Peja ( C+ ) -- gave us little in the early going and found himself on the bench along with several other sluggish starters for the bulk of the second quarter. But came out of the break with more oomph, knocked down a couple of perimeter shots, and all of a sudden Mr. Third Quarter was back. Scored 13 of his 19 in that quarter, and helped keep us close there for a while. Unfortunately did the normal disappearing act in the 4th as the Heat pulled away, and all of a sudden the threes weren't falling, the layups had no chance, and neither did we. Its a very tired act. On the flipside should be noted that he continued his solid boardwork with 7. Which maintains his January boarding average at a very respectable 7.5. Unfortunately it comes attached to 36% shooting and all around softness. All of a sudden we have Keith Van Horn on our team.
Thomas ( C ) -- nothing early, led to an early removal in favor of Reef at PF -- kind of reminds me of the dynamic last year when Darius was starting and KT gradually overtook him. In fact after returning a few minutes later he found himself at SF alongside Reef for the rest of the half, and Kenny did much better at that position and helped us control the glass during our big second quarter. Returned to PF to start the 3rd, and again was very limited in his effectiveness. And of course also caused us additional problems in there against Shaq, because it meant that we effectively only had one defender at a time in there that could bother the big guy in the least.
Miller ( D+ ) -- Reminded me of the good ole days of playing the Diesel with our center spending most of the game on the bench in foul trouble. Chewed up by Shaq in the early going and forced to the bench with 2 fouls midway through the first quarter. Was much better when he returned in the 2nd quarter and made some minor all around contributions. But to start the second half it was right back to the beating and the bench with fouls. Ended up with 9pts 5fls and 24 total minutes. Gets penalized in this grade a bit because frankly Shaq is not THAT hard to guard at this point in his career. Brad was his own personal fountain of youth. Our 15pt 8reb center got dominated by their 18pt 9reb center.
Martin ( D ) -- continued his recent road futility, and his starting OG debuts against the league's elite OGs recently have not gone well. A very quiet first quarter led to him getting a seat next to Rick in favor of Cisco. Returned in the third and made a few contributions -- a layup, a three, but also mixed in a bad turnover and just a general...malaise. No spark.
Bibby ( C ) -- did all our early scoring, but JWill was just running circles around him on the other end. And in an interesting development, Jason Hart and his hustle actually kept Mike pinned to the bench for almost the entire second quarter. And Mike never seemed to really get going after that. Had 10 pts in about the first 5 minutes, 7 for the rest of the game. And meanwhile JWill was great and just running, pressing, attacking, and generally making Mike look slow and overmatched.
Skinner ( B+ ) -- Brian really should thank Shaq as he got major minutes tonight with Brad's foul trouble. Gave us a better physical presence in there and a boost on the glass, although he was still overwhelmed at times by the old but massive Shaq and Mourning combo. Still about as good a performance as you could hope for from a Brian Skinner level player given who he was playing.
Reef ( B- ) -- came off the bench after Thomas was ineffective early, and gave us solid minutes in the first half slipped in between Skinner at C and KT at SF. Had 11 pts, and along with Cisco was really the major force in pulling us back into this one. But was not nearly as effective in the second half. Battled decently on the glass, but didn't come down with many. And just could not finish inside against the Shaq + Mourning combo. Zo in particular was having a blockfest.
Garcia ( B+ ) -- came off the bench and gave us a great first half in place of the ineffective Kevin Martin at OG. Was smoothly stroking that shaky jumper, and in general playing an in control game. Unfortunately not nearly as effective after returning in the 4th. And I suspect part of that was Riley chewing some *** at halftime and making adjustments aimed at actually guarding the rook. In any case, was the main guy who brought us back with 12 second quarter points, but only got 2 in his ineffective second half minutes as the Heat pulled away once more.
Hart ( C+ ) -- in an interesting move, came in and actually got most of the second quarter minutes at PG, keeping Mike pinned to the bench. And was effective as we clawed back into it with our benchers. Worked well with Brad there for a stretch, running some of our cuts and pops. Like many of our guys, did not do much in the second half, and barely had a chance to. Think he only logged two minutes in the second half. Which was...odd given our defensive collapse.
Sampson ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime, missed a couple of shots in the last minute which I know must have badly upset my mom, who's basketball acumen is such that she considers it a major milestone if we score 100, win or lose.
Adelman ( C+ ) -- well...hrrrmph. You knew this was likely a loss coming in, but the Kings did tease us there for a bit. Fought back after a terrible defensive first quarter to make a game of it, and I think even go up 5 at one point in the 3rd. But as has happened so often, the Heat squeezed us, we are completely incapable of squeezing anybody else, and what was briefly a close game turned into a blowout with the home team pulling further and further away. We seemed to have no answer for Shaq, with Rick taking what I think would have been my attitude and figuring he's not dangerous enough to double team much anymore. Oops. But the bigger problem may have been JWill and the ridiculously amazingly open rim on our defensive end. The Heat scored 70 points in the paint against us. 70!!! And it wasn't just Shaq. It was whoever wanted to get to the rim. JWill in particular really hurt us by attacking us inside as aggressively as I have ever seen him do. And we had nothing in there to stop him. We scored 99 points tonight. Not great. But not bad either. If we score 99 yesterday in regulation we blow Orlando out by 25! But we gave up 119, which is 20pts over the Heat's season average. That was where the game was lost. The Heat shot 60% against us, and James Posey was the only major minute player to shoot under .500 (2-9). So what about Rick's role? Well, other than the early decision not to double Shaq, Rick made what seemed to be game-altering changes early in this one. Peja, Bibby, Martin...really just all of the starters, were simply not getting it done defensively as the Heat raced off to a scorching 37pt first quarter while fastbreaking off of almost every Kings miss. And Rick recognized that and qucikly went to the bench. His hand was forced with Skinner, who was next up on the unenviable Guard Shaq list after Brad got into foul trouble. But Rick also brought in Cisco (for Martin) Reef (for Peja), went bigger, slowed the game down a bit. And then also had Hart take most of Mike's 2nd quarter minutes. The result was a slower paced, more defensive unit that frustrated the Heat reserves and slowly dragged us back into it. But it was not to be, and we could not sustain. The starters came out looking better in the third, but we could never get any real separation, and as the Heat turned up the...well, heat
, neither the starters nor the suddenly ineffective bench could stem the tide. The only substitution oddity there was Hart, who had been efffective in the first half. Rick played 8 guys between 21 and 35 min looking for spark, but Jason only got 12 min on the game, and 10 of them came in the first half. Rarely will you hear me complaining about Jason not getting minutes, but it did seem odd given how the first had gone. Am assuming Rick was probably just clutching his lucky Bibby doll and hoping that Mike could summon up one more great 4th quarter to bail us out. In any case, overall would have been a tough win to get. Thought Rick made good moves in the first half to give us a chance. Not so sure about the second half, but also not at all sure there were moves to really be made. A lot of guys had their chances, but defensively in particular we just could not slow the Heat down. So 0-2 to start the trip. Now into Philly, followed by 3 sub-.500 teams. This roadtrip can still be salvaged and end up decently, but we need to get over the hump here one of these games before things spiral.
JWill -- Just a note, not a grade, but didn't JWill look great? About as good as I've seen him play. Very very aggressive and just flying down the court right at the rim.
Thomas ( C ) -- nothing early, led to an early removal in favor of Reef at PF -- kind of reminds me of the dynamic last year when Darius was starting and KT gradually overtook him. In fact after returning a few minutes later he found himself at SF alongside Reef for the rest of the half, and Kenny did much better at that position and helped us control the glass during our big second quarter. Returned to PF to start the 3rd, and again was very limited in his effectiveness. And of course also caused us additional problems in there against Shaq, because it meant that we effectively only had one defender at a time in there that could bother the big guy in the least.
Miller ( D+ ) -- Reminded me of the good ole days of playing the Diesel with our center spending most of the game on the bench in foul trouble. Chewed up by Shaq in the early going and forced to the bench with 2 fouls midway through the first quarter. Was much better when he returned in the 2nd quarter and made some minor all around contributions. But to start the second half it was right back to the beating and the bench with fouls. Ended up with 9pts 5fls and 24 total minutes. Gets penalized in this grade a bit because frankly Shaq is not THAT hard to guard at this point in his career. Brad was his own personal fountain of youth. Our 15pt 8reb center got dominated by their 18pt 9reb center.
Martin ( D ) -- continued his recent road futility, and his starting OG debuts against the league's elite OGs recently have not gone well. A very quiet first quarter led to him getting a seat next to Rick in favor of Cisco. Returned in the third and made a few contributions -- a layup, a three, but also mixed in a bad turnover and just a general...malaise. No spark.
Bibby ( C ) -- did all our early scoring, but JWill was just running circles around him on the other end. And in an interesting development, Jason Hart and his hustle actually kept Mike pinned to the bench for almost the entire second quarter. And Mike never seemed to really get going after that. Had 10 pts in about the first 5 minutes, 7 for the rest of the game. And meanwhile JWill was great and just running, pressing, attacking, and generally making Mike look slow and overmatched.
Skinner ( B+ ) -- Brian really should thank Shaq as he got major minutes tonight with Brad's foul trouble. Gave us a better physical presence in there and a boost on the glass, although he was still overwhelmed at times by the old but massive Shaq and Mourning combo. Still about as good a performance as you could hope for from a Brian Skinner level player given who he was playing.
Reef ( B- ) -- came off the bench after Thomas was ineffective early, and gave us solid minutes in the first half slipped in between Skinner at C and KT at SF. Had 11 pts, and along with Cisco was really the major force in pulling us back into this one. But was not nearly as effective in the second half. Battled decently on the glass, but didn't come down with many. And just could not finish inside against the Shaq + Mourning combo. Zo in particular was having a blockfest.
Garcia ( B+ ) -- came off the bench and gave us a great first half in place of the ineffective Kevin Martin at OG. Was smoothly stroking that shaky jumper, and in general playing an in control game. Unfortunately not nearly as effective after returning in the 4th. And I suspect part of that was Riley chewing some *** at halftime and making adjustments aimed at actually guarding the rook. In any case, was the main guy who brought us back with 12 second quarter points, but only got 2 in his ineffective second half minutes as the Heat pulled away once more.
Hart ( C+ ) -- in an interesting move, came in and actually got most of the second quarter minutes at PG, keeping Mike pinned to the bench. And was effective as we clawed back into it with our benchers. Worked well with Brad there for a stretch, running some of our cuts and pops. Like many of our guys, did not do much in the second half, and barely had a chance to. Think he only logged two minutes in the second half. Which was...odd given our defensive collapse.
Sampson ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime, missed a couple of shots in the last minute which I know must have badly upset my mom, who's basketball acumen is such that she considers it a major milestone if we score 100, win or lose.
Adelman ( C+ ) -- well...hrrrmph. You knew this was likely a loss coming in, but the Kings did tease us there for a bit. Fought back after a terrible defensive first quarter to make a game of it, and I think even go up 5 at one point in the 3rd. But as has happened so often, the Heat squeezed us, we are completely incapable of squeezing anybody else, and what was briefly a close game turned into a blowout with the home team pulling further and further away. We seemed to have no answer for Shaq, with Rick taking what I think would have been my attitude and figuring he's not dangerous enough to double team much anymore. Oops. But the bigger problem may have been JWill and the ridiculously amazingly open rim on our defensive end. The Heat scored 70 points in the paint against us. 70!!! And it wasn't just Shaq. It was whoever wanted to get to the rim. JWill in particular really hurt us by attacking us inside as aggressively as I have ever seen him do. And we had nothing in there to stop him. We scored 99 points tonight. Not great. But not bad either. If we score 99 yesterday in regulation we blow Orlando out by 25! But we gave up 119, which is 20pts over the Heat's season average. That was where the game was lost. The Heat shot 60% against us, and James Posey was the only major minute player to shoot under .500 (2-9). So what about Rick's role? Well, other than the early decision not to double Shaq, Rick made what seemed to be game-altering changes early in this one. Peja, Bibby, Martin...really just all of the starters, were simply not getting it done defensively as the Heat raced off to a scorching 37pt first quarter while fastbreaking off of almost every Kings miss. And Rick recognized that and qucikly went to the bench. His hand was forced with Skinner, who was next up on the unenviable Guard Shaq list after Brad got into foul trouble. But Rick also brought in Cisco (for Martin) Reef (for Peja), went bigger, slowed the game down a bit. And then also had Hart take most of Mike's 2nd quarter minutes. The result was a slower paced, more defensive unit that frustrated the Heat reserves and slowly dragged us back into it. But it was not to be, and we could not sustain. The starters came out looking better in the third, but we could never get any real separation, and as the Heat turned up the...well, heat
, neither the starters nor the suddenly ineffective bench could stem the tide. The only substitution oddity there was Hart, who had been efffective in the first half. Rick played 8 guys between 21 and 35 min looking for spark, but Jason only got 12 min on the game, and 10 of them came in the first half. Rarely will you hear me complaining about Jason not getting minutes, but it did seem odd given how the first had gone. Am assuming Rick was probably just clutching his lucky Bibby doll and hoping that Mike could summon up one more great 4th quarter to bail us out. In any case, overall would have been a tough win to get. Thought Rick made good moves in the first half to give us a chance. Not so sure about the second half, but also not at all sure there were moves to really be made. A lot of guys had their chances, but defensively in particular we just could not slow the Heat down. So 0-2 to start the trip. Now into Philly, followed by 3 sub-.500 teams. This roadtrip can still be salvaged and end up decently, but we need to get over the hump here one of these games before things spiral.JWill -- Just a note, not a grade, but didn't JWill look great? About as good as I've seen him play. Very very aggressive and just flying down the court right at the rim.
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