Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( A- ) -- got off to a slow start to this one offensively, but really began to force the issue as the first half drew down, bulling inside and throwing up tough shots to mixed effect. Was very active defensively and on the glass from the very beginning though, and again pumping his arms and yowling at the crowd again and again and again. So often in fact that the refs finally just T'd him up for it, which of course impressed Reggie greatly, and so then ron got into it with him as well. Continued the aggression throughout the second half and beat the Warriors up inside, although after the T he did finally cut the theatrics. For most of the night it was Ron and Mike who did the damage for us (with a couple of long stretches of goodness from Salmons) but as is so often the case the erratic behavior and loud ticking sound distracts.
Moore ( C ) -- ineffective and largely benched by the Warrios' smallball style in this one. Only logged 20 minutes, made some minor contributions, but it was a lot of Ron at PF this time out.
Miller ( B- ) -- made his contributions by getting on the glass with his size, but kept on trrying to force stuff inside and draw fouls rather than just scoring. Big numbers on the boards, but not nearly the same level of effort as he was coming up with last -- this time it was just a smallballing opponent and Brad being the biggest guy on the court. Stuggled to get anything going offensively, and the Warriors had the trick down of guarding him with a smaller player to get right in his chest. 10pts and 13rebs are very solid numbers, but if you watched the game Brad did not feel like he was having much impact on the game.
Martin ( F ) -- well...back to struggling again in a 2-9 first half. Never could get on track in the third, and kept right on missing even after a return in the 4th as what would have been our featured scorer. And so when your leading scorer comes up with a 3-16 night for 9pts...well, there we go with another F, even though I don't like giving them out twice in three games. The grade is further confirmed of course by Kevin's man and former competitor for Most Improved player last year just lighting us up to the tune of 34pts 9rebs 5ast on 12-15 shooting. A wipeout in that matchup that you could not have predicted going in. It even included Kevin losing Ellis behind a double screen for Monta to drain the backbreaking baseline jumper in the final minute. A different F than the one against the Sonics though. In that one...Kevin just did not look to even be trying. He was dead. This time out he just sucked. Nothing would fall, and he was in one of those ruts where not only were the jumpers flat, but his drives were constantly being stripped, blocked or altered. But there was at least effort this time out, so guess this thing would be the "better" F of the two, and Kevin was the guy to finally foul Baron Davis out of the game in the final two minutes after he amazingly lasted nearly 15 minutes out on the floor carrying around five fouls.
Bibby ( B+ ) -- kept us afloat in the early going while everybody else struggled, and probably had about half of our first quarter points. Was able to take advantage in the third quarter after Baron Davis got into some major foul trouble (with just sloppy/unfocused fouls) and at the point he left for Beno he and Ron were our two most effective players. After a lengthy absence, came back in the game in the mid 4th as Reggie tried to stem the bleeding with the Warriors pulled away. But maybe Reggie left him out too long and iced him, because rather than helping matters he instead largely finished us off by making three straight bad decisions, two turnovers and then a terrible shot that saw the Warriros lead blossom to a 9 or 10pt spread that we could not overcome. Stabilized to hit several late shots down the stretch as we made a final run, but it was too little too late and we came up short in the end. Would have been an A- were it not for that ill-timed strech of poor play.
Salmons ( A- ) -- having an opportunity to play at his preffered uptempo pace, gave one of his more effective perfromances off the bench in some time. Of course may have helped that he was coming off he ebnch in name only and played far more minutes as a smallball SF next to Ron's PF than did our putative starting PF Mikki. Provided a long burst in the early second quarter doing one of two things -- either a) go to the hoop; or b) use the guy's fear of him going to the hoop to pull up for easy little 15-16 foot jumpers. Simple, direct, complimentary functions that made him hard to guard. And then came back and was again carrying us in the 4th while other guys rested. Was playing chippy too and spending equal amounts of time battling for boards and complaining bitterly to the refs. But unfortunately started forcing in the late 4th as he and Mike, who carried us throughout most of the game, now combined to sink us with dumb shots.
Beno ( B- ) -- was solid in the first half and gave us a littel lift in the late third and early 4th as he too was able to take advantage of the crippled defense of Baron. We had started to lose ground by the end of his hoever.
Hawes ( INC ) -- used his superior size in there in abrief first half stint, but wiht us committed to smallballing after half, never got anymore minutes.
Douby ( B- ) -- after sitting out the whole came in in the late third for trhe second night in a row, this time with Kevin struggling and even quit looking at the hoop after a while. Gave us a brief boost with his shooting, but things began to slip as Monta Ellis took off in the mid 4th and we went back to the starters.
Jones ( INC ) -- a brief cameo in the late 3rd/early 4th (forgot which)
Theus ( ) --
Moore ( C ) -- ineffective and largely benched by the Warrios' smallball style in this one. Only logged 20 minutes, made some minor contributions, but it was a lot of Ron at PF this time out.
Miller ( B- ) -- made his contributions by getting on the glass with his size, but kept on trrying to force stuff inside and draw fouls rather than just scoring. Big numbers on the boards, but not nearly the same level of effort as he was coming up with last -- this time it was just a smallballing opponent and Brad being the biggest guy on the court. Stuggled to get anything going offensively, and the Warriors had the trick down of guarding him with a smaller player to get right in his chest. 10pts and 13rebs are very solid numbers, but if you watched the game Brad did not feel like he was having much impact on the game.
Martin ( F ) -- well...back to struggling again in a 2-9 first half. Never could get on track in the third, and kept right on missing even after a return in the 4th as what would have been our featured scorer. And so when your leading scorer comes up with a 3-16 night for 9pts...well, there we go with another F, even though I don't like giving them out twice in three games. The grade is further confirmed of course by Kevin's man and former competitor for Most Improved player last year just lighting us up to the tune of 34pts 9rebs 5ast on 12-15 shooting. A wipeout in that matchup that you could not have predicted going in. It even included Kevin losing Ellis behind a double screen for Monta to drain the backbreaking baseline jumper in the final minute. A different F than the one against the Sonics though. In that one...Kevin just did not look to even be trying. He was dead. This time out he just sucked. Nothing would fall, and he was in one of those ruts where not only were the jumpers flat, but his drives were constantly being stripped, blocked or altered. But there was at least effort this time out, so guess this thing would be the "better" F of the two, and Kevin was the guy to finally foul Baron Davis out of the game in the final two minutes after he amazingly lasted nearly 15 minutes out on the floor carrying around five fouls.
Bibby ( B+ ) -- kept us afloat in the early going while everybody else struggled, and probably had about half of our first quarter points. Was able to take advantage in the third quarter after Baron Davis got into some major foul trouble (with just sloppy/unfocused fouls) and at the point he left for Beno he and Ron were our two most effective players. After a lengthy absence, came back in the game in the mid 4th as Reggie tried to stem the bleeding with the Warriors pulled away. But maybe Reggie left him out too long and iced him, because rather than helping matters he instead largely finished us off by making three straight bad decisions, two turnovers and then a terrible shot that saw the Warriros lead blossom to a 9 or 10pt spread that we could not overcome. Stabilized to hit several late shots down the stretch as we made a final run, but it was too little too late and we came up short in the end. Would have been an A- were it not for that ill-timed strech of poor play.
Salmons ( A- ) -- having an opportunity to play at his preffered uptempo pace, gave one of his more effective perfromances off the bench in some time. Of course may have helped that he was coming off he ebnch in name only and played far more minutes as a smallball SF next to Ron's PF than did our putative starting PF Mikki. Provided a long burst in the early second quarter doing one of two things -- either a) go to the hoop; or b) use the guy's fear of him going to the hoop to pull up for easy little 15-16 foot jumpers. Simple, direct, complimentary functions that made him hard to guard. And then came back and was again carrying us in the 4th while other guys rested. Was playing chippy too and spending equal amounts of time battling for boards and complaining bitterly to the refs. But unfortunately started forcing in the late 4th as he and Mike, who carried us throughout most of the game, now combined to sink us with dumb shots.
Beno ( B- ) -- was solid in the first half and gave us a littel lift in the late third and early 4th as he too was able to take advantage of the crippled defense of Baron. We had started to lose ground by the end of his hoever.
Hawes ( INC ) -- used his superior size in there in abrief first half stint, but wiht us committed to smallballing after half, never got anymore minutes.
Douby ( B- ) -- after sitting out the whole came in in the late third for trhe second night in a row, this time with Kevin struggling and even quit looking at the hoop after a while. Gave us a brief boost with his shooting, but things began to slip as Monta Ellis took off in the mid 4th and we went back to the starters.
Jones ( INC ) -- a brief cameo in the late 3rd/early 4th (forgot which)
Theus ( ) --
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