No Nash, No Barnes, No Barbossa, Amare replaced by a pod person for four quarters, the Suns throwing the ball all over the court and missing critical free throws left and right and it still was not enough:
Thompson ( D+ ) -- one of his least effective outings of the year. Not effective at all in the first half, and was having trouble inside against the Suns big frontline. Finally started to come alive a little in the third with a couple of side pop jumpers, but it was too little too late to save his PT. The major problem is its official now -- JT cannot guard SFs at all (getting lost in space out there), and the sooner we get him back up front, the better. First it was Tayshaun having the monster game against him, then Thornton dropping 20, and this time it was Grant Hill with 18 points through three quarters (after which Thompson did not return)popping open for little jumpers at will. Also never got on the glass at all after giving us an advnatage there with his size at SF the last couple. With his struggles Douby came on and took all of JT's late minutes (besides a 1-2 minute stretch of Bobby Brown) as we went to a more conventional look swinging Salmons back to SF.
Moore ( C+ ) -- you wouldn't have really known he was out there in the first half, but that is both a good and bad thing. Was solid enough using his length inside, and this being a home game, actually led the Kings in rebounding before half (admittedly that was more because nobody else was doing a damn thing than because Mikki's 4 were that spectacular, but nonetheless). Did not stay long after half before giving way to Spencer during the midst of an ugly ugly third quarter (by everybody, not just him). Now Amare Stoudemire (who played like he just did not care until the end) clearly had been partaking in some of the same noxious herb floating around the Clipppers locker room, but even so by the time Mikki left the game he may actually have been the better PF -- to whatever degree it was not al self-imposed, think all the long bodies on our frontline may have discouraged Amare. So that's worth something.
Miller ( B- ) -- had perhaps the ultimate finesse center vs. power center first half, which is to say he was beaten like the proverbial red headed stepchild. Scored over and through at will by a rejuvenated Shaq, and answered the assault with some cute little passes, zero rebounds in the half, and a bright red bottom form the beating he, and we, were receiving. Just for kicks did once make the dubious decision to challenge Shaq inside in the post and...you can fill in the result. At least got one of those little half hook things over blown up OG Boris Diaw however -- so see, he was a post monster too. Bit of a tale of two halves though, although the numbers this time out felt deceptive. At the very least responded to what I am sure was a major Reggie tongue lashing at halftime over the boardwork, and where he had zero in the first 24 minutes, in the last 29 (regulation + OT) he grabbed 11. Never shot well, but began to slowly accrete points as well, and kept attempting the clumsy gallops to the hoop against Shaq -- and actually Shaq's response was interesting because big old Shaq did not challenge him high, but instead seemed to have little problem just poking away the clumsy dribble and stopping the drives before Brad ever reached the hoop. Missed two late FTs which could have been the difference between winning or losing for us, and damn near threw the game away when he took a rebound in the final minute and threw it up court right into the waiting hands of Grant Hill. Fortunately for Brad, Grant, for reasons I would rather not speculate upon, had vaseline on his mitts all night, and managed to not only fumble the ball away, but to race over, try to save it, bounce it off his own man and right into the waiting arms of Quincy Douby for a pair of FTs (actually I think it may have been to Salmons who pased it to Douby...in any case, we got points). Not often I am going to give 20pts 11rebs 7ast a B-, but I was not impressed. Poor shooting (6-16), half a dozen turnovers, key missed free throws, overpowered on defense...
Salmons ( B+ ) -- probably the Kings best player of the night, but never dominant. It was that kind of night. Was efficeint with his offense for much of the evening, but never able to get into a huge rhythm against a defender of Bell's caliber. A drive here, a drive there, at least had a lot fewer of those wild drives into traffic followed by a forced shot. And for three quarters the defense was nothing to write home about either -- both Raja Bell and Boris Diaw were queuing up threes at will against John, and Diaw made him look silly once with an up and under down on the blocks. But after Reggie pulled JT to go with a more conventional lineup, with John back up to SF, the defense reemerged against Grant Hill, who had been having his way against Thompson. John stayed with him at all times and was there to challenge all those easy little jumpers he had been getting. And then to top things he blocked Hill's gamewinning attempt. So John is all set up to be the hero right? Well...not so right. Final play of overtime, Kings down 2, we draw up a play, Phoenix does something really mysteriosu with its defense, leaving John wide open, and I do mean wide open, for the baseline drive. He drives, sees the help defense coming, decided to go for the reverse layup...and gets it smacked out of there. Game over man (ball actually landed in Specner's hand, and he promptly got it packed by Amare too, but still, you could hardly have asked for a better game tying setup).
Udrih ( B- ) -- began the game making fellow contryman Goran Dragic (if this is going to be their new Nash, ooh boy are they in trouble) look just silly on defense, but it was all maybe too easy, leading Beno to start forcing things and chucking up far too many shots. End result was by the end of aquarter where Beno clearly ran circles around Dragic, he was still only 2-7 for 5pts and 2ast. He calmed a bit thereafter, and was more steady on his way to leading the team in scoring at half (with a measely 10). The third was just ugly for everybody involved, but an interesting change took place near the end of it -- Dragic was just awful, and so with Nash suspended, with Barbossa off in Brazil because his mother had passed, Terry Porter looked down to the very end of his bench and came up with none other than Kings 2nd round pick Sean Singletary. Now Singletary did very little of note other than choke so hard on one wide open jumper to win it for his team that his voice went up two octaves, but the one thing he did do was play some very solid, very steady defense. Whereas Beno had Dragic just spinning around in circles looking like a 12 year old on the playground, Singletary stayed right there in front of him and impeded him wherever he went. It made a major difference, and Beno was not a factor thereafter.
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Hawes ( B ) -- a generally solid game by the end. First half statline was a bit deceptive, as Spencer was ok out there, but wasn't making an impact. Defended Amare pretty well, but wasn't on the glass at all, and the 3 blocks were...well, let's just put it this way, one of them was off his elbow. While his back was turned. In any case, think he was more effective with his length in there than Brad, but then again I might be too. And on the other end took one look at Shaq and I'll give you a guess where his offense was coming from. Ever see Monty Python & The Holy Grail? Run away! Run away! Came back wth Brad though with a much more focused effort on the glass after the break, and until the game went to OT his primary opponent Amare was having quite possibly the single worst game of his career -- he was just awful (the other occasional opponent was noen other than Kings castoff Louis Admundson, who showed why he was cast off). Unfortunately Amare woke up in OT, and it was largely at Spencer's expense. Spencer did get a layup to tie the game with 13 seconds to go, but unfortunately he also watched Amare splash three jumpers in his face, including the game winner, and to add insult to injury after Amare blocked Salmon's final attempt and the ball squirted to Spencer, Amare spun right around and blocked him too to seal it.
Jackson ( C- ) -- very little of note happened during his watches. Basically reduced to a fallaway jumpeshooter. One went in, the rest missed. On one notable play did get outhustled for a rebound by the much younger legs of Singletary.
Brown ( F ) -- quite poor first half performance, not able to get much of anything going as a PG, and generally outperformed by our own summer castoff Sean Singletary. Seemed a bit intimidated when he drove inside against Shaq. Came back in for a cup of coffee and another bricked three in OT. Think he shot a technical for his only point, and while this may not have been run for then hills bad, at 0-4 with 3TOs did a lot of bad stuff balanced by pretty much no good stuff that avoid the F.
Greene ( INC ) -- Theus tried to bring him in early again, this time in the early second, but think through no particular fault of his own it was cut short. Suns were starting to pull away, and Salmons was our best first half performer, so back he came, and that was it for Greene.
Douby ( B- ) -- was the primary difference maker as we came back in the early fourth, but he was far from perfect. Hit his first couple of shots, came up wiht not one, but two blcoked shots, including a layup saving open court block on Singeltary, and then one of his specialties, blocking a jumpshot from 6'8" Grant Hill. But missed both his threes, including one to put us up in the last two minutes, and missed the wide open game winner at the buzzer as well. Kept onmissing into OT until he was replaced. Kind of the story of Quincy's career -- you only get so many opportunities, and for every one step forward, its always a step right back.
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Theus ( B- ) -- three words: Hack-a-Shaq. Automatic full grade deduction. Its like that stupid call a timeout right before the kicker kicks the FG thing in football. Asinine. Play the game with honor, win or lose. And yet even with the full grade deduction for Theus's flirtation with that vomit in the mid-4th, he is still left with a B-. Here's why: a) the call to league offices before the game to make sure that Steve Nash of all people was suspended for brawling. Steve Nash?
; b) the secret voodoo ritual before the game performed on the Amare Stoudemire doll (unfortunately its well known that voodoo only lasts for 48 min, not 53); c) at least trying to get Greene in early again, although he did not stick with it; d) realizing that Thompson was getting worked at SF, and going with Douby and a more conventional lineup to bring us back; e) whatever four letter words he strung together at halftime to get our frontline's attention to suck it up and grab some boards after half; f) not one, but TWO great calls on game ending/tying plays. The first resulting in a wide open jumper for Douby to win it at the regulation buzzer (you can question the recipient of the play, but this was as wide open a shot as you are ever going to see in that situation). The second in a wide open (or so it looked) layup for Salmons to tie it at the end of OT. Reggie may have made himself look like a weasel with the Shaq hacking, but I thought the weasel generally coached a good game on an otherwise ugly night of basketball.
Thompson ( D+ ) -- one of his least effective outings of the year. Not effective at all in the first half, and was having trouble inside against the Suns big frontline. Finally started to come alive a little in the third with a couple of side pop jumpers, but it was too little too late to save his PT. The major problem is its official now -- JT cannot guard SFs at all (getting lost in space out there), and the sooner we get him back up front, the better. First it was Tayshaun having the monster game against him, then Thornton dropping 20, and this time it was Grant Hill with 18 points through three quarters (after which Thompson did not return)popping open for little jumpers at will. Also never got on the glass at all after giving us an advnatage there with his size at SF the last couple. With his struggles Douby came on and took all of JT's late minutes (besides a 1-2 minute stretch of Bobby Brown) as we went to a more conventional look swinging Salmons back to SF.
Moore ( C+ ) -- you wouldn't have really known he was out there in the first half, but that is both a good and bad thing. Was solid enough using his length inside, and this being a home game, actually led the Kings in rebounding before half (admittedly that was more because nobody else was doing a damn thing than because Mikki's 4 were that spectacular, but nonetheless). Did not stay long after half before giving way to Spencer during the midst of an ugly ugly third quarter (by everybody, not just him). Now Amare Stoudemire (who played like he just did not care until the end) clearly had been partaking in some of the same noxious herb floating around the Clipppers locker room, but even so by the time Mikki left the game he may actually have been the better PF -- to whatever degree it was not al self-imposed, think all the long bodies on our frontline may have discouraged Amare. So that's worth something.
Miller ( B- ) -- had perhaps the ultimate finesse center vs. power center first half, which is to say he was beaten like the proverbial red headed stepchild. Scored over and through at will by a rejuvenated Shaq, and answered the assault with some cute little passes, zero rebounds in the half, and a bright red bottom form the beating he, and we, were receiving. Just for kicks did once make the dubious decision to challenge Shaq inside in the post and...you can fill in the result. At least got one of those little half hook things over blown up OG Boris Diaw however -- so see, he was a post monster too. Bit of a tale of two halves though, although the numbers this time out felt deceptive. At the very least responded to what I am sure was a major Reggie tongue lashing at halftime over the boardwork, and where he had zero in the first 24 minutes, in the last 29 (regulation + OT) he grabbed 11. Never shot well, but began to slowly accrete points as well, and kept attempting the clumsy gallops to the hoop against Shaq -- and actually Shaq's response was interesting because big old Shaq did not challenge him high, but instead seemed to have little problem just poking away the clumsy dribble and stopping the drives before Brad ever reached the hoop. Missed two late FTs which could have been the difference between winning or losing for us, and damn near threw the game away when he took a rebound in the final minute and threw it up court right into the waiting hands of Grant Hill. Fortunately for Brad, Grant, for reasons I would rather not speculate upon, had vaseline on his mitts all night, and managed to not only fumble the ball away, but to race over, try to save it, bounce it off his own man and right into the waiting arms of Quincy Douby for a pair of FTs (actually I think it may have been to Salmons who pased it to Douby...in any case, we got points). Not often I am going to give 20pts 11rebs 7ast a B-, but I was not impressed. Poor shooting (6-16), half a dozen turnovers, key missed free throws, overpowered on defense...
Salmons ( B+ ) -- probably the Kings best player of the night, but never dominant. It was that kind of night. Was efficeint with his offense for much of the evening, but never able to get into a huge rhythm against a defender of Bell's caliber. A drive here, a drive there, at least had a lot fewer of those wild drives into traffic followed by a forced shot. And for three quarters the defense was nothing to write home about either -- both Raja Bell and Boris Diaw were queuing up threes at will against John, and Diaw made him look silly once with an up and under down on the blocks. But after Reggie pulled JT to go with a more conventional lineup, with John back up to SF, the defense reemerged against Grant Hill, who had been having his way against Thompson. John stayed with him at all times and was there to challenge all those easy little jumpers he had been getting. And then to top things he blocked Hill's gamewinning attempt. So John is all set up to be the hero right? Well...not so right. Final play of overtime, Kings down 2, we draw up a play, Phoenix does something really mysteriosu with its defense, leaving John wide open, and I do mean wide open, for the baseline drive. He drives, sees the help defense coming, decided to go for the reverse layup...and gets it smacked out of there. Game over man (ball actually landed in Specner's hand, and he promptly got it packed by Amare too, but still, you could hardly have asked for a better game tying setup).
Udrih ( B- ) -- began the game making fellow contryman Goran Dragic (if this is going to be their new Nash, ooh boy are they in trouble) look just silly on defense, but it was all maybe too easy, leading Beno to start forcing things and chucking up far too many shots. End result was by the end of aquarter where Beno clearly ran circles around Dragic, he was still only 2-7 for 5pts and 2ast. He calmed a bit thereafter, and was more steady on his way to leading the team in scoring at half (with a measely 10). The third was just ugly for everybody involved, but an interesting change took place near the end of it -- Dragic was just awful, and so with Nash suspended, with Barbossa off in Brazil because his mother had passed, Terry Porter looked down to the very end of his bench and came up with none other than Kings 2nd round pick Sean Singletary. Now Singletary did very little of note other than choke so hard on one wide open jumper to win it for his team that his voice went up two octaves, but the one thing he did do was play some very solid, very steady defense. Whereas Beno had Dragic just spinning around in circles looking like a 12 year old on the playground, Singletary stayed right there in front of him and impeded him wherever he went. It made a major difference, and Beno was not a factor thereafter.
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Hawes ( B ) -- a generally solid game by the end. First half statline was a bit deceptive, as Spencer was ok out there, but wasn't making an impact. Defended Amare pretty well, but wasn't on the glass at all, and the 3 blocks were...well, let's just put it this way, one of them was off his elbow. While his back was turned. In any case, think he was more effective with his length in there than Brad, but then again I might be too. And on the other end took one look at Shaq and I'll give you a guess where his offense was coming from. Ever see Monty Python & The Holy Grail? Run away! Run away! Came back wth Brad though with a much more focused effort on the glass after the break, and until the game went to OT his primary opponent Amare was having quite possibly the single worst game of his career -- he was just awful (the other occasional opponent was noen other than Kings castoff Louis Admundson, who showed why he was cast off). Unfortunately Amare woke up in OT, and it was largely at Spencer's expense. Spencer did get a layup to tie the game with 13 seconds to go, but unfortunately he also watched Amare splash three jumpers in his face, including the game winner, and to add insult to injury after Amare blocked Salmon's final attempt and the ball squirted to Spencer, Amare spun right around and blocked him too to seal it.
Jackson ( C- ) -- very little of note happened during his watches. Basically reduced to a fallaway jumpeshooter. One went in, the rest missed. On one notable play did get outhustled for a rebound by the much younger legs of Singletary.
Brown ( F ) -- quite poor first half performance, not able to get much of anything going as a PG, and generally outperformed by our own summer castoff Sean Singletary. Seemed a bit intimidated when he drove inside against Shaq. Came back in for a cup of coffee and another bricked three in OT. Think he shot a technical for his only point, and while this may not have been run for then hills bad, at 0-4 with 3TOs did a lot of bad stuff balanced by pretty much no good stuff that avoid the F.
Greene ( INC ) -- Theus tried to bring him in early again, this time in the early second, but think through no particular fault of his own it was cut short. Suns were starting to pull away, and Salmons was our best first half performer, so back he came, and that was it for Greene.
Douby ( B- ) -- was the primary difference maker as we came back in the early fourth, but he was far from perfect. Hit his first couple of shots, came up wiht not one, but two blcoked shots, including a layup saving open court block on Singeltary, and then one of his specialties, blocking a jumpshot from 6'8" Grant Hill. But missed both his threes, including one to put us up in the last two minutes, and missed the wide open game winner at the buzzer as well. Kept onmissing into OT until he was replaced. Kind of the story of Quincy's career -- you only get so many opportunities, and for every one step forward, its always a step right back.
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Theus ( B- ) -- three words: Hack-a-Shaq. Automatic full grade deduction. Its like that stupid call a timeout right before the kicker kicks the FG thing in football. Asinine. Play the game with honor, win or lose. And yet even with the full grade deduction for Theus's flirtation with that vomit in the mid-4th, he is still left with a B-. Here's why: a) the call to league offices before the game to make sure that Steve Nash of all people was suspended for brawling. Steve Nash?
; b) the secret voodoo ritual before the game performed on the Amare Stoudemire doll (unfortunately its well known that voodoo only lasts for 48 min, not 53); c) at least trying to get Greene in early again, although he did not stick with it; d) realizing that Thompson was getting worked at SF, and going with Douby and a more conventional lineup to bring us back; e) whatever four letter words he strung together at halftime to get our frontline's attention to suck it up and grab some boards after half; f) not one, but TWO great calls on game ending/tying plays. The first resulting in a wide open jumper for Douby to win it at the regulation buzzer (you can question the recipient of the play, but this was as wide open a shot as you are ever going to see in that situation). The second in a wide open (or so it looked) layup for Salmons to tie it at the end of OT. Reggie may have made himself look like a weasel with the Shaq hacking, but I thought the weasel generally coached a good game on an otherwise ugly night of basketball.
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