Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well, Merry Christmas all! And if you're of another faith, Merry Christmas anyway -- this long ago became a secular holiday about buying stuff and eating chocolate.
And as my first Christmas Gift I present you with your 7-22 Sacramento Kings! Which BTW matches the all time worst start in franchise history. Woot and all that.
Cisco ( C- ) -- wanted to compete out there and was doing a lot of things, but simply could not buy a shot and was doing his overeager errors of aggression thing --- getting up too close on quicker players, throwing tough passes for turnovers, forced drives into traffic...did fail however to find his normal 3pt shooter to foul. Eventually the bad ( 3-13 shooting, 3 TOs)overwhelmed the good here and Cisco wasn't helping much.
Hawes ( C- ) -- I first tagged this as a slump a week or two ago, but few games in the streak have been as ineffective as this. Matched up against Matt Bonner and not able to do anything. Invisble on the glass in this one, and neither he nor Miller wanted to go outside to guard Bonner (who can only shoot from outside). Of course he wasn't always matched up against Bonner, as Brad scares nobody and Spencer sometimes got introduced to Tim Duncan instead. How oyu think that went? Do like that Natt has him in there in the post, taking his lumps and learning through humiliation basically. First with Yao, now with Duncan. Post up the best, get beat, learn from your mistakes, try try again. On the other hand Natt's procedure of playing John Salmons deep into the 4th quarter to pad his stats while Spencer sat after only 23 minutes was ridiculous. Toward the end of his time Spencer took some hard pissy frustration fouls. About the only King who will smack someboyd, but since he only dose it when he's frustrated it sits closer to Brad's whine and frustration foul than it does to a tough guy tone setting. Of course had some reaosn to be frustrated. Not only was he outperformed by Matt freakin' Bonner, but his teammates were utterly incompetent at getting tim the ball when he did have na advantage. There was a play in the second half that was just flat out embarrassing -- Spencer got down in transition pretty quick, and Finley had to pick him up as he slid down to the paint ot post up. Iso of 7'0" Spencer on 6'7" Finley in the post and he had Finley pinned for 5-6 seconds at least. An automatic mismatch to exploit no? Well, no apparently. Beno looked at the situation, and then totally ignored him and dumped the ball inefectively to Brad instead, who then also totally ignored him. I don't care about the rest -- the better team spanked us, Natt sucked, John padded his stats, Brad let down the team again...don't want to hear from any of them. But would very much like to hear from Beno/Brad what posssible excuse they ahd on that play.
Miller ( D ) -- after a couple of early jumpers, gave us pretty much nothing in the first half, which was balanced against Duncan giving the Spurs pretty much nothing back the other way. And that might have been the good half. Was just starting to make a little impact grabbing defensive rebounds in the third when he goes off and selfishly loses his cool and AGAIN let his teammates down by being a wimp. Trying to fake a non-existent foul, starts the crying and whimpering, bitching at the ref, not running back as the Spurs got out on the semi-break and we got scored on, then bitching some more to get a T and give the Spurs a point. Thanks for the veteran leadership wimp. Because Natt is proving an idiot himself, Brad was inexplicably back for a few minutes in the largely garbagetime 4th. Not only ineffective, but great way to send a message there Coach Old School. Damnit Geoff will you please pull the trigger and trade this guy while he's still worth more than KT?
Salmons ( B ) -- boxscore is a tad deceptive here, as Natt inexplicably decided to help John pad his stats with extensive play in the garbagetime rather than putting in players young enough to actually benefit from it. So we are maybe talking about 14-16 points here for John against the Spurs A team while the game was still on, and then a bunch of padding against the Spurs scrubs whiel everybody was just playing out the string. Did get off to the hot start scoring, passing, and just playing at a much higher level than any temmate. Then the Spurs got serious about taking him away, and away he went. Would occasionally burn Michael Finley, but was never a major factor as the Spurs opened up and extended that lead in the 2nd and 3rd. After the early burst of passing, when BTW John was playing the game like a true star and doing those things that Kevin for instance cannot -- driving baseline, drawing doubles and attention, and then dumping the pass to the open man for easy shots -- all of the well roundedness dissipated as well and it was back to 1reb 3ast one dimensionality.
Udrih ( B- ) -- I distinctly recall Beno having one or more good revenge games against the Spurs last year, but not really this time. Was engaged in a ferocious turnover battle with Parker in the early going, but couldn't even win that. Did however load up his steals stat as Parker was inexplicably leaving the ball all over the place. Rest of his game was inconsistent. Not terrible, but just erratic. Came and went, never any rhthym established, and there was that one ridiculous non-passing incident with Spencer. Was another veteran King playing deep into the garbagetime, although at least with Beno he's young enough, inexperienced enough, and in need of confidence enough to make it more understandable.
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Brown ( C+ ) -- played right on the border between making an impact and being out of control in the first half, and out of control won. Did hit a three, but also commiutted several turnovers on "almost" plays. Gets a boost to this grade for a nice defensive hustle play int he third where he got back to tie up Parker as they flew out of bounds on the baseline, and then won the tip on the jump ball as well. Tried to shake and bake Duncan late in the game and jsut came off looking silly. Mostly out of control effort trying to do too much on evey play, but effort was there.
Thompson ( B ) -- played a pretty good first half making mostly posive contributions with the boardwork and some solid finishes inside. Continued to display his lack of subtelty around the hoop, getting several sent back at him, but stayed after them. Did less after half despite many of his minutes coming against the likes of Kurt Thomas (obviously a strong crafty old vet, but old is the word here) and rookie Anthony Tolliver (who looked good against just about everybody).
Jackson ( D ) -- gave us nothing at all this time, this of course not being a former team or traditional rival of his. Couldn't hit a shot and was constantly thrown out there at OG against players 6 inches taller than he is.
Moore ( B+ ) -- got some good mop up dunk finishes in there in the second. Jumper in the third. Was also on the defensive glass -- not a Mikki specialty. Even came up with a good block. Tolliver took it right at him however and amazingly wasn't terribly intimidated.
Greene ( INC ) -- barely allowed to play in this one as Natt thought it critical we get John his stats rather than the kids some time.
Williams ( INC ) -- despite the game never being under double figures for the entire second half, Natt refused to put Sheldon in until the final 4 minutes, deciding to reward Brad's bad beahvior with more time late instead.
And as my first Christmas Gift I present you with your 7-22 Sacramento Kings! Which BTW matches the all time worst start in franchise history. Woot and all that.
Cisco ( C- ) -- wanted to compete out there and was doing a lot of things, but simply could not buy a shot and was doing his overeager errors of aggression thing --- getting up too close on quicker players, throwing tough passes for turnovers, forced drives into traffic...did fail however to find his normal 3pt shooter to foul. Eventually the bad ( 3-13 shooting, 3 TOs)overwhelmed the good here and Cisco wasn't helping much.
Hawes ( C- ) -- I first tagged this as a slump a week or two ago, but few games in the streak have been as ineffective as this. Matched up against Matt Bonner and not able to do anything. Invisble on the glass in this one, and neither he nor Miller wanted to go outside to guard Bonner (who can only shoot from outside). Of course he wasn't always matched up against Bonner, as Brad scares nobody and Spencer sometimes got introduced to Tim Duncan instead. How oyu think that went? Do like that Natt has him in there in the post, taking his lumps and learning through humiliation basically. First with Yao, now with Duncan. Post up the best, get beat, learn from your mistakes, try try again. On the other hand Natt's procedure of playing John Salmons deep into the 4th quarter to pad his stats while Spencer sat after only 23 minutes was ridiculous. Toward the end of his time Spencer took some hard pissy frustration fouls. About the only King who will smack someboyd, but since he only dose it when he's frustrated it sits closer to Brad's whine and frustration foul than it does to a tough guy tone setting. Of course had some reaosn to be frustrated. Not only was he outperformed by Matt freakin' Bonner, but his teammates were utterly incompetent at getting tim the ball when he did have na advantage. There was a play in the second half that was just flat out embarrassing -- Spencer got down in transition pretty quick, and Finley had to pick him up as he slid down to the paint ot post up. Iso of 7'0" Spencer on 6'7" Finley in the post and he had Finley pinned for 5-6 seconds at least. An automatic mismatch to exploit no? Well, no apparently. Beno looked at the situation, and then totally ignored him and dumped the ball inefectively to Brad instead, who then also totally ignored him. I don't care about the rest -- the better team spanked us, Natt sucked, John padded his stats, Brad let down the team again...don't want to hear from any of them. But would very much like to hear from Beno/Brad what posssible excuse they ahd on that play.
Miller ( D ) -- after a couple of early jumpers, gave us pretty much nothing in the first half, which was balanced against Duncan giving the Spurs pretty much nothing back the other way. And that might have been the good half. Was just starting to make a little impact grabbing defensive rebounds in the third when he goes off and selfishly loses his cool and AGAIN let his teammates down by being a wimp. Trying to fake a non-existent foul, starts the crying and whimpering, bitching at the ref, not running back as the Spurs got out on the semi-break and we got scored on, then bitching some more to get a T and give the Spurs a point. Thanks for the veteran leadership wimp. Because Natt is proving an idiot himself, Brad was inexplicably back for a few minutes in the largely garbagetime 4th. Not only ineffective, but great way to send a message there Coach Old School. Damnit Geoff will you please pull the trigger and trade this guy while he's still worth more than KT?
Salmons ( B ) -- boxscore is a tad deceptive here, as Natt inexplicably decided to help John pad his stats with extensive play in the garbagetime rather than putting in players young enough to actually benefit from it. So we are maybe talking about 14-16 points here for John against the Spurs A team while the game was still on, and then a bunch of padding against the Spurs scrubs whiel everybody was just playing out the string. Did get off to the hot start scoring, passing, and just playing at a much higher level than any temmate. Then the Spurs got serious about taking him away, and away he went. Would occasionally burn Michael Finley, but was never a major factor as the Spurs opened up and extended that lead in the 2nd and 3rd. After the early burst of passing, when BTW John was playing the game like a true star and doing those things that Kevin for instance cannot -- driving baseline, drawing doubles and attention, and then dumping the pass to the open man for easy shots -- all of the well roundedness dissipated as well and it was back to 1reb 3ast one dimensionality.
Udrih ( B- ) -- I distinctly recall Beno having one or more good revenge games against the Spurs last year, but not really this time. Was engaged in a ferocious turnover battle with Parker in the early going, but couldn't even win that. Did however load up his steals stat as Parker was inexplicably leaving the ball all over the place. Rest of his game was inconsistent. Not terrible, but just erratic. Came and went, never any rhthym established, and there was that one ridiculous non-passing incident with Spencer. Was another veteran King playing deep into the garbagetime, although at least with Beno he's young enough, inexperienced enough, and in need of confidence enough to make it more understandable.
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Brown ( C+ ) -- played right on the border between making an impact and being out of control in the first half, and out of control won. Did hit a three, but also commiutted several turnovers on "almost" plays. Gets a boost to this grade for a nice defensive hustle play int he third where he got back to tie up Parker as they flew out of bounds on the baseline, and then won the tip on the jump ball as well. Tried to shake and bake Duncan late in the game and jsut came off looking silly. Mostly out of control effort trying to do too much on evey play, but effort was there.
Thompson ( B ) -- played a pretty good first half making mostly posive contributions with the boardwork and some solid finishes inside. Continued to display his lack of subtelty around the hoop, getting several sent back at him, but stayed after them. Did less after half despite many of his minutes coming against the likes of Kurt Thomas (obviously a strong crafty old vet, but old is the word here) and rookie Anthony Tolliver (who looked good against just about everybody).
Jackson ( D ) -- gave us nothing at all this time, this of course not being a former team or traditional rival of his. Couldn't hit a shot and was constantly thrown out there at OG against players 6 inches taller than he is.
Moore ( B+ ) -- got some good mop up dunk finishes in there in the second. Jumper in the third. Was also on the defensive glass -- not a Mikki specialty. Even came up with a good block. Tolliver took it right at him however and amazingly wasn't terribly intimidated.
Greene ( INC ) -- barely allowed to play in this one as Natt thought it critical we get John his stats rather than the kids some time.
Williams ( INC ) -- despite the game never being under double figures for the entire second half, Natt refused to put Sheldon in until the final 4 minutes, deciding to reward Brad's bad beahvior with more time late instead.
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