Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Happy Egg-Pooping Bunnies Day!
Artest ( B ) -- okay start, with his biggest contribution being some solid setup passes helping the offense to click. Alarmed me at the end of the first half by appearing to take a bad step and hobbling off into the lockerroom, but Ron always seems to be hobbling or grimacing over something, so it was no huge shock when he came back out ready to go to start the third. Hit a couple of random second half threes, but really ook too many of them overall. Reamined solid if not special until finally being pulled at the 7 minute mark of the 4th.
Thomas ( B- ) -- was quick to the ball off the start and scooping up rebounds. Not much on offense, and was having trouble finishing. Slowed way down after the fast start, but this was still a decent little roleplayer game, especially while the game was still competitive.
Miller ( B- ) -- shooting well early, but not much else (9pts 1reb 1ast first quarter). Then flipped that around and started doing other things, but no longer scoring. Ended up with an ok but unspectacular overall evening. Good enough for tonight.
Wells ( A- ) -- strong if short game in the clincher. Started off the night well with his physical bang and crunch game, overpowering pretty much all the Hornets guards around the hoop. Continued the strong play into the second half, until like Ron, he briefly alarmed me by hobbling to the sideline in the 3rd, but turned out to only be a cramp.
Bibby ( B+ ) -- missed free throws early, but otherwise a solid first half where he was considerably better than an uninspired Chris Paul. Came back in the second half and continued knocking down shots, but it was one of those semi-frequent nights of late where it was a pretty one dimensional effort. Easy leading scorer in this gtame thouogh, and the points came in a steady peppering rather than one big burst and then a long silent peroid.
Reef ( B- ) -- in the second quarter was doing it on the opposite end of the floor -- scooping up loose balls and harassing, and was still solid on offense. Good stint there felt more important to me than a very quiet second half, and so sticking with the B- again. One thing that had me thinking a half tick lower was that a night after being solid on the glass in Denver, was back to only 2 in 22min against a small frontline.
Martin ( C ) -- Not a terrible overall night, but simply could not buy a hoop for most of the game. But most of them were perimeter shots -- threes in fact. Kevin Martin shooting 7 of his 10 shots from three?? They were open, but the lack of closer shots does make you wonder a bit if the leg was still bothering him. Finally got another FG to fall in the mid 4th as Reef set him up for one of those little leaping leaning curls near the free throw line, and after being visibly disappointed for much of the night, hit a three in the dying minutes. May have ben what rick was waiting for just to get him some confidence, because as soon as he hit it, Rick cleared the rest of the bench and let him finsih up with a 3-10.
Hart ( B- ) -- scored well in his first half stint, and tired to duplicate that by gunning up bad shots in his second. I'll weight the grade up half a tick for being solid when it still semi-mattered.
Corliss ( C+ ) -- got a long run in the 4th. Battled pretty well inside, but limited production.
Garcia ( D ) -- long 4th quarter stint, but really did nothing. Seemed a step slow to the ball.
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Potapenko ( INC ) -- garbagetime, hit a baseline fallaway in the waning seconds.
Adelman ( A ) -- Just an easy slaughter type of game. New Orleans never really competed, and we played well. Not brilliant, but well. It was more than enough, and the Hornets really did not even threaten after the early 2nd quarter. This was a fairly easy one to coach really, and probably most of what you could say about Rick tonight was that he did a good job of holding down people's minutes and getting the deep bench into the game this time out. When Bonzi started cramping up in the third, Rick took him out and let him rest the rest of the game. He got the remaining starters out of the game at the 7-8 min of the 4th quarter, and he even got the primary backups out for the last 3-4 minutes. Also liked that Rick apparently let Kevin stay int he game until he finally hit a three in the late 4th (he had missed all 6 previously and was clearly frustrated). Nonetheless, not enough here to in any normal game earn a staight A, but it was the clincher. For the EIGHTH season in a row mind you. We'd made it all of twice in the entire Sacramento era before Rick arrived in town. So, er...bring on the World Champion Spurs?
Artest ( B ) -- okay start, with his biggest contribution being some solid setup passes helping the offense to click. Alarmed me at the end of the first half by appearing to take a bad step and hobbling off into the lockerroom, but Ron always seems to be hobbling or grimacing over something, so it was no huge shock when he came back out ready to go to start the third. Hit a couple of random second half threes, but really ook too many of them overall. Reamined solid if not special until finally being pulled at the 7 minute mark of the 4th.
Thomas ( B- ) -- was quick to the ball off the start and scooping up rebounds. Not much on offense, and was having trouble finishing. Slowed way down after the fast start, but this was still a decent little roleplayer game, especially while the game was still competitive.
Miller ( B- ) -- shooting well early, but not much else (9pts 1reb 1ast first quarter). Then flipped that around and started doing other things, but no longer scoring. Ended up with an ok but unspectacular overall evening. Good enough for tonight.
Wells ( A- ) -- strong if short game in the clincher. Started off the night well with his physical bang and crunch game, overpowering pretty much all the Hornets guards around the hoop. Continued the strong play into the second half, until like Ron, he briefly alarmed me by hobbling to the sideline in the 3rd, but turned out to only be a cramp.
Bibby ( B+ ) -- missed free throws early, but otherwise a solid first half where he was considerably better than an uninspired Chris Paul. Came back in the second half and continued knocking down shots, but it was one of those semi-frequent nights of late where it was a pretty one dimensional effort. Easy leading scorer in this gtame thouogh, and the points came in a steady peppering rather than one big burst and then a long silent peroid.
Reef ( B- ) -- in the second quarter was doing it on the opposite end of the floor -- scooping up loose balls and harassing, and was still solid on offense. Good stint there felt more important to me than a very quiet second half, and so sticking with the B- again. One thing that had me thinking a half tick lower was that a night after being solid on the glass in Denver, was back to only 2 in 22min against a small frontline.
Martin ( C ) -- Not a terrible overall night, but simply could not buy a hoop for most of the game. But most of them were perimeter shots -- threes in fact. Kevin Martin shooting 7 of his 10 shots from three?? They were open, but the lack of closer shots does make you wonder a bit if the leg was still bothering him. Finally got another FG to fall in the mid 4th as Reef set him up for one of those little leaping leaning curls near the free throw line, and after being visibly disappointed for much of the night, hit a three in the dying minutes. May have ben what rick was waiting for just to get him some confidence, because as soon as he hit it, Rick cleared the rest of the bench and let him finsih up with a 3-10.
Hart ( B- ) -- scored well in his first half stint, and tired to duplicate that by gunning up bad shots in his second. I'll weight the grade up half a tick for being solid when it still semi-mattered.
Corliss ( C+ ) -- got a long run in the 4th. Battled pretty well inside, but limited production.
Garcia ( D ) -- long 4th quarter stint, but really did nothing. Seemed a step slow to the ball.
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Potapenko ( INC ) -- garbagetime, hit a baseline fallaway in the waning seconds.
Adelman ( A ) -- Just an easy slaughter type of game. New Orleans never really competed, and we played well. Not brilliant, but well. It was more than enough, and the Hornets really did not even threaten after the early 2nd quarter. This was a fairly easy one to coach really, and probably most of what you could say about Rick tonight was that he did a good job of holding down people's minutes and getting the deep bench into the game this time out. When Bonzi started cramping up in the third, Rick took him out and let him rest the rest of the game. He got the remaining starters out of the game at the 7-8 min of the 4th quarter, and he even got the primary backups out for the last 3-4 minutes. Also liked that Rick apparently let Kevin stay int he game until he finally hit a three in the late 4th (he had missed all 6 previously and was clearly frustrated). Nonetheless, not enough here to in any normal game earn a staight A, but it was the clincher. For the EIGHTH season in a row mind you. We'd made it all of twice in the entire Sacramento era before Rick arrived in town. So, er...bring on the World Champion Spurs?
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