Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Thomas ( D ) -- did little out there other than lose his temper, and the only reason he got the minutes he did was because Reef was once again every bit as invisible until a single late power dunk. Not sure what is up, but Kenny hasn't had that consistent energy for some weeks now. Certainly tonight he got badly outperformed by the decrepit ghost of the middling Juwann Howard (who beneffited from the incredible attention paid to Yao to rack up 22pts 8rebs).
Artest ( C ) -- slow start but began to assert himself physically as the first half went along. And then disappeared for a long long time in the second half until scoring a few down the stretch. Meanwhile, did not have much impact on defense. Helped swarm Yao at times, but his own man was the immortal Keith Bogans, and so even if Ron had been doing a good job on that end there would have been no way to tell. Just kind of out there, but very few if any Artest moments besides a few second quarter drives and one late hit.
Miller ( A ) -- very strong game and generally outplayed Yao to carry a flat Kings team throughout. Missed his first couple of jumpers, but then our concentration on attacking Yao at both ends of the floor led to Brad being involved in nearly ever play as we opened up a commanding 16-2 lead. Brad did a little bit of everything in the streak, fronting Yao, picked up steals, pts, boards, assists. For stretches, the best Brad has played in a long time. The three point stuff has gotten out of control now, so that at one point he actually passed up an open jumper to step back and miss a three -- maybe ok for a guard, but ugly for a center. But at least this time out Brad managed to keep the mix solid, attack inside as often as he settled for jumpers, and get on the glass. With a ton of triple, quadruple, and quintuple team help, he also held Yao in check. So overall about as well rounded and strong of a game as you're going to see out of Brad, and the numbers (30pts 11rebs) speak for themselves.
Wells ( B- ) -- poor offensive game, and struggled to finish inside against Yao. But was grabbing rebound after rebound as usual and finished with 9 in the first half (giving him 19 over his last two halves -- had 10 in the second half of Clippers), and 12 in the game. Second night in a row where he basically stepped up and filled the gaping hole at "power" forward for us, scoring little, but rebounding and banging.
Bibby ( B ) -- big first half on the hot shooting start, and just easily hitting outside shots over the confused and messy Rockets backcourt. Disappeared in the third and for much of the 4th, but late in the game stepped up to hit two big threes to help seal it. Not a great game really, and inconsistent. But did enough, especially early, to combine with Brad to vanquish a severely undermanned and borderline pathetic Rockets team.
Reef ( C- ) -- very quiet game, although at least was part of our platoon of guys banging around with Yao. Got shots blocked and altered repeatedly by Yao and Deke in there, and the lone real bright point was a late power dunk down the lane that got the bored-to-tears crowd to its feet briefly.
Martin ( D ) -- made a couple of nice up fakes and drives, but could not finish, and did very little else, finishing up with an 0-4 0pt effort. Not going any lower because he did not hurt us so much as just accomplished nothing. Last couple of games have been oddly ineffective after he seemed to come back from the injury pretty well. Getting a bit concerned -- can Kevin play effectively off the bench? That was the role he struggled in early in the year.
Garcia ( C- ) -- hit one three, but not much else. Neither kid is having any impact right now. Garcia may or may not be physically right, but he is showing little of that aggressiveness that was starting to make him valuable before the injury.
Adelman ( B- ) -- U-G-L-Y. Good defensive scheme on Yao early -- basically quintuple team him and let any of his pathetic teammates who wanted to take the shot, take it. How's this for a lineup: Yao...Juwann Howard, Keith Bogans, Luther Head, Rafer Alston. Yuck. And while we let them catch back up, at no point did they feel terribly threatening. Basically they sucked, and if it weren't for our own desperate attempts to hand them the game, this is a blowout. Of course maybe you see the particular genius of Jeff Van Gundy in this one too -- basically he attempts to bore you into passivity. Then at the point that there are audible snores from the crowd, his team suddenly unleashes a vicious 5-0 run to take commanding lead of the game. Almost worked -- we started off the third awfully and really did not put the Rockets away until the final two minutes. In the face of all of this a few Rick notes: first, the early scheme on Yao was very much correct, and worked wonders. May have even decided the game given how ugly we played otherwise. Second, he got absolutely nothing off his bench tonight, and you have to wonder whether the kids are still not healthy, or whether they simply are not reacting well to coming off the bench once more. Offensively we started out strong, although it might have been a bit of a mirage as the Rockets were just awful. But we got more and more stagnant as this one ran on. Bonzi made a few nice passes out of the double, and I noticed us run that same play posting the three posts on one side of the court and having both Brad and Mike stand on the other side at the three point line, and it again resulted in an open three for Mike (have to believe at some point some competent coaching staff is going to draw that up on the board and stop it, but its worked thus far). But in general, the game was as ugly as the score indicated, and the big Houston centers significantly altered us around the rim. They say they can't all be pretty. Well...this one wasn't. But it was a win, and one step closer to locking up a playoff spot. So hardly inspiring. Nobody is scared of us off this one. But it gets us one step closer to our apparent goal.
Artest ( C ) -- slow start but began to assert himself physically as the first half went along. And then disappeared for a long long time in the second half until scoring a few down the stretch. Meanwhile, did not have much impact on defense. Helped swarm Yao at times, but his own man was the immortal Keith Bogans, and so even if Ron had been doing a good job on that end there would have been no way to tell. Just kind of out there, but very few if any Artest moments besides a few second quarter drives and one late hit.
Miller ( A ) -- very strong game and generally outplayed Yao to carry a flat Kings team throughout. Missed his first couple of jumpers, but then our concentration on attacking Yao at both ends of the floor led to Brad being involved in nearly ever play as we opened up a commanding 16-2 lead. Brad did a little bit of everything in the streak, fronting Yao, picked up steals, pts, boards, assists. For stretches, the best Brad has played in a long time. The three point stuff has gotten out of control now, so that at one point he actually passed up an open jumper to step back and miss a three -- maybe ok for a guard, but ugly for a center. But at least this time out Brad managed to keep the mix solid, attack inside as often as he settled for jumpers, and get on the glass. With a ton of triple, quadruple, and quintuple team help, he also held Yao in check. So overall about as well rounded and strong of a game as you're going to see out of Brad, and the numbers (30pts 11rebs) speak for themselves.
Wells ( B- ) -- poor offensive game, and struggled to finish inside against Yao. But was grabbing rebound after rebound as usual and finished with 9 in the first half (giving him 19 over his last two halves -- had 10 in the second half of Clippers), and 12 in the game. Second night in a row where he basically stepped up and filled the gaping hole at "power" forward for us, scoring little, but rebounding and banging.
Bibby ( B ) -- big first half on the hot shooting start, and just easily hitting outside shots over the confused and messy Rockets backcourt. Disappeared in the third and for much of the 4th, but late in the game stepped up to hit two big threes to help seal it. Not a great game really, and inconsistent. But did enough, especially early, to combine with Brad to vanquish a severely undermanned and borderline pathetic Rockets team.
Reef ( C- ) -- very quiet game, although at least was part of our platoon of guys banging around with Yao. Got shots blocked and altered repeatedly by Yao and Deke in there, and the lone real bright point was a late power dunk down the lane that got the bored-to-tears crowd to its feet briefly.
Martin ( D ) -- made a couple of nice up fakes and drives, but could not finish, and did very little else, finishing up with an 0-4 0pt effort. Not going any lower because he did not hurt us so much as just accomplished nothing. Last couple of games have been oddly ineffective after he seemed to come back from the injury pretty well. Getting a bit concerned -- can Kevin play effectively off the bench? That was the role he struggled in early in the year.
Garcia ( C- ) -- hit one three, but not much else. Neither kid is having any impact right now. Garcia may or may not be physically right, but he is showing little of that aggressiveness that was starting to make him valuable before the injury.
Adelman ( B- ) -- U-G-L-Y. Good defensive scheme on Yao early -- basically quintuple team him and let any of his pathetic teammates who wanted to take the shot, take it. How's this for a lineup: Yao...Juwann Howard, Keith Bogans, Luther Head, Rafer Alston. Yuck. And while we let them catch back up, at no point did they feel terribly threatening. Basically they sucked, and if it weren't for our own desperate attempts to hand them the game, this is a blowout. Of course maybe you see the particular genius of Jeff Van Gundy in this one too -- basically he attempts to bore you into passivity. Then at the point that there are audible snores from the crowd, his team suddenly unleashes a vicious 5-0 run to take commanding lead of the game. Almost worked -- we started off the third awfully and really did not put the Rockets away until the final two minutes. In the face of all of this a few Rick notes: first, the early scheme on Yao was very much correct, and worked wonders. May have even decided the game given how ugly we played otherwise. Second, he got absolutely nothing off his bench tonight, and you have to wonder whether the kids are still not healthy, or whether they simply are not reacting well to coming off the bench once more. Offensively we started out strong, although it might have been a bit of a mirage as the Rockets were just awful. But we got more and more stagnant as this one ran on. Bonzi made a few nice passes out of the double, and I noticed us run that same play posting the three posts on one side of the court and having both Brad and Mike stand on the other side at the three point line, and it again resulted in an open three for Mike (have to believe at some point some competent coaching staff is going to draw that up on the board and stop it, but its worked thus far). But in general, the game was as ugly as the score indicated, and the big Houston centers significantly altered us around the rim. They say they can't all be pretty. Well...this one wasn't. But it was a win, and one step closer to locking up a playoff spot. So hardly inspiring. Nobody is scared of us off this one. But it gets us one step closer to our apparent goal.
Last edited:
Unless you mean he was good tonight?
