Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( D ) -- Fraid Ron pretty much mailed this one in. Just did not feel like his normal intensity. Hit an early three, but very mild game in both stats and impact. Was passing willingly, but maybe too willingly -- on one notable occasion seeming to treat this one as an All-Star game and passing up an easy layup on the fast break to pass it back to Mike for a baseline jumper (which was missed) -- apparently to salute/encourage Mike getting it going. Got into Lewis a few times, but for the most part Rashard was able to get his shots. Did pick up the defensive intensity in the 4th, and allowed us to double Ray and just have Ron on Lewis, and take out most of the Sonics offense with just three players. In any case, weird, subpar game. 3pts 3rebs 8ast 3TO and 1-11 shooting?
Thomas ( A+ ) -- nifty game -- had a strong active and easy start with minimal resistance for the Sonics frontline, and was grabbing every loose ball on his way to a season high rebounding effort. Came out in the third with yet more energy on the glass, and was passing extremely well to set up Kings inside. Only downside was that he is REALLY struggling with his free throws right now, but even there he finally hit a pair in the last minute. I was waiting on the "+" here to see if the teams were actually going to fight for this one or just let it slide into final game of the season syndrome. But it eventually turned into a real game, which is good, because Kenny really was outstanding this time out.
Miller ( B- ) -- surprised in the first half by overpowering the Sonics down inside, and grabbing a lot of rebounds. Defense really got sad in the second half as the Sonics started having a layup/alley oop drill in there And it kind of cost him the remainder of the game as Rick went exclusively with Reef and Kenny. Was quite happy with his attacking play early. Quite unamused by his complete defensive collapse after half. So going to split the difference.
Wells ( A ) -- was overpowering inside in the early going, and was repeatedly set up for dunks by nice passes from teammates. Again alarmed by gettng pulled briefly in the second quarter after starting to hobble a bit, but returned, and went right back into the paint to attack some more. Made several nice interior passes in the early 4th to set people up for layps and hold us close. Along with Kenny, dominated this one with hustle.
Bibby ( B- ) -- started off the game smoothly draining threes, but unfortunately as the game wore on that became about ALL he was doing. Did make a few nice open court steals, but otherwise the defense was frequently lax to the point of nonexistence and Luke Ridnour just went OFF for a career-high in assists. And Mike himself neither dished out many, nor got ont eh galss at all. Just kind of spotted up and bombed threes.
Reef ( C+ ) -- about the only King other than Ron who struggled in the first half -- was just unable to finish from inside or out. Better after half, and took over for Brad and played the last 15 minutes or so, but still a mixed bag on his way to a 6-15, and the rebounding was down again -- 4reb in 30min.
Martin ( A ) -- very strong first half stint that felt a lot like the free and easy play of a few months back when Kevin was rolling. After a bizarre effort last time out when he was just chucking threes, this time kept it almost all inside and from midrange, with much better results. Played well again in the 4th when he forced poor Ray Allen to actually have to play defense, and competed well agianst him on the other side.
Hart ( B+ ) -- played well again in a short first half stint. And after returning in the 4th competed well against Watson without it showing up much in the stats. Better than the numbers might indicate, and played a part in setting up the 4th quarter comeback.
Garcia ( INC ) -- got in to start the second quarter as Rick briefly loosened the rotations in our final game. Did not do much.
Adelman ( B ) -- Well, regular season win #752 all-time for Rick (in about three seasons he passes Red) and maybe his last as a King. But it wasn't easy, although it should have been. Not sure we knew how to approach this one intensity-wise, and we kind of got caught in the middle in the early going. Neither mailed it in ala the meaningless final game, nor came out really buckled down and ready to play. But the intensity picke up as the Sonics surprised us by playing like they wanted to win -- doesn't seem much of that going on in the league right now. And Rick clearly made the call to try to win it when he brought Artest and Bibby back in at about the 4:50 mark to close it out. Of course ironically while that clearly said Rick was taking it seriously, you could make an argument those may have been the wrong substitutions with both Kevin and Hart playing very well at the time. In any case, we snuck away with it, and will make the Lakers play one more to secure the #7. Tough to grade Rick on a season finale game where there are other agendas, but I think by the end he had done well. Our guys played longer than I'm sure the original plan was, but nobody got hurt. And Rick went to, and stuck with more eneretic players like Hart, Kevin and Reef with his main guys (Ron, Brad, Mike) various degrees of sluggish. Loser in all of this may have been a guy like Cisco, who started off the game looking like he was going to get some significant minutes this time out, but saw them evaporate as a real live NBA game broke out. And so now, we wait. If the Hornets just mail it in the way they did against us and Phoenix, then the result tommoroow is a foregone conclusion. If they play hard, stilll a chance its Phoenix instead of the Spurs. Either way, there's nothing we can do about it now. So...we wait.
Thomas ( A+ ) -- nifty game -- had a strong active and easy start with minimal resistance for the Sonics frontline, and was grabbing every loose ball on his way to a season high rebounding effort. Came out in the third with yet more energy on the glass, and was passing extremely well to set up Kings inside. Only downside was that he is REALLY struggling with his free throws right now, but even there he finally hit a pair in the last minute. I was waiting on the "+" here to see if the teams were actually going to fight for this one or just let it slide into final game of the season syndrome. But it eventually turned into a real game, which is good, because Kenny really was outstanding this time out.
Miller ( B- ) -- surprised in the first half by overpowering the Sonics down inside, and grabbing a lot of rebounds. Defense really got sad in the second half as the Sonics started having a layup/alley oop drill in there And it kind of cost him the remainder of the game as Rick went exclusively with Reef and Kenny. Was quite happy with his attacking play early. Quite unamused by his complete defensive collapse after half. So going to split the difference.
Wells ( A ) -- was overpowering inside in the early going, and was repeatedly set up for dunks by nice passes from teammates. Again alarmed by gettng pulled briefly in the second quarter after starting to hobble a bit, but returned, and went right back into the paint to attack some more. Made several nice interior passes in the early 4th to set people up for layps and hold us close. Along with Kenny, dominated this one with hustle.
Bibby ( B- ) -- started off the game smoothly draining threes, but unfortunately as the game wore on that became about ALL he was doing. Did make a few nice open court steals, but otherwise the defense was frequently lax to the point of nonexistence and Luke Ridnour just went OFF for a career-high in assists. And Mike himself neither dished out many, nor got ont eh galss at all. Just kind of spotted up and bombed threes.
Reef ( C+ ) -- about the only King other than Ron who struggled in the first half -- was just unable to finish from inside or out. Better after half, and took over for Brad and played the last 15 minutes or so, but still a mixed bag on his way to a 6-15, and the rebounding was down again -- 4reb in 30min.
Martin ( A ) -- very strong first half stint that felt a lot like the free and easy play of a few months back when Kevin was rolling. After a bizarre effort last time out when he was just chucking threes, this time kept it almost all inside and from midrange, with much better results. Played well again in the 4th when he forced poor Ray Allen to actually have to play defense, and competed well agianst him on the other side.
Hart ( B+ ) -- played well again in a short first half stint. And after returning in the 4th competed well against Watson without it showing up much in the stats. Better than the numbers might indicate, and played a part in setting up the 4th quarter comeback.
Garcia ( INC ) -- got in to start the second quarter as Rick briefly loosened the rotations in our final game. Did not do much.
Adelman ( B ) -- Well, regular season win #752 all-time for Rick (in about three seasons he passes Red) and maybe his last as a King. But it wasn't easy, although it should have been. Not sure we knew how to approach this one intensity-wise, and we kind of got caught in the middle in the early going. Neither mailed it in ala the meaningless final game, nor came out really buckled down and ready to play. But the intensity picke up as the Sonics surprised us by playing like they wanted to win -- doesn't seem much of that going on in the league right now. And Rick clearly made the call to try to win it when he brought Artest and Bibby back in at about the 4:50 mark to close it out. Of course ironically while that clearly said Rick was taking it seriously, you could make an argument those may have been the wrong substitutions with both Kevin and Hart playing very well at the time. In any case, we snuck away with it, and will make the Lakers play one more to secure the #7. Tough to grade Rick on a season finale game where there are other agendas, but I think by the end he had done well. Our guys played longer than I'm sure the original plan was, but nobody got hurt. And Rick went to, and stuck with more eneretic players like Hart, Kevin and Reef with his main guys (Ron, Brad, Mike) various degrees of sluggish. Loser in all of this may have been a guy like Cisco, who started off the game looking like he was going to get some significant minutes this time out, but saw them evaporate as a real live NBA game broke out. And so now, we wait. If the Hornets just mail it in the way they did against us and Phoenix, then the result tommoroow is a foregone conclusion. If they play hard, stilll a chance its Phoenix instead of the Spurs. Either way, there's nothing we can do about it now. So...we wait.
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