unhappy with here that I was tempted to give him the "-" despite the big numbers. But the fact of the matter is that he simply won this one for us in the 4th, hitting for something like 14 or 16 points, including the game icer with 12 seconds to go. Big clutch performance.
Tag ( C- ) -- inexplicable game by Tag. Looked all kinds of shaky out there, and not only did not put out the Hawks offensive fire, may actually have thrown some gasoline on it. Still made a couple of stops around the rim, but his defensive decisionmaking was terrible. Looked like no concentration or something -- chasing guys away from the hoop, fouling when he shouldn't, not fouling when he should. Just ineffective. Rick gave him the look. Tag was off. Rick pulled him and he did not return. That was the right call tonight.
Evans ( C+ ) -- unusual game, in that Mo Evans the uber-athlete ran into an even bigger and better athlete in Josh Smith, and ended up looking mortal. Made some hustle plays of course, but overall game was only minimally effective. On one eye opener Mo went in to deliver a flying dunk, and was met mid-air by Smith who packed both Mo and the ball.
Songaila ( B ) -- beliee it or not, perhaps our best defensive player of the night, just for having a pulse really. Hustled + moved his feet, which was more than could be said for most of our guys. Numbers don't look great, and the overall game really WASN'T great, but seemed to come in and help steady us defensively in his minutes. And tonight that was a critical contribution.
Martin ( C ) -- didn't do much. Was part of our best defensive quarter and hustled well. Lone points came on an open jumper courtesy of Webb.
Adelman ( B- ) -- big thing here was just our total, complete, and utter lack of defensive focus this game. We quite frankly did not care for long stretches of the first and third. Our perimeter guys just let everyone fly to the rim uncontested, and of course our interior guys rotated slowly and were in no way able to match the verticality of the Hawks' guys. Of course as always some of that lands on Rick's lap, but he was clearly furious about it tonight -- called a couple of very angry timeouts when we just pissed away leads and allowed open dunks. Was kind of forced to insert Tag early when Brad got into quick foul trouble, but Tag did not respond at all. Therafter, Rick tried all of the normal bench suspects except for Barnes, and while they brought better defensive energy nobody really shined. No real probelm with the substitution patterns tonight. Problem was just in trying to find enough guys who really gave a damn about winning this one.
Webber ( B+ ) -- we would've been lost without him, but I just find it hard to give Webb any sort of an A just because of some really, let's say, "casual" defense at times. Was scorching hot to start the game, quickly putting to rest memories of the Toronto ugliness. Started muscling in for some ugly inside work in the third quarter, and finished that quarter with a rush that opened up a gap for us. Briefly left the court early in the 4th and looked like he might be sick or something? Not sure. But when he returned after that for the stretch run was pretty quiet.
Miller ( C ) -- complete lack of offense tonight hurt us, and he certainly didn't dominate the glass either. Showed some poor recognition of the shotclock. Still passed well, made some big plays for us down the stretch, and seemed to feed off of Darius while picking up the defense as the game went along. I may not be "C" unhappy with Brad's game actually, and thought about giving him a "+". But your starting center, a theoretical All-Star candidate just gave you two points. Just can't go higher.
Christie ( C ) -- started off hot offensively, but simply unable to match up with Josh Smith athletically at this point in his career. Made a couple of good plays and a couple of atrocious plays down the stretch of the game. Was involved in a simply embarrassing play with Bibby at a critical point with 5 minutes to go, where Bibby just dumped a little routine bouncer to Doug while bringing the ball upcourt -- just meant as a way to switch over who brought the ball upcourt. But Doug never even looked for the ball, and Bibby had to scramble on over to try to keep it from rolling out of bounds (and failed to do so). A couple of minutes later tried his damndest to throw away an inbound play with us up by only 2 and less than a minute to go. Sometimes I just don't know where his head is.
Bibby ( A ) -- at one point early was perhaps the goat of the game, but just started pouring it on in the second half. Started the game playing very loose, made a host of unconscioinable turnovers, was unable or disinterested in stopping Tyronne Lue on defense. In fact enough to be unhappy with here that I was tempted to give him the "-" despite the big numbers. But the fact of the matter is that he simply won this one for us in the 4th, hitting for something like 14 or 16 points, including the game icer with 12 seconds to go. Big clutch performance.
Tag ( C- ) -- inexplicable game by Tag. Looked all kinds of shaky out there, and not only did not put out the Hawks offensive fire, may actually have thrown some gasoline on it. Still made a couple of stops around the rim, but his defensive decisionmaking was terrible. Looked like no concentration or something -- chasing guys away from the hoop, fouling when he shouldn't, not fouling when he should. Just ineffective. Rick gave him the look. Tag was off. Rick pulled him and he did not return. That was the right call tonight.
Evans ( C+ ) -- unusual game, in that Mo Evans the uber-athlete ran into an even bigger and better athlete in Josh Smith, and ended up looking mortal. Made some hustle plays of course, but overall game was only minimally effective. On one eye opener Mo went in to deliver a flying dunk, and was met mid-air by Smith who packed both Mo and the ball.
Songaila ( B ) -- beliee it or not, perhaps our best defensive player of the night, just for having a pulse really. Hustled + moved his feet, which was more than could be said for most of our guys. Numbers don't look great, and the overall game really WASN'T great, but seemed to come in and help steady us defensively in his minutes. And tonight that was a critical contribution.
Martin ( C ) -- didn't do much. Was part of our best defensive quarter and hustled well. Lone points came on an open jumper courtesy of Webb.
Adelman ( B- ) -- big thing here was just our total, complete, and utter lack of defensive focus this game. We quite frankly did not care for long stretches of the first and third. Our perimeter guys just let everyone fly to the rim uncontested, and of course our interior guys rotated slowly and were in no way able to match the verticality of the Hawks' guys. Of course as always some of that lands on Rick's lap, but he was clearly furious about it tonight -- called a couple of very angry timeouts when we just pissed away leads and allowed open dunks. Was kind of forced to insert Tag early when Brad got into quick foul trouble, but Tag did not respond at all. Therafter, Rick tried all of the normal bench suspects except for Barnes, and while they brought better defensive energy nobody really shined. No real probelm with the substitution patterns tonight. Problem was just in trying to find enough guys who really gave a damn about winning this one.
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