Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I need a pay raise if I have to keep on watching this stuff wire to wire...
Artest ( B- ) -- a topsy turvy game for Ron -- got really lit up by Josh Howard tonight in eye opening fashion, but was effective on the other end, at least before halftime, and had a couple of 3pt continuations to help us maintain early contact -- if 12-15 down be contact. Was also effective in the 2nd quarter initiating the offense as our OG as we went big, and he was basically our only offensive weapon before the break. But then got very quiet in the third, and almost compeltely disappeared late. Tried a few scattered forced shots, but pretty much just nothing. 12pts at half. 14 to finish the game. For a long stretch there felt like he had control of his game, and our offense was running pretty well with him charge. Hence the grade. But a late disappearing act, and a rare defensive spanking made this an atypical effort and I thought about C+.
Thomas ( A- ) -- blew numerous first half layups, but was very active and collecting a lot of hustle boards from the beginning. Managed to sustain into the third quarter as maybe the best King -- just moving faster than any other player on the floor to open spots and after long caroms. Unfortunately was forgotten about for a long stretch of the second half, and when he returned had little impact the rest of the way. 15pts 15rebs and if we win, this might be a straight A.
Miller ( B+ ) -- pretty effective in the early going just as a junk player, banging around on the offensive glass and hitting putbacks. And as the game wore on played a good floor game, looking as much like the old Brad as we have seen all season. Still didn't do much on the defensive glass, turned it over etc., but this was a solid effort even by old Brad standards, and if I was just grading in the vacuum of this year without knowing who/what he is supposed to be, likely an A of some sort.
Salmons ( D ) -- gave us next to nothing subbing in in the starting role for Kevin. More inconsistency from a guy who's done that over his whole career, but had begun to be very dependable for us late. In any case all of 7pts 3rebs 1ast in 38 min. No outside shooting. Played a little defense, but nothing that had much impact.
Bibby ( D ) -- yet another 1-9 in the first half, and the torture just continues. Got a couple of shots to fall in the early third, but then disappeared again. Thankfully quit shooting and started working as more of a distributor, but the question would be if Mike isn't scoring, how useful is he? Finished up with an ineffective 10pts (3-12 FGs) 6ast in 35min and his struggles have gone beyond the point of bemusement at this point. Unless he's hurt, major players don't struggle this badly for this long.
Corliss ( F ) -- first big off the bench for KT after he missed a few layups, and just got lit up by Dirk. Not really Nasty's fault -- its the coach who thought our 6'6" stubby guy would be a good defensive matchup against a 7'0" All NBA playr, but it was still a wipeout. Did not return after that, which was a good thing tonight.
Hart ( C ) -- came in off the bench along with Corliss in the first quarter, and I guess would obviously have passed up Price in the rotation with some steady play and Ronnie's recent out of control streak. Did little, and then promptly seemed to suffer some sort of injury. Welcome to the world of Jason Hart.
Reef ( B+ ) -- did better offensively against the big shotblockers this time out, and mixed in some outside shots to avoid those long arms. Gave us nothing on the glass, but with Kenny eating them up, that wasn't a huge factor. Played some solid defense on Dirk in the early 4th -- of course when you are a superstar this is what "playing solid defense" does to your line: Nowtizi: 29pts on 12-17FG 4-5 FT. Lack of boardwork pulls this down half a grade, but Reef was one of the few guys -- ironically basically our entire beleaguered frontcourt -- that helped keep us within 10-12 there for a long stretch before the Mavs got serious.
Garcia ( C- ) -- short first half stint, missed a couple of shots, made a hustle play or two, came back in the second half...and nothing again. That good month he had last year before the ankle injury just seems worlds away right now. Just no impact at all.
Douby ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Talyor ( INC ) -- garbagetime, first stint in a month, let's hope he doesn't light up to celebrate. Actually, who cares?
Muss ( C ) -- ok, another loss. Might have something to do with us just not being very good. The good news as we hit 10-13? The next 5 are all winnable, and the Knicks/Nuggets brawl just handed us a potential gift for the toughest of them on the road in Denver. Well...I guess that's good news if you're stubbornly determined to maintain an exciting .500 record and miss both the playoffs and all the juicy young studs in the draft this year. John Salmons, off of a big game against the Suns, got the start in Kevin's stead tonight...and did absolutely nothing. Which as a long term Salmons observer was not surprising, but which was still disappointing given his improved consistency this year. Throw in Mike's seemingly impossible to solve struggles, and our backcourt was pathetic tonight. After trying his best to screw us over with dwarf ball early, at one point even Muss had to get a clue and try something new, and so came a long past due "big" experiment (ironically even our big team ain't that big, but anyway...) as we went big down the stretch of the 2nd with a mega Salmons/Ron/KT/Reef/Miller lineup, and what do you know it worked better than Corliss at PF. In the early going, Muss swallowed his timeouts again as the Mavs built the commanding lead they never relinquished -- a tired pattern at this point. Moved Hart up in the rotation ahead of the recently untrustworhy Price, only to see Jason suffer some sort of injury. Oh horrors. May have made a mistake there in the second half when he went with no KT for a long stetch in the 4th -- rare that that would ever be mentioned like it mattered, but tonight maybe it did. Kenny was maybe our best player on the night, and after he returned he wasn't nearly as effective. In any case, one thing we got right -- this time as the Mavs put us to sleep Muss actually recognized it and put in an actual garbagetime crew rather than running our main guys in search of an injury...or maybe a brawl. Have a feeling we may revive here in the next few games -- we have thus far this season cleaned up on the soft spots in the schedule even while being slapped around by the big boys. Now ask me if I'm going to be impressed if we do run off some wins against a patch of sub .500 teams, and one missing their two leading scorers to suspension. In any case, we lose by 20, and for much of the night you are thinking "well, at least its not a blowout". Yikes, is this 2006 or 1996?
Artest ( B- ) -- a topsy turvy game for Ron -- got really lit up by Josh Howard tonight in eye opening fashion, but was effective on the other end, at least before halftime, and had a couple of 3pt continuations to help us maintain early contact -- if 12-15 down be contact. Was also effective in the 2nd quarter initiating the offense as our OG as we went big, and he was basically our only offensive weapon before the break. But then got very quiet in the third, and almost compeltely disappeared late. Tried a few scattered forced shots, but pretty much just nothing. 12pts at half. 14 to finish the game. For a long stretch there felt like he had control of his game, and our offense was running pretty well with him charge. Hence the grade. But a late disappearing act, and a rare defensive spanking made this an atypical effort and I thought about C+.
Thomas ( A- ) -- blew numerous first half layups, but was very active and collecting a lot of hustle boards from the beginning. Managed to sustain into the third quarter as maybe the best King -- just moving faster than any other player on the floor to open spots and after long caroms. Unfortunately was forgotten about for a long stretch of the second half, and when he returned had little impact the rest of the way. 15pts 15rebs and if we win, this might be a straight A.
Miller ( B+ ) -- pretty effective in the early going just as a junk player, banging around on the offensive glass and hitting putbacks. And as the game wore on played a good floor game, looking as much like the old Brad as we have seen all season. Still didn't do much on the defensive glass, turned it over etc., but this was a solid effort even by old Brad standards, and if I was just grading in the vacuum of this year without knowing who/what he is supposed to be, likely an A of some sort.
Salmons ( D ) -- gave us next to nothing subbing in in the starting role for Kevin. More inconsistency from a guy who's done that over his whole career, but had begun to be very dependable for us late. In any case all of 7pts 3rebs 1ast in 38 min. No outside shooting. Played a little defense, but nothing that had much impact.
Bibby ( D ) -- yet another 1-9 in the first half, and the torture just continues. Got a couple of shots to fall in the early third, but then disappeared again. Thankfully quit shooting and started working as more of a distributor, but the question would be if Mike isn't scoring, how useful is he? Finished up with an ineffective 10pts (3-12 FGs) 6ast in 35min and his struggles have gone beyond the point of bemusement at this point. Unless he's hurt, major players don't struggle this badly for this long.
Corliss ( F ) -- first big off the bench for KT after he missed a few layups, and just got lit up by Dirk. Not really Nasty's fault -- its the coach who thought our 6'6" stubby guy would be a good defensive matchup against a 7'0" All NBA playr, but it was still a wipeout. Did not return after that, which was a good thing tonight.
Hart ( C ) -- came in off the bench along with Corliss in the first quarter, and I guess would obviously have passed up Price in the rotation with some steady play and Ronnie's recent out of control streak. Did little, and then promptly seemed to suffer some sort of injury. Welcome to the world of Jason Hart.
Reef ( B+ ) -- did better offensively against the big shotblockers this time out, and mixed in some outside shots to avoid those long arms. Gave us nothing on the glass, but with Kenny eating them up, that wasn't a huge factor. Played some solid defense on Dirk in the early 4th -- of course when you are a superstar this is what "playing solid defense" does to your line: Nowtizi: 29pts on 12-17FG 4-5 FT. Lack of boardwork pulls this down half a grade, but Reef was one of the few guys -- ironically basically our entire beleaguered frontcourt -- that helped keep us within 10-12 there for a long stretch before the Mavs got serious.
Garcia ( C- ) -- short first half stint, missed a couple of shots, made a hustle play or two, came back in the second half...and nothing again. That good month he had last year before the ankle injury just seems worlds away right now. Just no impact at all.
Douby ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Talyor ( INC ) -- garbagetime, first stint in a month, let's hope he doesn't light up to celebrate. Actually, who cares?
Muss ( C ) -- ok, another loss. Might have something to do with us just not being very good. The good news as we hit 10-13? The next 5 are all winnable, and the Knicks/Nuggets brawl just handed us a potential gift for the toughest of them on the road in Denver. Well...I guess that's good news if you're stubbornly determined to maintain an exciting .500 record and miss both the playoffs and all the juicy young studs in the draft this year. John Salmons, off of a big game against the Suns, got the start in Kevin's stead tonight...and did absolutely nothing. Which as a long term Salmons observer was not surprising, but which was still disappointing given his improved consistency this year. Throw in Mike's seemingly impossible to solve struggles, and our backcourt was pathetic tonight. After trying his best to screw us over with dwarf ball early, at one point even Muss had to get a clue and try something new, and so came a long past due "big" experiment (ironically even our big team ain't that big, but anyway...) as we went big down the stretch of the 2nd with a mega Salmons/Ron/KT/Reef/Miller lineup, and what do you know it worked better than Corliss at PF. In the early going, Muss swallowed his timeouts again as the Mavs built the commanding lead they never relinquished -- a tired pattern at this point. Moved Hart up in the rotation ahead of the recently untrustworhy Price, only to see Jason suffer some sort of injury. Oh horrors. May have made a mistake there in the second half when he went with no KT for a long stetch in the 4th -- rare that that would ever be mentioned like it mattered, but tonight maybe it did. Kenny was maybe our best player on the night, and after he returned he wasn't nearly as effective. In any case, one thing we got right -- this time as the Mavs put us to sleep Muss actually recognized it and put in an actual garbagetime crew rather than running our main guys in search of an injury...or maybe a brawl. Have a feeling we may revive here in the next few games -- we have thus far this season cleaned up on the soft spots in the schedule even while being slapped around by the big boys. Now ask me if I'm going to be impressed if we do run off some wins against a patch of sub .500 teams, and one missing their two leading scorers to suspension. In any case, we lose by 20, and for much of the night you are thinking "well, at least its not a blowout". Yikes, is this 2006 or 1996?
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