Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Peja ( C ) -- as expected, Peja's personal hell of a roadtrip continued. Hassel, Prince and then Bowen?? Oh my. This time out in the first half didn't look like Peja even really wanted to try it. Just passed it off rather than try to force the offense. Made a couple of solid passes off of pentration in the process though. A couple of times even saw guys not hit him for passes they normally would have tried. Had a brief spurt of life in
the mid-third with back to back threes, and also starting challenging Prince a little better. Showed a little pride I think. Night ended quite early as we went back to the bench in the early 4th.
Reef ( B- ) -- got off to a very nice offensive start, unfortunately Sheed was scoring back at him just as fast. Was able to iso and post several of the Pistons tough defensive bigs. Really getting ridiculous on the glass now. Had 2 rebounds last night, and then 2 more tonight.
Miller ( B ) -- hit a number of outside jumpers against the Pistons frontline, who want to pack the lane of course. Grabbed a decent number of rebounds, but of course it should be notes that his opposite numebr still grabbed twice as many.
Bonzi ( D+ ) -- got lit up by Rip all night long, and a night after being the big hero, the best thing he did was make some good dump off passes on dirve and dish plays. Forced it up in there a few times against the Pistons shotblockers, but mostly just got worked over by Rip.
Bibby ( C- ) -- scored well early, but it was Billups controlling the game on the other end. Went on a little run at the end of the third just when it looked like the Pistons might be going for the stranglehold. Forestalled the inevitable for a few minutes. But this grade sinks drasticlaly because of the working over he received at the other end of the court by Billups, who racked up a career hihg in assists and threw in 28 points to boot.
Garcia ( C ) -- played another good hustle game, but simply cannot hit a shot to save his life. Not even when he's not being an idiot and forcing. This was a guy known as a shooter in college, but you'd never know it. At least with the hustle is maybe figuring out how to make a consistent contribution of some sort.
Corliss ( B+ ) -- came in and gave is a nive little boost of energy. Int he first half, surprisingly mostly boardwork, but only had one nice finish on offense. But used his bulk effectively in the semi-garbagetime 4th to score repeatedly -- often on Mo. though of an A-, but most of his damage really did come after the game was over.
Thomas ( B- ) -- a nice pass early, but not much else until the dying minutes when he had a little flurry hitting a couple of perimeter jumpers and getting the assists on a couple of layups by the benchies. Not much boardwork, and untilt he final 3-4 minutes not much impact.
Skinner ( B ) -- good defensive activity in the first half, keying us inside ala Big Ben. Well...kinda.
Second half did not stand out, but still the second staright solid game from him. Maybe a good sign for us going forward.
Hart ( B ) -- did pretty well in his first half stint. Best in a while, and was actually running the team tonight. On the other hand, was also getting lit up on defense by Billups almost as often as Bibby (was effective against Carlos Arroyo though, who jsut seems to have forgotten how to play).
Martin ( INC ) -- garbagetime. Had as much luck against Rip as everyone else.
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime. Got a gimme hoop in transition.
Adelman ( B ) -- we came out and laid a defensive egg in the first. Pistons threatened 40pts in the first quarter, and that was with the game feeling like it was played in slow motion. Liked the move to bump Corlissup in the rotation vs. his old team. Went deep into the bench trying to avoid fatigue, and got some energy that was missing from the starters. We built a lead in the second quarter, and it was an actual bench sighting! In some ways no surprise as the Pistons are the only more starter-centric team in the league, and their bench looked like ours often does. Went to a zone for the second night in a row, and that seemed to be part of the reason the Pistons bench was disrupted. Maybe starting to work that in consistently to compensate for our inferior defenders? Only real question tonight for Rick, was whether he intended the reinsertion of the bench for a fading starting group in the early 4th to be a surrender, just a breather, or a shot in the arm. In any case, eventually ended up being a surrender, as the backups weren't able to make up any ground and Rick decided to just let the starters take the rest of the night off rather than have them log unnecesary and futile minutes. I any case, thought rick was solid tongiht and finally got something out of his bench. We lost this one simply because we are not as good as they are, and came into town maybe a little tired. Rick did his jobn, but we were just outmatched. Next up: the team that beat this one in the Finals a few months back. Woohoo!
Evans ( A ) -- for old times sake, Mo decided to come out and show us by forcing all kinds of crap, in the process going 0-5 in the first half and helping us get back in it. Finished 0-7 and got worked over by Corliss to boot. Thx Mo!
Pistons crowd ( F ) -- you have to be kidding me. About as pathetic as any crowd I've ever "heard" in the NBA. Let alone one for a title-contending team. And I thought Arco fans had gotten spoiled.
the mid-third with back to back threes, and also starting challenging Prince a little better. Showed a little pride I think. Night ended quite early as we went back to the bench in the early 4th.
Reef ( B- ) -- got off to a very nice offensive start, unfortunately Sheed was scoring back at him just as fast. Was able to iso and post several of the Pistons tough defensive bigs. Really getting ridiculous on the glass now. Had 2 rebounds last night, and then 2 more tonight.
Miller ( B ) -- hit a number of outside jumpers against the Pistons frontline, who want to pack the lane of course. Grabbed a decent number of rebounds, but of course it should be notes that his opposite numebr still grabbed twice as many.
Bonzi ( D+ ) -- got lit up by Rip all night long, and a night after being the big hero, the best thing he did was make some good dump off passes on dirve and dish plays. Forced it up in there a few times against the Pistons shotblockers, but mostly just got worked over by Rip.
Bibby ( C- ) -- scored well early, but it was Billups controlling the game on the other end. Went on a little run at the end of the third just when it looked like the Pistons might be going for the stranglehold. Forestalled the inevitable for a few minutes. But this grade sinks drasticlaly because of the working over he received at the other end of the court by Billups, who racked up a career hihg in assists and threw in 28 points to boot.
Garcia ( C ) -- played another good hustle game, but simply cannot hit a shot to save his life. Not even when he's not being an idiot and forcing. This was a guy known as a shooter in college, but you'd never know it. At least with the hustle is maybe figuring out how to make a consistent contribution of some sort.
Corliss ( B+ ) -- came in and gave is a nive little boost of energy. Int he first half, surprisingly mostly boardwork, but only had one nice finish on offense. But used his bulk effectively in the semi-garbagetime 4th to score repeatedly -- often on Mo. though of an A-, but most of his damage really did come after the game was over.
Thomas ( B- ) -- a nice pass early, but not much else until the dying minutes when he had a little flurry hitting a couple of perimeter jumpers and getting the assists on a couple of layups by the benchies. Not much boardwork, and untilt he final 3-4 minutes not much impact.
Skinner ( B ) -- good defensive activity in the first half, keying us inside ala Big Ben. Well...kinda.
Second half did not stand out, but still the second staright solid game from him. Maybe a good sign for us going forward. Hart ( B ) -- did pretty well in his first half stint. Best in a while, and was actually running the team tonight. On the other hand, was also getting lit up on defense by Billups almost as often as Bibby (was effective against Carlos Arroyo though, who jsut seems to have forgotten how to play).
Martin ( INC ) -- garbagetime. Had as much luck against Rip as everyone else.
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime. Got a gimme hoop in transition.
Adelman ( B ) -- we came out and laid a defensive egg in the first. Pistons threatened 40pts in the first quarter, and that was with the game feeling like it was played in slow motion. Liked the move to bump Corlissup in the rotation vs. his old team. Went deep into the bench trying to avoid fatigue, and got some energy that was missing from the starters. We built a lead in the second quarter, and it was an actual bench sighting! In some ways no surprise as the Pistons are the only more starter-centric team in the league, and their bench looked like ours often does. Went to a zone for the second night in a row, and that seemed to be part of the reason the Pistons bench was disrupted. Maybe starting to work that in consistently to compensate for our inferior defenders? Only real question tonight for Rick, was whether he intended the reinsertion of the bench for a fading starting group in the early 4th to be a surrender, just a breather, or a shot in the arm. In any case, eventually ended up being a surrender, as the backups weren't able to make up any ground and Rick decided to just let the starters take the rest of the night off rather than have them log unnecesary and futile minutes. I any case, thought rick was solid tongiht and finally got something out of his bench. We lost this one simply because we are not as good as they are, and came into town maybe a little tired. Rick did his jobn, but we were just outmatched. Next up: the team that beat this one in the Finals a few months back. Woohoo!
Evans ( A ) -- for old times sake, Mo decided to come out and show us by forcing all kinds of crap, in the process going 0-5 in the first half and helping us get back in it. Finished 0-7 and got worked over by Corliss to boot. Thx Mo!
Pistons crowd ( F ) -- you have to be kidding me. About as pathetic as any crowd I've ever "heard" in the NBA. Let alone one for a title-contending team. And I thought Arco fans had gotten spoiled.
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