8-29, but this one was at least fun.
Salmons ( B ) -- hyperefficent scoring in the first half largely courtesy of the Miami defense, which alternated giving him wide open threes and slapping him with soft fouls allowing him to get 3pt plays the old school way. On the other hand was being lit up by Wade and looking bad on defense in so doing, a pattern that would eventually reemerge in humiliating fashion to lose it for us. Was leaving his feet, getting blown by. Disappeared offensively in the 4th, which I guess is better than forcing us to death, but left us without a goto guy with Kevin choking at the other wing. Restored some good graces by playing good defense on Wade on the attmpted game winner in regulation, but then got his butt kicked in OT. Opened the OT by being picked in the open court by Wade who flew down the other way for the dunk. Then tried to make up for it by forcing a missed three. Beat repeatedly by Wade, and then added the big head slapper in the final seconds, when on the game clincher John turned his head to look for a screen and bam, Wade was off like a shot to the rim for the game winning FTs. Our best offensive player of the night, and worked better wth Kevin than he has been (I especially liked Kevin choking to earn goat horns then unselfishly passing the baton over to John so he could choke and earn a set himself), but its going to be the gaffes that are going to be remmebered from this one.
Thompson ( C ) -- finally gets his start at PF...and laid an egg in the early going. A handful of hustle boards but all the normal problems with lack of finishing ability and foul proneness, and was being outhustled at times as well by Anthony. Could also see the difficulties with a Miller/Thompson frontcourt -- neither guy can block a shot, so the lane was, as always with us, wide open. Came back stronger in the third quarter thrashing aroudn inside on the glass and competing well against Beasely for a while (competing well still involved Beasely kicking our patooties and probably having his career game so far). But was not around for any of the stretch run fun, as Natt went to Spencer instead for most of the 4th -- a move that looked shaky for a long while, but ultimately bore fruit and almsot saved us. Was between grades here, but I went with the shade lower because he was our starter here, and ended up wiht Mikki numbers.
Miller ( B- ) -- ok start against undersized Heat. With Kevin and Salmons eating up all the shots, was never much on offense, but was able to dominate the glass for much of the night with the Heat rarely playing anybody taller than 6'8" inside. That suddenly changed when all of a sudden it turned into a flashback night as Miami inserted big ole Jamaal Magloire in the 4th quarter so that the two old guys could share old All Star war stories from 2003. And Magloire worked Brad over something fierce too, muscling board after board inside and changing momentum for the Heat (before nearly killing them by splatting Spencer in OT). Brad also shortarmed several late jumpers (the worst of which was a wide open 18 footer from up top) as we did everything possible to choke this in regulation, but had to settle for choking it in OT.
Martin ( C ) -- took a while to get going, but finally got out in the open court toward the end of the first. Never really built any great momentum though, and of course a major part of that was that he could not shoot (6-18, 33%). So it was more constant attrition than anything spectacular, and predictably in response became even more concerned than normal with getting to the line -- or maybe it was the other way around. The missing and the flailing/flopping really are chicken and egg, as became evident late in this one. Was inconsistent in the 4th before choking off something fierce down the stretch again, repeatedly doing his search for the foul rather than just try to make the damn shot thing, resulting in bricks and turnovers. The difference bewteen Wade, who goes to the line a ton, and Kevin who goes to the line a ton? When Wade slams his way inside there he is always 100% trying to finish the shot and takes the foul in the process. Kevin on the other hand gets so focused on drawing the foul he sometimes forgets that the real object of the game is to hit the shot, and then he, and we, are at the mercy of how the refs see it. Topped off the poor offense down the stretch by then throwing a terrible inbounds pass with 13 seconds to go that should have sealed our fate. We were down 3, needed to get the ball in to score quickly, foul, hope they miased the FTs etc. It was very similar to the situation we had against Chicago. And Kevin choked again. This time throwing a soft pass that was picked off cleanly by the Heat, who then got fouled and extended the lead even further. Kevin owes Spencer a steak dinner after that one, because Spencer's heroics to get us to OT are about all that saved Kevin from having me mock up a photoshop of him with goat's horns.
Udrih ( C- ) -- started out aggressively offensively with a pair of hits, and a turnover of course. But could not stay in front of Chalmers the other way and got into foul trouble. When he returned most of that initial push had dried up, and struggled to finsih thereafter. Got picked up high in the open court for the breakaway the other way in a play that may have effectively ended hsi night. And that was kind of that. Natt is just killing this guy as an authoritative starter right now, which might be ok if he had any better idea. But instead he is simultaneously killing Bobby Brown (ineffective 1-4 on the night) and giving the lion's share of the minutes to creaky old Bobby Jackson (lovely 1-7). Oh, and losing nearly every game. Whatta coach.
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Brown ( C ) -- first guy off the bench (by about 30 seconds) and briefly looked like he might have a role tonight after he notched an assiat to Kevin and quickly hit a three. But then proceeded to miss the rest of his shots and enver even got a look after half.
Hawes ( B+ ) -- able to occassionally score out there comfortably against the very undersized Miami frontline, but that was about all he was doing for the first 3/4 of this one. Even looked a bit shaky in the early parts of the 4th when he committed an offensive foul, threw a bad pass, and was getting muscled all over the court by Magloire. But it was all just playing possum, as he chose to wait until the rest of the team had done everything possible to choke away this one before stepping up to play the hero and bail us out in the final 12 seconds, hitting a huge wild turnaround three when we were dead, and then a couple of seconds later the tying 2 pointer to send us to OT (both of them over he much smaller Beasely). Was kind of setting himself as OT hero as well, as he drew a flagrant foul from Maglorie, who was always a physical player and just decided to level the cocky kid. Spencer hit the FTs, and then a few plays later got a flagrant himself on a clothesline of Wade that knocked him out of the air in a scary fall. Looked like maybe the saaviest attempt to win the game of all - just take out the other tea's superstar. Unfortunately (well thats not true -- fortunately) did not work out that way as all he did was make Wade mad and he proceeded to kick our butt and close us out. Spencer had one more chance to finish off the heroing when we drew up the game tying attempt for him at the end of OT with us down 2 (note to Kings: when you draw up a game tying shot for somebody during a timeout, try not to have everybody patting the player on the back and encouraging him as he comes back out onto the floor -- might as well have just shown Miami your whiteboard). Predictably, as these things always go, Spencer missed that one -- a pretty decent semi-challenged look from 20. So what to do with this one gradewise. Not much for most of the night, never much except scoring, and then stepped up as our dominant clutch player in the final 5:15. Finaly decided to go B+, but its B+ with considerable hope for the uture, which has to be the positive pulled out of this one.
Cisco ( C+ ) -- quiet first half off the bench displaying not much pop, but things got more interesting after half. In the third had him guarding Chris Quinn at the point a lot, and while Quinn obviously sucks, Cisco still did well in disrupting him and in a key play at the end of the 3rd quarter picked him clean in the open court and went back the other way for the layup which Quinn just made worse by adding the soft foul for a three point play. At the time looked like we mgiht be openign the lead up o a tired team (they played last night) and putting them away. But it does not take long for us to choke late in games, and wihtin 4 minutes, the lead was gone. And Cisco contributed, taking quick ill advised shots as one of our primary panic gerbils, getting trapped along the sideline etc. Only this time Cisco got to share our pain, as Jamaal Magloire was in the game and apparently keen on reminding everbody what a physical force he once was. Cisco enede up slamming into monster open court picks not once, but twice int he quarter, and getting put down. I often make fun of Cisco's soccer player flopping and faking, but these weren't fakes -- he got bigtime splatted and is going to be feeling it this morning.
Moore ( INC ) -- got lit up by the undersized Beasely in the late first/early second, necessitating an emergency call to your hero and mine, KT. Never returned.
Thomas ( C ) -- brought in to go undersized PF vs. undersized PF against Beasely, and somehow the rest of the guys on the floor decided that that then obviously made him our goto guy, so we were treated to the spectacle of a bunch of attempted post entry passes to Kenny bleeping Thomas. Did fine in the matchup, although size aside, Mikki is proabbly the better macthup for Beasely's game as he's more comfortable using his legth away from the hoop.
Jackson ( C ) -- upped the hustle level when he entered the game, but only marginally effective with his own play. Was put on Wade several times to go burly guard on burly guard, but one of the burly guards (not BJax) still has quickness while the other has lost it to age, and so got blown by. Hit a huge three to try to save us late in regulation, but as often happens with Bobby, hit the one big clutch three, and then kept on trying to line up others and bricking, bricking, and bricking some more. 1-7 ain't good. 1-7 with 1-6 from three is just ridiculous. Was the man we turned to to run the point down the stetch, and got credited with both assists on the Hawes hero shots.
Salmons ( B ) -- hyperefficent scoring in the first half largely courtesy of the Miami defense, which alternated giving him wide open threes and slapping him with soft fouls allowing him to get 3pt plays the old school way. On the other hand was being lit up by Wade and looking bad on defense in so doing, a pattern that would eventually reemerge in humiliating fashion to lose it for us. Was leaving his feet, getting blown by. Disappeared offensively in the 4th, which I guess is better than forcing us to death, but left us without a goto guy with Kevin choking at the other wing. Restored some good graces by playing good defense on Wade on the attmpted game winner in regulation, but then got his butt kicked in OT. Opened the OT by being picked in the open court by Wade who flew down the other way for the dunk. Then tried to make up for it by forcing a missed three. Beat repeatedly by Wade, and then added the big head slapper in the final seconds, when on the game clincher John turned his head to look for a screen and bam, Wade was off like a shot to the rim for the game winning FTs. Our best offensive player of the night, and worked better wth Kevin than he has been (I especially liked Kevin choking to earn goat horns then unselfishly passing the baton over to John so he could choke and earn a set himself), but its going to be the gaffes that are going to be remmebered from this one.
Thompson ( C ) -- finally gets his start at PF...and laid an egg in the early going. A handful of hustle boards but all the normal problems with lack of finishing ability and foul proneness, and was being outhustled at times as well by Anthony. Could also see the difficulties with a Miller/Thompson frontcourt -- neither guy can block a shot, so the lane was, as always with us, wide open. Came back stronger in the third quarter thrashing aroudn inside on the glass and competing well against Beasely for a while (competing well still involved Beasely kicking our patooties and probably having his career game so far). But was not around for any of the stretch run fun, as Natt went to Spencer instead for most of the 4th -- a move that looked shaky for a long while, but ultimately bore fruit and almsot saved us. Was between grades here, but I went with the shade lower because he was our starter here, and ended up wiht Mikki numbers.
Miller ( B- ) -- ok start against undersized Heat. With Kevin and Salmons eating up all the shots, was never much on offense, but was able to dominate the glass for much of the night with the Heat rarely playing anybody taller than 6'8" inside. That suddenly changed when all of a sudden it turned into a flashback night as Miami inserted big ole Jamaal Magloire in the 4th quarter so that the two old guys could share old All Star war stories from 2003. And Magloire worked Brad over something fierce too, muscling board after board inside and changing momentum for the Heat (before nearly killing them by splatting Spencer in OT). Brad also shortarmed several late jumpers (the worst of which was a wide open 18 footer from up top) as we did everything possible to choke this in regulation, but had to settle for choking it in OT.
Martin ( C ) -- took a while to get going, but finally got out in the open court toward the end of the first. Never really built any great momentum though, and of course a major part of that was that he could not shoot (6-18, 33%). So it was more constant attrition than anything spectacular, and predictably in response became even more concerned than normal with getting to the line -- or maybe it was the other way around. The missing and the flailing/flopping really are chicken and egg, as became evident late in this one. Was inconsistent in the 4th before choking off something fierce down the stretch again, repeatedly doing his search for the foul rather than just try to make the damn shot thing, resulting in bricks and turnovers. The difference bewteen Wade, who goes to the line a ton, and Kevin who goes to the line a ton? When Wade slams his way inside there he is always 100% trying to finish the shot and takes the foul in the process. Kevin on the other hand gets so focused on drawing the foul he sometimes forgets that the real object of the game is to hit the shot, and then he, and we, are at the mercy of how the refs see it. Topped off the poor offense down the stretch by then throwing a terrible inbounds pass with 13 seconds to go that should have sealed our fate. We were down 3, needed to get the ball in to score quickly, foul, hope they miased the FTs etc. It was very similar to the situation we had against Chicago. And Kevin choked again. This time throwing a soft pass that was picked off cleanly by the Heat, who then got fouled and extended the lead even further. Kevin owes Spencer a steak dinner after that one, because Spencer's heroics to get us to OT are about all that saved Kevin from having me mock up a photoshop of him with goat's horns.
Udrih ( C- ) -- started out aggressively offensively with a pair of hits, and a turnover of course. But could not stay in front of Chalmers the other way and got into foul trouble. When he returned most of that initial push had dried up, and struggled to finsih thereafter. Got picked up high in the open court for the breakaway the other way in a play that may have effectively ended hsi night. And that was kind of that. Natt is just killing this guy as an authoritative starter right now, which might be ok if he had any better idea. But instead he is simultaneously killing Bobby Brown (ineffective 1-4 on the night) and giving the lion's share of the minutes to creaky old Bobby Jackson (lovely 1-7). Oh, and losing nearly every game. Whatta coach.
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Brown ( C ) -- first guy off the bench (by about 30 seconds) and briefly looked like he might have a role tonight after he notched an assiat to Kevin and quickly hit a three. But then proceeded to miss the rest of his shots and enver even got a look after half.
Hawes ( B+ ) -- able to occassionally score out there comfortably against the very undersized Miami frontline, but that was about all he was doing for the first 3/4 of this one. Even looked a bit shaky in the early parts of the 4th when he committed an offensive foul, threw a bad pass, and was getting muscled all over the court by Magloire. But it was all just playing possum, as he chose to wait until the rest of the team had done everything possible to choke away this one before stepping up to play the hero and bail us out in the final 12 seconds, hitting a huge wild turnaround three when we were dead, and then a couple of seconds later the tying 2 pointer to send us to OT (both of them over he much smaller Beasely). Was kind of setting himself as OT hero as well, as he drew a flagrant foul from Maglorie, who was always a physical player and just decided to level the cocky kid. Spencer hit the FTs, and then a few plays later got a flagrant himself on a clothesline of Wade that knocked him out of the air in a scary fall. Looked like maybe the saaviest attempt to win the game of all - just take out the other tea's superstar. Unfortunately (well thats not true -- fortunately) did not work out that way as all he did was make Wade mad and he proceeded to kick our butt and close us out. Spencer had one more chance to finish off the heroing when we drew up the game tying attempt for him at the end of OT with us down 2 (note to Kings: when you draw up a game tying shot for somebody during a timeout, try not to have everybody patting the player on the back and encouraging him as he comes back out onto the floor -- might as well have just shown Miami your whiteboard). Predictably, as these things always go, Spencer missed that one -- a pretty decent semi-challenged look from 20. So what to do with this one gradewise. Not much for most of the night, never much except scoring, and then stepped up as our dominant clutch player in the final 5:15. Finaly decided to go B+, but its B+ with considerable hope for the uture, which has to be the positive pulled out of this one.
Cisco ( C+ ) -- quiet first half off the bench displaying not much pop, but things got more interesting after half. In the third had him guarding Chris Quinn at the point a lot, and while Quinn obviously sucks, Cisco still did well in disrupting him and in a key play at the end of the 3rd quarter picked him clean in the open court and went back the other way for the layup which Quinn just made worse by adding the soft foul for a three point play. At the time looked like we mgiht be openign the lead up o a tired team (they played last night) and putting them away. But it does not take long for us to choke late in games, and wihtin 4 minutes, the lead was gone. And Cisco contributed, taking quick ill advised shots as one of our primary panic gerbils, getting trapped along the sideline etc. Only this time Cisco got to share our pain, as Jamaal Magloire was in the game and apparently keen on reminding everbody what a physical force he once was. Cisco enede up slamming into monster open court picks not once, but twice int he quarter, and getting put down. I often make fun of Cisco's soccer player flopping and faking, but these weren't fakes -- he got bigtime splatted and is going to be feeling it this morning.
Moore ( INC ) -- got lit up by the undersized Beasely in the late first/early second, necessitating an emergency call to your hero and mine, KT. Never returned.
Thomas ( C ) -- brought in to go undersized PF vs. undersized PF against Beasely, and somehow the rest of the guys on the floor decided that that then obviously made him our goto guy, so we were treated to the spectacle of a bunch of attempted post entry passes to Kenny bleeping Thomas. Did fine in the matchup, although size aside, Mikki is proabbly the better macthup for Beasely's game as he's more comfortable using his legth away from the hoop.
Jackson ( C ) -- upped the hustle level when he entered the game, but only marginally effective with his own play. Was put on Wade several times to go burly guard on burly guard, but one of the burly guards (not BJax) still has quickness while the other has lost it to age, and so got blown by. Hit a huge three to try to save us late in regulation, but as often happens with Bobby, hit the one big clutch three, and then kept on trying to line up others and bricking, bricking, and bricking some more. 1-7 ain't good. 1-7 with 1-6 from three is just ridiculous. Was the man we turned to to run the point down the stetch, and got credited with both assists on the Hawes hero shots.
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