Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( D ) -- very sloppy start, and a very poor impatient first half on offense. On defense was doing a decent lockdown job on Ricky Davis, and truth be told, it might have been the only thing holding him from a straight F until the final 4 minutes. Looked gimpy all game, and I'm not sure at all of his health -- was noticeably limping and grabbing at his right hip/thigh, which he has done on and off ever since that hip pointer. Just ineffective and silent for nearly the entire game, and looked sluggish and dispirited. Finally raised this grade one or two half bumps with what was an adventuresome crunchtime. Started to finally draw some fouls and score from the line, but then came down and chucked up a too quick wanna-be-hero three to break our momentum. Then a few seconds later came up with a huge steal and breakway that would have brought us within three with a chance to catch the Wolves....and he dribbles it off his foot! 
Story of the game. But he wasn't done yet, as with 11 seconds to go and KG shooting us out of the game at the line, suddenly Ron comes up with a huge play as the Wolves tried to choke another one -- Ricky "Einstein" Davis takes his eyes off the ball for a second and the league's best thief picks him clean + makes the reverse layup to suddenly draw us within 2 + give us one last gasp. Of course we were like a fish in the Sahara for this one, and so it was just that -- a last gasp before we expired.
Thomas ( C ) -- on the glass early as usual, and was kind of alone there with no other Kings big giving much of anything in the first half. But was having trouble finishing, and as the game went on it became very evident he was just too small to contend with Garnett on defense. And in the third quarter in particular he really let his frustration on that end throw him out of rhythm. Returned late in the game, but was quiet in the 4th before fouling out. Rebounded, but one dimesnional this time out.
Miller ( D- ) -- did very little this game. Was missing his shots, gave us nothing on the glass, picked up a dumb technical. And its not like the Wolves have anybody at C either. Did come up with a couple more blocks, and its that which keeps this out of F type territory. But very disappointing effort from Brad.
Martin ( B ) -- a little ragged early and almost had to be coaxed into his first shot, but after he hit it began to score well -- better than any other King in the first half in fact. Never really went on an extended run, but was the only King who was consistently making his shots. Defense, rebounding etc. were just ok, but we needed every point he could give us as we blundered about to a 35pt half. And he was causing the Wolves real difficulties with back cuts, and for one of the first times in this one I actually saw Kevin's presence opening up some opportunities for guys like Brad as the Wolves became very aware of him and started to overplay. Through three quarters it was Kevin and Bibby trying to keep us in the game all by themselves. But then Kevin suddenly and mysteriously stopped scoring, and in the late game was just a spectator.
Bibby ( B+ ) -- active offensive start, but only marginally effective in the early going as he was 3-11 at half. Made some nice passes, and set Kevin up for several of his hits, but on the other hand led what was a disastrous season-high TO parade with 6 of his own to only 3 assists. Started to really heat up in the third to hold the Kings within striking distance, but while he continued to score pretty well in the 4th, on this night, with his teammaters playing the way they were, even 35 was just not enough. Maybe 40 would have done the trick. Our obviouis best player, but despite the point total, actually not his true "A" game. Missed a lot of shots. Turned it over. But at least he came to play.
Wells ( B- ) -- bang, crash, poke, thud -- if nothing else, you know what you're going to get from Bonzi every night. Just a question of how effective the mix turns out to be in a given game. Had a quiet first half stint -- couple of steals early, but not much else. But really began to assert himself physically in the 2nd half and helped lead a crushing rebounding performance for us with 8 in about 10 minutes of second half work. Also came up with 5 steals in his 23 minutes, and until Ron's late semi-revival, we were probably better with Bonzi at SF than Ron. The negative? Well, if you guessed turnovers you guessed right. His clear achilles since his return, and on this night the team's achilles as well. Had 4, and the final one was a clumsy looking open court fumble in the late going that hurt. Still might have been our #3 player tonight. But that is saying something about what the rest of the guys were doing.
Reef ( B- ) -- was forcing the offense early to modest effect. But found his truer prupose in this one once he got matched up on Garnett of defense. Did a solid job once again, briefly caused him problems in the first half, and was really battling in there against him in the second although he was not able to slow KG much after he really started taking it to us. Rest of his game was...eh. A little offense, a little boarding. Joined the turnover fest.
Corliss ( C- ) -- got a surprise call in the late 3rd as both Brad and Kenny picked up their 4th fouls, but racked up a lot of empty unproductive minutes. Given that he has not played in forever and got thrown in there, perhaps understandable. But not really any better than the ineffective guys ahead of him.
Adelman ( ) -- well...darn. Coming in against a team on a 7-game losing streak, 7-18 since they acquired their current linuep, and choking games left and right. Looked good on paper. We were sluggish and sloppy from the start in this one, and just never really woke up. Ron especially got off to a very weird start just sort of wandering up the court and randomly shooting, or not, or...just looked very lacksadaisical. And nobody really picked up the slack. Kevin was scoring well enough, and Mike had flashes, but neither were really leading the rest of the guys anywhere, and end result was a butt-ugly 35pt half with balls being thrown all over the court, and stands for that matter. The halftime speech didn't improve things much. We scored better, but were still just as sloppy and dependant on our backcourt guys to carry us. And yet bad as we were, the Wolves were nearly as incompetent and kept on leaving the door open. Joke was that you could point to some really good things -- we completely dominated the glass after half, until we got desperate were actually hitting a fair percentage of the shots we did take. But the turnover and sloppiness...wow. The seven man rotation got an addition this time out as it turns out Corliss Williamson is still on the team. Got the call in the late 3rd with the entire normal frontcourt rotation (Kenny, Brad and Reef) with 4 fouls. In the 4th we even briefly went with an all muscle lineup with Bonzi, Ron, and Corliss at the 2/3/4. Did not work, largely because Bonzi was the only one of those guys giving us a game at the time. In any case, the rotation was largely what you expected, we got a lot of Reef on KG, and while maybe we can put away that KG-stopper stuff now, it was the better matchup and he battled him. Unfortunately what we did NOT get was any sort of sustained intensity or real determination to win this one. And our leader seemed to be...well, not leading. So, unforunate outing. We just weren't ready to play for whatever reason. And now we're back to .500 and not completely out of the woods yet. Good news is that the teams on the outside looking in -- the Hornets, the Jazz, are fading fast. We are still in great position to make the playoffs. But what position we end up with...well, still 16 games to go.
Story of the game. But he wasn't done yet, as with 11 seconds to go and KG shooting us out of the game at the line, suddenly Ron comes up with a huge play as the Wolves tried to choke another one -- Ricky "Einstein" Davis takes his eyes off the ball for a second and the league's best thief picks him clean + makes the reverse layup to suddenly draw us within 2 + give us one last gasp. Of course we were like a fish in the Sahara for this one, and so it was just that -- a last gasp before we expired.Thomas ( C ) -- on the glass early as usual, and was kind of alone there with no other Kings big giving much of anything in the first half. But was having trouble finishing, and as the game went on it became very evident he was just too small to contend with Garnett on defense. And in the third quarter in particular he really let his frustration on that end throw him out of rhythm. Returned late in the game, but was quiet in the 4th before fouling out. Rebounded, but one dimesnional this time out.
Miller ( D- ) -- did very little this game. Was missing his shots, gave us nothing on the glass, picked up a dumb technical. And its not like the Wolves have anybody at C either. Did come up with a couple more blocks, and its that which keeps this out of F type territory. But very disappointing effort from Brad.
Martin ( B ) -- a little ragged early and almost had to be coaxed into his first shot, but after he hit it began to score well -- better than any other King in the first half in fact. Never really went on an extended run, but was the only King who was consistently making his shots. Defense, rebounding etc. were just ok, but we needed every point he could give us as we blundered about to a 35pt half. And he was causing the Wolves real difficulties with back cuts, and for one of the first times in this one I actually saw Kevin's presence opening up some opportunities for guys like Brad as the Wolves became very aware of him and started to overplay. Through three quarters it was Kevin and Bibby trying to keep us in the game all by themselves. But then Kevin suddenly and mysteriously stopped scoring, and in the late game was just a spectator.
Bibby ( B+ ) -- active offensive start, but only marginally effective in the early going as he was 3-11 at half. Made some nice passes, and set Kevin up for several of his hits, but on the other hand led what was a disastrous season-high TO parade with 6 of his own to only 3 assists. Started to really heat up in the third to hold the Kings within striking distance, but while he continued to score pretty well in the 4th, on this night, with his teammaters playing the way they were, even 35 was just not enough. Maybe 40 would have done the trick.
Our obviouis best player, but despite the point total, actually not his true "A" game. Missed a lot of shots. Turned it over. But at least he came to play.Wells ( B- ) -- bang, crash, poke, thud -- if nothing else, you know what you're going to get from Bonzi every night. Just a question of how effective the mix turns out to be in a given game. Had a quiet first half stint -- couple of steals early, but not much else. But really began to assert himself physically in the 2nd half and helped lead a crushing rebounding performance for us with 8 in about 10 minutes of second half work. Also came up with 5 steals in his 23 minutes, and until Ron's late semi-revival, we were probably better with Bonzi at SF than Ron. The negative? Well, if you guessed turnovers you guessed right. His clear achilles since his return, and on this night the team's achilles as well. Had 4, and the final one was a clumsy looking open court fumble in the late going that hurt. Still might have been our #3 player tonight. But that is saying something about what the rest of the guys were doing.
Reef ( B- ) -- was forcing the offense early to modest effect. But found his truer prupose in this one once he got matched up on Garnett of defense. Did a solid job once again, briefly caused him problems in the first half, and was really battling in there against him in the second although he was not able to slow KG much after he really started taking it to us. Rest of his game was...eh. A little offense, a little boarding. Joined the turnover fest.
Corliss ( C- ) -- got a surprise call in the late 3rd as both Brad and Kenny picked up their 4th fouls, but racked up a lot of empty unproductive minutes. Given that he has not played in forever and got thrown in there, perhaps understandable. But not really any better than the ineffective guys ahead of him.
Adelman ( ) -- well...darn. Coming in against a team on a 7-game losing streak, 7-18 since they acquired their current linuep, and choking games left and right. Looked good on paper. We were sluggish and sloppy from the start in this one, and just never really woke up. Ron especially got off to a very weird start just sort of wandering up the court and randomly shooting, or not, or...just looked very lacksadaisical. And nobody really picked up the slack. Kevin was scoring well enough, and Mike had flashes, but neither were really leading the rest of the guys anywhere, and end result was a butt-ugly 35pt half with balls being thrown all over the court, and stands for that matter. The halftime speech didn't improve things much. We scored better, but were still just as sloppy and dependant on our backcourt guys to carry us. And yet bad as we were, the Wolves were nearly as incompetent and kept on leaving the door open. Joke was that you could point to some really good things -- we completely dominated the glass after half, until we got desperate were actually hitting a fair percentage of the shots we did take. But the turnover and sloppiness...wow. The seven man rotation got an addition this time out as it turns out Corliss Williamson is still on the team. Got the call in the late 3rd with the entire normal frontcourt rotation (Kenny, Brad and Reef) with 4 fouls. In the 4th we even briefly went with an all muscle lineup with Bonzi, Ron, and Corliss at the 2/3/4. Did not work, largely because Bonzi was the only one of those guys giving us a game at the time. In any case, the rotation was largely what you expected, we got a lot of Reef on KG, and while maybe we can put away that KG-stopper stuff now, it was the better matchup and he battled him. Unfortunately what we did NOT get was any sort of sustained intensity or real determination to win this one. And our leader seemed to be...well, not leading. So, unforunate outing. We just weren't ready to play for whatever reason. And now we're back to .500 and not completely out of the woods yet. Good news is that the teams on the outside looking in -- the Hornets, the Jazz, are fading fast. We are still in great position to make the playoffs. But what position we end up with...well, still 16 games to go.
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Stupid KG and his stupid free throws. All the other T-puppies did their freakin best to get us a win, but KG didn't join in. So the grades are as follows:
