Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Acutely aware of the grade inflation tendencies of these high scoring little defense games, and so tried to hold back, but it was hard. 
Salmons ( B+ ) -- and so continuing with our game of musical injuries, it was Salmons off the injured list to start, Ron to stay in Sac, and Cisco to stay off the bench. Salmons got off to the strong start as a scorer in place of Artest, and had 10 first quarter points, almost all utilizing that quick first step. On the other end Lewis was even hotter however, although John did at least scoop up a bunch of steals in Artestesque fashion Slowed down after half, and got in major foul trouble limiting both his effectiveness and minutes. Nothing to jump out at you here beyond those steals, which weren't really due to defensive dominance. But a good solid all around effort -- the good side of a little of this littole of that versatile game.
Thomas ( A- ) -- after starting the game with maybe his best quarter of the season (had 7pts and 5reb after one) slowed way down and saw this grade creep back into the Bs as he slowly inched toward a double double. But after the long dry spell picked a good time to rewaken, and in the 4th got active again on the glass and made a number nice plays down the stretch to help us seal it. Not sure this was actually good enough to be a straight A game, but definitely back to something closer to the KT of last year.
Reef ( B ) -- mixed early results -- scored a few, mostly off shots created by others and returned the favor with a nice pass to Salmons (?) for a layup. Notably there were few of the iso post sets that got us in trouble last time. During his minutes largely played Wilcox to a standoff -- neither man ever really dominating, both having moments of effectiveness. Found himself replaced down the stretch of this one by Corliss, not for incompetence so far as I could see, but just because Corliss was a little more dynamic this time out. Solid effort either way.
Martin ( A+ ) -- Had to add the vaunted "+" here, something I rarely do, and yet even so I am not entirely sure Kevin was even the Kings best OG tongiht. You can check out his competition after Muss's grade. Scored 11 points in the first half, but really was not that terribly impressive a half for Kevin -- almost all of the hits were open looks off turnovers, and for the most part he was kind of scoring out of the context of the offense. But things changed quickly in the second half -- he hit a shot, and then another, and was of course off onto one of those vaunted hot streaks. And the Sonics are literally the worse defensive team in the league thus far -- have absolutely nobody to cool a hot hand. And oh boy did they not. Kevin exploded for about 10pts in about 4 minutes in the third quarter, and was not missing. And then in a bit of a change he stayed aggressive and hot for another 10 minutes or so. The Sonics onyl added fuel to the fire when they threw the awful Michael Gelabale out on the court to try to check Kevin -- Kevin scorched that scrub in preseason, an did so again here (hell I could scorch that guy -- have absolutely no idea what the Sonics see in him. Soncis may have finally found a bit of an answer with their one good perimeter defender -- Earl Watson, a PG, who at least pestered Kevin a bit. But by then it was much too late. On the other end...well, best to see that grade below. Kevin played solid defense, and badly outplayed a perennial All-Star. But its safe to say that the results on that side of the court were more about Ray Allen just having an ugly offnight than anything special we did to him. Not so the results ont he other side though. So career high and the guy who separated the teams, and so the "+" had to come even though this maybe could have stood to be a little better rounded effort. But rounded or not, clearly our difference maker on a big night. As an aside, hard to tell whetehr this played any part or not, but I was watching this one because it was this game last year that nearly scuttled Kevin's NBA career. Easy to forget only 1 year later that Kevin was struggling to start last seaason, and when we went north to play the Sonics he had an absolutely disastrous outing against Ray, got badly schooled, looked lost, and lost his spot in the rotatikon because of it. Ended up spending weeks on the bench afterward. Not sure whether he remembered and it mattered here, but I was interested to see how he might react in this one. Pretty good if that did have anything to do with anything.
Bibby ( B- ) -- and here is one of those grades -- think this is down in the Cs if we lose. But we win, and so, ok, good enough. Started off hot once again -- hit back to back threes, but then Ridnour struck back and Mike fell way way off, and missed his last 7 of the half. And a major issue was jsut that basically allhe was doing was chucking up threes, which makes me think that maybe he was still feeling that knee. Little to the hoop, and the defense, well, was basically Bibby defense. Stepped into some passing lanes, but not really particularly stopping his man. In some ways kind of like one of those off balance Peja nights of the last few years, where TOO many threes were rally an indication that the overall game was not going great and there wasn't enough balance, but enough points were eventually scored to get it up into B-/C+ range anyway.
Cisco ( C ) -- got a long first half stretch, but was pretty quiet other than hitting one in rhythm 3. And remained quiet even while getting a long run in the 4th as we were controlling things. Finally got pulled late in the quarter after making a couple of mistakes ina game still theoretically within reach, but for the most part just stayed out of the way. Not sure about this, but might be very tentative right now for fear fo the hook. That could etiher be a good thing in the long run, teaching him discipline that he can then add in the good parts of his game around, or it could be a bad one, draining the passions and energy from a player who needs them to make an impact, for better or worse. Just a hypothesis, but this was a very quiet outing.
Price ( INC ) -- kind of a bummer followup -- got off to a poor start, fouling, throwing up ugly shots -- maybe a hangover from his good game last time out and trying to do too much. Got pulled, and not sure I saw him out there in the second half.
Corliss ( B+ ) -- Good solid outing for Corliss saw him actually supplanting Reef as our second "big" down the stretch of this one. Came in and immediately hit a little shot in the post, and continued to score for us throughout his minutes tonight. Whenever one of our littles createsd something for him, Corliss was very consistent in finishing. And more than just that, created shots for his teammates as well. Not spectacular or dominant, but a reliable solid all around game tonight and helped us pull it off.
Muss ( B ) -- Well good. The bounceback game we needed. And a nice little softspot on our schedule wiht the back to back against the Northwest softies (Seattle and Portland) -- the two worst FG% defense teams in the league. Lets you kind of do what you want and get yourself straight for the upcoming stretch of hell at the end of the month. Muss himself played a relatively small factor in ths one. He made some moves of note, but few of them seemed to be the deciding factor here. He started Salmons rather than Cisco, and that worked pretty well. Nice to see Cisco get his minutes anyway, althought he did little wiht them. The hero of last game, Ronnie, shwoed up here I think trying to duplicate that effort, was not in control, and got yanked and benched for the remainder of the outing. Ah the ups and downs of a young player. Going with Corliss over SAR down the stretch was an interesting move, and I had no real problem with it -- the Sonics have little inside, and Corliss was acquitting himself well. But SAR had not been terrible, and so if he had been left in there, we probably still win. There were a couple of things that looked like clean errors to me, but again they did not bite us. First, Kevin got scorching in the third (like Peja, rapidly emerging as his favorite period I think) and was hitting everything he shot. And yet with 2:30 left to go in the quarter Muss takes him out as part of the regular rotation scheme. Maybe for Ronnie? And that just makes little sense -- not when a guy is THAT hot. What if he had frozen him? Let the guy at least miss first. He's young, he can handle the minutes. And secondly, in that same stretch Salmons picked up his 4th foul. And so Muss quickly looks down the bench at the end fo the third quarter to...Kevin Martin. After you just ebnched him? Adn for the final minute? Couldn't some other combo work if you were really determined to rest him? Worse, he did not get him out, and John damn near pikced up his 5th on the last play of the quarter. And odder still, after being all in a huff to get John out for the final minute of the 3rd to avoid that 5th foul, he reinserts him to START the 4th period. At which point he does promptly get his 5th foul. Very odd and messy handling. But as I said, did not matter. Generally what mattered was that little defense was played, our OG shot well, and theirs terribly, and we walked out wiht the win. So, hardly epic, but we got what we needed. Now back to Arco for a Portland team that also sucks on defense but is not godawful. Should win that one too given it is at Arco. Unless the back to back catches up to us. Guess we'll see.
Allen ( A+ ) -- Challenged Kevin for best King of the night honors putting forth one of the worst shooting efforts you are ever likely to see out of Ray Allen. Missed EVEYTHING, regardless of whether he was guarded or not, and at one pont was down to a ridiculous 4-20. And sure, Kevin was playing solid defense at times, but at others Ray was wide open all alone, and you would have thought he was Danny Fortson for all of the touch he was displaying.
Salmons ( B+ ) -- and so continuing with our game of musical injuries, it was Salmons off the injured list to start, Ron to stay in Sac, and Cisco to stay off the bench. Salmons got off to the strong start as a scorer in place of Artest, and had 10 first quarter points, almost all utilizing that quick first step. On the other end Lewis was even hotter however, although John did at least scoop up a bunch of steals in Artestesque fashion Slowed down after half, and got in major foul trouble limiting both his effectiveness and minutes. Nothing to jump out at you here beyond those steals, which weren't really due to defensive dominance. But a good solid all around effort -- the good side of a little of this littole of that versatile game.
Thomas ( A- ) -- after starting the game with maybe his best quarter of the season (had 7pts and 5reb after one) slowed way down and saw this grade creep back into the Bs as he slowly inched toward a double double. But after the long dry spell picked a good time to rewaken, and in the 4th got active again on the glass and made a number nice plays down the stretch to help us seal it. Not sure this was actually good enough to be a straight A game, but definitely back to something closer to the KT of last year.
Reef ( B ) -- mixed early results -- scored a few, mostly off shots created by others and returned the favor with a nice pass to Salmons (?) for a layup. Notably there were few of the iso post sets that got us in trouble last time. During his minutes largely played Wilcox to a standoff -- neither man ever really dominating, both having moments of effectiveness. Found himself replaced down the stretch of this one by Corliss, not for incompetence so far as I could see, but just because Corliss was a little more dynamic this time out. Solid effort either way.
Martin ( A+ ) -- Had to add the vaunted "+" here, something I rarely do, and yet even so I am not entirely sure Kevin was even the Kings best OG tongiht. You can check out his competition after Muss's grade. Scored 11 points in the first half, but really was not that terribly impressive a half for Kevin -- almost all of the hits were open looks off turnovers, and for the most part he was kind of scoring out of the context of the offense. But things changed quickly in the second half -- he hit a shot, and then another, and was of course off onto one of those vaunted hot streaks. And the Sonics are literally the worse defensive team in the league thus far -- have absolutely nobody to cool a hot hand. And oh boy did they not. Kevin exploded for about 10pts in about 4 minutes in the third quarter, and was not missing. And then in a bit of a change he stayed aggressive and hot for another 10 minutes or so. The Sonics onyl added fuel to the fire when they threw the awful Michael Gelabale out on the court to try to check Kevin -- Kevin scorched that scrub in preseason, an did so again here (hell I could scorch that guy -- have absolutely no idea what the Sonics see in him. Soncis may have finally found a bit of an answer with their one good perimeter defender -- Earl Watson, a PG, who at least pestered Kevin a bit. But by then it was much too late. On the other end...well, best to see that grade below. Kevin played solid defense, and badly outplayed a perennial All-Star. But its safe to say that the results on that side of the court were more about Ray Allen just having an ugly offnight than anything special we did to him. Not so the results ont he other side though. So career high and the guy who separated the teams, and so the "+" had to come even though this maybe could have stood to be a little better rounded effort. But rounded or not, clearly our difference maker on a big night. As an aside, hard to tell whetehr this played any part or not, but I was watching this one because it was this game last year that nearly scuttled Kevin's NBA career. Easy to forget only 1 year later that Kevin was struggling to start last seaason, and when we went north to play the Sonics he had an absolutely disastrous outing against Ray, got badly schooled, looked lost, and lost his spot in the rotatikon because of it. Ended up spending weeks on the bench afterward. Not sure whether he remembered and it mattered here, but I was interested to see how he might react in this one. Pretty good if that did have anything to do with anything.
Bibby ( B- ) -- and here is one of those grades -- think this is down in the Cs if we lose. But we win, and so, ok, good enough. Started off hot once again -- hit back to back threes, but then Ridnour struck back and Mike fell way way off, and missed his last 7 of the half. And a major issue was jsut that basically allhe was doing was chucking up threes, which makes me think that maybe he was still feeling that knee. Little to the hoop, and the defense, well, was basically Bibby defense. Stepped into some passing lanes, but not really particularly stopping his man. In some ways kind of like one of those off balance Peja nights of the last few years, where TOO many threes were rally an indication that the overall game was not going great and there wasn't enough balance, but enough points were eventually scored to get it up into B-/C+ range anyway.
Cisco ( C ) -- got a long first half stretch, but was pretty quiet other than hitting one in rhythm 3. And remained quiet even while getting a long run in the 4th as we were controlling things. Finally got pulled late in the quarter after making a couple of mistakes ina game still theoretically within reach, but for the most part just stayed out of the way. Not sure about this, but might be very tentative right now for fear fo the hook. That could etiher be a good thing in the long run, teaching him discipline that he can then add in the good parts of his game around, or it could be a bad one, draining the passions and energy from a player who needs them to make an impact, for better or worse. Just a hypothesis, but this was a very quiet outing.
Price ( INC ) -- kind of a bummer followup -- got off to a poor start, fouling, throwing up ugly shots -- maybe a hangover from his good game last time out and trying to do too much. Got pulled, and not sure I saw him out there in the second half.
Corliss ( B+ ) -- Good solid outing for Corliss saw him actually supplanting Reef as our second "big" down the stretch of this one. Came in and immediately hit a little shot in the post, and continued to score for us throughout his minutes tonight. Whenever one of our littles createsd something for him, Corliss was very consistent in finishing. And more than just that, created shots for his teammates as well. Not spectacular or dominant, but a reliable solid all around game tonight and helped us pull it off.
Muss ( B ) -- Well good. The bounceback game we needed. And a nice little softspot on our schedule wiht the back to back against the Northwest softies (Seattle and Portland) -- the two worst FG% defense teams in the league. Lets you kind of do what you want and get yourself straight for the upcoming stretch of hell at the end of the month. Muss himself played a relatively small factor in ths one. He made some moves of note, but few of them seemed to be the deciding factor here. He started Salmons rather than Cisco, and that worked pretty well. Nice to see Cisco get his minutes anyway, althought he did little wiht them. The hero of last game, Ronnie, shwoed up here I think trying to duplicate that effort, was not in control, and got yanked and benched for the remainder of the outing. Ah the ups and downs of a young player. Going with Corliss over SAR down the stretch was an interesting move, and I had no real problem with it -- the Sonics have little inside, and Corliss was acquitting himself well. But SAR had not been terrible, and so if he had been left in there, we probably still win. There were a couple of things that looked like clean errors to me, but again they did not bite us. First, Kevin got scorching in the third (like Peja, rapidly emerging as his favorite period I think) and was hitting everything he shot. And yet with 2:30 left to go in the quarter Muss takes him out as part of the regular rotation scheme. Maybe for Ronnie? And that just makes little sense -- not when a guy is THAT hot. What if he had frozen him? Let the guy at least miss first. He's young, he can handle the minutes. And secondly, in that same stretch Salmons picked up his 4th foul. And so Muss quickly looks down the bench at the end fo the third quarter to...Kevin Martin. After you just ebnched him? Adn for the final minute? Couldn't some other combo work if you were really determined to rest him? Worse, he did not get him out, and John damn near pikced up his 5th on the last play of the quarter. And odder still, after being all in a huff to get John out for the final minute of the 3rd to avoid that 5th foul, he reinserts him to START the 4th period. At which point he does promptly get his 5th foul. Very odd and messy handling. But as I said, did not matter. Generally what mattered was that little defense was played, our OG shot well, and theirs terribly, and we walked out wiht the win. So, hardly epic, but we got what we needed. Now back to Arco for a Portland team that also sucks on defense but is not godawful. Should win that one too given it is at Arco. Unless the back to back catches up to us. Guess we'll see.
Allen ( A+ ) -- Challenged Kevin for best King of the night honors putting forth one of the worst shooting efforts you are ever likely to see out of Ray Allen. Missed EVEYTHING, regardless of whether he was guarded or not, and at one pont was down to a ridiculous 4-20. And sure, Kevin was playing solid defense at times, but at others Ray was wide open all alone, and you would have thought he was Danny Fortson for all of the touch he was displaying.
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i don't get it.
