Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well, in other news today, we actually played a game...
Garcia ( B ) -- got off to a strong overall start on both ends. Was still making some mistakes, but contributed and did not ever get wildly out of control. Hit a three, scored on some drives around the hoop, and was decent if unspectacular on defense (other than one time committing the cardinal sin of fouling a three point shooter). In fact really it was all around solid play which drives this grade. Not crazy. Not wild. A professional effort. Got quiet late in the game and I thought about the minus. But not as if he was ever prolific at any point, and a solid roleplaying effort for Cisco stepping in under these circumstances warranted the flat B I think.
Thomas ( C+ ) -- ok start without impact, but started to get stupid near the end of the half as he did the patented KT "I'm not 6'7" damnit!" thing and decided to repeatedly go inside to challenge Dalembert to pad the big guy's shotblocking stats. In the second half started missing from all over the court, but was at least getting on the glass -- really the only King to do so. Had some problems with Webber in the second half as well as Webb started to get aggressive and take it at him in the post. Overall...rebounding helped, but the rest of his game was not very good.
Miller ( F ) -- Absolutely terrible game. Just terrible. As great as Bibby was, Brad countered it with his own awfulness. Did nothing against Dalembert and Webber in particular who repeatredly got his hands on that face up jumper. Even in the second half when he came out looking to score, just nothing. And not only no scoring, came up with ONE rebound on the night too. ONE. Topped it off by failing to block Matt Barnes off the glass on a missed Dalembert FT with 50 seconds to go, allowing Matt to save it to Webb, and Webb to draw the foul to pretty much ice it. Wonder if the trade had something to do with it? No idea. But in any case, last time we faced this team Miller was the one man gang with 36pts 11rebs, and we lost. This time Miller goes for 2pts 1reb
, and now Bibby was the one man gang. Bizarre.
Martin ( B+ ) -- And the wild pendulum swung back to "Good Kevin" for the night. Actually got off to a rough start. Was unable to slow down Iverson, and on the other end missed several layups around the hoop. But in that odd pattern that has emerged recently, finally got going by sticking a series of those weird windup jumpers. Began to really have an impact as the half wore on, and knocked in three first half threes. In the second half carried on as the main support guy for Mike. Mostly kept it simple and just outran people down the court. End result was a solid efficient game as Mike and the two kids really were about all we had. Got quiet late in the game as Mike increasingly was flying solo out there. But a good game again for Kevin, and now could he please PLEASE bottle it?
Bibby ( A+ ) -- Grading this guy is getting wild. Just radically up and down. And here was up again, and yet another career high. Was steady but not spectacular in the first half. Scored a hoop here, a hoop there, tied for our scoring lead at half but never any real runs. But came out firing in the second half, and the run inspired A.I. to turn to Mo Cheeks, point at Bibby, and ask to guard him (he was being checked by John Salmons I think). Of course Salmons had been scoring on Mike on the other end too down in the baseline post. In any case -- did not matter. Mike got into one of those rhythms coming off of picks where every shot was a swish, and end result was an absolutely Kobesque 2nd half performance with Mike pouring in 34 points! I wonder what the Sacto era record is for a guy scoring points in a half? Anyway, Mike simply could not miss. Which was a good thing as apart from Kevin for a while, nobody else could hit. So it was Mike left, Mike right, and he tried to singlehandedly carry us to victory. The Sixers really got aggressive about trying to stop him with doubles and traps, but it wasn't until the final two minutes when maybe they finally had a little success. Or maybe Mike just ran out of steam. Either way Mike brought us right to the brink, but could never get us over it with Iverson matching him point for point. Mike is kind of a part time superstar right now. Every third game or so is he is absolutely great. The other two, just pedestrian.
Reef ( D+ ) -- came in looking to score, but for the second night in a row was having a hard time getting anything past a big frontline. Our only reserve to get significant second half minutes, but it certainly wasn't because of effective play. 30min 10pts 3rebs on 2-10 shooting. Rebounding in particular remains odd because he seems to be battling, but losing almost every battle. You would think his hand was broken rather than his jaw.
Skinner ( C- ) -- got a nice early call in this one for the ineffective Miller, but really didn't do much. May have added a little intimidation down low, but it was subtle if it was there. No points, 1 rebound, no blocks. And no minutes in the second half.
Hart ( B- ) -- came in and hustled. Hit a three, and on a couple of occasions even bothered Iverson. Although it was only on a couple of occasions and Iverson went right back to work. Was kept largely pinned to the bench in the second half by the amazing Bibby show.
Adelman ( B- ) -- tough circumstances this time out obviously, but not sure how much of a difference it made in the outcome of the game. Garcia actually played well in place of Peja, And Bibby took care of the shooting and then some. The guy who was just awful was Brad, and it was really with him and the rest of the frontcourt where the problem lay tonight. As for Rick, well, the bench got very very shallow for him once more. Maybe not by initial design. In the first half had a fairly normal rotation, and I was happy to see him go to Skinner as the third bench guy along with Hart and Reef. But Skinner did not produce, and Mike just went insane in the second half. End result was that our 3-man first half bench was reduced to just a one-man (Reef) second half bench. And that one man really was not very effective. No minutes to be had for Hart with Mike and Kevin our two best players. And Skinner didn't do enough to earn a return to the floor in Rick's eyes. Given that the remaining unused bench pieces were Price, Sampson, and Corliss I'll leave it up to you whether there was much else to be done there, but one way or the other Brad Miller did NOT earn his second half minutes. Only real excuse I can see for playing him so long was that maybe he helped Bibby in his huge game since the two guys work the two man game so well. Anyway, this was not a bad loss really. Given the circumstances. On the road against a somewhat better team. But it could have been if Mike had not rode to the rescue. Maybe staking a last claim to the title of #1 scorer/leader in the face of the Artest fiasco. Meanwhile I wonder how Rick feels about having another problem dumped on his lap. This season has to have given him a major headache.
Garcia ( B ) -- got off to a strong overall start on both ends. Was still making some mistakes, but contributed and did not ever get wildly out of control. Hit a three, scored on some drives around the hoop, and was decent if unspectacular on defense (other than one time committing the cardinal sin of fouling a three point shooter). In fact really it was all around solid play which drives this grade. Not crazy. Not wild. A professional effort. Got quiet late in the game and I thought about the minus. But not as if he was ever prolific at any point, and a solid roleplaying effort for Cisco stepping in under these circumstances warranted the flat B I think.
Thomas ( C+ ) -- ok start without impact, but started to get stupid near the end of the half as he did the patented KT "I'm not 6'7" damnit!" thing and decided to repeatedly go inside to challenge Dalembert to pad the big guy's shotblocking stats. In the second half started missing from all over the court, but was at least getting on the glass -- really the only King to do so. Had some problems with Webber in the second half as well as Webb started to get aggressive and take it at him in the post. Overall...rebounding helped, but the rest of his game was not very good.
Miller ( F ) -- Absolutely terrible game. Just terrible. As great as Bibby was, Brad countered it with his own awfulness. Did nothing against Dalembert and Webber in particular who repeatredly got his hands on that face up jumper. Even in the second half when he came out looking to score, just nothing. And not only no scoring, came up with ONE rebound on the night too. ONE. Topped it off by failing to block Matt Barnes off the glass on a missed Dalembert FT with 50 seconds to go, allowing Matt to save it to Webb, and Webb to draw the foul to pretty much ice it. Wonder if the trade had something to do with it? No idea. But in any case, last time we faced this team Miller was the one man gang with 36pts 11rebs, and we lost. This time Miller goes for 2pts 1reb
, and now Bibby was the one man gang. Bizarre.Martin ( B+ ) -- And the wild pendulum swung back to "Good Kevin" for the night. Actually got off to a rough start. Was unable to slow down Iverson, and on the other end missed several layups around the hoop. But in that odd pattern that has emerged recently, finally got going by sticking a series of those weird windup jumpers. Began to really have an impact as the half wore on, and knocked in three first half threes. In the second half carried on as the main support guy for Mike. Mostly kept it simple and just outran people down the court. End result was a solid efficient game as Mike and the two kids really were about all we had. Got quiet late in the game as Mike increasingly was flying solo out there. But a good game again for Kevin, and now could he please PLEASE bottle it?
Bibby ( A+ ) -- Grading this guy is getting wild. Just radically up and down. And here was up again, and yet another career high. Was steady but not spectacular in the first half. Scored a hoop here, a hoop there, tied for our scoring lead at half but never any real runs. But came out firing in the second half, and the run inspired A.I. to turn to Mo Cheeks, point at Bibby, and ask to guard him (he was being checked by John Salmons I think). Of course Salmons had been scoring on Mike on the other end too down in the baseline post. In any case -- did not matter. Mike got into one of those rhythms coming off of picks where every shot was a swish, and end result was an absolutely Kobesque 2nd half performance with Mike pouring in 34 points! I wonder what the Sacto era record is for a guy scoring points in a half? Anyway, Mike simply could not miss. Which was a good thing as apart from Kevin for a while, nobody else could hit. So it was Mike left, Mike right, and he tried to singlehandedly carry us to victory. The Sixers really got aggressive about trying to stop him with doubles and traps, but it wasn't until the final two minutes when maybe they finally had a little success. Or maybe Mike just ran out of steam. Either way Mike brought us right to the brink, but could never get us over it with Iverson matching him point for point. Mike is kind of a part time superstar right now. Every third game or so is he is absolutely great. The other two, just pedestrian.
Reef ( D+ ) -- came in looking to score, but for the second night in a row was having a hard time getting anything past a big frontline. Our only reserve to get significant second half minutes, but it certainly wasn't because of effective play. 30min 10pts 3rebs on 2-10 shooting. Rebounding in particular remains odd because he seems to be battling, but losing almost every battle. You would think his hand was broken rather than his jaw.
Skinner ( C- ) -- got a nice early call in this one for the ineffective Miller, but really didn't do much. May have added a little intimidation down low, but it was subtle if it was there. No points, 1 rebound, no blocks. And no minutes in the second half.
Hart ( B- ) -- came in and hustled. Hit a three, and on a couple of occasions even bothered Iverson. Although it was only on a couple of occasions and Iverson went right back to work. Was kept largely pinned to the bench in the second half by the amazing Bibby show.
Adelman ( B- ) -- tough circumstances this time out obviously, but not sure how much of a difference it made in the outcome of the game. Garcia actually played well in place of Peja, And Bibby took care of the shooting and then some. The guy who was just awful was Brad, and it was really with him and the rest of the frontcourt where the problem lay tonight. As for Rick, well, the bench got very very shallow for him once more. Maybe not by initial design. In the first half had a fairly normal rotation, and I was happy to see him go to Skinner as the third bench guy along with Hart and Reef. But Skinner did not produce, and Mike just went insane in the second half. End result was that our 3-man first half bench was reduced to just a one-man (Reef) second half bench. And that one man really was not very effective. No minutes to be had for Hart with Mike and Kevin our two best players. And Skinner didn't do enough to earn a return to the floor in Rick's eyes. Given that the remaining unused bench pieces were Price, Sampson, and Corliss I'll leave it up to you whether there was much else to be done there, but one way or the other Brad Miller did NOT earn his second half minutes. Only real excuse I can see for playing him so long was that maybe he helped Bibby in his huge game since the two guys work the two man game so well. Anyway, this was not a bad loss really. Given the circumstances. On the road against a somewhat better team. But it could have been if Mike had not rode to the rescue. Maybe staking a last claim to the title of #1 scorer/leader in the face of the Artest fiasco. Meanwhile I wonder how Rick feels about having another problem dumped on his lap. This season has to have given him a major headache.
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