Artest ( C+ ) -- started off the game rebounding a lot of the many many caroms in the early going here -- think he had 6 half way through the first quarter. But was pretty much moribund offensively, and while he certainly helped our defensive effort, he was hardly necessary as the Pistons frontline would have just been godawful if you had locked them in a gym by themselves. Picked up a board here and there, a point or two here and there, a defensive stop here and there, for the remainder fo the game, but was clearly an afterthought in this one, and no better than our 5th best player tonight.
Thomas ( A- ) -- had a big statistical first half, nearly notching a double double before intermission, and being rewarded with big first half minutes because of it. Defensively was solid -- he wasn't exactly making Sheed miss, but he was holding him away from the hoop and making him make shots rather than dunks. And on this night, Sheed wasn't about to make anything. Slowed down a bit after half, but still collected a number of hustle boards to pad his total out to nifty 15 for the game. Minutes are a bit of a consideration for the "-" here too, as Muss continues to flat play guys right into the ground, and Kenny notched 45+ min tonight for his 8pts 15reb as opposed to a more noraml 35min or so where the excellent numbers would have been even more impressive.
Reef ( D ) -- had a poor first half actively contributing to the parade of incomeptence, missing shots from all over, settling for long jumpers, not grabbing boards despite them flying all over the court. Woke up a bit in the third, and finished several baskets off of internal feeds. But it was telling that we immediately got better this time when we went to the bench and replaced Reef with Corliss. And Shareef never returned therafter with Corliss having a banner game and Kenny nearly going wire to wire.
Martin ( A ) -- Pondered the minus here for a bad first half, but this was really, along with Corliss, the guy who won the game for us. He established the separation, and it wasn't until his big run that we exhibited an offense any better than you might see in a middle school game. As mentioned, got off to an awkward off balance start against the man that everybody keeps saying he's supposed to be modeling himself after (still not sure why other than just being skinny). Did get up for a nice block of Rip inside, and toward the end of the half finally got free once or twice. But for the most part didn't come alive until after half when the Pistons mysteriously changed the way they were guarding him -- Rip had been doing a great job more or less face guarding him, and perhaps understanding his back cuts and off the ball movement from first hand experience. But abruptly that looseened, there were some switches, and that was a mistake. Kevin hit a shot, then two, and then he was off and running with confidence and dominated the latter half of the quarter to push us out to a lead going into the 4th. Hit 9 shots in a row there at one point, and by the end had a career high 30 despite only having 7 at the break. On the other end of the floor Kevin certainly didn't shut Rip down, indeed let him go for about his 20ppg average. But it was a quiet mostly irrelevant 20pts after the first quarter. So career high + player who separated the teams = straight A I think.
Bibby ( A- ) -- only King who looked remotely comfortable on offense in the first half, made some smooth shots, and had a handful of nice passes. Nothing spectacular, and was spotted a few points on Pistons technicals, but easily our best offensive player. In the early 3rd hit an amazing three from the deep corner to beat a buzzer -- just a heave really. May have reinjured the thumb later in the third quarter and was in and out there for a while.. But came back to still manage to score points and grab hustle rebounds down the stretch. Playing with fire with that thumb, but this is a loss without him. On the other end Chauncey lit us up as really the Pistons only weapon tongiht to drop this grade a bit, but considering his injury keeping it in the A range seemed warranted.
Salmons ( C ) -- came back to Earth in true Salmons fashion, being completely invisible offensively in this one. Actually did play what you would call a solid floor game, playing defense, moving the ball. But that was about it, and kind of just lurked around on the court while others determined the outcome.
Williamson ( A- ) -- was inserted at the end of the first quarter, initially at his natural SF position. But soon enough to start the second quarter he was back to the PF spot in a super mini frontline of KT/Corliss. Played hard, but the best news of the first half may have been that Mo Taylor's incompetence has been noted. But this grade really took off after Corliss was reinserted with Reef in foul trouble at the end of the third. Big Nasty came in with energy and scored like it was 5 years ago -- combining with Kevin to push us out to a 5 pt lead to start the 4th. Corliss as backup PF/C...that's just ugly. But it worked well tonight, and I suspect we now get to see it for the next game or two at least as well.
Price ( B ) -- came in to start the second quarter and gave us a nice burst of energy on both ends, knocked down a three, pressed the pace. Did start to get taken advanatage of by Billups, and not much after half. Still, at least for a few minutes helped with hustle and athleticism.
Cisco ( INC ) -- I almost forgot about his "appearances". Basically being used now as a defensive spot player on obvious offense/defense type plays.
Muss ( A- ) -- wow, this one got off to an ugly start, but ended well for us. The Pistons were just awful from the field, and initially it wasn't really us. They just stunk up the joint. Of all the Pistons starters, the only one who even scored in the first quarter was Rip. And we weren't much better, missing jumpers, layups, you name it. But as the ugliness wore on, it began to be more about what we were doing, and less about the Pistons being a shell of the team they once were. And in the second half, after the ugliness looked ready to continue right through to the final buzzer, it was really Kevin busting loose which changed the flavor of the game as we FINALLY managed to combine some of that "offense" stuff the former regime was so good at with good defense (+ apparently a well placed bribe sitting in Sheed's locker -- he looked terrible out there). Early in the game Muss called a good timeout in the mid-2nd quarter to break up a Pistons run -- one fo the few tiems this young season he has doen that. Normally he seems to be trying to save every one that he can like he's getting a cash rebate for unused TOs at the conclusin of each game or something. The rotation remains a short 7, and once again we had 2 guys up around the 45 min mark. But at least in this case one of them was Kenny, who has not racked up that many minutes thus far, and is unlikely to over the course of the year. And perhaps learning, albeit slowly, after a brief hesitation after the Pistons waived the white flag in the final minutes, Muss kinda/sorta responded. At least to get his one-handed PG out of the game. Still not sure he gets the concept, but a little better. Maybe if we work on him we can get Cisco and Mo and Hart and Douby or whoever has taken Brad's place ont he active roster a full minute of work someday. Maybe.
That's not even an exaggeration.
