Grades v. Suns Pt II -- 11/21

[Bricklayer]

Holy Toledo. Good thing VF21 was not trying to do the PBP or her fingers might have been worn to nubs.

In Honor of Thanksgiving, the theme tongiht is: Big Birds


Salmons ( B- ) -- 21pts 10rebs! Must be an A game of some sort right? Er...not so much. Started slow, but really took advantage when the Suns went to their bench and brought in Marcus Banks in place of Grant Hill. It was a stupid lineup even for them, with three 6'2" and under PGs out there, and John was able to play right over the top of the little guys. While it seems almost silly to say in a game of this score, he hurt us in the early going by missing 4 straight FTs, and was shaky from the line all night (7-15 for the game). When the teams are shooting 75% from the floor, that was like a missed shot, and nobody was missing shots. Recovered to get to the hoop repeatedly -- the Suns "defense" was no more effective than ours. Picked upo a bunch fo his numbers in gharabagetime as the last remaining starter out there (on his way to 40+min). No real idea why he would be out there ratehr than Cisco, but maybe a) Cisco had done enoguh and worked hard; and b) Reggie might be playing to the ego and padding John's minutes when the opportunity arises. Either way, garbagetime stats don't do much for me out of starters, so during the real game I am guessing maybe 14 and 6 and a bunch of missed FTs.

Big Bird -- I mean, how could you have a theme about Big Birds without, well, Big Bird??

Moore ( C+ ) -- well, er...., we dominated the glass in the first half with Mikki outrebounding Marion 5-0. Along the way he threw in a big dunk and a jumper, and within the confines of allowing the other team to score 80 points in a HALF, Mikki's defense did not appear to be one of our main issues. But of course Mikki, even at his best, is hardly a game changer. And this game was being played so stupidly fast that even a relatively athletic big like Moore was ponderous. He did fine out there, as far as fine could go. But minutes were limited, impact nonexistent, and he left with the other starters in the third.

Roc -- this giant mythological bird was supposed to carry off entire elephants in its talons.

Miller ( C ) -- made some bad pases early to help get us in a hole we never recovered from, and was doing nothing else. Came back in the second to better effect, largely matched against Skinner, and able to get on the offensive glass with his size. Still a ploughhorse amongst thoroughbreds however, and he finsished thes one wiht 8pts 5rebs and no impact whatsoever. Still better than the last effort against these guys, but its been years now that Brad has struggled to be effective against this Suns team/style.

Ostrich Egg -- not the whole bird, just the size of the egg.

 

[Bricklayer]

Martin ( C ) -- this time faded into the background early in the game not int he face of Ron, but in the face of...Cisco!? Woke up after Reggie made an odd substitution of Douby for Cisco. But was sat down just as he was hot too. Came back and picked it back up for a big 19pt first half just running and gunning. But of course did not matter -- you run up and down getting numebrs against the Suns, they just laugh. Ran out of gas maybe after half, when nothing would fall. And so he ended the game with the same number of points he had at half (we pulled him before the 3rd was over with the game getting out of control). This is tough to grade, because for a half at least the numbers looked very good, with or without impact. 19pts in a half is nothing to sneeze at. And so you are looking at A type grades for both he and Cisco at that point (or at least B+s), even while we are being blown out. But then came out just dead after half, and finished with his third straight down game, and 4th in 5 games for a 5-16 19pt effort. The grade has to plummet. But how far does it go? Since I thought he looked good and sporadically aggressive int hat first half, I am going to keep it bolstered here even though overall the numbers look very similar to what they have the last two nights -- which is to say, not good.

Airbus A380 -- ok, its not really a bird. But it does have wings, and its really really big. So I've decided it qualifies. This brand new superjumbo can seat up to 800 people (normally 550 or so), has wings the size of a football field, and is going to make an awful mess the first time one of them falls out of the sky.

Cisco ( A- ) -- got off to a scorching start dueling with Nash (and losing of course). Almost had his career offensive game at half, and easily soared past it by the end of his game. Of course he was falling right into the trap, running it right back at the Suns time after time, trying to run faster and faster and faster and never realizing that the Suns want you to do just that. He was doing well, but we were dying even whiel thinking we were doing pretty good. Of course nobody ever accused Cisco of being a terribly intellectual player. Unlike Kevin kept on scoring in the third, and doing it efficiently. Got to the hoop time and again. Led the team in assists, although was rarely looking to pass. Funny how our assisting completely collapses wihtout Beno and Ron there to provide structure and true PG/SF types. We were back down to 12 tonight.

Elephant Bird = yet another marvel wiped out by that marvelous species named homo sapiens, these 10 foot tall birds had eggs that measured up to 3ft in circumference and were doing just fine off in Madagascar until a far more deadly two legged creature showed up 600 years ago or so.

Douby ( D ) -- made a steal from behind on Barbossa soon after being ionserted, but that was just about the highlight. Gave us nothing on offense, even in garbagetime. Six points in 27 minutes in what could have been an opportunity for him to try to restablish a role for us with Ron/Beno out of the way for a night.

Terror Bird -- this one we probably didn't wipe out. In fact if you met one, it would probably wipe you out. There were a variety of these "terror birds" that died off about two milion years ago. Seven feet tall, weighing 300+lbs, imagine a whole species of giant carnivorous Shaquille O'Neals equipped with killer beaks designed to put big holes in you.

Hawes ( B+ ) -- came in early here and made one follow inside, missed another at the first quarter buzzer. Unexpectedly found himself in another summer league game for the long stretch of garbagetime play, and played a lot like he did in summer league. Which is to say freer, looser, gunning up shots whenever he felt like it (which is pretty much always), and including two more bricked threes, for which hopefully his feet will be chopped off tommorow and served with the turkey. It was insipid stuff, but we did get to see a wider variety of his game, including several different post moves that failed, and one baseline turnaround hook type thingie which did not, as well as the outside shots and a bunch of turnovers. Really does have an enourmous variety of shots. Its the selection and intelligence and setup of when to take them or not that needs work. Part of what garbagetime is for. And we look to have a lot of it on the road this year.

Rodan -- now I may have used this one before, and think it likely I will again, but nonetheless, as a 300ft tall bird able to blow over toy tanks by flapping its wings, Rodan belongs on this list. Or not -- its entirely possible that Rodan might actually be a giant pterosaur (prehistoric flying reptile) or even, *gasp* a man in a rubber suit with wings, rather than a true bird.

 

[Bricklayer]

Thomas ( C ) -- barely even noticed him in his early minutes, and was actively annoyed to see him reappear in the early 4th for garbage minutes tht should have been going to the kids. Best way I cna explain it is that wiht Beno and Artest out, Bibby still gone, and Greene/Shakur releaseed, our entire deep bench consisted of big big (Williamns, Watkings, Hawes), so Reggie was looking for a big who could fake it as a SF and went for the midget. Thankfully he eventually went to the all big big lineup, and just let it play out. While out there Kenny did nothing catastrophic, but in a game played like this, with all of that offensive talent firing away, he was just lost and a complete nonentity out there.

Macy's Parade Turkey Float -- I actually wanted a giant real turkey here, but finding a picture of such a thing was remarkably stupidly difficult. Someday I am going to have to open up my own website just with all the pictures that SHOULD be easily available on the internet but aren't because people are stupid and haven't figured out yet that they exist solely for my convenience.

Williams ( B+ ) -- got in for the first time in the third, and immediately got an offesnive rebound and began to be a factor inside. In no way changed the game, but from that point onward, and into garbagetime, showed how he can be useful, in particular against a team like the Suns, just by being a big active body and hitting the glass. And getting to spend most of his time matched up against Sean Marks of course. Why we seem to have so little respect for that skillset remains a mystery.

Big *** Turkey -- ok, with a little help from an assistant to finally find an acceptable pic, I present to you one big *** turkey. Question: how the heck is that littel woman holding what must be a 50lb platter out there in front of her like that??

Watkins ( C ) -- hey hey, splatted somebody for us on defense. Novel concept. Unfortunately it was only DJ Strawberry, and splatting SJ Strawberry is irrelevant. Still, despite doing nothing else particualrly (0pts 1reb 1blk in 10min), that one splat deserves notice and whatever grade he gets here.

The Giant Claw Pt I -- a big bird, no? And one I've used before. However the next picture is the payoff.

Reggie ( ) -- we fell into the Suns trap early and often here, under the misguided/deluded theory that we could score with them when they have the octane cranked. Yeah, right. We were on pace to score 120+ at half...and lose by 30. The Suns put up an 80 point first half. EIGHTY! It was like watching a New England Patriots game. In the wake of the Artest and Beno injuries/outages, we were back to our oh so successful Cisco/Martin/Salmons lineup, and while we were scoring well ourselves there for a while, the total lack of brains/self control necessary to stop, slow it down, and try to take the Suns out of their comfort zone doomed us. Reghgie made what I thought was a shaky early sub out of Cisco at 6:00 mark in favor of Douby (Cisco was scoring most of our points at that stage), but as the result was waking Kevin up for a while, maybe there was method to the madness up. May have also been done because Nash was scoring even more right back at Cisco. Of course its harder to find a similar excuse as to why a few minutes later he pulled Kevin as ell..just when he was getting hot himself. There my bets guess has to be trying to ward of the fatigue on a back to back after again playing 40+ minutes last night. Did not work however. Things got out of control early in the second half, but even though it had a bit of a "why not" air to it, was glad to see Justin inserted at that time. He can hurt a team lie the Suns. Or at least their scrubs. And proceeded to dominate inside against the Killer Kiwi (see, got it right this time) Sean Marks in the 4th. Also glad to see Reggie throw any sense of decorum or conventionality out the door int he 4th, and just play all three of our young bigs (Justin, Watkins, Hawes) together to get some mintes rather than forcing in another one of our major minute little guys. Anwyay...overall we were likely dead before this one started, and completely dead once we made the tactical decison to try to outrun the Suns. So 0-6 on the road now. And I think only 11 has been close. What was that all time road losing streak we set back in the bad ole days? Might have a shot at it.

The Giant Claw Pt II -- ayyyyiieeee!!!!!

 

[Bricklayer]

placeholder 4

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

Placeholder 'DUH'

 

[kingsfan916]

good job spencer an A for him

 

[fnordius]

Nice games by Garcia. Hawes and Williams!

And in the spirit of a Brick theme thread...

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[GoGoGadget]

Rodan -- now I may have used this one before, and think it likely I will again, but nonetheless, as a 300ft tall bird able to blow over toy tanks by flapping its wings, Rodan belongs on this list. Or not -- its entirely possible that rodan might actually be a giant pterosaur (prehistoric flying reptile) or even, *gasp* a man in a rubber suit wiht wings, rather than a true bird.

Surely you jest.

 

[kupman]

Nice games by Garcia. Hawes and Williams!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ditto!

Add in Martin and I can say that I am very thankful the Kings have some young and very exciting players. The future is bright IMHO.

 

[Kingster]

Defense?

Our D just sucks. I know it's the Suns. I know they're great. Yada, yada. Our D still sucks. I think the Kings gave up playing D in this game 1 second into the game. I have yet to see good D from the Kings in any game this season.

Salmons: Great, he got his touches; he got his numbers. I don't like him. He is a dribble monster, making everybody worse on the floor instead of better. He's really starting to deserve the "S" word, as in selfish.

Garcia: He's starting to take lessons from Salmons. I hope that doesn't continue. Message to Garcia: please look for your teamates.

Douby: My doubts are growing and growing about Douby. I just don't see it. Doesn't do anything great. Not a point guard, can't get his shots as a 2-guard. Not a great ball-handler. I thought he played better D last year than this year. He's probably Petries only draft bust in the last 4 years.

Hawes: He looks like belongs, at only age 19. Compare him with Douby is like comparing jr. high to college. Theus should have gotten him more inside shots in this game, instead he let Salmons & Garcia do their own shows by themselves, without having any offensive structure to speak of.