Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
So what do you do to find an entertaining game when you're 0-3 and haven't been remotely competitive at any point in the season? Find another 0-3 team, and have yourself a true clash of the titans! Woohoo! It was touch and go their for a little bit, in particular when we went down by 20 (TWENTY) to our fellow winless scrubs, but Damien Wilkens bailed us out, and we are off the schneid.
And to underscore how lucky we are to be watching our awesome collection of, er, athletes, I have dedicated today's theme to: Athletes Too Sad to Even Make the Kings
Cisco ( C+ ) -- not much scoring in the first half(in fact finished the first half with a bagel), but was really helping in the doing everything else. Creating shots for teammates, blocking a shot etc. A good roleplaying first half, albeit without the rebounding we have come to depend upon him for. But things began to unravel in the second half when evil Cisco returned and began to make some shaky Cisco descions in the late third and 4th. His shot was off all day, yet he insisted on forcing stupid shots. He made bad decisions and turned it over, and in general he and Damien Wilkens (the man he was often guarding) were doing their absolute best to win the other team the game. But after nearly capping his collapse with a final forced shot in the dying seconds, salvation landed in Cisco's hands as Brad found him in the corner for a wide open three that was the game winner. After Damien Wilkens got done hogging the final two shots that should have gone to Wally or Durant, Cisco got to heave a sigh of relief and pass the goathorns over to opponent. A game in which much of the good and the bad of Francisco Garcia was right on display. Its up to everybody to make up their own minds which way that weighs.
David Wells -- I have no idea how you could make a list of this type wihtout this man on it. I mean seriously. Professional "athlete" right there baby.
Moore ( C ) -- more of the same nothingness we've been getting from him in the first half, and why he was getting those minutes was a real question. Finally hit a turn around prayer, and managed to grab a rebound late in the second quarter as we closed the 20pt gap down to 13. But came out in third and did...well something at least. Ok, mostly he just clapped his hands a lot and yapped. But he also was taking charges, and scoring off of Cisco feeds (ala the way he scored that silly contract via JKidd), and gave us some energy. Still only amounted to a terrible sounding 4pt 4reb and 4To in 29 minutes. But there was a stretch there where it was better than that, and he helepd wiht his energy. Brilliant player really, he always does just enough, has that one stretch of non-awfulness, to avoid the F. That shows real veteran saavy and experience. And of course he's always ready to hop around and clap his hands for his teammates. In fact you know which famous crap athlete Mikki reminds me of:
Mateen Cleaves -- that's right baby, the one, the only. Why we didn't pick him up instead of some guy named Beano I will never know. He and Mikki might suck, but the overwhelming encouragement and towel waving prowess of such a tandem from the bench would be worth 5-10pts a game all by itself.
Miller ( B+ ) -- gave us nothing in the early going, and was that same ultra-passive uberwuss who has been plaguing our frontcourt all season. Just standing outside shooting standstill jumpers like a fat guy in a park, and even missing most. But then a funny thing happened. It was Brad Miller, of all people, who actually led us back from being down 20 in the mid 2nd quarter. He was reinserted with us on the verge of getting Reggie fired after only four games, and promptly started grabbing rebounds, finished inside, and even got out on the break and drew the foul. And then he actually built on that and came out in the second half equally aggressive. Was, believe it or not, fighting on the galss, and even trying some semi-post moves (a couple of which even went in). To top off the out of old ground bound body experience, he even came up with an important late block. Now its the Sonics. And they have a starting scrub at center who looks like a tatted up Legolas the elf, and then a bunch of moderately competent PFs behind him. But still, Brad played aggressively, and if he didn't use up his last testosterone molecule in the process could actually have a use if he played that way regularly (that use to raise his trade value, but still, better than watching him chuck up jumpers for another 3 years at $12mil a year).
Cecil Fielder -- and while we're on baseball (well, except for the Mateen interruption), some of us old timers remember that Prince Fielder's dad made junior look like Keira Knightly. This is a pic from one of his skinnier years.
Martin ( A ) -- very active and involved offensive first half (and by that I mean more than just scoring -- moving the ball very well, being involved in play on both ends). Was very active defensively early too -- in a bad way, as Sonics took turns scoring on him. But that first half was a true star first half. Not just a scorer. More of an all around pain in the *** ala a Ray Allen or some such, and ended the half leading or tied for the lead in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Welcome to Mitch Richmond's world kid! He was better defensively in the third when he was largely put on the Sonics surprisingly shaky PGs (none of them are very good, but tonight they made terrible decisions all game long). But he seemed to tire at the end of the third, and showed his ballhnadling weakness when we tried to run an iso play for him at the top of the circle to close the quarter -- Durant picked him clean and went the other way for an open dunk. And Kevin continued continued to struggle in the 4th with Seattle's defense rotated his way. Turned it over repeatedly, and appeared to cramp up after going up to grab an important late rebound for us. Late fade did have me thinking the "-", and the stamina issues will be something to watch as they were with Peja (and with the knowledge that Kevin seemed to fade lat ein the season last year). But in the end putting up the complete line -- 31pts 7rebs 5ast -- makes this one of Kevin's better overall games, and what people have been asking him to do. To be more than just a scorer. More than just a 22pt 3reb 2ast irrelevancy. To matter. And tonight he did.
Butterbean -- women of the board! Hands off!
And to underscore how lucky we are to be watching our awesome collection of, er, athletes, I have dedicated today's theme to: Athletes Too Sad to Even Make the Kings
Cisco ( C+ ) -- not much scoring in the first half(in fact finished the first half with a bagel), but was really helping in the doing everything else. Creating shots for teammates, blocking a shot etc. A good roleplaying first half, albeit without the rebounding we have come to depend upon him for. But things began to unravel in the second half when evil Cisco returned and began to make some shaky Cisco descions in the late third and 4th. His shot was off all day, yet he insisted on forcing stupid shots. He made bad decisions and turned it over, and in general he and Damien Wilkens (the man he was often guarding) were doing their absolute best to win the other team the game. But after nearly capping his collapse with a final forced shot in the dying seconds, salvation landed in Cisco's hands as Brad found him in the corner for a wide open three that was the game winner. After Damien Wilkens got done hogging the final two shots that should have gone to Wally or Durant, Cisco got to heave a sigh of relief and pass the goathorns over to opponent. A game in which much of the good and the bad of Francisco Garcia was right on display. Its up to everybody to make up their own minds which way that weighs.
David Wells -- I have no idea how you could make a list of this type wihtout this man on it. I mean seriously. Professional "athlete" right there baby.
Moore ( C ) -- more of the same nothingness we've been getting from him in the first half, and why he was getting those minutes was a real question. Finally hit a turn around prayer, and managed to grab a rebound late in the second quarter as we closed the 20pt gap down to 13. But came out in third and did...well something at least. Ok, mostly he just clapped his hands a lot and yapped. But he also was taking charges, and scoring off of Cisco feeds (ala the way he scored that silly contract via JKidd), and gave us some energy. Still only amounted to a terrible sounding 4pt 4reb and 4To in 29 minutes. But there was a stretch there where it was better than that, and he helepd wiht his energy. Brilliant player really, he always does just enough, has that one stretch of non-awfulness, to avoid the F. That shows real veteran saavy and experience. And of course he's always ready to hop around and clap his hands for his teammates. In fact you know which famous crap athlete Mikki reminds me of:
Mateen Cleaves -- that's right baby, the one, the only. Why we didn't pick him up instead of some guy named Beano I will never know. He and Mikki might suck, but the overwhelming encouragement and towel waving prowess of such a tandem from the bench would be worth 5-10pts a game all by itself.
Miller ( B+ ) -- gave us nothing in the early going, and was that same ultra-passive uberwuss who has been plaguing our frontcourt all season. Just standing outside shooting standstill jumpers like a fat guy in a park, and even missing most. But then a funny thing happened. It was Brad Miller, of all people, who actually led us back from being down 20 in the mid 2nd quarter. He was reinserted with us on the verge of getting Reggie fired after only four games, and promptly started grabbing rebounds, finished inside, and even got out on the break and drew the foul. And then he actually built on that and came out in the second half equally aggressive. Was, believe it or not, fighting on the galss, and even trying some semi-post moves (a couple of which even went in). To top off the out of old ground bound body experience, he even came up with an important late block. Now its the Sonics. And they have a starting scrub at center who looks like a tatted up Legolas the elf, and then a bunch of moderately competent PFs behind him. But still, Brad played aggressively, and if he didn't use up his last testosterone molecule in the process could actually have a use if he played that way regularly (that use to raise his trade value, but still, better than watching him chuck up jumpers for another 3 years at $12mil a year).
Cecil Fielder -- and while we're on baseball (well, except for the Mateen interruption), some of us old timers remember that Prince Fielder's dad made junior look like Keira Knightly. This is a pic from one of his skinnier years.
Martin ( A ) -- very active and involved offensive first half (and by that I mean more than just scoring -- moving the ball very well, being involved in play on both ends). Was very active defensively early too -- in a bad way, as Sonics took turns scoring on him. But that first half was a true star first half. Not just a scorer. More of an all around pain in the *** ala a Ray Allen or some such, and ended the half leading or tied for the lead in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. Welcome to Mitch Richmond's world kid! He was better defensively in the third when he was largely put on the Sonics surprisingly shaky PGs (none of them are very good, but tonight they made terrible decisions all game long). But he seemed to tire at the end of the third, and showed his ballhnadling weakness when we tried to run an iso play for him at the top of the circle to close the quarter -- Durant picked him clean and went the other way for an open dunk. And Kevin continued continued to struggle in the 4th with Seattle's defense rotated his way. Turned it over repeatedly, and appeared to cramp up after going up to grab an important late rebound for us. Late fade did have me thinking the "-", and the stamina issues will be something to watch as they were with Peja (and with the knowledge that Kevin seemed to fade lat ein the season last year). But in the end putting up the complete line -- 31pts 7rebs 5ast -- makes this one of Kevin's better overall games, and what people have been asking him to do. To be more than just a scorer. More than just a 22pt 3reb 2ast irrelevancy. To matter. And tonight he did.
Butterbean -- women of the board! Hands off!
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