Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Not too bad really, and everybody played who could benefit from the experience.
Thompson ( B+ ) -- clever move by Theus to start one of the league's harder working players against one of its laziest in Radmanovic. And the Lakers tough frontline proved a perfect situation for Thompson -- found guys he can guard. Has often struggled against big bigs, against quicker SFs, but the Lakers SFs are all natural PFs playing down a position too, so it was a matchup of equals. On defense did better inside this time out, repeatedly reaching over and around his man to slap away post feeds and get steals. But struggled guarding the perimeter again where VladRad was able to move to his spots and launch at will. Looked smooth and confident with his short jumpers as his primary first half weapon, and then got on the hoop a little better after half. Minutes were cut short however as the Bobby Brown led bench crew brought us back into this one in the 4th, and Reggie elected to stay with the guys who had made the push until they ran out of gas (and the Lakers reinserted their starters) down the stretch. Result was only a couple of 4th quarter minutes there at the very end.
Hawes ( B- ) -- got the start at PF as part of our mega 6'11"/7'0"/7'0" frontline but took him a while to really justify the move. Got himself into quick foul trouble -- has taken Mikki's place as our hackmaster general -- and did not look sure how he wanted to attack the Lakers long frontline. Came back in in the second quarter with minimal effect, except to try a ridiculous behind the back pass on the move down the lane, which predictably led to a turnover and then throwing a bad outlet pass too for another one (did finally pick up a nice assist later in the game). Offense was a bit schizophrenic, mostly just bricking stuff around the perimeter, but every once in a while careering inside for the follow. Was going to be one of his worst offensive nights, but he finally, in the last two minutes of the game, got to the hoop a couple of times to sneak up into double figures. On more positive notes, he was solid on the glass for most of the night and led us with 8 in 29 minutes. And while Pau got him into foul trouble, I don't think Pau really was as comfortable as he normally is going to the hoop against Spencer's equal length. Not horrible, but this was 7pts 8rebs through 46 minutes of this one, and kind of more of a competitive roleplayer effort for Spencer, with at least 4 Kings having bigger nights.
Miller ( D+ ) -- was almost completely useless in the first half as a big man...2pts 1reb, on one short jumper, and while Bynum was working him in the post, Brad's increasingly passive response was doing nothing other than spotting up and chucking threes. Just giving up the whole "center" thing entirely anymore. But it wasn't a complete disaster -- the x factor was that Brad's passing greased Salmons solid first half, repeatedly hitting him for nifrty little bounce passes on the cuts. After half it got a little better, but only a little. Grabbed a handul of rebounds, and even delivered a hard foul that bordered on cheap if it was intentional -- came pretty close to flagranting Ariza with a semi-clothesline. Was even part of the 4th quarter crew that brought us roaring back, although the least important part by far, and combined with Hawes to get a hold of the Bynum problem early in that quarter, doubling down big on him and stripping the ball down low before he could get up his shots. A bad performance in all ways except one, but that one (the passing, to Salmons in particular) made enough of a difference to secure some little grade here.
Salmons ( A- ) -- Kobe appeared deteremined to put to rest any question of John stopping him one on one right from the beginning, shooting over him at will until sitting down for much of the second quarter. And when he returned, we started bringing the doubles (which he did a poor job of beating). So the one on one thing vs. Salmons defense? Not so much. But on the other end we did eventually have the one on one battle, and John mostly won it. Took a while though. After a sluggish offensive start John finally got a couple of his own hoops when he got out on the slow break and got guys other than Kobe switched off on him, and the rest of his offense came from nice little Brad feeds on the cuts. But came out aggresive in the third getting around Kobe and getting to the rim around the shotblocking. Consistently good, and gave Kobe trouble per usual. Like most of our starters, lost a bunch of minutes int eh 4th as Reggie found a Brown/BJax/Greene crew that was clicking, and jsut stayed with it. But was our best player for much of the night, and put up strong efficient offensive numbers while right in the face of one of the toughest matchups in the league. Of course John only has to do it against one defender while getting set up by Brad and worrying about his own offense, while Kobe has to beat two while trying to set up others, but still, this is about all you can ask of a John Salmons.
Udrih ( C+ ) -- May have come out in this one overhyped and overdetermined to have the big night. Was really forcing the action, and not always in a good way. Was attacking, but got wild, and started turning it over, overpenetrating and missing wild layups against the long Lakers frontline. Was even hyped up enough to make a real effort on help defense, diving back in for steals. Occasionally forgot about his own man in the process however. Lost most of his second quarter minutes to the red hot Bobby Brown, but picked up his game upon his return in the third quarter, setting people up, and getting to the rim around the shotblockers. We were starting to fade near the end of his stint however, and when Brown came back in and turned that momentum around, that was it for Beno's night. I think this might normally have been a B- -- Beno did some good things out there, and was neither lost nor passive. But the gap between our fortunes when he was running the team and when Brown was out there was just so stark that a half grade drop seemed justified.
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Greene ( C- ) -- first man off the bench when Hawes went down with foul trouble, and got long first half minutes, although there was not much effectiveness. Got his only hoop when Salmons belatedly found him off the double team (could have had him for the layup, but waited until the end of shotclock so that it was a long jumper instead). Took a long time for him to make reappearance near the end of the third quarter, but when he did so he was fortunate enough to come in at the same time as Bobby Brown, and so got to be part of the Brown led revival in the early 4th. Theus went with the go with the ones who brought you theory, and so despite modest contributions (showed pretty good hustle and was helping a bit on the glass), Greene ended up playing much of the 4th quarter as we stormed back. However his only other hoop was a wide open dunk off a nice Brown setup, and the sight of Donte Greene chucking up bricked threes in the 4th quarter wasn't exactly throwing fear into the hearts of Lakers fans.
BJax ( A- ) -- came in and immediately put a nice fake on Vujacic to get off a long jumper. Started bricking as the second quarter went along, but setup the younger more dynamic Bobby for a number of his shots and may be developing some shot happy tweener guard chemistry with his namesake. Came back in along with the other Bobby to playu the 4th quarter, and as happened in New Orleans, where it was vengenace against the former team, here it was the Lakers, and so Bobby reached back and took another sip from that rapidly depleting fountain of youth and tried to will the Kings to an unlikely victory. It was Bobby Brown's night, but BJax was clearly besting noted Kings thorn Vujacic, and came up with 9pts of his own down the stretch while getting out on the break and getting to the rim rather than settling for jumpers. He even stayed in for a bit when Kobe came back in (it was either going to be he or Brown havin to check him). Unfortunately as with the whole comeback, the waters of the fountain finally began to run dry, and late in the quarter it was Bobby chucking up missed threes and long jumpers looking for the homerun ball.
Brown ( A ) -- got off to a somewhat inauspicious start to this one, which fortunately meant nothing in the long run. Came in streaking around of course, but to dubious effect. Hit a long jumper, but also made a really awful turnover in the final seconds of the first quarter (reminscient of the one to close the third last time out), leading to a Lakers break and wide open three pointer to close the quarter. But he recovered this time and gave us a push in the early second speeding around. Mostly his own stuff, but set Shelden up nicely for jumper once too, and he took almost all of Beno's second quarter minutes as a definite sparkplug. With us fading in the late third, Brown was back, and really shined this time. The Lakers normally get excellent push from their reserves, but while Farmar had some moments back the other way, he clearly couldn't stay in front of Brown. The two Bobby's ran circles around a sloppy Lakers backup crew and drove a 18-19 point lead all the way down to 4 or 5 before Phil Jackson (famous for never calling timeout while his team is in trouble, so that they learn to take care of it themselves), finally had seen enough and brought back in the starters. Unfortunately whether it be the presence of those starters, fatigue, or just cooling down, Brown lost his mojo down the stretch as he began missing shots and turning it over. Still a major impact game as bench sparkplug, and clearly the best of his career so far.
Williams ( C+ ) -- did a little solid dirtwork in the second quarter, and showed confidence in his jumper too. Not much after half, as he proved too short to handle Gasol inside as the third wound down, made a bad turnover, and didn't get to be much of a part of the Brown revival in the early 4th.
Douby ( INC ) -- a little mysterious 45 second blurb in the second quarter, and then just in for the final minute and a half of garbagetime. Nothing here.
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Thompson ( B+ ) -- clever move by Theus to start one of the league's harder working players against one of its laziest in Radmanovic. And the Lakers tough frontline proved a perfect situation for Thompson -- found guys he can guard. Has often struggled against big bigs, against quicker SFs, but the Lakers SFs are all natural PFs playing down a position too, so it was a matchup of equals. On defense did better inside this time out, repeatedly reaching over and around his man to slap away post feeds and get steals. But struggled guarding the perimeter again where VladRad was able to move to his spots and launch at will. Looked smooth and confident with his short jumpers as his primary first half weapon, and then got on the hoop a little better after half. Minutes were cut short however as the Bobby Brown led bench crew brought us back into this one in the 4th, and Reggie elected to stay with the guys who had made the push until they ran out of gas (and the Lakers reinserted their starters) down the stretch. Result was only a couple of 4th quarter minutes there at the very end.
Hawes ( B- ) -- got the start at PF as part of our mega 6'11"/7'0"/7'0" frontline but took him a while to really justify the move. Got himself into quick foul trouble -- has taken Mikki's place as our hackmaster general -- and did not look sure how he wanted to attack the Lakers long frontline. Came back in in the second quarter with minimal effect, except to try a ridiculous behind the back pass on the move down the lane, which predictably led to a turnover and then throwing a bad outlet pass too for another one (did finally pick up a nice assist later in the game). Offense was a bit schizophrenic, mostly just bricking stuff around the perimeter, but every once in a while careering inside for the follow. Was going to be one of his worst offensive nights, but he finally, in the last two minutes of the game, got to the hoop a couple of times to sneak up into double figures. On more positive notes, he was solid on the glass for most of the night and led us with 8 in 29 minutes. And while Pau got him into foul trouble, I don't think Pau really was as comfortable as he normally is going to the hoop against Spencer's equal length. Not horrible, but this was 7pts 8rebs through 46 minutes of this one, and kind of more of a competitive roleplayer effort for Spencer, with at least 4 Kings having bigger nights.
Miller ( D+ ) -- was almost completely useless in the first half as a big man...2pts 1reb, on one short jumper, and while Bynum was working him in the post, Brad's increasingly passive response was doing nothing other than spotting up and chucking threes. Just giving up the whole "center" thing entirely anymore. But it wasn't a complete disaster -- the x factor was that Brad's passing greased Salmons solid first half, repeatedly hitting him for nifrty little bounce passes on the cuts. After half it got a little better, but only a little. Grabbed a handul of rebounds, and even delivered a hard foul that bordered on cheap if it was intentional -- came pretty close to flagranting Ariza with a semi-clothesline. Was even part of the 4th quarter crew that brought us roaring back, although the least important part by far, and combined with Hawes to get a hold of the Bynum problem early in that quarter, doubling down big on him and stripping the ball down low before he could get up his shots. A bad performance in all ways except one, but that one (the passing, to Salmons in particular) made enough of a difference to secure some little grade here.
Salmons ( A- ) -- Kobe appeared deteremined to put to rest any question of John stopping him one on one right from the beginning, shooting over him at will until sitting down for much of the second quarter. And when he returned, we started bringing the doubles (which he did a poor job of beating). So the one on one thing vs. Salmons defense? Not so much. But on the other end we did eventually have the one on one battle, and John mostly won it. Took a while though. After a sluggish offensive start John finally got a couple of his own hoops when he got out on the slow break and got guys other than Kobe switched off on him, and the rest of his offense came from nice little Brad feeds on the cuts. But came out aggresive in the third getting around Kobe and getting to the rim around the shotblocking. Consistently good, and gave Kobe trouble per usual. Like most of our starters, lost a bunch of minutes int eh 4th as Reggie found a Brown/BJax/Greene crew that was clicking, and jsut stayed with it. But was our best player for much of the night, and put up strong efficient offensive numbers while right in the face of one of the toughest matchups in the league. Of course John only has to do it against one defender while getting set up by Brad and worrying about his own offense, while Kobe has to beat two while trying to set up others, but still, this is about all you can ask of a John Salmons.
Udrih ( C+ ) -- May have come out in this one overhyped and overdetermined to have the big night. Was really forcing the action, and not always in a good way. Was attacking, but got wild, and started turning it over, overpenetrating and missing wild layups against the long Lakers frontline. Was even hyped up enough to make a real effort on help defense, diving back in for steals. Occasionally forgot about his own man in the process however. Lost most of his second quarter minutes to the red hot Bobby Brown, but picked up his game upon his return in the third quarter, setting people up, and getting to the rim around the shotblockers. We were starting to fade near the end of his stint however, and when Brown came back in and turned that momentum around, that was it for Beno's night. I think this might normally have been a B- -- Beno did some good things out there, and was neither lost nor passive. But the gap between our fortunes when he was running the team and when Brown was out there was just so stark that a half grade drop seemed justified.
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Greene ( C- ) -- first man off the bench when Hawes went down with foul trouble, and got long first half minutes, although there was not much effectiveness. Got his only hoop when Salmons belatedly found him off the double team (could have had him for the layup, but waited until the end of shotclock so that it was a long jumper instead). Took a long time for him to make reappearance near the end of the third quarter, but when he did so he was fortunate enough to come in at the same time as Bobby Brown, and so got to be part of the Brown led revival in the early 4th. Theus went with the go with the ones who brought you theory, and so despite modest contributions (showed pretty good hustle and was helping a bit on the glass), Greene ended up playing much of the 4th quarter as we stormed back. However his only other hoop was a wide open dunk off a nice Brown setup, and the sight of Donte Greene chucking up bricked threes in the 4th quarter wasn't exactly throwing fear into the hearts of Lakers fans.
BJax ( A- ) -- came in and immediately put a nice fake on Vujacic to get off a long jumper. Started bricking as the second quarter went along, but setup the younger more dynamic Bobby for a number of his shots and may be developing some shot happy tweener guard chemistry with his namesake. Came back in along with the other Bobby to playu the 4th quarter, and as happened in New Orleans, where it was vengenace against the former team, here it was the Lakers, and so Bobby reached back and took another sip from that rapidly depleting fountain of youth and tried to will the Kings to an unlikely victory. It was Bobby Brown's night, but BJax was clearly besting noted Kings thorn Vujacic, and came up with 9pts of his own down the stretch while getting out on the break and getting to the rim rather than settling for jumpers. He even stayed in for a bit when Kobe came back in (it was either going to be he or Brown havin to check him). Unfortunately as with the whole comeback, the waters of the fountain finally began to run dry, and late in the quarter it was Bobby chucking up missed threes and long jumpers looking for the homerun ball.
Brown ( A ) -- got off to a somewhat inauspicious start to this one, which fortunately meant nothing in the long run. Came in streaking around of course, but to dubious effect. Hit a long jumper, but also made a really awful turnover in the final seconds of the first quarter (reminscient of the one to close the third last time out), leading to a Lakers break and wide open three pointer to close the quarter. But he recovered this time and gave us a push in the early second speeding around. Mostly his own stuff, but set Shelden up nicely for jumper once too, and he took almost all of Beno's second quarter minutes as a definite sparkplug. With us fading in the late third, Brown was back, and really shined this time. The Lakers normally get excellent push from their reserves, but while Farmar had some moments back the other way, he clearly couldn't stay in front of Brown. The two Bobby's ran circles around a sloppy Lakers backup crew and drove a 18-19 point lead all the way down to 4 or 5 before Phil Jackson (famous for never calling timeout while his team is in trouble, so that they learn to take care of it themselves), finally had seen enough and brought back in the starters. Unfortunately whether it be the presence of those starters, fatigue, or just cooling down, Brown lost his mojo down the stretch as he began missing shots and turning it over. Still a major impact game as bench sparkplug, and clearly the best of his career so far.
Williams ( C+ ) -- did a little solid dirtwork in the second quarter, and showed confidence in his jumper too. Not much after half, as he proved too short to handle Gasol inside as the third wound down, made a bad turnover, and didn't get to be much of a part of the Brown revival in the early 4th.
Douby ( INC ) -- a little mysterious 45 second blurb in the second quarter, and then just in for the final minute and a half of garbagetime. Nothing here.
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