Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Missed the first few minutes of this one due to our normal national TV luck -- maybe not a bad thing given it was 9-2 by the time we got switched over. Got a title for this one: Baron rules Kings! Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night.
Artest ( B- ) -- hung in there in a game too fast for his normal talents, and spent most of the game playing PF and effectively acting as our idea of an interior shotblocker. Shot too much, and not well, but contributed across the board stats in a game where we were having a hard time finding anybody to do so. And delivered yet another big rebounding game -- beginning to think this is a permanent feature for him, and like I have said before there are a long line of former coaches, GMs and teammates who might want to talk to him about his ability to sudenly turn that aspect on at will. Of course it also helps those baord totals to be playing in a game like this where balls are flying all over the place and you are playing 44 minutes at PF checking Mike Dunleavy. But still, 12 is nice. However, 7-22 is not. Especially when a bunch of it is chucking up 0-6 on 3pt attempts in a game completely devoid of large players capabale of stopping you at the rim. And while Ron did a solid job checking the still hobbled Jason Richardson (knee surgery), he was only marginally more effective than others at trying to slow the Baron express, and obviously there wasn't a hint of bleedover effect as the Warriors shot 58% on something that seemed like 2673 layups.
Thomas ( F ) -- got off to a simply atrocious start and looked overwhelmed by the racing waves of Warriors flying around the court. Fumbled ball after ball and was spinning like a turnstyle trying to guard the lane.
Reef ( B- ) -- scored some hoops inside against the ultimate smallballers, but looked like a ploughhorse at Churchhill Downs with all the people flying around the court. He was our most effective "big"...then again we barely have any, and the Warriors only play one. Still, at least he was able to occassionally counter with an inside score, and had some moments of aggression on the glass. But I think he ended up spending most of the night on the bench here with the lane completely wide open during his stints, and the Warriors flying up court to score on the break while Reef lagged behind. A fish out of water and not a great performance, but still the best thing we had inside and probably deserved some more minutes.
Martin ( A- ) -- But a better A- than last night (and maybe that one was inflated by half a grade after all). In any case, our only real weapon tonight, and obviously the one guy we had amongst the starters who felt somewhat comfortable in the sprinting chaos of a Nellieball game. Actually not really so much comfortable as confident and aggressive. Because the Warrirors were swarming, and had multiple ahtletes able to stay right with Kevin and challenge everything he did. Wasn't much free and easy about this one. But he kept attacking, even after getting blocked back to back in the early going on that floating shot off the dribble of his, and then by "Big Ben" Biedrins a few minutes later. And by attacking he drew a lot of fouls and let his FT shooting do the talking. The nice rebounding total was more about him just being the second tallest King on the floor for much of the game
and grabbing fairly uncontested ones back there than anything else, but he did also do a nice job stepping into the passing lanes, especially in the wide open early going. Finally decided on the drop to the A- after he was quiet late, and after checking the box to confirm something I thought I saw -- big numbers, but the kid played in all 48 to get them tonight. And the sad thing is on a bad night for Muss, think that might have been the one good decision.
Bibby ( D ) -- My goodness -- lit up, annihilated, blown away, you name it -- Mike was just getting destroyed by Baron Davis tonight. Now Baron basically schooled anything that got in his way tonight, but thnat first quarter in particular was a tonesetter where Baron put together a HOF type quarter and just blew us off the floor going around, over, through, Mike at will. And Mike's response at the other side was pretty weak. Ended up sitting out the entire second quarter I think, and we did better without him. Fired back at Davis a little in the third, briefly looked like he was heating up. But then we went away from him, and by the time we got back he was forcing again. Bad offensive night. But the complete wipeout by Davis at the other end is what sends this grade really spiraling.
Cisco ( D ) -- may have managed to rebench himself for the early season with a shaky classic Cisco brainfart filled first quarter. We turned to him with Golden State smoking us with small ball, brought him in in place of the awful KT and moved Ron to PF. And yet his decisionmaking only made things worse and that was it for him.
Price ( B- ) -- got in for the final play of the first quarter and missed the buzzer beating three. But played well in the 2nd quarter, attacking effectively off the dribble, and while he was in no way really playing "point" guard (it was a pure little scoring guard effort), he was much more effective than Mike had been in the early going. Played a lot of minutes in the second half too, but was not nearly as effective, and there was little of his defensive work on display. Think he was one of our guys who fell for the temptation of Nellieball -- the game was built for midget scoring guards and so Ronnie was a good fit and joined the fun without ever really impacting the game.
Corliss ( C ) -- the numbers here look better than what we actually saw out on the floor, but they still had me raising this grade a bit. Corliss got into the game early as we desperately tried to outsmall Nellie. And yes, that means Corliss was pretty much our "center" for most of the first half. Did little, and other than just being the right height not sure why he got those minutes. In the second half got some run at PF next to Reef as well, but still struggled with the speed of a game in which he had to check Golden State's "PF"s -- Michael Pietrus and Mike Dunleavy. As mentioned, the stats look pretty good -- 11pts 6rebs. But if you watched the game it looked pretty bad with people flying by Corliss to the front of the rim, playing over the top of him, and scoring at will. Corliss tossed in the occasional garbage type point the other way, but he was another one of our guys who just seemed ill suited for this pace, and who was playing way out of his position in Muss's brilliant gnatball experiment.
Hart ( B- ) -- and you know it got bad when Jason Hart was summoned in desperation to try to slow Baron and ended up playing heavy minutes. Well, slowing Baron did not work. But on the other hand Jason at least provided us with a little offense and stayed on the court long enough to foul out at least trying to stop Davis. Unfortunately he and Price were our smallballing answer in the backcourt, and while both guys gave us some points, neither guy effectively ran the offense, rebounded, or showed the ability to stop either Baron or the bigger guards. At least there was an effort though.
Douby ( INC ) -- got a minute. Hit a shot. Douby sighting!!
Muss ( D ) -- Remember the old complaint about Rick Adleman, that he would sometimes let the other team dictate our own personnel and just respond rather than dictate? Well, I'm not sure he ever took it as far as Muss did tonight. And first of all, wow does Nellie really have the Warriors playing Nellie ball, and well at that. Muss ont he other hadn doesn;t seem to have a clue yet exactly what "Sacto ball" is going to be in the new era. We used to have such a strong identiy that you knew when we were playing out of our normal rhythm. But after these last two, what exactly is our normal rhythm? Not sure the coach knows either, because Don Nelson just grabbed his nose and led him right down the path of smallball destruction in this one -- the classic Nellie trap played to perfection. Makes you play his game, and beats you at it. Had a willing accomplice in Muss this time out. Where the hell were the subs in the first quarter as we got smoked? Tried to go small with Cisco in place of Thomas, but that certainly did not help, and everybody else went just about the distance. And then after that started running not just subs, but basically the entire tail end of the bench for huge minutes as his charming answer to Nellie's gazelle's. Corliss at C? Ronnie Price at OG? Jason Hart unbanished to play big minutes? It was like 3/4 of garbagetime. On the positive side you could say this showed his committment to defense -- the benchers were at least trying over there. On the nto so positive side you could say baloney, note that we got completely embarrassed on defense to the tune of 117pts on 58% shooting at that our "defense" these last few games has been suddenly exposed as little more than a smoke and mirrors high risk gamblefest where everybody overplays and races around trying to pad their steal stats while giving up open shot after open shot if they miss. Either way, Muss tried to outsmallball Don Nelson, and guess what, it did not work. Avoids the big ole "F" here because a) Baron Davis was just spectacular and took thyis game away form us as much as we gave it away; and b) despite everything we hung around and theoretically could have stolen this one had the Warriors stumbled. But they did not, and they clearly ahd the better team tongiht (espcially given the talent level of the guys we chose to play). So win streak over. And with the Spurs looming, maybe lose streak started. We'll see -- in some ways maybe we match up better there.
Baron Davis ( FFFFFF ) -- Wow. Just WOW. Baron's long been a HOF type talent hindered by a nickel brain, but tonight was amazing. Tim Hardaway on roids. A mutant cross of JWill and Mitch Richmond. Whatever. If you could draw up the most forceful ultimate PG performance, it wouldn't look too much different than this. Broke us down at will, created shot after shot for everybody on the court including himself. Much respect in this one for a guy who doesn't always deserve it -- would have been a blast to watch if it was happening to some other team.
Charles Barkley ( GO AWAY ) -- for all of those worried that the Big Ignorance himself would doom our season by saying something positive about us, not to worry.
Artest ( B- ) -- hung in there in a game too fast for his normal talents, and spent most of the game playing PF and effectively acting as our idea of an interior shotblocker. Shot too much, and not well, but contributed across the board stats in a game where we were having a hard time finding anybody to do so. And delivered yet another big rebounding game -- beginning to think this is a permanent feature for him, and like I have said before there are a long line of former coaches, GMs and teammates who might want to talk to him about his ability to sudenly turn that aspect on at will. Of course it also helps those baord totals to be playing in a game like this where balls are flying all over the place and you are playing 44 minutes at PF checking Mike Dunleavy. But still, 12 is nice. However, 7-22 is not. Especially when a bunch of it is chucking up 0-6 on 3pt attempts in a game completely devoid of large players capabale of stopping you at the rim. And while Ron did a solid job checking the still hobbled Jason Richardson (knee surgery), he was only marginally more effective than others at trying to slow the Baron express, and obviously there wasn't a hint of bleedover effect as the Warriors shot 58% on something that seemed like 2673 layups.
Thomas ( F ) -- got off to a simply atrocious start and looked overwhelmed by the racing waves of Warriors flying around the court. Fumbled ball after ball and was spinning like a turnstyle trying to guard the lane.
Reef ( B- ) -- scored some hoops inside against the ultimate smallballers, but looked like a ploughhorse at Churchhill Downs with all the people flying around the court. He was our most effective "big"...then again we barely have any, and the Warriors only play one. Still, at least he was able to occassionally counter with an inside score, and had some moments of aggression on the glass. But I think he ended up spending most of the night on the bench here with the lane completely wide open during his stints, and the Warriors flying up court to score on the break while Reef lagged behind. A fish out of water and not a great performance, but still the best thing we had inside and probably deserved some more minutes.
Martin ( A- ) -- But a better A- than last night (and maybe that one was inflated by half a grade after all). In any case, our only real weapon tonight, and obviously the one guy we had amongst the starters who felt somewhat comfortable in the sprinting chaos of a Nellieball game. Actually not really so much comfortable as confident and aggressive. Because the Warrirors were swarming, and had multiple ahtletes able to stay right with Kevin and challenge everything he did. Wasn't much free and easy about this one. But he kept attacking, even after getting blocked back to back in the early going on that floating shot off the dribble of his, and then by "Big Ben" Biedrins a few minutes later. And by attacking he drew a lot of fouls and let his FT shooting do the talking. The nice rebounding total was more about him just being the second tallest King on the floor for much of the game
and grabbing fairly uncontested ones back there than anything else, but he did also do a nice job stepping into the passing lanes, especially in the wide open early going. Finally decided on the drop to the A- after he was quiet late, and after checking the box to confirm something I thought I saw -- big numbers, but the kid played in all 48 to get them tonight. And the sad thing is on a bad night for Muss, think that might have been the one good decision.Bibby ( D ) -- My goodness -- lit up, annihilated, blown away, you name it -- Mike was just getting destroyed by Baron Davis tonight. Now Baron basically schooled anything that got in his way tonight, but thnat first quarter in particular was a tonesetter where Baron put together a HOF type quarter and just blew us off the floor going around, over, through, Mike at will. And Mike's response at the other side was pretty weak. Ended up sitting out the entire second quarter I think, and we did better without him. Fired back at Davis a little in the third, briefly looked like he was heating up. But then we went away from him, and by the time we got back he was forcing again. Bad offensive night. But the complete wipeout by Davis at the other end is what sends this grade really spiraling.
Cisco ( D ) -- may have managed to rebench himself for the early season with a shaky classic Cisco brainfart filled first quarter. We turned to him with Golden State smoking us with small ball, brought him in in place of the awful KT and moved Ron to PF. And yet his decisionmaking only made things worse and that was it for him.
Price ( B- ) -- got in for the final play of the first quarter and missed the buzzer beating three. But played well in the 2nd quarter, attacking effectively off the dribble, and while he was in no way really playing "point" guard (it was a pure little scoring guard effort), he was much more effective than Mike had been in the early going. Played a lot of minutes in the second half too, but was not nearly as effective, and there was little of his defensive work on display. Think he was one of our guys who fell for the temptation of Nellieball -- the game was built for midget scoring guards and so Ronnie was a good fit and joined the fun without ever really impacting the game.
Corliss ( C ) -- the numbers here look better than what we actually saw out on the floor, but they still had me raising this grade a bit. Corliss got into the game early as we desperately tried to outsmall Nellie. And yes, that means Corliss was pretty much our "center" for most of the first half. Did little, and other than just being the right height not sure why he got those minutes. In the second half got some run at PF next to Reef as well, but still struggled with the speed of a game in which he had to check Golden State's "PF"s -- Michael Pietrus and Mike Dunleavy. As mentioned, the stats look pretty good -- 11pts 6rebs. But if you watched the game it looked pretty bad with people flying by Corliss to the front of the rim, playing over the top of him, and scoring at will. Corliss tossed in the occasional garbage type point the other way, but he was another one of our guys who just seemed ill suited for this pace, and who was playing way out of his position in Muss's brilliant gnatball experiment.
Hart ( B- ) -- and you know it got bad when Jason Hart was summoned in desperation to try to slow Baron and ended up playing heavy minutes. Well, slowing Baron did not work. But on the other hand Jason at least provided us with a little offense and stayed on the court long enough to foul out at least trying to stop Davis. Unfortunately he and Price were our smallballing answer in the backcourt, and while both guys gave us some points, neither guy effectively ran the offense, rebounded, or showed the ability to stop either Baron or the bigger guards. At least there was an effort though.
Douby ( INC ) -- got a minute. Hit a shot. Douby sighting!!
Muss ( D ) -- Remember the old complaint about Rick Adleman, that he would sometimes let the other team dictate our own personnel and just respond rather than dictate? Well, I'm not sure he ever took it as far as Muss did tonight. And first of all, wow does Nellie really have the Warriors playing Nellie ball, and well at that. Muss ont he other hadn doesn;t seem to have a clue yet exactly what "Sacto ball" is going to be in the new era. We used to have such a strong identiy that you knew when we were playing out of our normal rhythm. But after these last two, what exactly is our normal rhythm? Not sure the coach knows either, because Don Nelson just grabbed his nose and led him right down the path of smallball destruction in this one -- the classic Nellie trap played to perfection. Makes you play his game, and beats you at it. Had a willing accomplice in Muss this time out. Where the hell were the subs in the first quarter as we got smoked? Tried to go small with Cisco in place of Thomas, but that certainly did not help, and everybody else went just about the distance. And then after that started running not just subs, but basically the entire tail end of the bench for huge minutes as his charming answer to Nellie's gazelle's. Corliss at C? Ronnie Price at OG? Jason Hart unbanished to play big minutes? It was like 3/4 of garbagetime. On the positive side you could say this showed his committment to defense -- the benchers were at least trying over there. On the nto so positive side you could say baloney, note that we got completely embarrassed on defense to the tune of 117pts on 58% shooting at that our "defense" these last few games has been suddenly exposed as little more than a smoke and mirrors high risk gamblefest where everybody overplays and races around trying to pad their steal stats while giving up open shot after open shot if they miss. Either way, Muss tried to outsmallball Don Nelson, and guess what, it did not work. Avoids the big ole "F" here because a) Baron Davis was just spectacular and took thyis game away form us as much as we gave it away; and b) despite everything we hung around and theoretically could have stolen this one had the Warriors stumbled. But they did not, and they clearly ahd the better team tongiht (espcially given the talent level of the guys we chose to play). So win streak over. And with the Spurs looming, maybe lose streak started. We'll see -- in some ways maybe we match up better there.
Baron Davis ( FFFFFF ) -- Wow. Just WOW. Baron's long been a HOF type talent hindered by a nickel brain, but tonight was amazing. Tim Hardaway on roids. A mutant cross of JWill and Mitch Richmond. Whatever. If you could draw up the most forceful ultimate PG performance, it wouldn't look too much different than this. Broke us down at will, created shot after shot for everybody on the court including himself. Much respect in this one for a guy who doesn't always deserve it -- would have been a blast to watch if it was happening to some other team.
Charles Barkley ( GO AWAY ) -- for all of those worried that the Big Ignorance himself would doom our season by saying something positive about us, not to worry.
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