Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Peja ( B+ ) -- you knew that one of the two star SFs had to step up here sooner or later, and it was Peja who came up with a huge first half. For one half it was there -- he hustled, he hit shots easy and hard, he was unusually aggressive attacking the middle. A star for a half. But "it" happened again. And any longtime Peja watchers know the "it" I am talking about. Made a few aggressive plays in the third, fading but was still with us. And then the 4th quarter came around and...well, the Sonics still had a big time shooting star and we no longer did. Not much on the glass again, which was ok in the first half but noticeable in the second. Lewis woke up this game, but Peja still played pretty good defense on him. The disappointment of his second half, and the whole game for the Kings, throws a pall over what was otherwise shaping up to be a breakthrough game for him. His first half explosion coincided with our monster half. His late disappearance coincided with our collapse. 21pts in the first half, 6 in the third quarter, 0 in the 4th. We've heard this story before.
Thomas ( A- ) -- a quiet factor in this series has been the turning of the Evans/Thomas matchup, with Reggie establishing his muscle game in the first two games, and Kenny counterpunching at Arco with quickness and shooting. KT also made our first half finesse attack work by taking care of the glass for us even while we were undersized. And perhaps of all of our starters, Kenny played the best down the stretch for us, really fighting and scrapping on the glass, getting offensive boards, trying to keep us in it. Its hard to give anybody an A on this night, and maybe Kenny deserves it, maybe not. But just felt if the rest of the team had fought as hard down the stretch, maybe we pull it out.
Miller ( B- ) -- good first half attacking from the perimeter and driving the middle looking to draw fouls. And while he only had 2 or 3 boards, he fought inside and was in there tipping balls to other Kings. Got very very quiet for a long stretch in the second half when maybe what we needed was somebody to slow the game down and take control of the offense rather than all of the quickshooting that was going on. Woke up very late to join Thomas in some late hustlework on the glass, but too little too late. Again showed absolutely no ability to effect Jerome James who is able to just shoot over him at will.
Mobley ( C-) -- quiet first half statistically, and obviously Allen got off to a tremendous start against him on the other end. But was at least down there hustling around picking up loose balls and spare change and helping keep us ahead on the hustle board. No idea what he was doing in the second half. Allen went insane on one end, and Mobley joined our quick shooting party on the other. Passing stopped, forced shots, dumb passes, turnovers (not all Cat, he was just part of the party).
Bibby ( D+ ) -- got off to another big start directing our high scoring offense in the first half. Had 12 pts 6 asts, a bunch of boards and control of the game at the break. But the second half was an utter disaster for him and for us. Couldn't hit anything, including free throws. The teamwide passing stopped, and we died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound (albeit Ray Allen had some say in it too). Its hard to imagine Bibby's grade sinking this low after maybe an A- type first half, but he and the Kings fell apart together, and not only did he not stop the bleeding this time, or step up big late, he actually was at the core of the bad decisionmaking and sloppy passing which sunk us. In fact the second half was clearly a big fat F.
Jackson ( D- ) -- maybe the only King who was ineffective in the first half, and then came out in the second half and just kept on going. I mean, bizarrely ineffective. You NEVER don't notice Bobby Jackson, but that was the case tonight. Would never have known he was on the court. Certainly Ray Allen didn't as he just totally ignored his defense. But rarely has a box score told the tale so accurately -- 15min 0pts 0rebs 0ast on 0-3 shooting. Just nothing, and that's not Bobby.
Songaila ( C+ ) -- not able to get much going offensively, but provided some hustle to keep the ball rolling when Brad sat down in the first half. In the second half was almost entirely forgotten about as we rode our horses right into the ground no matter how badly they were fraying at the edges.
Williamson ( B+ ) -- gave us a nice burst of energy in both his stints tonight, and by far the best move Rick has made this entire series is to use Corliss as a blatant designated Danny Fortson provoker. Danny comes in, Corliss checks in a minute later. And the pigtailed freak is such a knucklehead that he falls for it, picks up dumb fouls, and is thrown entirely off his game. No help on the glass, but did make a nifty pass to go with his normal offensive assortment.
Allen ( A+ ) -- ok, normally if I ever throw a random grade at an opponent, its a good one if he helps us, a bad one if he hurts us. But not this time -- Ray Allen was just flat out great tonight. Played like a true superstar and iced the game on maybe the toughest shot of the night. Much respect. You jerk.
Adelman ( C- ) -- I am going to try to avoid being a hypocrite here, because if ever there was a tale of two halves, and a tale of two entirely separate emotions about two halves, this was it. Rick shortened the rotation up in the first half in classic Sacto fashion -- went with our 8 best offensive weapons and forget about other considerations. Part of what I see as Rick's continuing attempts to redefine this series in terms that favor the Kings -- make it about skill and offense and see if Seattle can keep up. And in the first half it worked. And despite the worrisome 57% shooting by the Sonics, it looked like it might result in final victory. Just score them to death. But the second half was a disaster. We scored 68pts in the first half...and 34 in the second. Exactly half. And while the offense fell apart, it was still the same 8 offensive minded players getting all the minutes, and so the defense did not improve. Which is not a good formula. In a lot of ways we tried a gimmick with an obvious downside. The gimmick worked in the first half, but once it stopped working in the second, we got all of the bad and none of the good. Of course the bad part is that our "gimmick" is actually just playing our best guys, its just that they are so one-dimensional. In any case, beyond the earlier-mentioned moves to continue to provoke Danny Fortson, which I love, Rick loses enormous credit in the second half for never going deeper into the bench even as the wheels fell off. We stayed with the same 8, and really for most of the way the same starting 5, all the way down the stretch despite terrible struggles. A victim of our own first half success perhaps. And also of Rick's traditional reluctance to put in a defensive minded player when we are struggling on offense. To him the answer to struggling on offense is always to put in more offense. He just never thinks that well, if we are not scoring maybe we should put in somebody to at least stop them too. So maybe our three most defensive minded players, Skinner, Tag, and Evans, sat the whole game as we gave up 116. And Peja predictably, and Bibby somewhat shockingly, came up terribly small down the stretch, perhaps as fatigue set in. As much as I would have given Rick a good grade at half. As much as I am Monday morning QBing here by complaining about the same things that worked so well early, the overwhelming impression as things fell apart was that Rick was not doing enough to try to change that and save the game.
Thomas ( A- ) -- a quiet factor in this series has been the turning of the Evans/Thomas matchup, with Reggie establishing his muscle game in the first two games, and Kenny counterpunching at Arco with quickness and shooting. KT also made our first half finesse attack work by taking care of the glass for us even while we were undersized. And perhaps of all of our starters, Kenny played the best down the stretch for us, really fighting and scrapping on the glass, getting offensive boards, trying to keep us in it. Its hard to give anybody an A on this night, and maybe Kenny deserves it, maybe not. But just felt if the rest of the team had fought as hard down the stretch, maybe we pull it out.
Miller ( B- ) -- good first half attacking from the perimeter and driving the middle looking to draw fouls. And while he only had 2 or 3 boards, he fought inside and was in there tipping balls to other Kings. Got very very quiet for a long stretch in the second half when maybe what we needed was somebody to slow the game down and take control of the offense rather than all of the quickshooting that was going on. Woke up very late to join Thomas in some late hustlework on the glass, but too little too late. Again showed absolutely no ability to effect Jerome James who is able to just shoot over him at will.
Mobley ( C-) -- quiet first half statistically, and obviously Allen got off to a tremendous start against him on the other end. But was at least down there hustling around picking up loose balls and spare change and helping keep us ahead on the hustle board. No idea what he was doing in the second half. Allen went insane on one end, and Mobley joined our quick shooting party on the other. Passing stopped, forced shots, dumb passes, turnovers (not all Cat, he was just part of the party).
Bibby ( D+ ) -- got off to another big start directing our high scoring offense in the first half. Had 12 pts 6 asts, a bunch of boards and control of the game at the break. But the second half was an utter disaster for him and for us. Couldn't hit anything, including free throws. The teamwide passing stopped, and we died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound (albeit Ray Allen had some say in it too). Its hard to imagine Bibby's grade sinking this low after maybe an A- type first half, but he and the Kings fell apart together, and not only did he not stop the bleeding this time, or step up big late, he actually was at the core of the bad decisionmaking and sloppy passing which sunk us. In fact the second half was clearly a big fat F.
Jackson ( D- ) -- maybe the only King who was ineffective in the first half, and then came out in the second half and just kept on going. I mean, bizarrely ineffective. You NEVER don't notice Bobby Jackson, but that was the case tonight. Would never have known he was on the court. Certainly Ray Allen didn't as he just totally ignored his defense. But rarely has a box score told the tale so accurately -- 15min 0pts 0rebs 0ast on 0-3 shooting. Just nothing, and that's not Bobby.
Songaila ( C+ ) -- not able to get much going offensively, but provided some hustle to keep the ball rolling when Brad sat down in the first half. In the second half was almost entirely forgotten about as we rode our horses right into the ground no matter how badly they were fraying at the edges.
Williamson ( B+ ) -- gave us a nice burst of energy in both his stints tonight, and by far the best move Rick has made this entire series is to use Corliss as a blatant designated Danny Fortson provoker. Danny comes in, Corliss checks in a minute later. And the pigtailed freak is such a knucklehead that he falls for it, picks up dumb fouls, and is thrown entirely off his game. No help on the glass, but did make a nifty pass to go with his normal offensive assortment.
Allen ( A+ ) -- ok, normally if I ever throw a random grade at an opponent, its a good one if he helps us, a bad one if he hurts us. But not this time -- Ray Allen was just flat out great tonight. Played like a true superstar and iced the game on maybe the toughest shot of the night. Much respect. You jerk.
Adelman ( C- ) -- I am going to try to avoid being a hypocrite here, because if ever there was a tale of two halves, and a tale of two entirely separate emotions about two halves, this was it. Rick shortened the rotation up in the first half in classic Sacto fashion -- went with our 8 best offensive weapons and forget about other considerations. Part of what I see as Rick's continuing attempts to redefine this series in terms that favor the Kings -- make it about skill and offense and see if Seattle can keep up. And in the first half it worked. And despite the worrisome 57% shooting by the Sonics, it looked like it might result in final victory. Just score them to death. But the second half was a disaster. We scored 68pts in the first half...and 34 in the second. Exactly half. And while the offense fell apart, it was still the same 8 offensive minded players getting all the minutes, and so the defense did not improve. Which is not a good formula. In a lot of ways we tried a gimmick with an obvious downside. The gimmick worked in the first half, but once it stopped working in the second, we got all of the bad and none of the good. Of course the bad part is that our "gimmick" is actually just playing our best guys, its just that they are so one-dimensional. In any case, beyond the earlier-mentioned moves to continue to provoke Danny Fortson, which I love, Rick loses enormous credit in the second half for never going deeper into the bench even as the wheels fell off. We stayed with the same 8, and really for most of the way the same starting 5, all the way down the stretch despite terrible struggles. A victim of our own first half success perhaps. And also of Rick's traditional reluctance to put in a defensive minded player when we are struggling on offense. To him the answer to struggling on offense is always to put in more offense. He just never thinks that well, if we are not scoring maybe we should put in somebody to at least stop them too. So maybe our three most defensive minded players, Skinner, Tag, and Evans, sat the whole game as we gave up 116. And Peja predictably, and Bibby somewhat shockingly, came up terribly small down the stretch, perhaps as fatigue set in. As much as I would have given Rick a good grade at half. As much as I am Monday morning QBing here by complaining about the same things that worked so well early, the overwhelming impression as things fell apart was that Rick was not doing enough to try to change that and save the game.
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