Grades v. Heat 02/26

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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
My lord.

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Ron Artest ( D+ ) : 33min 14pts (3-14 FG, 0-5 3pt, 8-8 FT) 3rebs 2ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Got off to the good but not great start versus Marion. Was scoring pretty well, but the efficiency was borderline and the refs may have bailed him out a bit with some touch fouls. Was not having much of an impact on the other end. Started off the third forcing, but got to the line a few times and was really the only guy doing anything as we threatened to get blown off the floor by the 9-44 Miami Heat. Things went from bad to worse however for both Ron and ourselves, as the forcing continued, but whatever remnants of efficiency that lingered went right out the door. He started calling my name -- brick brick brick, and nary a pass mixed in. Reggie had him back in in the 4th trying to salvage...something. But there was no improvement. Gets a little grade for the first half, basically noen for the stuff after the break.

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Mikki Moore ( B ) -- 26min 8pts (3-4 FG, 0-0 3pt, 2-2 FT) 9rebs 2ast 3stl 0blk 2TO
And here ladies and gents was our bright spot amongst the starters. That's rarely going to be a good sing. Got off to a fast start on the glass in particular, and while he actually looked a little unsteady, he was active and longer than the Heat front line. Strong 8pt 7reb first half, although Haslem was scoring back the other way. Went AWOL after half along with the rest of the team, and frustrated with his fumblethumbs and need to gather himself before going up with the shot -- thus allowing the defense to recover. But still finished the game as the only King to grab more than 4 rebs.

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Brad Miller ( D- ) -- 22min 8pts (3-8 FG, 0-1 3pt, 2-2 FT) 3reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Actually jumped out to a solid start to this one believe it or not (offensively at least -- having Mark Blount rack them up on the other end was no compliment). Near the end of the first quarter got smacked from behind on what qualifies as a "flagrant" foul in the NBA anymore. Returned, but maybe he actually was knocked cuckoo because while he was back, his game never made it back from the bench. He missed open jumper after open jumper, was invisible on the glass, and was practically spreading rose petals down the center of the lane for any and all Heat drivers. With Hawes playing well and the rout on, Reggie severely limited his minutes in preparation for the back to back.

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Kevin Martin ( D+ ) -- 31min 14pts (5-11 FG, 1-5 3pt, 3-4 FT) 4reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Getting scary isn't it? For a half it looked like the pattern was going to be broken. Finally just a nice solid B type first half after all the A, F, A, F stuff for weeks. Was scoring pretty well, but not spectacularly. Doing a little bit of other stuff, but nothing at an impact level. Had himself 12pts 2 rebs at the half, adn I was thinking nice solid B or B+ game and maybe a return to normalacy. And then Kevin jsut went *poof*. Bye bye. Disappeared as completely as any 23ppg scorer is ever going to disappear and was of absolutely no help as we got blown off the court by the worst team in the league. Reggie did bench him for part of it,but he was a total non-entity even while on the court. Finally hit one shot in the 4th after taking the third off, then started missing everything until the plug was finally mercifully pulled. So, a B/B+ first half and then..basically did not make it out of the locker room =....well, something better than an F. But still another yin/yang effort.
 
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Beno Udrih ( F ) -- 29min 4pts (2-7 FG, 0-0 3pt, 0-0 FT) 2rebs 3ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
This can be kept short and succint: struggled. Struggled against both JWill and Banks. Even to get the ball up and us into decent sets. Was not a significant defensive impedimetn either. That whole comment last game about guys needing to be consistent to mbe major players in the NBA -- well Beno I didn't mean as consistent 4pt 3ast starters. I went ahead and F'd this one. I have a tendency to D non-entity efforts like this rather than hit them with an F, especially for second tier guys like Beno. But at no point did Beno help us tonight, not even having the half or quarter that salvaged the second half Fs of Ron, Kevin and Brad. And he wasn't playing against sterling competition either.

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John Salmons ( D- ) -- 26min 8pts (3-10 FG, 0-2 3pt, 2-2FT) 4reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 4TO
This thing has gotten out of control, but you can see that John has finally done it -- lowering my expectations to such a degree that an 8pt 4reb 4TO effort looks comparatively snazzy. Came into the game still bricking away and again raising the question of why not Cisco instead? The reason of course being that John's ego would not take that lightly. And its not just the shooting whihc is off -- his entire game is jsut garbage right now. 8pts...on 3-10 shooting. Scored his only first half hoop off of a scramble play, and is forcing up bad shots, missing open ones, constantly getting caught in the teeth of the defense for turnovers or blocked shots (his). He scored 8, but his presence out there wiht that kind of play cost a lot more than that. And his terrible play off the bench now has clearly grown to giant elephant in the room status with all the attenton its gotten. He's always been this way, but never before did it come on the heels of such a good long run, and draw so much commentary/discussion, and so I think this time its worse and very much in his head. John's "I'm not part of the offense" bit not being much of an excuse when most of the time he was out there he was no worse than the #2 option and we needed every shot anybody could give us. Its John himself making himself not part of the offense.

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Spenser Hawes ( A- ) -- 26min 16pts (7-10 FG, 0-0 3pt, 2-4 FT) 2rebs 2ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Woohoo -- our lone point of light tonight. Came up with a career high scoring game as almost the only King actually bringing it tonight. Dinged back to a "-" for unfortunately combining the offensive work with PG-like rebounding. Entered the game and immediately started scoring, albeit not initially because of his own work. Got a pair of first quarter dunks off of simple off the ball movement, hit a jumper to open the second, then threw a bad pass. Mixed in a good hard foul. Came back near the end of the half to hit another side jumper and finished the half 4-4 from the field for 9pts. Also unfortunately 0 rebounds. Was initially ineffective after Reggie turned to him in the mid third with us dying (the second reason for the "-", but that's a lot to ask of a 19yr old who was almost out of the rotation 3 weeks ago). Still about the only thing doing anything for us by the late third as the rout was on, and was agian showing the variety of ways to score which could make him an effective scorer at least in the league if he ever sorts it out. Was yanked there for a bit in the mid-4th for competence? The lack of boardwork makes it hard to definitely tag this as his best game of the season, but combined with his teammates' incompetence its certainly got to be the first time in his NBA career he's been the best player on the floor for his team.

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Anthony Johnson ( F ) -- 9min 0pts (0-0 FG, 0-0 3pt, 0-0FT) 2reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Too bad too -- started off doing something postive for us and I was thinking, finally! However after he created a couple of open looks for us, he began to turn it over in the early 2nd. Came back in in the thid as Reggie got desperate, and did nothing but turn it over some more. An F may be a little harsh here as Anthony Johnson did NOT lose this one for us. Look to the guys who actually get paid to produce for that. But like Beno his little mini-spurt of competence was just too brief to give me anythign to hang a D onto. Generally speaking I prefer my PGs to have better than a 1/3 Ast/TO ratio.
 
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Francisco Garcia ( D ) -- 16min 2pts (1-4 FG, 0-2 3pt, 0-0FT) 3reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 0TO
And just as he had three straihgt games on insane shooting coming out of the All-Star break, he;s now followed it with a pair of thudding nothings. Came in to start the second and it was foul, foul, foul, and go sit next to Reggie just that quick. Three fouls in three minutes. And those fouls actulally hurt us in more ways than merely sending Cisco to the bench -- we ended up spending nearly the entire second quarter in the penalty with the Heat going to the line on anything and everything. Was belatedly back in the third (again Reggie was slow to go to him for whatever reason) and gave us little as we died. Suddenly looks back to tentative and lacking in confidence, and as these things sometimes go in the NBA, its amazing how much harder it is to put up those silly numbers once teams adjust and actually guard you out there.

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Quincy Douby ( C- ) -- 13min 5pts (2-4 FG, 1-2 3pt, 0-0FT) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Gave me little to go on here. Had several stints for us scattered throughout, and none of them were terribly effective. Most notable I suppose was the one in the middle of our 3rd quarter flameout when Reggie saw Kevin's eyes roll up in his head for the evening and decided to take a shot on Quincy being an offensive spark. And so Quincy promptly passed up an open look to pass the ball to Mikki, which is a reversal of his normal you'll-have-to-pry-the-ball-from-my-dead-fingers pattern. Then made a turnover and was pulled as we came to a complete standtill there. Back for garbagetime, and whatever.

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Shelden Williams ( B ) -- 9min 7pts (3-4 FG, 0-0 3pt, 1-2 FT) 4reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Well it certainly did not take long for our newest post playing defensive minded PF to earn a spot in the doghouse of our post pay and defense mouthing coach. Even so no idea what he could have done that was so bad that Reggie would prefer to see every single other King on the roster who was gong to play (we only played 11) not only go first, but go first and fail. And fail. And fail. And fail. Maybe when the leas reached 28 against the 9-44 team it might have been time to try something new. Well anyway, Shelden certainly did not come in and save us or anything. Not a game changer. But he was solid inside in what amounted to an entire 4th quarter of garabgetime, played within himself, and just handled business around the rim. Nothing revolutionary. Just competent. Whcih set him apart from virtually all his teammates tonight. Hard to go above a B anyway though when its all garbagetime, and half of it is against the worst the Heat's roster had to offer.

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Reggie Theus ( ) --
 
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Don't read into this loss too much. Its just one of those games. Happens to all teams at least once a year. Miami couldn't finish the season with 9 wins so somebody had to take the fall and it just happened to be us. When Earl Baron starts hitting mid-range jumpers you know that somethings going on the game.
 
Don't read into this loss too much. Its just one of those games.

True. But we are more special than other teams!

12/28 - Lose to Philly by 12.
1/23 - Lose to the Clips by 26.
2/6 - Lose to the Sonics by 13.
2/12 - Lose to Memphis by 13.

Chokemon, gotta get 'em all!
 
Right now this team isn't playing with any fire. I think they've realized chances of making the playoffs are slim and the though of 30 something more games isn't motivating them enough to show up.

Oh well, go for the pick I guess.

Too bad about Yao too... now who am I gonna root for this year? :)
 
Bricklayer said:
Anthony Johnson ( ) -- 9min 0pts (0-0 FG, 0-0 3pt, 0-0FT) 2reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 3TO

shudder

For some reason, that particular line really irks the you-know-what out of me. I'd rather see Theus himself running the point than watch that kind of stuff. Of course, tonight I think Reggie might have been trying to figure out a way to put himself into the game - just to justify dishing out a few hard fouls.
 
didnt watch the game but it looks like hawes got some play time... and actually scored...
 
ughh.. the hardest kings game to watch all season in my opinion.. a few thoughts..

spencer did well, he made some nice passes which could mean he is learning from brad, he only got 2 rebounds tho which is surprising..

Shelden has been very productive since coming here.. granted alot of his minutes where in garbage time.. i'd like to see him consistently play 30 minutes a night from here on out, but first he has to get back the minutes he somehow lost in the last few games?? .. i'd really like to know why reggie just stopped playing him..
 
Bricklayer said:
Brad Miller ( D- ) Actually jumped out to a solid start to this one believe it or not (offensively at least -- having Mark Blount rack them up on the other end was no compliment). Near the end of the first quarter got smacked from behind on what qualifies as a "flagrant" foul in the NBA anymore. Returned, but maybe he actually was knocked cuckoo because while he was back, his game never made it back from the bench. He missed open jumper after open jumper, was invisible on the glass, and was practically spreading rose petals down the center of the lane for any and all Heat drivers. With Hawes playing well and the rout on, Reggie severely limited his minutes in preparation for the back to back.

Actually, Brick, the flagrant foul came because he was BOTH hit in the back of the head and shoved into the stanchion. I think he hit his head again when he hit the floor after the collision with the equipment. It was a pretty clear flagrant, IMHO.
 
Listening to Theus post game interview while barreling down I-880 back to CruzLand, was really blunt and as dagger like as we've ever heard from Coach. He was pissed big time at the lack of effort of the starters and said that only Hawes showed any effort at all. My impression was he was not taking that game as, well it happens to everyone, after the second half of the Magic game.

My morning coffee dream of yesterday may become a reality after all:

http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25838 #16
 
Listening to Theus post game interview while barreling down I-880 back to CruzLand, was really blunt and as dagger like as we've ever heard from Coach. He was pissed big time at the lack of effort of the starters and said that only Hawes showed any effort at all. My impression was he was not taking that game as, well it happens to everyone, after the second half of the Magic game.

My morning coffee dream of yesterday may become a reality after all:

http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25838 #16

Man do I agree, after hearing those bitting post game comments. He was not a happy camper at all. I sensed Coach Theus was going to make some heads role - meaning possibly line-up or significant minutes redistribution. It might not happen in Atlanta, but if the same lack of effort is displayed it could come very soon.
 
Man do I agree, after hearing those bitting post game comments. He was not a happy camper at all. I sensed Coach Theus was going to make some heads role - meaning possibly line-up or significant minutes redistribution. It might not happen in Atlanta, but if the same lack of effort is displayed it could come very soon.


What'd he say? Will Mikki possibly(please god) be benched? His +/- was the worst of anyone on the team at -20.
 
I didn't see this game (probably a good thing) but from what I've seen and read from scores and such I can say.

1: Why in the world didn't Shelden play some 20 minutes tonight?! And after this, we better see more of him! I want to see what he can do, to see if he's actually a good piece to have moving forward.

2: Another fantastic performance from Mr. Salmons...Just swim away. Please. Let God take you back to Toronto. Maybe you'd start there. :rolleyes:

3: Garcia? Why didn't he play that much? Why is Salmons taking this guys minutes? At least Garcia deserves them.

4: Anthony Johnson is possibly the most unexciting, uninteresting, boring player in the league today. Inactivate him the second Lue gets back, plug Lue into the 12th man, and PLEASE give Douby every single spare minute Beno (Who also was phenomenal tonight) doesn't get!

It's time for the kids...I want to see some of this lineup over the last few months.

PG: Douby
SG: Martin
SF: Cisco
PF: Sheldon
C: Hawes
 
3: Garcia? Why didn't he play that much? Why is Salmons taking this guys minutes? At least Garcia deserves them.

FYI - Cisco came in and promptly committed three fouls in less than 2 minutes. Tonight NOBODY not named Hawes or Shelden Williams deserved minutes.
 
Right now this team isn't playing with any fire. I think they've realized chances of making the playoffs are slim and the though of 30 something more games isn't motivating them enough to show up.

Oh well, go for the pick I guess.

You hit the nail on the head. Petrie waived the white flag with the Bibby trade, and so has his team, at least temporarily until they hit some emotional bottom. They're just not into it, just going through the motions waiting until the season ends. All the more reason for Theus to play everyone 25 years or younger and let the other guys veg on the bench.

Salmons needs to check himself into some psychiatric institution. He's getting me depressed watching his depression.
 
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