Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
The Ultimate Tale of Two Halves.
Thomas ( F ) -- Almost an incomplete. Slow start where he had a lot of almost but not quite plays, coming up just an inch or two short for boards, and kept on waiting for him to get it going. But not only did he not, I'm not sure he even tried. Kenny is in a major funk right now, and I have this sneaking suspicion it is from the shoulders on up. Continued doing nothing in the second half, leading to Reef taking over, and then a succession of smallball lineups as Kenny watched from the bench.
Artest ( B- ) -- combined with Bonzi to overpower the Suns in the early going, and was just too much for the Suns inside all night long. But as the game went along, did not seem able to assert himself as much in there, and missed a lot of free throws that we really needed. Seemed to be causing Marion significant problems in the first half, but really didn't cause ANYONE defensive problems in the second half. Also shot too many threes, and down the stretch lost his composure and got one on one happy again.
Miller ( B+ ) -- grabbed some boards early. And then in the second quarter came up with an inspired streak of play, scoring inside and out. Sat out for a long stretch of the third as he wasn't doing much and we got fascinated by smallballing. Returned in the 4th and tried to bail us out -- carried us offensively for a long stretch there when nobody else was doing anything. Added a meaningless three late in the game. A good overall effort with some impact stretches.
Wells ( B- ) -- sloppy start, obviously had mismatches on him, but turned it over repeatedly. Down the stretch grabbed some tough boards and finished inside. Overall kind of an odd game -- clearly had a power advantage, and used it. Also hit his outside shots efficiently. But it all felt a little ragged, he was never able to sustain or dominate for any stretches, and everytime he did start to roll, there seemed to be a turnover.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Similar in a lot of ways to his effort last game. Got off to his traditional strong start against Nash, and may have actually been upset when Steve picked up a 3rd foul in the first quarter (which looked like it might be ball game -- no such luck) causing his brother in law (House) to enter and start firing away. But much like last time out, Mike disappeared in this one after half, and unlike the Rockets game was unable to come up with any late hits. On the other side, Nash did not dominate, but in the second half the Suns offense was really perking, and obviously Mike wasn't disrupting Nash or anyone else he faced.
Reef ( B ) -- was like taking candy from a baby in the first half -- Suns just have absolutely nobody who can guard him, and we were in full atatck mode. But then the second half rolled around, and Reef disappeared in the face of double teaming pressure. Had 13 pts at half, only three in the second half despite taking a lot of Kenny's PF minutes. And in the second half Reef's achilles heel also became ours -- it was yet another non-rebounding game for him (3 in 25min), and us getting dominated by the Suns on the glass after half, often with Reef as our lone big, was a major factor in their comeback.
Martin ( F ) -- What's up Kevin? Soon after entering hit an off balance three off a scramble play, but was unable to get anything else going for the rest of the night. An up and down game against the Suns would seem ready made for Kevin's athleticism, but just couldn't put it together. Gave us next to nothing despite playing much of the second half as we got into a smallballing rut.
Garcia ( D ) -- appropriately for this game, Cisco's lone first half contribution was a single three. Hustled, but made a series of rookie mistakes in the late third that helped the Suns come roaring back. Would like to give him a higher grade for the effort, but the boneheaded plays (dumb fouls, forced shots) considerably hurt us tonight at a critical period as the Suns dominated the latter stages of the third quarter and tied us up by the end of the period.
Hart ( C+ ) -- short first half stint. Did a decent job harassing on defense, nothing on offense,.
Adelman ( C ) -- The plan was simple, elegant, 100% correct -- come on out, pound the Suns inside, and bullyball our way to victory. For a half it worked beautifully. The Suns had no answers. And then the wheels came flying off with dizzying speed, and now we end up with another demoralizing loss. Our mistake was in failing to cut the head off the serpent to make sure it was completely dead, and sure enough the Suns came roaring back to life as we started the second half flat -- apparently thinking we already had this one won. And Rick, after no doubt having a lot to do with the plan that ran us out to a huge lead, seemed to not only have no answers, but actually come up with all of the wrong ones in the second half. Not only did we come out of half apparently overconfident that we had the game won, but after we mushed the Suns inside in the first half Rick suddenly became fascinated by trying to out smallball the premiere smallballers in the league. We ran a tiny, inexperienced lineup down the stretch of the third quarter which got crushed -- we tried to go midget with Reef, Artest, Garcia, Martin, Bibby -- and not surprisingly could not grab a board and watched the kids make all kinds of inexperienced mistakes. In fact we ran much of the half with only one big on the floor, including Brad sitting out long stretches despite being surprisingly effective. Of course it might have helped if either KT or Reef has showed up after half to give Rick a viable option up front. But notably Kevin, who was Rick's solution in place of our PFs, didn't do a damn thing either. Just a very frustrating loss. This game looked to be about 12 minutes from over at half. We had done everything right, the refs were calling it tight which was making it very hard for the Suns to try to guard our various post options, and all we had to do was play solidly in the same fashion for one more period and it would be garbagetime. Instead, we got flat, got stupid, got small, and got crushed back into the 8th spot (Lakers won). Wonderful.
Thomas ( F ) -- Almost an incomplete. Slow start where he had a lot of almost but not quite plays, coming up just an inch or two short for boards, and kept on waiting for him to get it going. But not only did he not, I'm not sure he even tried. Kenny is in a major funk right now, and I have this sneaking suspicion it is from the shoulders on up. Continued doing nothing in the second half, leading to Reef taking over, and then a succession of smallball lineups as Kenny watched from the bench.
Artest ( B- ) -- combined with Bonzi to overpower the Suns in the early going, and was just too much for the Suns inside all night long. But as the game went along, did not seem able to assert himself as much in there, and missed a lot of free throws that we really needed. Seemed to be causing Marion significant problems in the first half, but really didn't cause ANYONE defensive problems in the second half. Also shot too many threes, and down the stretch lost his composure and got one on one happy again.
Miller ( B+ ) -- grabbed some boards early. And then in the second quarter came up with an inspired streak of play, scoring inside and out. Sat out for a long stretch of the third as he wasn't doing much and we got fascinated by smallballing. Returned in the 4th and tried to bail us out -- carried us offensively for a long stretch there when nobody else was doing anything. Added a meaningless three late in the game. A good overall effort with some impact stretches.
Wells ( B- ) -- sloppy start, obviously had mismatches on him, but turned it over repeatedly. Down the stretch grabbed some tough boards and finished inside. Overall kind of an odd game -- clearly had a power advantage, and used it. Also hit his outside shots efficiently. But it all felt a little ragged, he was never able to sustain or dominate for any stretches, and everytime he did start to roll, there seemed to be a turnover.
Bibby ( B- ) -- Similar in a lot of ways to his effort last game. Got off to his traditional strong start against Nash, and may have actually been upset when Steve picked up a 3rd foul in the first quarter (which looked like it might be ball game -- no such luck) causing his brother in law (House) to enter and start firing away. But much like last time out, Mike disappeared in this one after half, and unlike the Rockets game was unable to come up with any late hits. On the other side, Nash did not dominate, but in the second half the Suns offense was really perking, and obviously Mike wasn't disrupting Nash or anyone else he faced.
Reef ( B ) -- was like taking candy from a baby in the first half -- Suns just have absolutely nobody who can guard him, and we were in full atatck mode. But then the second half rolled around, and Reef disappeared in the face of double teaming pressure. Had 13 pts at half, only three in the second half despite taking a lot of Kenny's PF minutes. And in the second half Reef's achilles heel also became ours -- it was yet another non-rebounding game for him (3 in 25min), and us getting dominated by the Suns on the glass after half, often with Reef as our lone big, was a major factor in their comeback.
Martin ( F ) -- What's up Kevin? Soon after entering hit an off balance three off a scramble play, but was unable to get anything else going for the rest of the night. An up and down game against the Suns would seem ready made for Kevin's athleticism, but just couldn't put it together. Gave us next to nothing despite playing much of the second half as we got into a smallballing rut.
Garcia ( D ) -- appropriately for this game, Cisco's lone first half contribution was a single three. Hustled, but made a series of rookie mistakes in the late third that helped the Suns come roaring back. Would like to give him a higher grade for the effort, but the boneheaded plays (dumb fouls, forced shots) considerably hurt us tonight at a critical period as the Suns dominated the latter stages of the third quarter and tied us up by the end of the period.
Hart ( C+ ) -- short first half stint. Did a decent job harassing on defense, nothing on offense,.
Adelman ( C ) -- The plan was simple, elegant, 100% correct -- come on out, pound the Suns inside, and bullyball our way to victory. For a half it worked beautifully. The Suns had no answers. And then the wheels came flying off with dizzying speed, and now we end up with another demoralizing loss. Our mistake was in failing to cut the head off the serpent to make sure it was completely dead, and sure enough the Suns came roaring back to life as we started the second half flat -- apparently thinking we already had this one won. And Rick, after no doubt having a lot to do with the plan that ran us out to a huge lead, seemed to not only have no answers, but actually come up with all of the wrong ones in the second half. Not only did we come out of half apparently overconfident that we had the game won, but after we mushed the Suns inside in the first half Rick suddenly became fascinated by trying to out smallball the premiere smallballers in the league. We ran a tiny, inexperienced lineup down the stretch of the third quarter which got crushed -- we tried to go midget with Reef, Artest, Garcia, Martin, Bibby -- and not surprisingly could not grab a board and watched the kids make all kinds of inexperienced mistakes. In fact we ran much of the half with only one big on the floor, including Brad sitting out long stretches despite being surprisingly effective. Of course it might have helped if either KT or Reef has showed up after half to give Rick a viable option up front. But notably Kevin, who was Rick's solution in place of our PFs, didn't do a damn thing either. Just a very frustrating loss. This game looked to be about 12 minutes from over at half. We had done everything right, the refs were calling it tight which was making it very hard for the Suns to try to guard our various post options, and all we had to do was play solidly in the same fashion for one more period and it would be garbagetime. Instead, we got flat, got stupid, got small, and got crushed back into the 8th spot (Lakers won). Wonderful.
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