Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( B- ) -- overpowered Garbajosa in the early going, and was effective posting up throughout the first half, either creating for himself or kicking out to others. Got sloppy in the third and began to turn it over in a similar role. And then as the wheels began to fall off in teh 4th, lost his composure as he is so wont to do and decided to be super Ron and start forcing dumb shots. Which of course only accelerated our crumbling. Sigh. Rarely noticed him on defense either.
Reef ( B ) -- was worked over by Bosh early, but after he got the better matchup vs. the rookie #1 Bargnani, he went to work inside. After half was modestly effective against Rasho in there too. Certainly no huge game, of course the boardwork was weakish, and he's much too polite to impede anybody who wants to get to the rim. But it was a solid effort for a while before he went silent late (our ball movement stopped, and the raptors became more intent on keeping the ball out of his hands).
Miller ( D ) -- a single jumper to start, but otherwise a rough beginning that just carried right over into a rough game. Missed his shots, never looked comfrotable. The lane was wide open again for opposing drivers. No boardwork. Sigh. Almost hope Brad's personal issue was still weighing on his mind given the results here. Made a couple of good passes after half to set people up, and then that was it. You know, the way this season is going every day that we delay trading these guys their trade value has to be slipsliding away. Its depressing.
Martin ( C- ) -- quiet start, never quite left open and was scoring for the most part by drawing fouls. In the late second quarter took it too far and did the atomic "I've been shot by a high caliber weapon" flop on TJ Ford, who never knew he was so strong. Derek Fisher would have been proud. Got some ragged points after half, but it was an ugly effort. Missed open threes, blew two layups, once by losing concentration and missing the shot, once by fumbling the ball away. Just not a good one.
Bibby ( C+ ) -- started off a game hot for once, but then cooled right off and struggled through the next two quarters. Tried at least in the 4th, but it was hit or miss. Hit a big three to briefly bring us back within 5 as we tried to maintain contact in the 4th, but then missed the next one as the Raptors poured it on. Ironically may have done a betetr job defensively on TJ Ford than any of our other guards were abel to do on his backup Jose Calderon. Not much int eh way of assists, reboudns, steals etc. etc., and one of those games where yeah, Mike had a few moments, but it was dangling right there on the edge bewteen ok and not so ok.
Corliss ( D+ ) -- dang, Corliss must have used up all of the special sauce in that big game, bnecause its been ugly since. Short ragged stint to start the 2nd quarter, missed his shots, turned it over. Had his one brief moment of glory to close the 3rd as he hit the go ahead basket when the Raptors all mysteriously left him wide open under the rim. But that was it, and he was neither effective defensively or on the glass after that point.
Williams ( INC ) -- not terribly effective in his first half stint, but did challenge the occasional shot, which made him unique. Got back in for 30 seconds of garbagetime.
Garcia ( INC ) -- short firt half stint where you barely knew he was there. May have returned for those last 30 seconds of garbage again, but not sure. And really, who cares?
Salmons ( B ) -- in the first half played well against the team that he screwed this summer, and they had to be gnashing their teeth. Got to the hoop at will, and was creating for both himself and others. Did get beat repeatedly off the dribble by Jose Calderon, who turned out to be a major key for the Raptors. Was on him because we were trying what seems like a reasonable lienup again with John at PG, and cisco in the game. I say seems like a reasonable lineup, because John has been far more effective anywhere but PG this year. After half came in and briefly gave us a boost, but in a funny reversal, tonight John, who has been really getting too MNAY minutes of late bcause Muss seemed to trust him so much, found himslef getting too few. of course the irony being that he has been logging heavy minutes and doing little. And tonight he got squeezed on a nnight when he was playing well. Welcome to Mussland.
Douby ( INC ) -- inserted into the game in one of those Muss moves -- did not play at all in the first half, so gets inserted for the first time in a 1pt game at the close of the third. Think he was in there to contend with Calderon, and took Cisco's spot in the rotation. Did not go well, and by the time he was back to the bench we were down 7. In the D range if he had the minutes.
Muss ( C ) -- Ok, here we go again. first the congrats -- that's 7 in a row baby! (league "best") and that loss oficially drops us behind the Hornets (you know the guys playing wihtout their 3 best players and 6th man all year) and into the #8 spot in the lottery. Furthermore we're breathing down the necks of the Blazers, Sonics and Hawks, and if we can somehow pull off the miracle loss to the devastatingly bad and banged up Celtics, we are going to be in prime position, with only our cake little homestand standing between us and a run at the Top...er...Bottom 5. So tonight we chose the 4th quarter for our collapse, and were unable to stand tall in the face of the 4th quarter run from the mighty Raptors. And we can add yet another defensive (as well as offensive collapse) to the register. Along the way, how did Muss do? Well, tried a new strategy this time. Let's call it the Adelman -- went with a short rotation with heavy minutes for the starters, only two main theoretically dependable veteran reserves (Salmons was, Corliss was not), and then some erratic time for a few youngsters. Along the way he cut KT entirely out of the rotation -- a DNP-CD -- and that's cancer city right there. Trade demand coming. Cisco and Williams got a brief nod in the first half, Douby was the only kid after half. And desptie being down by 14-16 for the entire stretch, we got them a grand total of :30 sec of garbagetime after Muss finally realized there were no 16 pt plays likely to save us. But there is subtle briliance to our a masterplan: A few weeks back we had one major obstacle in our Oden quest: the Atlantic Division. It was such a sad group that basically the entire division stood between us and the next great center in the draft. Well we are taking care of that. By the time we get done here, the entire division is going to be .500+.
Not sure how much of this can be laid directly at Muss's feet -- the scheme seemed solid to start, Bosh did not beat us, we started the game ok, played better int he third than maybe any other quarter. It was that criss of confidence/competence in teh 4th that got us. Of course there are quibbles -- not enough Salmons, too much Kevin + Brad, odd timng on the Douby insertion, maybe the ball could have gone to Reef more. But as these grades are all on some sort of curve, we've seen worse.
Reef ( B ) -- was worked over by Bosh early, but after he got the better matchup vs. the rookie #1 Bargnani, he went to work inside. After half was modestly effective against Rasho in there too. Certainly no huge game, of course the boardwork was weakish, and he's much too polite to impede anybody who wants to get to the rim. But it was a solid effort for a while before he went silent late (our ball movement stopped, and the raptors became more intent on keeping the ball out of his hands).
Miller ( D ) -- a single jumper to start, but otherwise a rough beginning that just carried right over into a rough game. Missed his shots, never looked comfrotable. The lane was wide open again for opposing drivers. No boardwork. Sigh. Almost hope Brad's personal issue was still weighing on his mind given the results here. Made a couple of good passes after half to set people up, and then that was it. You know, the way this season is going every day that we delay trading these guys their trade value has to be slipsliding away. Its depressing.
Martin ( C- ) -- quiet start, never quite left open and was scoring for the most part by drawing fouls. In the late second quarter took it too far and did the atomic "I've been shot by a high caliber weapon" flop on TJ Ford, who never knew he was so strong. Derek Fisher would have been proud. Got some ragged points after half, but it was an ugly effort. Missed open threes, blew two layups, once by losing concentration and missing the shot, once by fumbling the ball away. Just not a good one.
Bibby ( C+ ) -- started off a game hot for once, but then cooled right off and struggled through the next two quarters. Tried at least in the 4th, but it was hit or miss. Hit a big three to briefly bring us back within 5 as we tried to maintain contact in the 4th, but then missed the next one as the Raptors poured it on. Ironically may have done a betetr job defensively on TJ Ford than any of our other guards were abel to do on his backup Jose Calderon. Not much int eh way of assists, reboudns, steals etc. etc., and one of those games where yeah, Mike had a few moments, but it was dangling right there on the edge bewteen ok and not so ok.
Corliss ( D+ ) -- dang, Corliss must have used up all of the special sauce in that big game, bnecause its been ugly since. Short ragged stint to start the 2nd quarter, missed his shots, turned it over. Had his one brief moment of glory to close the 3rd as he hit the go ahead basket when the Raptors all mysteriously left him wide open under the rim. But that was it, and he was neither effective defensively or on the glass after that point.
Williams ( INC ) -- not terribly effective in his first half stint, but did challenge the occasional shot, which made him unique. Got back in for 30 seconds of garbagetime.
Garcia ( INC ) -- short firt half stint where you barely knew he was there. May have returned for those last 30 seconds of garbage again, but not sure. And really, who cares?
Salmons ( B ) -- in the first half played well against the team that he screwed this summer, and they had to be gnashing their teeth. Got to the hoop at will, and was creating for both himself and others. Did get beat repeatedly off the dribble by Jose Calderon, who turned out to be a major key for the Raptors. Was on him because we were trying what seems like a reasonable lienup again with John at PG, and cisco in the game. I say seems like a reasonable lineup, because John has been far more effective anywhere but PG this year. After half came in and briefly gave us a boost, but in a funny reversal, tonight John, who has been really getting too MNAY minutes of late bcause Muss seemed to trust him so much, found himslef getting too few. of course the irony being that he has been logging heavy minutes and doing little. And tonight he got squeezed on a nnight when he was playing well. Welcome to Mussland.
Douby ( INC ) -- inserted into the game in one of those Muss moves -- did not play at all in the first half, so gets inserted for the first time in a 1pt game at the close of the third. Think he was in there to contend with Calderon, and took Cisco's spot in the rotation. Did not go well, and by the time he was back to the bench we were down 7. In the D range if he had the minutes.
Muss ( C ) -- Ok, here we go again. first the congrats -- that's 7 in a row baby! (league "best") and that loss oficially drops us behind the Hornets (you know the guys playing wihtout their 3 best players and 6th man all year) and into the #8 spot in the lottery. Furthermore we're breathing down the necks of the Blazers, Sonics and Hawks, and if we can somehow pull off the miracle loss to the devastatingly bad and banged up Celtics, we are going to be in prime position, with only our cake little homestand standing between us and a run at the Top...er...Bottom 5. So tonight we chose the 4th quarter for our collapse, and were unable to stand tall in the face of the 4th quarter run from the mighty Raptors. And we can add yet another defensive (as well as offensive collapse) to the register. Along the way, how did Muss do? Well, tried a new strategy this time. Let's call it the Adelman -- went with a short rotation with heavy minutes for the starters, only two main theoretically dependable veteran reserves (Salmons was, Corliss was not), and then some erratic time for a few youngsters. Along the way he cut KT entirely out of the rotation -- a DNP-CD -- and that's cancer city right there. Trade demand coming. Cisco and Williams got a brief nod in the first half, Douby was the only kid after half. And desptie being down by 14-16 for the entire stretch, we got them a grand total of :30 sec of garbagetime after Muss finally realized there were no 16 pt plays likely to save us. But there is subtle briliance to our a masterplan: A few weeks back we had one major obstacle in our Oden quest: the Atlantic Division. It was such a sad group that basically the entire division stood between us and the next great center in the draft. Well we are taking care of that. By the time we get done here, the entire division is going to be .500+.
Not sure how much of this can be laid directly at Muss's feet -- the scheme seemed solid to start, Bosh did not beat us, we started the game ok, played better int he third than maybe any other quarter. It was that criss of confidence/competence in teh 4th that got us. Of course there are quibbles -- not enough Salmons, too much Kevin + Brad, odd timng on the Douby insertion, maybe the ball could have gone to Reef more. But as these grades are all on some sort of curve, we've seen worse.
Last edited:
i'm laughing all the way to the bottom of the lottery this year 
This just keeps getting more and more interesting. Or rather, should I use the term "scary"? Funny, I didn't even notice his not playing either.
