Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Peja ( C+ ) -- got off to the type of start you feared he might. Was missing and looking uncomfortable. But began to settle in and splashed in some shots as the first half wore on. Unfortunately that was about it for him offensively. Had 11 at half, and 13 for the entire game. Note I said offensively, because this was another one of those games recently where Peja has shown a willingness to break a nail and get back to help on the glass. Grabbed 10, including what looked to be his first career offensive rebound on a free throw. Fell into his hands and I swear I thought he was going to drop it he was so surprised -- looked like a hot potato. In any case, was invisible offensively after half, but not a complete washout. Gradewise I think I'm getting a little numb to 4-12 type nights from Peja I guess, and his showing up on the boards lifted it up to a respectable level for me.
Thomas ( A ) -- helped us control the defensive glass early, and might actually have been our most solid all around player in the early going. And had a career night with his passing. Not creating with it, but just simply standing out there efficiently running the offense and really seeing the floor the way a former Kings PF once did. Resulted in some lasers to cutters and KTs first career triple double. Still would have been a non-dominant barely triple double though until the OT period. The Lakers lost basically their whole frontline to foul trouble and then the great PJ made a critical substitution mistake -- bringing in Luke Walton in OT to try to check Kenny. When he had made that same substitution earlier in the game, it had actually stopped Kenny. Walton is a SF, but is the same height and not too far off in weight. But this time Thomas took immediate advantage and just took Luke down into the post again and again for easy scores at the rim. It was smart, unforced, find the mismatch and attack it basketball. As dumb as I thought KT was trying to go at Dwight Howard a few games ago, tonight he picked his spot perfectly and helped us blow the game open in the extra period.
Miller ( B ) -- This was a giveth and taketh away effort for Brad. Languishing in the Cs until the final 30 seconds, he earned a big bump the rest of the way, and then an extra tick for one play (see below). Started off the game pretty well, and was both the recipient and the giver of a number of nice passes to an open Lakers rim in the first quarter. But was mysteriously removed in favor of SAR in the mid first for matchup reasons, and was nowhere near as effective after returning. The jumper quit falling for him, and it looked like he was being fitted for goat horns there at one point. Got blocked + missed around the rim twice in the last two minutes of regulation. Damn near got a technical on the second one too. And tried to finish off the choke with a missed FT as the Lakers put us away (oh, BTW, the Lakers did put us away too -- more on that later). But just when it looked like we were dead, we got a gift from Lamar Odom, and Brad played a huge role in us saving the tie to get it to OT. First he set a huge screen on Smush Parker to free up Mike Bibby for a three to pull us within one. And then after two free throws from Kobe, with time running out and us unable to free up Mike for the game tieing shot, Brad Miller, center (at least on paper) steps out way beyond the top of the arc and drains the game-tying three pointer. And that wasn't even the extra tick earning play. That play came much earlier when in the third Brad FINALLY delivered a hard foul on somebody driving to the hoop...and that somebody was Kobe. Gave him the big forearm to the chest, and had a little smirk about it too. Just glad that didn't end up being the high point of the night for him, and us.
Martin ( C ) -- in a lot of ways, kind of what you expected/feared might happen in a Kevin Martin/Kobe Bryant matchup. Got lit up, and ended up sitting most of this one out in foul trouble. Did not back down from Kobe early, but was completely ineffective in slowing him down, other than drawing a couple of offensive fouls as Kobe roughed him up. And after he got into foul trouble (his second on an offensive foul actually) just was never able to escape from it. Briefly returned in the second, but got his 3rd just as quick. And took him maybe 4 minutes in the third to get the 4th as well. While he was on the floor managed to hit shots here and there and looked ok. Despite the wipeout in the boxscore, he was not terrible when he actually got to play. Just in there against an overwhelming star. Only time he really looked passive was when he finally managed to see the floor again in the 4th after having collected splinters for most of the night. Rick didn't stay with him long though, and I think best to just chalk this up to a learning experience and let it go at that.
Bibby ( A+ ) -- Had to go with the "+" again, and I hate giving those things out like candy because it destroys your whole grading structure and makes you sound like a fanboy. But tonight...had to do it. Shot pretty well early and had no problems with Smush, but again mysteriously had difficulty bringing it up against Sasha Vujacic there for a while. As you may recall Sasha really caused Mike some problems back in preseason too. Absolutely no idea why. In any case, irrelevant of course to when this grade was earned. One more time Mike Bibby came up absolutely huge in the 4th quarter and showed he still has his big game stuff -- even if the "big game" is only two medicocre teams battling on TNT. Really saved our bacon and probably outperformed Kobe there in the 4th and OT. There were a few times when he maybe tried to do a bit much late and turned it over or forced, but damnit, when you are going the way he was you SHOULD force the action. Not 100% sure on this, but think he had 21 after three quarters, and 19 more in the 4th and overtime. Biggest of them was the giant three pointer you could just see coming after Lamar Odom gifted the game to us. Just boom boom, and just that quick the Lakers unassailable automatic victory was up for grabs (Brad put the finishing touches on the late comeback). So Mike comes up 2pts shy of his brand new 2 game old career high with a huge 4th quarter performance in what still felt like a big game (even though its really not to anyone but us) -- just had to go with the "+". Huge, inspirational. Absolutely the reason we pulled it off. Was "the man" again.
Garcia ( B ) -- got the early call as Kevin got into quick foul trouble. And things started off about as badly as could have been feared. Think this happened in preseason too, although I may be misremembering. In any case, Cisco got overexcited, fouled Kobe, got beat by him, fouled him again, and off to the bench. But was quickly returned to the game in the early 2nd with Kobe on the bench, and think it gave time for Cisco to settle in. And after Kobe returned did a much better job against him after having figured out you can't stop him AFTER he has the ball, you have to prevent him from getting the ball in the first place. Of course was also helped by quick doubles running at Kobe from all angles, and I say he did a "better job" on a guy who dropped 51pts on us. So this is all VERY relative. Nonetheless, it was more legit, settled, smarter, solid competition. Also had fewer than his normal share of boneheaded plays, although one in particular really stood out -- with us up by 2 in the 4th and barely hanging on Cisco made a terrible decision to try the alley oop to Martin OVER Kobe Bryant. Easy break up for Kobe. And I was afraid that was going to be the postscript for Cisco this time out. But where Cisco earns the bulk of this grade was for something fairly remarkable. For maybe the last 8-10 minutes of this one, Cisco actually dialed in and bothered Kobe Bryant. Not shut him down. Not outperformed him. But he made him take tougher shots than he wanted to, and clearly frustrated him at times. Kobe got the 51, but Cisco contained him somewhat down the stretch and may have taken another step forward in his NBA career by so doing.
Reef ( B ) -- coming back from a broken jaw, and what is Reef's first assignment? Came in to play center! In our ugly Reef/Thomas frontline to boot. So we decide to use Reef in his first game back as a backup center? In any case, Rick was matching him against Kwame, and playing Miller exclusively against Mihm. Which seemed silly, but whatever. Reef did not look great in his first game back, but didn't look terrible either. He had some trouble finsihing, but scored his point anyway, mostly at the line. Unfortunately grabbed no rebounds, so picked up right where he left off there. Normally a zero rebound performance in 20min for a power player would control this grade, but you gotta appreciate him even being out there with the jaw -- reason he used to be one of the league's ironmen. So I'm giving him the little extra tick for the circumstances of his return. Shows again that he'll always be able to score if nothing else. He'll be 80 and a double amputee and he'll still be able to execute a spinning post move in his wheel chair.
Hart ( C+ ) -- came in for emergency duty as our #3 off guard after Kobe ran through Kevin adn Cisco in the space of the first 9 minutes. Did immediately foul him, but otherwise did as well as could be expected given the size difference. And on the night gave a solid defensive effort at both guard spots. Jason Harted himself back onto the bench late with another one of his stupid drive and shot flings at an inopportune time.
Adelman -- too many characters...seperate post page #4
Lamar Odom ( A ) -- in one of the true bonehead plays I've seen this season, Lamar saved us (and this after we looked like WE were making the bonehead play). He loses the "+" only because a few seconds before opening the door wide open for us he had looked to ice it, draining a wide open three from the top of the circle off of a Kobe feed to give the Lakers what should have been an insurmountable lead. But stupidity trumps insurmountable, and Lamar must need ganglia to keep all his limbs moving in unison. With the Lakers up 4 with 30 seconds to go. With US looking to be idiots for some reason not fouling despite having no hope otherwise, Lamar abruptly and moronically decided not to run clock, not to drain the game clock down to a point where our comeback is nearly impossible. Instead he runs almost no clock and suddenly gallops toward the hoop screaming "I'm a hero babeee!!!!"....commits an offensive foul, and gives us life where there had been none. Amazing. All he had to do was dribble it down to the 8 second mark and heave up something, and we don't have time. That's not Basketball 101. That's Basketball 1. Then compounded things by coming back after we inevitably tie it up and on the final play of the game, getting impatient and calling his own number for the game winner rather than Kobe's (Bryant popped open late). Have to say, and this is moderately nauseating, but I actually sympathized with Kobe Bryant for a night. He pretty much won the game for them. And then his idiot teammates gave it right back. Quite the spectacle.
Luke Walton ( A+ ) -- partially making up for all the years of his father's inane prattling, Luke also made immense contributions to our victory. In the third, he insisted on firing up, and bricking, long jumper after long jumper while Kobe bitched for the ball. Then after getting a desperation call in OT (both Mihm and Odom had fouled out) he got lit up repeatedly by KT in OT. Should be a King with that kind of defense.
And for a night played like he was on our payroll. Only played 6 minutes, but they were a potent 6 minutes. For us.
Thomas ( A ) -- helped us control the defensive glass early, and might actually have been our most solid all around player in the early going. And had a career night with his passing. Not creating with it, but just simply standing out there efficiently running the offense and really seeing the floor the way a former Kings PF once did. Resulted in some lasers to cutters and KTs first career triple double. Still would have been a non-dominant barely triple double though until the OT period. The Lakers lost basically their whole frontline to foul trouble and then the great PJ made a critical substitution mistake -- bringing in Luke Walton in OT to try to check Kenny. When he had made that same substitution earlier in the game, it had actually stopped Kenny. Walton is a SF, but is the same height and not too far off in weight. But this time Thomas took immediate advantage and just took Luke down into the post again and again for easy scores at the rim. It was smart, unforced, find the mismatch and attack it basketball. As dumb as I thought KT was trying to go at Dwight Howard a few games ago, tonight he picked his spot perfectly and helped us blow the game open in the extra period.
Miller ( B ) -- This was a giveth and taketh away effort for Brad. Languishing in the Cs until the final 30 seconds, he earned a big bump the rest of the way, and then an extra tick for one play (see below). Started off the game pretty well, and was both the recipient and the giver of a number of nice passes to an open Lakers rim in the first quarter. But was mysteriously removed in favor of SAR in the mid first for matchup reasons, and was nowhere near as effective after returning. The jumper quit falling for him, and it looked like he was being fitted for goat horns there at one point. Got blocked + missed around the rim twice in the last two minutes of regulation. Damn near got a technical on the second one too. And tried to finish off the choke with a missed FT as the Lakers put us away (oh, BTW, the Lakers did put us away too -- more on that later). But just when it looked like we were dead, we got a gift from Lamar Odom, and Brad played a huge role in us saving the tie to get it to OT. First he set a huge screen on Smush Parker to free up Mike Bibby for a three to pull us within one. And then after two free throws from Kobe, with time running out and us unable to free up Mike for the game tieing shot, Brad Miller, center (at least on paper) steps out way beyond the top of the arc and drains the game-tying three pointer. And that wasn't even the extra tick earning play. That play came much earlier when in the third Brad FINALLY delivered a hard foul on somebody driving to the hoop...and that somebody was Kobe. Gave him the big forearm to the chest, and had a little smirk about it too. Just glad that didn't end up being the high point of the night for him, and us.
Martin ( C ) -- in a lot of ways, kind of what you expected/feared might happen in a Kevin Martin/Kobe Bryant matchup. Got lit up, and ended up sitting most of this one out in foul trouble. Did not back down from Kobe early, but was completely ineffective in slowing him down, other than drawing a couple of offensive fouls as Kobe roughed him up. And after he got into foul trouble (his second on an offensive foul actually) just was never able to escape from it. Briefly returned in the second, but got his 3rd just as quick. And took him maybe 4 minutes in the third to get the 4th as well. While he was on the floor managed to hit shots here and there and looked ok. Despite the wipeout in the boxscore, he was not terrible when he actually got to play. Just in there against an overwhelming star. Only time he really looked passive was when he finally managed to see the floor again in the 4th after having collected splinters for most of the night. Rick didn't stay with him long though, and I think best to just chalk this up to a learning experience and let it go at that.
Bibby ( A+ ) -- Had to go with the "+" again, and I hate giving those things out like candy because it destroys your whole grading structure and makes you sound like a fanboy. But tonight...had to do it. Shot pretty well early and had no problems with Smush, but again mysteriously had difficulty bringing it up against Sasha Vujacic there for a while. As you may recall Sasha really caused Mike some problems back in preseason too. Absolutely no idea why. In any case, irrelevant of course to when this grade was earned. One more time Mike Bibby came up absolutely huge in the 4th quarter and showed he still has his big game stuff -- even if the "big game" is only two medicocre teams battling on TNT. Really saved our bacon and probably outperformed Kobe there in the 4th and OT. There were a few times when he maybe tried to do a bit much late and turned it over or forced, but damnit, when you are going the way he was you SHOULD force the action. Not 100% sure on this, but think he had 21 after three quarters, and 19 more in the 4th and overtime. Biggest of them was the giant three pointer you could just see coming after Lamar Odom gifted the game to us. Just boom boom, and just that quick the Lakers unassailable automatic victory was up for grabs (Brad put the finishing touches on the late comeback). So Mike comes up 2pts shy of his brand new 2 game old career high with a huge 4th quarter performance in what still felt like a big game (even though its really not to anyone but us) -- just had to go with the "+". Huge, inspirational. Absolutely the reason we pulled it off. Was "the man" again.
Garcia ( B ) -- got the early call as Kevin got into quick foul trouble. And things started off about as badly as could have been feared. Think this happened in preseason too, although I may be misremembering. In any case, Cisco got overexcited, fouled Kobe, got beat by him, fouled him again, and off to the bench. But was quickly returned to the game in the early 2nd with Kobe on the bench, and think it gave time for Cisco to settle in. And after Kobe returned did a much better job against him after having figured out you can't stop him AFTER he has the ball, you have to prevent him from getting the ball in the first place. Of course was also helped by quick doubles running at Kobe from all angles, and I say he did a "better job" on a guy who dropped 51pts on us. So this is all VERY relative. Nonetheless, it was more legit, settled, smarter, solid competition. Also had fewer than his normal share of boneheaded plays, although one in particular really stood out -- with us up by 2 in the 4th and barely hanging on Cisco made a terrible decision to try the alley oop to Martin OVER Kobe Bryant. Easy break up for Kobe. And I was afraid that was going to be the postscript for Cisco this time out. But where Cisco earns the bulk of this grade was for something fairly remarkable. For maybe the last 8-10 minutes of this one, Cisco actually dialed in and bothered Kobe Bryant. Not shut him down. Not outperformed him. But he made him take tougher shots than he wanted to, and clearly frustrated him at times. Kobe got the 51, but Cisco contained him somewhat down the stretch and may have taken another step forward in his NBA career by so doing.
Reef ( B ) -- coming back from a broken jaw, and what is Reef's first assignment? Came in to play center! In our ugly Reef/Thomas frontline to boot. So we decide to use Reef in his first game back as a backup center? In any case, Rick was matching him against Kwame, and playing Miller exclusively against Mihm. Which seemed silly, but whatever. Reef did not look great in his first game back, but didn't look terrible either. He had some trouble finsihing, but scored his point anyway, mostly at the line. Unfortunately grabbed no rebounds, so picked up right where he left off there. Normally a zero rebound performance in 20min for a power player would control this grade, but you gotta appreciate him even being out there with the jaw -- reason he used to be one of the league's ironmen. So I'm giving him the little extra tick for the circumstances of his return. Shows again that he'll always be able to score if nothing else. He'll be 80 and a double amputee and he'll still be able to execute a spinning post move in his wheel chair.
Hart ( C+ ) -- came in for emergency duty as our #3 off guard after Kobe ran through Kevin adn Cisco in the space of the first 9 minutes. Did immediately foul him, but otherwise did as well as could be expected given the size difference. And on the night gave a solid defensive effort at both guard spots. Jason Harted himself back onto the bench late with another one of his stupid drive and shot flings at an inopportune time.
Adelman -- too many characters...seperate post page #4
Lamar Odom ( A ) -- in one of the true bonehead plays I've seen this season, Lamar saved us (and this after we looked like WE were making the bonehead play). He loses the "+" only because a few seconds before opening the door wide open for us he had looked to ice it, draining a wide open three from the top of the circle off of a Kobe feed to give the Lakers what should have been an insurmountable lead. But stupidity trumps insurmountable, and Lamar must need ganglia to keep all his limbs moving in unison. With the Lakers up 4 with 30 seconds to go. With US looking to be idiots for some reason not fouling despite having no hope otherwise, Lamar abruptly and moronically decided not to run clock, not to drain the game clock down to a point where our comeback is nearly impossible. Instead he runs almost no clock and suddenly gallops toward the hoop screaming "I'm a hero babeee!!!!"....commits an offensive foul, and gives us life where there had been none. Amazing. All he had to do was dribble it down to the 8 second mark and heave up something, and we don't have time. That's not Basketball 101. That's Basketball 1. Then compounded things by coming back after we inevitably tie it up and on the final play of the game, getting impatient and calling his own number for the game winner rather than Kobe's (Bryant popped open late). Have to say, and this is moderately nauseating, but I actually sympathized with Kobe Bryant for a night. He pretty much won the game for them. And then his idiot teammates gave it right back. Quite the spectacle.
Luke Walton ( A+ ) -- partially making up for all the years of his father's inane prattling, Luke also made immense contributions to our victory. In the third, he insisted on firing up, and bricking, long jumper after long jumper while Kobe bitched for the ball. Then after getting a desperation call in OT (both Mihm and Odom had fouled out) he got lit up repeatedly by KT in OT. Should be a King with that kind of defense.
And for a night played like he was on our payroll. Only played 6 minutes, but they were a potent 6 minutes. For us.
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