8-26!
I thought just for kicks of having a Kings player of the game poll, then thought for even bigger kicks of having a Kings defender of the game poll.
Cisco ( B- ) -- in quick foul trouble again, which worked out just fine with Kevin going off. Only managed to survive 5 minutes of the first half. Was actually able to play after half, which included stints at "PF" when both teams slipped into some of those smallball junk lineups that its funny to remember were so in vogue only a couple of years back. Kind of like disco balls. Made solid all around contributions on offense, joined our three party (season high for us as a team), and came up with a timely block in transition. Also got lit up like a pinball machine by Granger, who was negating much of Kevin's big night by pumping in 35 of his own. In any case, when two bad teams get together and just to decide to run up and down the floor without any defense rather than play basketball, everybody's numbers get inflated.
Moore ( D ) -- Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. He could have included a wood carving of Mikki Moore coming out onto the court in the starting lineup as an illustration. Gave us next to nothing in the first quarter as both Murphy and Hibbert abused him. "Earned" 21 first half minutes, because you know that 3pts 0reb 1ast and 3fls is hard to come by in this league. Got off to the monstrous start to the third with a board and a hoop, but was quickly pulled (for a mistake? Crappy defense? 5 fouls? Not sure.) and Thompson was in. Our starting PF finished the night with, get this, 5pts (2-6 FG) 1reb 1ast 1blk 5fls in 28min. You will find one of our posters arguing down below that throwing our crappy vets out on the court to lose game after game just has to be on orders from above to try to pump their trade value so we can dump them (although with our guys the less you see maybe the better). Everybody has to hope and pray that is the case, because the other option is that Natt has the I.Q. of a cheeseburger.
Miller ( B ) -- easy offensive start continuing over the strong play from Frday against the weak Pacers' frontline, more jumeprs/drives, and back on the glass. Offense slowed down after half, but was able to find guys consistently with the passing against some really crappy defense. Didn't actually slow down a very slowable downable Pacers center corps, but got enough of his, and helped Kevin get enough of his, to win the battle here.
Salmons ( C ) -- canned three threes in the first quarter off to the hot start, but that was about the extent of his contributions as he wasn't passing, on the glass, playing defense, or hitting from anywhere else. Took a back seat while Kevin drove for a while, and only reemerged late in the game to help us choke off another one with some of his patented forced drives into traffic. The Pacers were running two PGs much of the night, and John's defense did little enough to slow either (not that Jarret Jack is going to light anybody up). May have been laboring a bit on the back to back, or may just again have been displaying his career long difficulty in performing when somebody else is going well and gettign the majority of the shots.
Udrih ( C ) -- in foul trouble almost as quick as Cisco and didn't even get 6 first half minutes. Shot was on, but was played much of the night off the ball. And the "much of the night" consisted of a grand total of 12 minutes as we got even older in this loss with BJax playing so well and taking over at PG.
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BJax ( A ) -- extremely effective first half performance in relief of the foul troubled Beno, although offensively at least a lot of it was taking advantage of inexperienced opponents and whistle happy refs. But also climbed all over the glass (had 6 by half) and did a solid job passing in the up and down game. Did not slow down after half, when he ended up stealing most of Beno's minutes (and all of Brown's minutes) and was consistently outhustling and outmuscling T.J. Ford all over the court. I pondered whether to straight A this or not, given the desire to seperate all grades from the next one, but fact is that this is just about the best that Bobby can do. It was back to the 6'1" PF days with 15pts 10rebs (led team) 5ast 0TOs...just what more can you ask from the old man?
Martin ( A+ ) -- well golly gee wilikers...I wonder where I should go with this grade? Came in and finally shook the return to action cobwebs out in a free flowing first half that was played almost entirely without defense. Not, mind you, that any defense was going to be allowed by the tweet happy refs. Kevin was feeling it, and ran up and down the floor getting whatever he wanted wherever he wanted, and even pausing long enough to set up teammates as well. Had a handful of tough takes, a whole bunch of wide open looks, and completely ignored Marquis Daniels, who got so scared of the outside bombs (a career high 7 threes) that he was leaving his feet on the slightest upfake. In 17 first half minutes, had a full 48 min of stats: 25pts 5ast. And carried it right over after half on his way to setting a Sacto record for points off the bench (obviously a technicality in Kevin's case). The one failing came late, when Kevin, being a King, came up small in the clutch, missing our last three shots of the game. The first a badly forced three that was apparently drawn up out of the timeout with 22 seconds to go and us down three -- no idea why, we could have just gone for the two and then intentionally foul game. In any case, everyone thought he would take it, they were all waitng, and he chucked up a prayer. But we got the rebound back and Kevin slid off into the corner where the Pacers had lost track of him for brick #2 -- a wide open corner three that he had hit several times already on the night. Then after the Pacers came back down for some more points, it was Kevin with a tough bricked layup to put the nail in. Bad ending, but still not enough to knock the "+" off of this. In a lost season, going off for huge numbers against a bad team in a loss still counts as outstanding, and Kevin (with a little help from Bobby) was the entire reason we were even in position to get this one toward the end.
Thompson ( C ) -- looked more in control in the first half, but not necessarily having as much impact as he had with the wild stuff yesterday. Had some problems on defense against guys -- Hibbert, Nesterovic -- who you really shouldn't have problems on defense against. And got himself into foul toruble that limited his minutes. Did get some low blocks but not hsi best effor ton the glass, shot poorly, and had his usual turnover problems.
Brown ( D ) -- too young to get much PT in the first half, and when he did he was surprisingly quiet given the pace, while mostly just staying out of Kevin's way. Did so little he did not even touch the floor after half as you see Natt really does practice tough love in regards to minutes...unless of course you are as old as dirt in which case you get carte blanche.
I thought just for kicks of having a Kings player of the game poll, then thought for even bigger kicks of having a Kings defender of the game poll.
Cisco ( B- ) -- in quick foul trouble again, which worked out just fine with Kevin going off. Only managed to survive 5 minutes of the first half. Was actually able to play after half, which included stints at "PF" when both teams slipped into some of those smallball junk lineups that its funny to remember were so in vogue only a couple of years back. Kind of like disco balls. Made solid all around contributions on offense, joined our three party (season high for us as a team), and came up with a timely block in transition. Also got lit up like a pinball machine by Granger, who was negating much of Kevin's big night by pumping in 35 of his own. In any case, when two bad teams get together and just to decide to run up and down the floor without any defense rather than play basketball, everybody's numbers get inflated.
Moore ( D ) -- Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. He could have included a wood carving of Mikki Moore coming out onto the court in the starting lineup as an illustration. Gave us next to nothing in the first quarter as both Murphy and Hibbert abused him. "Earned" 21 first half minutes, because you know that 3pts 0reb 1ast and 3fls is hard to come by in this league. Got off to the monstrous start to the third with a board and a hoop, but was quickly pulled (for a mistake? Crappy defense? 5 fouls? Not sure.) and Thompson was in. Our starting PF finished the night with, get this, 5pts (2-6 FG) 1reb 1ast 1blk 5fls in 28min. You will find one of our posters arguing down below that throwing our crappy vets out on the court to lose game after game just has to be on orders from above to try to pump their trade value so we can dump them (although with our guys the less you see maybe the better). Everybody has to hope and pray that is the case, because the other option is that Natt has the I.Q. of a cheeseburger.
Miller ( B ) -- easy offensive start continuing over the strong play from Frday against the weak Pacers' frontline, more jumeprs/drives, and back on the glass. Offense slowed down after half, but was able to find guys consistently with the passing against some really crappy defense. Didn't actually slow down a very slowable downable Pacers center corps, but got enough of his, and helped Kevin get enough of his, to win the battle here.
Salmons ( C ) -- canned three threes in the first quarter off to the hot start, but that was about the extent of his contributions as he wasn't passing, on the glass, playing defense, or hitting from anywhere else. Took a back seat while Kevin drove for a while, and only reemerged late in the game to help us choke off another one with some of his patented forced drives into traffic. The Pacers were running two PGs much of the night, and John's defense did little enough to slow either (not that Jarret Jack is going to light anybody up). May have been laboring a bit on the back to back, or may just again have been displaying his career long difficulty in performing when somebody else is going well and gettign the majority of the shots.
Udrih ( C ) -- in foul trouble almost as quick as Cisco and didn't even get 6 first half minutes. Shot was on, but was played much of the night off the ball. And the "much of the night" consisted of a grand total of 12 minutes as we got even older in this loss with BJax playing so well and taking over at PG.
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BJax ( A ) -- extremely effective first half performance in relief of the foul troubled Beno, although offensively at least a lot of it was taking advantage of inexperienced opponents and whistle happy refs. But also climbed all over the glass (had 6 by half) and did a solid job passing in the up and down game. Did not slow down after half, when he ended up stealing most of Beno's minutes (and all of Brown's minutes) and was consistently outhustling and outmuscling T.J. Ford all over the court. I pondered whether to straight A this or not, given the desire to seperate all grades from the next one, but fact is that this is just about the best that Bobby can do. It was back to the 6'1" PF days with 15pts 10rebs (led team) 5ast 0TOs...just what more can you ask from the old man?
Martin ( A+ ) -- well golly gee wilikers...I wonder where I should go with this grade? Came in and finally shook the return to action cobwebs out in a free flowing first half that was played almost entirely without defense. Not, mind you, that any defense was going to be allowed by the tweet happy refs. Kevin was feeling it, and ran up and down the floor getting whatever he wanted wherever he wanted, and even pausing long enough to set up teammates as well. Had a handful of tough takes, a whole bunch of wide open looks, and completely ignored Marquis Daniels, who got so scared of the outside bombs (a career high 7 threes) that he was leaving his feet on the slightest upfake. In 17 first half minutes, had a full 48 min of stats: 25pts 5ast. And carried it right over after half on his way to setting a Sacto record for points off the bench (obviously a technicality in Kevin's case). The one failing came late, when Kevin, being a King, came up small in the clutch, missing our last three shots of the game. The first a badly forced three that was apparently drawn up out of the timeout with 22 seconds to go and us down three -- no idea why, we could have just gone for the two and then intentionally foul game. In any case, everyone thought he would take it, they were all waitng, and he chucked up a prayer. But we got the rebound back and Kevin slid off into the corner where the Pacers had lost track of him for brick #2 -- a wide open corner three that he had hit several times already on the night. Then after the Pacers came back down for some more points, it was Kevin with a tough bricked layup to put the nail in. Bad ending, but still not enough to knock the "+" off of this. In a lost season, going off for huge numbers against a bad team in a loss still counts as outstanding, and Kevin (with a little help from Bobby) was the entire reason we were even in position to get this one toward the end.
Thompson ( C ) -- looked more in control in the first half, but not necessarily having as much impact as he had with the wild stuff yesterday. Had some problems on defense against guys -- Hibbert, Nesterovic -- who you really shouldn't have problems on defense against. And got himself into foul toruble that limited his minutes. Did get some low blocks but not hsi best effor ton the glass, shot poorly, and had his usual turnover problems.
Brown ( D ) -- too young to get much PT in the first half, and when he did he was surprisingly quiet given the pace, while mostly just staying out of Kevin's way. Did so little he did not even touch the floor after half as you see Natt really does practice tough love in regards to minutes...unless of course you are as old as dirt in which case you get carte blanche.
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Six assists. He looked >>>>>>>> Beno or B. Brown as an assist man. One of these days, when he has better finishers around him, I can see him having a 10 assist game.
