Artest ( A+ ) -- The easy and automatic grade here -- here was the game for which I have been waiting. Ron talked a big game, and came out and just flat out backed it up with a superstar performance. I thought publicly calling out Kobe was a bit dubious, but true to his word Artest had him shut down in the first half. And not only that, Ron was hot on the other end of the floor and seemed to be knocking down every jumper he took. Began to lose control of Kobe a bit in the third, but never made it easy, and generally outperformed Kobe on both ends of the floor. All that needs to be said about this grade is that Kobe Bryant came to town, and yet we rather clearly had the best player on the floor tonight.
Thomas ( B ) -- a couple of nice takes against Kwame Brown in the early going, but was getting it taken to him by Odom on the other end as well. Kind of quietly worked his way into the solid game therafter doing the roleplayer thing, moving to the open spot, taking advantage of mismatches or guys ignoring him. Lost a lot of minutes this time out to Reef, although Kenny was really having the better game. Real key just was that we played Brad almost the whole way, so nearly all of Reef's minutes had to come behind Kenny.
Miller ( A- ) -- Remarkable game for Brad. Made some very questionable decisions -- made a bad inbounds pass picked off by Sasha Vujavic, kept on passing up easy shots (including a wide open 8 footer) for turnovers, and threw away a low percentage full court baseball pass. Result was 5 turnovers and shaky offensive play. On the other hand Brad Miller, noted NBA turnstyle inside, was actually playing stout interior defense, stepping in front of guys, holding his position, and even blocking shots. Might not be an exaggeration to say its the best defensive game I've seen him play as a King. And in the second half began to hit some open jumpers and rebound the ball as well. Numbers are a bit inflated by the huge minutes he played (45), but then again it was his defense (
) that made playing him that long attractive. Was very tempted just to give him a flat out A for the style (defense) of his effort, and might have if the Lakers had any real interior threats. But as is settled for an A- for the shaky decisionmaking. Still a critical piece to this win, and critical for the rarest of all reasons for Brad Miller: anchored the interior defense behind Ron.
Martin ( B ) -- made a tremendous open court lookaway move in the early going to get the crowd roaring, and while it did not turn out to be that sort of spectacular night for him, he had flashes, played a solid game, and showed no ill effects from the shoulder. Hit an encouraging jumper right in Jim Jackson's face in the 2nd quarter. Encouraging just in that he normally needs space to get that windup off, but there was no hesitation this time, and nothing but net. Got off to a strong start in the third quarter scoring in a variety of ways and again being aggressive. Was getting scored on on the other end by Brian Cook, but that is just a nearly impossible physical matchup for Kevin, giving up 4 inches and 40-50lbs. Lost most of his late minutes to Bonzi, who came on court in the second half and added even more physicality to what was already a physical game for us. Looks to be kind of the pattern right now with Kevin the starter, but Bonzi closing games out. Not sure what happens when Garcia returns.
Bibby ( A-) -- a tad deceptive with the numbers tonight I think. Poured in a ton of points down the stretch in this one to keep the Lakers at bay, but most of the damage was done after we had it more or less won and were already up by 11 to 14. Early in the game was missing shots but the ones he did hit seemed to be big, and while he didn't make many that he created for himself, he was knocking down seemingly every open look created by the offense. Down the stretch knocked down a series of threes and a pair of FTs to help finish the Lakers. But it was more in the vein of stepping on their throat after they were already down and desperate (a noble goal in itself) than in raining in big shots to carry us to victory. And so the grade jumps up in the last 6 minutes, but I think from a B of some sort to an A- rather than up to an A or A+.
Bonzi ( B+ ) -- well suited to this war, teamed with Artest to really harass Kobe in his first stint, but was racking up a lot of cheap fouls. When he returned late amped up the physical play in the 4th and was part of the squad that just squeezed the Lakers out of the game. Quick hands, was on the glass, and really the only downside was another spat of those turnovers once again. When we picked up Ron some of the loudest complaints actually came from Lakers fans dreading precisely an ultraphysical Artest/Bonzi pairing. Well here it was. Enjoy Lakers fans.
Reef ( C ) -- Only one of the rotation players to have a subpar game. Not awful...just very quiet. Had a couple of hits, but not as dominant as you might have thought against the likes of Kwame Brown and Luke Walton. In the 4th was unable to get anything going on offense, aside from a single jumper, and committed an offensive foul, got blocked, along the way. Still played the entire quarter as we pulled away, and virtually split minutes with KT with Brad going almost the whole game.
Adelman ( A ) -- and this grade is not just because this was a "big" game. In fact in most ways I consider it a lot "smaller" game than most. Just another game against a competitor. Only one game in the standings. But Rick did a great job with the team tonight with a couple of minor questions. First and foremost: Ron/Kobe. Now Ron got the obvious A+, as he should. He was magnificent tonight. But it was Rick and the coaching staff who designed the rest of the anti-Kobe scheme, and it was brilliant. It does not work unless you have a guy of Ron's caliber smothering the ball. But every time Kobe might have had an angle, a seam, guys were stepping out in his face, there were quick doubles, sometimes triples, even one time a collapsing quadruple team. The TEAM defense on Kobe was spectacular. Rotationwise it was of course the same 7 man rotation. It was interesting to see Rick go with Brad almost the whole game because it was NOT for his offense tonight. Unless it was something they just decided to do before the game, Brad was left in there for his strong defense, and when was the last time you heard that? Our twin platoons were also interesting, with Reef stealing a lot of KT's minutes despite KT really having the better game (since there were no backup minutes behind Brad), and Bonzi again stealing the late OG minutes and racking up more time than Kevin. There was also a perfectly legit coaching move that went badly awry at the end of the third -- Rick sat Ron with 58 seconds to go in the third quarter. The completely standard get the star an extra couple of minutes of rest move, and also save Ron from picking up his 4th. But it turned into near disaster as the Lakers exploded and it looked like they carved off 8 of the 11 pts of our lead in the space of that one minute. A last second shot by Kobe was waived off after review by the refs, but they still cut the lead more than in half in no time at all. Did not matter in the end, but alarming and changed the whole tenor of what was a budding blowout at the time. In any case, so here we are at #7 now, and #6 is easily within reach. Actually its fortunate the Clippers have a significant lead over us or we might be in danger of pulling the Denver from last year -- charging down the stretch only to run into the Spurs in the first round and get punked (Spurs could well end up at #4). So I'd like to see us keep the run going, sneak inot #6 (loudly sneak), and then maybe even drop a couple just to make sure we don't accidentally move ourselves into a WORSE position. #6 means first round Denver, 2nd round Suns, potentially without Amare. Looks to be the best route up.
Luke Walton ( A ) -- more Luke Walton please. Let's think about this -- the Maloofs are rich casino magnates. And they know or have some relationship with Phil Jackson. Would it be too much to ask to get them to bribe Phil with $1,000,000 before every Kings/Lakers game to start the scrubby Walton and let our guys feast on him? He's a walking green light for anybody in a Kings uniform.
Thomas ( B ) -- a couple of nice takes against Kwame Brown in the early going, but was getting it taken to him by Odom on the other end as well. Kind of quietly worked his way into the solid game therafter doing the roleplayer thing, moving to the open spot, taking advantage of mismatches or guys ignoring him. Lost a lot of minutes this time out to Reef, although Kenny was really having the better game. Real key just was that we played Brad almost the whole way, so nearly all of Reef's minutes had to come behind Kenny.
Miller ( A- ) -- Remarkable game for Brad. Made some very questionable decisions -- made a bad inbounds pass picked off by Sasha Vujavic, kept on passing up easy shots (including a wide open 8 footer) for turnovers, and threw away a low percentage full court baseball pass. Result was 5 turnovers and shaky offensive play. On the other hand Brad Miller, noted NBA turnstyle inside, was actually playing stout interior defense, stepping in front of guys, holding his position, and even blocking shots. Might not be an exaggeration to say its the best defensive game I've seen him play as a King. And in the second half began to hit some open jumpers and rebound the ball as well. Numbers are a bit inflated by the huge minutes he played (45), but then again it was his defense (
) that made playing him that long attractive. Was very tempted just to give him a flat out A for the style (defense) of his effort, and might have if the Lakers had any real interior threats. But as is settled for an A- for the shaky decisionmaking. Still a critical piece to this win, and critical for the rarest of all reasons for Brad Miller: anchored the interior defense behind Ron.Martin ( B ) -- made a tremendous open court lookaway move in the early going to get the crowd roaring, and while it did not turn out to be that sort of spectacular night for him, he had flashes, played a solid game, and showed no ill effects from the shoulder. Hit an encouraging jumper right in Jim Jackson's face in the 2nd quarter. Encouraging just in that he normally needs space to get that windup off, but there was no hesitation this time, and nothing but net. Got off to a strong start in the third quarter scoring in a variety of ways and again being aggressive. Was getting scored on on the other end by Brian Cook, but that is just a nearly impossible physical matchup for Kevin, giving up 4 inches and 40-50lbs. Lost most of his late minutes to Bonzi, who came on court in the second half and added even more physicality to what was already a physical game for us. Looks to be kind of the pattern right now with Kevin the starter, but Bonzi closing games out. Not sure what happens when Garcia returns.
Bibby ( A-) -- a tad deceptive with the numbers tonight I think. Poured in a ton of points down the stretch in this one to keep the Lakers at bay, but most of the damage was done after we had it more or less won and were already up by 11 to 14. Early in the game was missing shots but the ones he did hit seemed to be big, and while he didn't make many that he created for himself, he was knocking down seemingly every open look created by the offense. Down the stretch knocked down a series of threes and a pair of FTs to help finish the Lakers. But it was more in the vein of stepping on their throat after they were already down and desperate (a noble goal in itself) than in raining in big shots to carry us to victory. And so the grade jumps up in the last 6 minutes, but I think from a B of some sort to an A- rather than up to an A or A+.
Bonzi ( B+ ) -- well suited to this war, teamed with Artest to really harass Kobe in his first stint, but was racking up a lot of cheap fouls. When he returned late amped up the physical play in the 4th and was part of the squad that just squeezed the Lakers out of the game. Quick hands, was on the glass, and really the only downside was another spat of those turnovers once again. When we picked up Ron some of the loudest complaints actually came from Lakers fans dreading precisely an ultraphysical Artest/Bonzi pairing. Well here it was. Enjoy Lakers fans.
Reef ( C ) -- Only one of the rotation players to have a subpar game. Not awful...just very quiet. Had a couple of hits, but not as dominant as you might have thought against the likes of Kwame Brown and Luke Walton. In the 4th was unable to get anything going on offense, aside from a single jumper, and committed an offensive foul, got blocked, along the way. Still played the entire quarter as we pulled away, and virtually split minutes with KT with Brad going almost the whole game.
Adelman ( A ) -- and this grade is not just because this was a "big" game. In fact in most ways I consider it a lot "smaller" game than most. Just another game against a competitor. Only one game in the standings. But Rick did a great job with the team tonight with a couple of minor questions. First and foremost: Ron/Kobe. Now Ron got the obvious A+, as he should. He was magnificent tonight. But it was Rick and the coaching staff who designed the rest of the anti-Kobe scheme, and it was brilliant. It does not work unless you have a guy of Ron's caliber smothering the ball. But every time Kobe might have had an angle, a seam, guys were stepping out in his face, there were quick doubles, sometimes triples, even one time a collapsing quadruple team. The TEAM defense on Kobe was spectacular. Rotationwise it was of course the same 7 man rotation. It was interesting to see Rick go with Brad almost the whole game because it was NOT for his offense tonight. Unless it was something they just decided to do before the game, Brad was left in there for his strong defense, and when was the last time you heard that? Our twin platoons were also interesting, with Reef stealing a lot of KT's minutes despite KT really having the better game (since there were no backup minutes behind Brad), and Bonzi again stealing the late OG minutes and racking up more time than Kevin. There was also a perfectly legit coaching move that went badly awry at the end of the third -- Rick sat Ron with 58 seconds to go in the third quarter. The completely standard get the star an extra couple of minutes of rest move, and also save Ron from picking up his 4th. But it turned into near disaster as the Lakers exploded and it looked like they carved off 8 of the 11 pts of our lead in the space of that one minute. A last second shot by Kobe was waived off after review by the refs, but they still cut the lead more than in half in no time at all. Did not matter in the end, but alarming and changed the whole tenor of what was a budding blowout at the time. In any case, so here we are at #7 now, and #6 is easily within reach. Actually its fortunate the Clippers have a significant lead over us or we might be in danger of pulling the Denver from last year -- charging down the stretch only to run into the Spurs in the first round and get punked (Spurs could well end up at #4). So I'd like to see us keep the run going, sneak inot #6 (loudly sneak), and then maybe even drop a couple just to make sure we don't accidentally move ourselves into a WORSE position. #6 means first round Denver, 2nd round Suns, potentially without Amare. Looks to be the best route up.
Luke Walton ( A ) -- more Luke Walton please. Let's think about this -- the Maloofs are rich casino magnates. And they know or have some relationship with Phil Jackson. Would it be too much to ask to get them to bribe Phil with $1,000,000 before every Kings/Lakers game to start the scrubby Walton and let our guys feast on him? He's a walking green light for anybody in a Kings uniform.
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