Garcia ( D+ ) -- good solid start in front of his hometown fans, but cooled off and unable to contain Quentin Richardson from the perimeter early. Quieted way way down and his contributions after the first were very minor. Had seven quick points, and then it was a brickfest on hsi way to a very underwhelming 9pts 5rebs on 4-13 shooting in 47min.
Thomas ( B- ) -- started off shaky, missed shots, would not guard Mo Taylor at all. But began to settle in and grabbed some rebounds as the first half wore on. Never did get anything going offensively but turned in a strong rebounding effort in the second half, and made some plays to help us in OT. A somewhat similar night to last night in Philly, but felt a little more effective. Slapped several rebounds he couldn't handle cleanly out to Kings on the perimeter and got his hands on some balls down low. Was doing some little things to help that don't necessarily show up in the boxscore. Would have gotten him him up to a sold B except I thought his defense on Taylor was just atrocious.
Miller ( B+ ) -- again, this team confuses the hell out of me, like it does everyone else. Got off to a pretty good start, and had surpassed his numbers from last night in the first 5 minutes. Just no explanation for it. Did get overpowered at times inside by Curry, but scored back at him and perhaps most importantly grabbed boards. Many boards. And he should have, as with Skinner unavailbale Rick had Brad play the entire 53minutes of this game! 4th game in 5 nights, and he plays wire to wire. Wow. Slowed way down in the second half, and I thought maybe the fatigue was catching up to him. But kept up rebounding, and woke up in timt to draw a foul with a chance to win it with 1 second to go...and damn near missed them both. Barely had the second crawl over the rim for us to reach OT. Overall a big 22pt 15reb bounceback night, but note the minutes. 22pts 15rebs in 53min comes out to about 15pts 10rebs in normal minutes. So a nice comeback game, but not as spectacular as the numbers sound.
Martin ( B+ ) -- good start, mostly off of cuts to the hoop and by running the floor. Went quiet for a long long stretch in the second half, and this grade was plummeting. But suddenly emerged in cruch time. Took a big hit late from Quentel Woods after Kevin faked Woods into flying at him to try to block the jumpshot. Also showed something that he NEVER does when down the stretch he again faked the jumper, waited for the opponent to fly by, then drove along the baseline and actually pulled up for a short jumper rather than force it all the way to the rim. A welcome new wrinkle. Also helped us by hitting most of FTs down the stretch. Wavered back and forth here between the A- and the B+ grades, with the late game play demanding the A- and the huge number of minutes it took to get his numbers (21pts 6rebs, but in 49min) mitigating for the B+. Finally went with the latter grade because his game felt more like solid contributor who stepped it up than dominant player for the evening.
Bibby ( A ) -- slow start + got into foul trouble, but worked his way into it and just kept getting stronger and stronger for the second night in a row. It took him 46 min and into OT to break the 30pt barrier this time, but still turned in another huge scoring effort without which we were lost. And this time added more of a passing game as well, notching 10 assists and running the team well in spurts rather than just looking for his own offense. 35pts 10ast on back to back huge nights on the final game of a 4 games in 5 night stretch. That's another A thank you.
Hart ( D- ) -- came in and missed his shots, did little else, no second half minutes
Reef ( D ) -- came in and missed his shots, and added few rebounds again. Looked listless and like maybe he is tiring as the trip goes along with that jaw.
Corliss ( INC ) -- got the early call with Skinner unavailable tonight, but turned in some ineffective first half minutes banging in there against the equally stong Malik Rose. No second half minutes played or earned.
Adelman ( B ) -- Well, we finally broke through on this roadtrip from hell. Against a 13 win team. In overtime. Playing our starters until they dropped. And against a HOF coach determined to tear down the franchise by playing as many random stupid combinations of players as he can think to throw out there -- especially liked his late calls -- 6'5" Malik Rose in the post against Brad, and Jamal Crawford on the wild drive. Good coaching. Had to throw that one in. Brown should get his *** canned for the travesty he has unleashed in Knickland. But anyway, back to us. Brad rebounded, both literally and figuratively after the awful Philly effort. And Kevin and Mike both ignored any fatigue and flat out came to play again. And against a team as bad as the Knicks, it was enough. As for Rick, well our guys put up a lot of big numbers in this game, but that is ecplained byt eh biggest numbers of all -- the minutes. Maybe Rick just felt like a new era is dawning Friday and so go for the win tonight no matter hoiw many resources you have to burn, or maybe Rick just saw how godawful the bench was playing and just said screw it. Either way, he is just running our main guys into the ground right now trying to keep us afloat. In this season of discontent maybe its not that big of a deal, but you have to wonder if it won't start to catch up to us as the season wears on. In any case, Rick kept it simple. Play the starters. Play them long. Play them hard. Give the ball to Mike, and see if he can win it. And it worked. So...not sure how you even really grade this one. Went with a B almost as a default "win" grade. The bench is short and awful, we were desperate, and Rick played to win and damn the consequences. Good enough tonight against this team. 1-0 in the Artest era.
Thomas ( B- ) -- started off shaky, missed shots, would not guard Mo Taylor at all. But began to settle in and grabbed some rebounds as the first half wore on. Never did get anything going offensively but turned in a strong rebounding effort in the second half, and made some plays to help us in OT. A somewhat similar night to last night in Philly, but felt a little more effective. Slapped several rebounds he couldn't handle cleanly out to Kings on the perimeter and got his hands on some balls down low. Was doing some little things to help that don't necessarily show up in the boxscore. Would have gotten him him up to a sold B except I thought his defense on Taylor was just atrocious.
Miller ( B+ ) -- again, this team confuses the hell out of me, like it does everyone else. Got off to a pretty good start, and had surpassed his numbers from last night in the first 5 minutes. Just no explanation for it. Did get overpowered at times inside by Curry, but scored back at him and perhaps most importantly grabbed boards. Many boards. And he should have, as with Skinner unavailbale Rick had Brad play the entire 53minutes of this game! 4th game in 5 nights, and he plays wire to wire. Wow. Slowed way down in the second half, and I thought maybe the fatigue was catching up to him. But kept up rebounding, and woke up in timt to draw a foul with a chance to win it with 1 second to go...and damn near missed them both. Barely had the second crawl over the rim for us to reach OT. Overall a big 22pt 15reb bounceback night, but note the minutes. 22pts 15rebs in 53min comes out to about 15pts 10rebs in normal minutes. So a nice comeback game, but not as spectacular as the numbers sound.
Martin ( B+ ) -- good start, mostly off of cuts to the hoop and by running the floor. Went quiet for a long long stretch in the second half, and this grade was plummeting. But suddenly emerged in cruch time. Took a big hit late from Quentel Woods after Kevin faked Woods into flying at him to try to block the jumpshot. Also showed something that he NEVER does when down the stretch he again faked the jumper, waited for the opponent to fly by, then drove along the baseline and actually pulled up for a short jumper rather than force it all the way to the rim. A welcome new wrinkle. Also helped us by hitting most of FTs down the stretch. Wavered back and forth here between the A- and the B+ grades, with the late game play demanding the A- and the huge number of minutes it took to get his numbers (21pts 6rebs, but in 49min) mitigating for the B+. Finally went with the latter grade because his game felt more like solid contributor who stepped it up than dominant player for the evening.
Bibby ( A ) -- slow start + got into foul trouble, but worked his way into it and just kept getting stronger and stronger for the second night in a row. It took him 46 min and into OT to break the 30pt barrier this time, but still turned in another huge scoring effort without which we were lost. And this time added more of a passing game as well, notching 10 assists and running the team well in spurts rather than just looking for his own offense. 35pts 10ast on back to back huge nights on the final game of a 4 games in 5 night stretch. That's another A thank you.
Hart ( D- ) -- came in and missed his shots, did little else, no second half minutes
Reef ( D ) -- came in and missed his shots, and added few rebounds again. Looked listless and like maybe he is tiring as the trip goes along with that jaw.
Corliss ( INC ) -- got the early call with Skinner unavailable tonight, but turned in some ineffective first half minutes banging in there against the equally stong Malik Rose. No second half minutes played or earned.
Adelman ( B ) -- Well, we finally broke through on this roadtrip from hell. Against a 13 win team. In overtime. Playing our starters until they dropped. And against a HOF coach determined to tear down the franchise by playing as many random stupid combinations of players as he can think to throw out there -- especially liked his late calls -- 6'5" Malik Rose in the post against Brad, and Jamal Crawford on the wild drive. Good coaching. Had to throw that one in. Brown should get his *** canned for the travesty he has unleashed in Knickland. But anyway, back to us. Brad rebounded, both literally and figuratively after the awful Philly effort. And Kevin and Mike both ignored any fatigue and flat out came to play again. And against a team as bad as the Knicks, it was enough. As for Rick, well our guys put up a lot of big numbers in this game, but that is ecplained byt eh biggest numbers of all -- the minutes. Maybe Rick just felt like a new era is dawning Friday and so go for the win tonight no matter hoiw many resources you have to burn, or maybe Rick just saw how godawful the bench was playing and just said screw it. Either way, he is just running our main guys into the ground right now trying to keep us afloat. In this season of discontent maybe its not that big of a deal, but you have to wonder if it won't start to catch up to us as the season wears on. In any case, Rick kept it simple. Play the starters. Play them long. Play them hard. Give the ball to Mike, and see if he can win it. And it worked. So...not sure how you even really grade this one. Went with a B almost as a default "win" grade. The bench is short and awful, we were desperate, and Rick played to win and damn the consequences. Good enough tonight against this team. 1-0 in the Artest era.
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