Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Salmons ( C ) -- gave us little in the first half, and somewhat unusually for Salmons as of late, little versatility as well. Hit another of his rare threes, but then kept on chucking them up like he thought he was Peja (or Kevin tongiht). Played solid defense for much fo the night, and was moderately effective on Wade when on him for most fo the evening. But when it mattered got lit up by Wade in the early OT, forcing Ron to switch over onto him before the game got out of control. Generally solid defense and presence, not much else.
Thomas ( B+ ) -- very good start for Kenny on the glass, and he continued on as perhaps the best King in the first half. Rarely a good sign of course, but 6pts 10rebs was getting the job done and battling the Heat frontline. Slowed way down after halftime unfortunately, and after a long stint where we were trying to poke a stick at the corpse of the artist formerly known as Reef searching for signs of life, rather than go back to Kenny we went small with Ron at PF. Since it worked, we scrapped down the stretch and somehow tied it up, can't complain too much, but still odd to see the guy with the best grade not play for the final 15-20 min or so.
Miller ( B- ) -- early presence seemed to lead to better ball movement for us, and as predicted, occasionally got Zo away from the basket rather than blocking everything thrown up wihtin 8 feet of the hoop. But Brad seemed to take that role too seriously and started drfiting further and further out like he was trying to win a free truck or something chucking up 25 footers from the center spot, and missing. Played a ton of minutes in this one, and general.ly acquitted himself solidly, if not spectacularly. Zo is old anymore, but Bard was at least big enough to get in between him and the hoop and hold his ground against a one kidneyed greybeard on his last legs. So...something. Down the stretch first looked like Brad was going to blow the game, passing up an open shot to instead commit an offensive foul on an illegal pick, then committing a loose ball foul on Zo on the other end. But he redeemed himself with the 2 tying FTs with 4 seconds to go, and was set up by Kevin for a basket to tie us up at the end of OT. Overall...modest, but fairly solid. 44min 15pts 8reb 4ast. Something closser to an old Brad performance,. good and bad.
Martin ( D ) -- well, its almost semi-official now -- all the defensive attention focused on Kevin has knocked him into something approaching a slump. Another slow start for Kevin, and this time not all about being pressured. Just missed open shot after open shot that he was hitting at a near 100% clip a couple of weeks ago. And when he has a bad night, man does it seem like he's going to have a bad night. At one point he was 1-10, 0-6 from 3pt land (which he kept settling for) and again not much of anything else -- 2 rebs, 1ast, 2 TOs. Recovered, so to speak, to finally hit one of the endless stream of threes he was chucking up in the 4th...and then went right back to missing. Dodged the F by finally, 47min 10seconds into the game, attacking the paint for that little floater and hitting a big shot to draw us within 2 in the final minute of regulation. And got rid of the minus by making a couple of subtle good plays late despite the terrible offense: Challenged Wade on Wade's game winning attempt at the regulation buzzer, and then had an assist to Brad in the final seconds of OT to tie us back up. Nonetheless, Kevin's bubble, if not already burst, is in severe danger of doing so now. And he's got to figure out ways to do better than 3-15 or we are in trouble.
Bibby ( B ) -- started off the game missing his shots again, but was creating a few for teammates. Once again ended up sitting almost the entire second quarter as Muss went with all backups. Heated up in the third quarter and was the player who brought us back from the brink as Miami had opened up a 10pt lead in the early 3rd. And then, after disappearing for a long stretch, tried to make a late comeback down the stretch of regulation, and followed it up in OT as he was our best hope at countering the Wade explosion on the other end by stepping up to hit a number of FTs for us on offense. Unfortunately he did not get the call we needed him too when he threw himself into the lane looking for contact on the drive to win it, may have gotten hit on the arm by Wade, but it was a no call. And another loss. This was not a great game for Mike, and there were long stretches of ineffectiveness, but he picked his moments well, and was our best player at the most critical times, so gets a little bonus.
Artest ( C+ ) -- came in off the bench, and while he did not hurt us out there in the first half, it wasn't exactly the big pop that he normally carries. Stayed mostly in control on offense, although badly overdribbled on several occassions. Looked slower than normal on the perimeter on defense, wasn't on the glass, and I was wondering how much the back was limiting him even while he was out there. But started to step forward a bit in the early 4th with nice plays on both sides of the court, and after a brief blow, came back into the game as a PF, because you know, a day without smallball is like a day without air around Kingsville. But this time it actually worked (helped that the Heat's PF is small and only marginally larger than Ron himself), and Ron helped pull us back for our game tying run by knocking down several shots from inside and out. In the overtime it was all the good and bad of Ron Artest -- the good was we switched him over onto Wade after Dwayne was threatening to beat us singlehandedly going against Salmons, and Ron of course making it very tough. The bad that Ron started doing the forced shot save the team thing, and threw up brick after brick as we faded away to loss #5 in a row.
Price ( B- ) -- got a long run in the 2nd quarter. Was not great, but did hit two threes, which helped, and his defense was solid.
Reef ( D ) -- back into his 6th man role, but this time did very little out of it. Didn't take his shots. Did have one nice block inside and grabbed several easy to forget rebounds but...whew. Gave us next to nothing exscept a technical foul for what looked to be an inadvertent karate chop to Zo's throat. Even for Reef's often flatline personality, no passion. Just..flat.
Williamson ( INC ) -- came in for the first time in the early 4th, and had a bad stint which hurt us -- got blocked, committed two fouls. We were struggling, annd so I guess the early 4th is the time to experiment? In any case, bad experiment.
Hart ( INC ) -- brought in for one play, the final play, of regulation. Sure, substitutional, but an ice cold player on the game determining play? Odd.
Muss ( ? ) -- I am not happy. I hope Muss is not happy either. Losing to 4 straight top teams was a sign we were not a top team, but still left open the possibility that we could fatten back up on patsies and get rolling again. Instead we let a 7-10 team walk into our gym, turn the game ugly, as in UGLY, and skip away with a win. Adn frankly a win that may not have been as close as the OT result indicates. The Heat controlled almost the entire game until we pieced together the world's least inspiring "comeback" with the help of a bunch of missed three pointers form the other side, to tie it up. And then we go off and still lose it. And just looked stinky in so doing. Remember when we used to roll into Milwaulkee or wherever, and just dismss them? Well it was because they used to look like us -- disorganized, no real discernible plan, 5 guys playing different games, and really whatever life they did have was just based on bursts of individual effort. And that's where we are. And its a little scary, and usually lands rihgt at the feet of the coach. There are still signs that we could in the end be at least an average team, still be a contedner for that 8th seed. But its not going to happen if the chemsitry dissipates and we are just 12 indivudals. As for the details, well..Muss got the starting Brad Miller thing right, finally. And that worked ok. Brad was not great, but he was mostly solid, put up better numbers than Zo, and held down the center spot for once for this team. Unfortunately we started Salmons again even with Ron healthy enough to go. And that I don't get at a certain point. Meanwhile we reexiled Cisco from the rotation -- apparently his recent strong play means nothing so long as Ron is back and Salmons and Kevin can combine for a 7-28 night. Who needs alternatives? AWe also managed to forget about Kenny Thomas -- easy enough to do on most nights, but tonight he was one of the few guys wiht a pulse. And yet, he disappeared from this game completely down the stretch despite 9pts 12rebs in 28min. Instead we brought back Corliss for a cameo that did not go well, and then went to smallball (of course). But Muss's grade gets picked up here because the small ball actually worked. Ron played PF, and that lineup, anchored by the only guy onb our roster who has not spent time at SF in his career (Brad) helped us scrap our way back from a 12 point embarrassemnt to finally squeeze out the tie in regulation. And part of that was more active defense, adn aprt of that was really dumb play by Miami. But either way, kudos to Muss -- something worked. Yay. The question is how far does that advanace the grade in and of itself?
Thomas ( B+ ) -- very good start for Kenny on the glass, and he continued on as perhaps the best King in the first half. Rarely a good sign of course, but 6pts 10rebs was getting the job done and battling the Heat frontline. Slowed way down after halftime unfortunately, and after a long stint where we were trying to poke a stick at the corpse of the artist formerly known as Reef searching for signs of life, rather than go back to Kenny we went small with Ron at PF. Since it worked, we scrapped down the stretch and somehow tied it up, can't complain too much, but still odd to see the guy with the best grade not play for the final 15-20 min or so.
Miller ( B- ) -- early presence seemed to lead to better ball movement for us, and as predicted, occasionally got Zo away from the basket rather than blocking everything thrown up wihtin 8 feet of the hoop. But Brad seemed to take that role too seriously and started drfiting further and further out like he was trying to win a free truck or something chucking up 25 footers from the center spot, and missing. Played a ton of minutes in this one, and general.ly acquitted himself solidly, if not spectacularly. Zo is old anymore, but Bard was at least big enough to get in between him and the hoop and hold his ground against a one kidneyed greybeard on his last legs. So...something. Down the stretch first looked like Brad was going to blow the game, passing up an open shot to instead commit an offensive foul on an illegal pick, then committing a loose ball foul on Zo on the other end. But he redeemed himself with the 2 tying FTs with 4 seconds to go, and was set up by Kevin for a basket to tie us up at the end of OT. Overall...modest, but fairly solid. 44min 15pts 8reb 4ast. Something closser to an old Brad performance,. good and bad.
Martin ( D ) -- well, its almost semi-official now -- all the defensive attention focused on Kevin has knocked him into something approaching a slump. Another slow start for Kevin, and this time not all about being pressured. Just missed open shot after open shot that he was hitting at a near 100% clip a couple of weeks ago. And when he has a bad night, man does it seem like he's going to have a bad night. At one point he was 1-10, 0-6 from 3pt land (which he kept settling for) and again not much of anything else -- 2 rebs, 1ast, 2 TOs. Recovered, so to speak, to finally hit one of the endless stream of threes he was chucking up in the 4th...and then went right back to missing. Dodged the F by finally, 47min 10seconds into the game, attacking the paint for that little floater and hitting a big shot to draw us within 2 in the final minute of regulation. And got rid of the minus by making a couple of subtle good plays late despite the terrible offense: Challenged Wade on Wade's game winning attempt at the regulation buzzer, and then had an assist to Brad in the final seconds of OT to tie us back up. Nonetheless, Kevin's bubble, if not already burst, is in severe danger of doing so now. And he's got to figure out ways to do better than 3-15 or we are in trouble.
Bibby ( B ) -- started off the game missing his shots again, but was creating a few for teammates. Once again ended up sitting almost the entire second quarter as Muss went with all backups. Heated up in the third quarter and was the player who brought us back from the brink as Miami had opened up a 10pt lead in the early 3rd. And then, after disappearing for a long stretch, tried to make a late comeback down the stretch of regulation, and followed it up in OT as he was our best hope at countering the Wade explosion on the other end by stepping up to hit a number of FTs for us on offense. Unfortunately he did not get the call we needed him too when he threw himself into the lane looking for contact on the drive to win it, may have gotten hit on the arm by Wade, but it was a no call. And another loss. This was not a great game for Mike, and there were long stretches of ineffectiveness, but he picked his moments well, and was our best player at the most critical times, so gets a little bonus.
Artest ( C+ ) -- came in off the bench, and while he did not hurt us out there in the first half, it wasn't exactly the big pop that he normally carries. Stayed mostly in control on offense, although badly overdribbled on several occassions. Looked slower than normal on the perimeter on defense, wasn't on the glass, and I was wondering how much the back was limiting him even while he was out there. But started to step forward a bit in the early 4th with nice plays on both sides of the court, and after a brief blow, came back into the game as a PF, because you know, a day without smallball is like a day without air around Kingsville. But this time it actually worked (helped that the Heat's PF is small and only marginally larger than Ron himself), and Ron helped pull us back for our game tying run by knocking down several shots from inside and out. In the overtime it was all the good and bad of Ron Artest -- the good was we switched him over onto Wade after Dwayne was threatening to beat us singlehandedly going against Salmons, and Ron of course making it very tough. The bad that Ron started doing the forced shot save the team thing, and threw up brick after brick as we faded away to loss #5 in a row.
Price ( B- ) -- got a long run in the 2nd quarter. Was not great, but did hit two threes, which helped, and his defense was solid.
Reef ( D ) -- back into his 6th man role, but this time did very little out of it. Didn't take his shots. Did have one nice block inside and grabbed several easy to forget rebounds but...whew. Gave us next to nothing exscept a technical foul for what looked to be an inadvertent karate chop to Zo's throat. Even for Reef's often flatline personality, no passion. Just..flat.
Williamson ( INC ) -- came in for the first time in the early 4th, and had a bad stint which hurt us -- got blocked, committed two fouls. We were struggling, annd so I guess the early 4th is the time to experiment? In any case, bad experiment.
Hart ( INC ) -- brought in for one play, the final play, of regulation. Sure, substitutional, but an ice cold player on the game determining play? Odd.
Muss ( ? ) -- I am not happy. I hope Muss is not happy either. Losing to 4 straight top teams was a sign we were not a top team, but still left open the possibility that we could fatten back up on patsies and get rolling again. Instead we let a 7-10 team walk into our gym, turn the game ugly, as in UGLY, and skip away with a win. Adn frankly a win that may not have been as close as the OT result indicates. The Heat controlled almost the entire game until we pieced together the world's least inspiring "comeback" with the help of a bunch of missed three pointers form the other side, to tie it up. And then we go off and still lose it. And just looked stinky in so doing. Remember when we used to roll into Milwaulkee or wherever, and just dismss them? Well it was because they used to look like us -- disorganized, no real discernible plan, 5 guys playing different games, and really whatever life they did have was just based on bursts of individual effort. And that's where we are. And its a little scary, and usually lands rihgt at the feet of the coach. There are still signs that we could in the end be at least an average team, still be a contedner for that 8th seed. But its not going to happen if the chemsitry dissipates and we are just 12 indivudals. As for the details, well..Muss got the starting Brad Miller thing right, finally. And that worked ok. Brad was not great, but he was mostly solid, put up better numbers than Zo, and held down the center spot for once for this team. Unfortunately we started Salmons again even with Ron healthy enough to go. And that I don't get at a certain point. Meanwhile we reexiled Cisco from the rotation -- apparently his recent strong play means nothing so long as Ron is back and Salmons and Kevin can combine for a 7-28 night. Who needs alternatives? AWe also managed to forget about Kenny Thomas -- easy enough to do on most nights, but tonight he was one of the few guys wiht a pulse. And yet, he disappeared from this game completely down the stretch despite 9pts 12rebs in 28min. Instead we brought back Corliss for a cameo that did not go well, and then went to smallball (of course). But Muss's grade gets picked up here because the small ball actually worked. Ron played PF, and that lineup, anchored by the only guy onb our roster who has not spent time at SF in his career (Brad) helped us scrap our way back from a 12 point embarrassemnt to finally squeeze out the tie in regulation. And part of that was more active defense, adn aprt of that was really dumb play by Miami. But either way, kudos to Muss -- something worked. Yay. The question is how far does that advanace the grade in and of itself?
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