Grades v. Spurs 04/22

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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( D ) -- got popped in the mouth by Manu to open the game -- did not look intentional, but given all the mess Ron's been talking, you never know I guess. Scored pretty well in the first half, but nowhere near enough to stem the tide, took too many bad shots and had no appreciable effect on defense. Was blocked repearedly down inside, and gave us nothing on the glass. Most of all what he failed to do was in any way impose his will on the game. Talk isn't enough Ron -- gotta walk the walk. Tonight nobody on the Kings did.
Thomas ( C- ) -- solid energetic start that led to nothing. No impact. Only marginally effective at what he's supposed to do well (rebounding) and flat out ineffective at anything else. Finished with a very quiet 7pts 6rebs, and mattered for maybe 3-4 minutes of this one, tops.
Miller ( F ) -- this of course being why I simply do not trust Brad Miller's head in the playoffs. All of his latent passivity and inconsistency came to the fore tonight in nasty fashion, and he gave us absolutely nothing. Hit one jumper in the first, but interior defense was invisible as Parker and Manu ran layup drills, and our 7'0" center came up with 0 first half rebounds. :rolleyes: Pretty much embarrassing.
Wells ( C ) -- slow start heavy on the downside of Bonzi -- turnovers, had trouble finishing, and low on the good (rebounding, finishing inside). Was one of the guys who at least battled in the second half, but never able to have any great impact. Could have gone with a + here in a less embarrassing game, but as it was...
Bibby ( C ) -- getting beat badly by Parker early. Was scoring back pretty well, but it was 16-9 after the first quarter and just got worse. And in the second quarter Mike did little but get into foul trouble. Picked up a pack of near meaningless points at the end of the third quarter with us down 30. Dubiously maybe our best player tonight.
Reef ( B- ) -- unable to finish in his first stint, but his 2 first half rebounds pracically led the team, and kind of quietly finished up with 8 by the end of the game (played a lot of garbagetime). Really had no appreciable effect on the game, but at least gave it the old college try, which was better than most tonight.
Martin ( D+ ) -- came in and looked shaky, missing his first couple of open looks and being part of our 2nd quarter collapse. Maybe settled down and looked better after his 2nd half return in semi-garbetime, but still missed open shots, and even an open layup.
Hart ( D ) -- entered the game and watched Van Exel nail a three in his face on his way to a big 2nd quarter, and then later in the quarter Parker just blew by him as well. Did better in garbagetime, but big whoop. Failed at the very thing he is supposed to do for us -- defend.
Cisco ( B- ) -- competed well in garbagetime, offensively at least. Did not get the complete game going however (8pts 1reb and a whole bunch of zeroes). At least could use the word "competed" with him however.
Corliss ( C+ ) -- soso garbagetime minutes. Did not look terribly inspired, but scored a few times inside.
Potapenko ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Price ( INC ) -- garbagetime

Adelman ( F ) -- Gee, that was fun. :rolleyes: This by the way was the championship pride response I was not sure whether the Spurs had. Well, they did. They beat us in the first, crushed us 41-15 in the second :eek: :eek: and never let us have a breath of life therafter. Were completely superior in every aspect. Not much else to say really. Our only effective offensive player (Mike) was also getting completely lit up on the other end. Our front line was completely ineffective as feared. Ron and Bonzi were only sporadically effective inside. And Kevin just looked overwhelmed. In all ways a worst case scenario. Rick...well, obviously had no answers. Not that I am even sure there were any with the way the Spurs played this one. I guess you can say that we waved the white flag at an appropriate time and got the bench guys in well. But in a crushing like this, the coach is going to get the team's grade.

Horry + Van Exel ( F ) -- AARRGGHH!! Kings killers to the end, saw who the opponent was, got up out of their rocking chairs, and were huge factors in the 2nd quarter blowout as they drained three after three.
 
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If these grades were real, the Kings would repeat the grade based on today's performance.


No summer school though; just fishin'.
 
51 to 32 rebounds!!!

The Spurs completely dominated the Kings. Brad played 27 minutes and collected only 1 rebound. Damn, did he even try to rebound?
 
Brad should be ashamed of himself! He played like a little girl. He might as well have dressed in the gold jersey. Sure does match the game he played tonight.
 
I have never once questioned Rick Adelman's substitution patterns in my life as a Kings fan, but opening the 2nd Quarter with Bibby on the bench was one of the worst decisions I've ever seen him make. Why? Parker was on the bench. If Parker's ever on the bench during this series Bibby HAS to be in the game. Bibby/NVE is the Kings' best matchup in the whole series, and the only chance the Kings had in the game was making a run during the beginning of the 2nd Quarter. And of course Parker on the bench means Bibby's not getting torched on defense. Instead Hart was in, made mental mistakes in leaving NVE open. Bibby wasn't there to take advantage of NVE's lack of defense and it was curtains. Just a horrible move. I wonder where Rick's head is, because the Kings looked completely unprepared.
 
Its those darn layups. 7 to start the game got them going, and they didn't stop. How many times have we seen this crap before. Open layups leads to everything going in.

Brad was in a word....pathetic.
 
nbrans said:
I have never once questioned Rick Adelman's substitution patterns in my life as a Kings fan, but opening the 2nd Quarter with Bibby on the bench was one of the worst decisions I've ever seen him make. Why? Parker was on the bench. If Parker's ever on the bench during this series Bibby HAS to be in the game. Bibby/NVE is the Kings' best matchup in the whole series, and the only chance the Kings had in the game was making a run during the beginning of the 2nd Quarter. And of course Parker on the bench means Bibby's not getting torched on defense. Instead Hart was in, made mental mistakes in leaving NVE open. Bibby wasn't there to take advantage of NVE's lack of defense and it was curtains. Just a horrible move. I wonder where Rick's head is, because the Kings looked completely unprepared.

i didn't like the start of the 2nd quarter either. now i'm just a fan and i only watch games, but it really baffled me why we started the group we started in the 2nd quarter. i think mike bibby should play around 40 a game in the playoffs. every game counts and you get a lot of rest in between. last night, he should've played 40+ minutes. they had 3 days off, and another 2 days off after this game. i'm sure mike could handle it.

if rick could play mike the whole game until it was out of hand in the april 5 meeting @ san antonio on the 2nd night of a back-to-back, why couldn't he do that in a playoff game with a lot of rest in between games?:confused:

i don't know. we just didn't have any offensive fire power in that bunch. that's where they really toasted us. their bench definitely outperformed ours.

well, i guess i just want mike and ron to be on the floor as much as possible. for the next game, i just wish they'd all play and compete better.

oh well, it's just one game. it's not yet over.
 
I suspected that Brad would sissy-up the place, but I never expected that our squad of "tough guys" would roll over like that. That was very much like the infamous game with Phoenix, except that the Kings never played well yesterday, at all.


I would imagine that most of the Kings are embarassed and humiliated. Artest and Bibby must be near suicide. Not sure about Brad. He has done this repeatedly. Disgusting. No self-respect. Seven feet tall. I am 60 years old and have never played basketball, but I'll bet that I could have gotten at least one rebound in 23 minutes of standing around in the paint.


What an awful day. I waited 20 hours just to check in and see Brickie's assessment.


I stand by my current signature. It was a prophetic statement. We saw a pathetic game.


:o :( :mad:
 
Voisin's column - which is actually excellent today - has a quote from Bibby. He admits they're very embarrassed, especially about being spanked on national TV - again.

Artest didn't talk to the media as he required three stitches to his lip. That, I'm sure, may look like a good omen for some - who would just as soon Ron didn't say anything for a while. (Myself included at this point.)

Miller had his shooting hand taped at the beginning of the game. I have no idea what happened or why, but it's just an observation not an excuse.

Whoever these guys were, they deserve IMHO even lower grades than what Brick gave. And they deserve all the criticism leveled on them by Voisin, who pretty much didn't say anything about Adelman...
 
I don't know about you folks, but I am pretty much unfit to live with for several hours after a game like this.

I think what really upsets me is not the missed jump-shots, but the abject lack of hustle. Rebounds and blocks are derived from hustle. One would think that given the apparent relevance of these playoff games to a person who has based his entire adult life on professional basketball that the player would do absolutely everything short of murder to win these games.

Ginobili busted Artest in the mouth right at the get-go, and that was that. Nothing nad happened to Ginobili. I suppose we are lucky that nothing happened, but I don't really understand it. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the coach said, "Fellas, just rebound! Don't worry about getting back on defense so fast. I suppose they would lose even worse, but rebounds would probably preclude a lot of second-chance and fast-break points.

When is someone going to smack down Parker and Ginobili when they do that running around stuff?

The world is full of basketball mysteries.

I must apologise for may emotional attitude, but I would trade Brad in the off-season for a center who will rebound and block shots. Passing is over-rated.
 
Actually, we need rebounding, shot-blocking from either our center or our power forward. Given the total skill set of Brad, SAR and KT, I'd rather see SAR or KT replaced with someone with those abilities. And given KT's moodiness, I'd rather see him replaced. His contract is an anchor, tho.

Brad could play power forward if we got a center with those abilities.
 
I disagree. I think seven-footers have to rebound, otherwise they are just taking up space and wasting perfectly good oxygen. Brad, somewhat like Vlade, would rather be a point guard than play center. The world is backwards. He needs a tasteful skirt to wear, maybe some pom-poms.

If my wife and I were mugged on the street, I would assume responsibility for taking care of the situation, not defer to my 5'2" wife. If I were a seven-foot basketball center, I would use that height-advantage to rebound. It really is as simple as that.

I feel my statement should be read with the voice and demeanor of the Geico gecko.
 
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