Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( A- ) -- One of those game where it is most definitely not there in the stats. Ron picked up two quick fouls and had to sit after only 3 minutes of action. Hit a few shots, a couple of threes, but nothing really special until he made a huge play to beat the buzzer at the end of the first half, stealing the ball at halfcourt, thowing up the wild shot, charging into Horry who was alone under the Spurs hoop to grab the board, going up again, hitting the shot and just punctuating an insanely energetic half. But here's the nons-statistical side: 1) Manu. He has completely eliminated the Spurs #3 option for the last two games. Not held him down -- just disappeared him. And of course like most great defenders, that's not all Ron himself. Manu gets around him sometimes, gets a little space here and there. But ron is so much in his head, and Manu is so aware of him, that Ron has thrown the guy completely off his game. And 2) the other non-statistical factor is this: maybe better than the actual play on court was Ron's enthusiastic leadership and encouragement both on the court, and while pinned to the bench with the foul trouble. Still leading. Still pushing guys to give it their all.
Thomas ( C+ ) -- quiet first half, and lost many of his minutes to our small ball tactics once again. In the second half, minutes were again limited, but battled as well as he could against Duncan on defense, actively fronting him and denying him, with help from Brad playing behind him in an off the ball double. 4pts 5rebs just puts a top limit on this grade, and while he battled well, his defense on Duncan was mostly made effective by the doubel team help he was getting. That said, I kept on inching it up just because I thought Kenny got into the spirit and made a contribution there with his battling.
Miller ( B ) -- hit his first two jumpers, and while he did next to NOTHING else out there (19pts 2rebs 4ast 1stl 2blk), his shooting was back, and it provided us with a little space on offense. Cooled off in the third, but still smattered in enough shots to help. Normally a starting center pulling 2rebs is going to attract multiple
symbols from me, but Brad shot efficiently, and the shooting helped and was enough with Bonzi playing Rodman on the glass. Actually managed to lower his amazing 3 reb/gm average in this series, but still his best game thus far, and his shooting was just one more seemingly unsolvable problem for the a Spurs squad already under seige by Bonzi and Ron.
Bonzi ( A+ ) -- man, just resign the guy right now. This was just...amazing. Continues to do the near impossible here for us as an off guard, and has effectively been our missing All Star PF. Grabbed 5 of our first 6 rebounds, and while things were a bit ragged, at one point had 9 rebounds himself, to the Spurs 10.
Continued the assault and battery in the 2nd half, and unleashed a monster if-you-try-to-block-this-you-lose-your-arm power dunk in the middle the quarter. I even started counting along out loud after awhile: 13! 14!, just because it was damn fun. Finsihed with a ridiculous Duncanesque 25pt 17reb performance on 9-11 shooting, and threw in 3 steals and numerous defelections just for kicks. Brings his playoff averages up to a cool 21ppg 12.3rpg. Which isn't bad for a off guard. Just mildly disappointed he missed out ont he 20/20 night, because I'm not sure I've ever witnessed that from a guard. Here would be the nit: missed his FTs. Now ask me if I care. Just an incredibly hungry performance, and one of the easiest A+s I've ever given out.
Bibby ( B- ) -- slow start, but began to surge to the fore in the second quarter, and was very aggressive getting into the paint on drives, and mixing in some threes. Really aggressive attacking attacking and playing an inspiring fiery first half. Parker was scoring back the other way, but Mike's game had the more sparkle. Got quiet in the third while Parker kept right on rolling and was singlehandedly holding the Spurs in the game there for a while. Shootig percentages took a dive, and aftr 14 in the first half to lead us, only came up with 2 after half. 6-17FG drove the grade down, but in that second quarter in particular thought Mike's play was inspirational and part of us getting on a big roll.
Martin ( B ) -- got the early call with Ron in quick foul trouble, and rode the crowd's energy to a big burst. Used his speed to simply beat the Spurs to the rim or spots repeatedly, and made a whole slew of crowd pleasing plays to get the crowd roaring. The shots quit falling as the half wore on, and really had a quiet game after the first 6-8 minutye burst. 10 pts at the end of one. 14 by the end of the game in 33 minutes. But while not spectacular after the early going, wracked up a lot of those minutes as part of our small ball lineup and felt solid.
Reef ( C ) -- took a while to get going in the first half, but eventually settled in and was doing a decent job of challenging Duncan on both sides. Very quiet in the second half during his minutes as our obligatory solitary big next to Bonzi and Ron. 6pts, and 1 anemic rebound, while our off guard grabbed 17. Obviously did not hurt us though, and did have that stretch of competitive play vs. Duncan. No banner day obviously, but given the way the game played out, was ok holding doiwn the big man fort.
Hart ( INC ) -- brief, uneventful first half stint, and then garbagetime. He's over my normal 6 min cutoff for grading. But given all the garbage minutes, and given his complete lack of basically anything in his 8 minutes on the floor (0pts 0reb 0ast no shots 1TO), I'm just going to call it Inc.)
Garcia ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Potapenko ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Corliss ( INC ) -- less than 1 minute of play, but it was a neat one, seeing as the whole crowd started chanting his name, and Rick finally put him in to give him a bow.
Adelman ( A+ ) -- And here it is in simplest possible form: Rick Adelman is outcoaching Gregg Popovich. He has unleashed the one man Bonzi wrecking ball on the Spurs interior, has created mismatch nightmares by going to smallball to bypass our frontline weakness, and has found ways to severely disrupt the Spurs offense in the last couple of games. Also made a nice class move to put Corliss in the game at the end after the exuberant crowd starting chanting his name. If this is Rick's swan song in Sacto, he's doing it with style.
Thomas ( C+ ) -- quiet first half, and lost many of his minutes to our small ball tactics once again. In the second half, minutes were again limited, but battled as well as he could against Duncan on defense, actively fronting him and denying him, with help from Brad playing behind him in an off the ball double. 4pts 5rebs just puts a top limit on this grade, and while he battled well, his defense on Duncan was mostly made effective by the doubel team help he was getting. That said, I kept on inching it up just because I thought Kenny got into the spirit and made a contribution there with his battling.
Miller ( B ) -- hit his first two jumpers, and while he did next to NOTHING else out there (19pts 2rebs 4ast 1stl 2blk), his shooting was back, and it provided us with a little space on offense. Cooled off in the third, but still smattered in enough shots to help. Normally a starting center pulling 2rebs is going to attract multiple
symbols from me, but Brad shot efficiently, and the shooting helped and was enough with Bonzi playing Rodman on the glass. Actually managed to lower his amazing 3 reb/gm average in this series, but still his best game thus far, and his shooting was just one more seemingly unsolvable problem for the a Spurs squad already under seige by Bonzi and Ron.Bonzi ( A+ ) -- man, just resign the guy right now. This was just...amazing. Continues to do the near impossible here for us as an off guard, and has effectively been our missing All Star PF. Grabbed 5 of our first 6 rebounds, and while things were a bit ragged, at one point had 9 rebounds himself, to the Spurs 10.
Continued the assault and battery in the 2nd half, and unleashed a monster if-you-try-to-block-this-you-lose-your-arm power dunk in the middle the quarter. I even started counting along out loud after awhile: 13! 14!, just because it was damn fun. Finsihed with a ridiculous Duncanesque 25pt 17reb performance on 9-11 shooting, and threw in 3 steals and numerous defelections just for kicks. Brings his playoff averages up to a cool 21ppg 12.3rpg. Which isn't bad for a off guard. Just mildly disappointed he missed out ont he 20/20 night, because I'm not sure I've ever witnessed that from a guard. Here would be the nit: missed his FTs. Now ask me if I care. Just an incredibly hungry performance, and one of the easiest A+s I've ever given out.Bibby ( B- ) -- slow start, but began to surge to the fore in the second quarter, and was very aggressive getting into the paint on drives, and mixing in some threes. Really aggressive attacking attacking and playing an inspiring fiery first half. Parker was scoring back the other way, but Mike's game had the more sparkle. Got quiet in the third while Parker kept right on rolling and was singlehandedly holding the Spurs in the game there for a while. Shootig percentages took a dive, and aftr 14 in the first half to lead us, only came up with 2 after half. 6-17FG drove the grade down, but in that second quarter in particular thought Mike's play was inspirational and part of us getting on a big roll.
Martin ( B ) -- got the early call with Ron in quick foul trouble, and rode the crowd's energy to a big burst. Used his speed to simply beat the Spurs to the rim or spots repeatedly, and made a whole slew of crowd pleasing plays to get the crowd roaring. The shots quit falling as the half wore on, and really had a quiet game after the first 6-8 minutye burst. 10 pts at the end of one. 14 by the end of the game in 33 minutes. But while not spectacular after the early going, wracked up a lot of those minutes as part of our small ball lineup and felt solid.
Reef ( C ) -- took a while to get going in the first half, but eventually settled in and was doing a decent job of challenging Duncan on both sides. Very quiet in the second half during his minutes as our obligatory solitary big next to Bonzi and Ron. 6pts, and 1 anemic rebound, while our off guard grabbed 17. Obviously did not hurt us though, and did have that stretch of competitive play vs. Duncan. No banner day obviously, but given the way the game played out, was ok holding doiwn the big man fort.
Hart ( INC ) -- brief, uneventful first half stint, and then garbagetime. He's over my normal 6 min cutoff for grading. But given all the garbage minutes, and given his complete lack of basically anything in his 8 minutes on the floor (0pts 0reb 0ast no shots 1TO), I'm just going to call it Inc.)
Garcia ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Potapenko ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Corliss ( INC ) -- less than 1 minute of play, but it was a neat one, seeing as the whole crowd started chanting his name, and Rick finally put him in to give him a bow.
Adelman ( A+ ) -- And here it is in simplest possible form: Rick Adelman is outcoaching Gregg Popovich. He has unleashed the one man Bonzi wrecking ball on the Spurs interior, has created mismatch nightmares by going to smallball to bypass our frontline weakness, and has found ways to severely disrupt the Spurs offense in the last couple of games. Also made a nice class move to put Corliss in the game at the end after the exuberant crowd starting chanting his name. If this is Rick's swan song in Sacto, he's doing it with style.
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QF.....what was I thinking?
