Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Apologies -- twas a travel day. Had thought I might be able to rip them off, complete with theme, before the redeye. But no go.
Artest ( C+ ) -- got off to an active start working over old fellow thug Stephen Jackson in the early going, and seemed to be comfortable and know how he wanted to attack the game. Began to get out of control however, and you almsot have to wonder if maybe he was trying to show off for Jackson or something. After a layup in the first quarter decided to give us a muscleman flex for no apparent reason in what at the time was an ugly game of about 10-10, and after almost coming up with a monster flying follow jam in the early second quarter, otherwise started pressing and throwing up some ugly stuff. Reggie actually ended up sitting him down after that, and he did not play for the remainder of the half. Started to cause those huge matchup problems he does with his strength down inside in the third, but also renewed his FT struggles after he started getting to the line repeatedly, and was having trouble converting if the refs did not bail him out with a whistle. Got himself pulled after making a dumb open court foul on Baron in the early 4th. You can pick a lot of guys, but come on Ron. And with Baron with 5 fouls late in the game, Ron kept on getting guarded by him off of switches, and yet mysteriously refused to take him into the post? Baron is a tough guy, maybe the strongest of the PGs. But Ron is much mucg bigger, and all of a sudden he starts chucking jumpers instead? Missed a series of desperation threes late after our offense repeatedly broke down in the final minutes and we had to throw up junk. This one was the dreaded Ron Ron press/hero game, where he simply tried to do too much, started dominating the ball, pressing, forcing bad shots, and then coming back and forcing more bad shots in an effort to make up for the bad shot he had just taken. The result was a 21pt 9reb game, but on 7-24 shooting in only 32minutes. Just too much Ron for his, or our, own good.
Moore ( B ) -- had an effective first half with some follow jams and actual rebounds against a team where being a a 7'0" stickman still makes you a better rebounder than the 6'7" SF that is guarding you. Has settled now into a true roleplayer's game, which is how he can be useful. Just going to the glass on offense, shooting only when the shot is created for you by your teammate, and every once in a while doing something saavy, like the time he blocked his man out of the play to allow an uncontested drive by..Kevin maybe? Or the time he came up with a drawn charge in the final minutes by racing over and jumping under the Warriors driver (Jackson I think). And if that sounds like I am sceptical and have little respect for that play, its because I don't. But its what Mikki can do, and he again was playing within himself. Really timing his emergence here pretty much simultaneously with the return of Artest, and discovery of Beno. Lets him just play off the ball and not sweat the lack of talent thing, and since that time has been quite efficient. However when finally called upon in this one to make a big play that wasn't an uncontested layup, Mikki came up short when we needed it. Bricked an open elbow jumper set up by Beno that would have kept us in it late, and that was the ballgame.
Miller ( B+ ) -- Tough one to grade. Ragged up and down first half with Brad trying to find a role/comfort zone against the wackiness that is Nellie ball. Tried to be aggressive, but missed most of his shots. Did grab a fair share of rebounds as by far the biggest body on the floor. Meanwhile we were in a zone too much, but Brad was still making Andris Biedrins look like Wilt in there in the first half. Just catch and lay it up, rinse, repeat, with nary a contested shot. Waded in there for some big aggressive rebounds down the stretch, but his inability to hit shots hurt. Normally any King, ANY King, who had the temerity to go out and grab 18 rebounds in a game despite our explicit corporate rules about such behavior, would be getting an A of some sort. But this game was ragged, and Brad's poor offense was a real impediment to us winning this one. The defense on Biedrins got better, and I think Brad largely got the better of that matchup in the late going. But he never could get much going either with his own shot, or by setting up others.
Martin ( B+ ) -- big first half back in his preferred uptempo style. After a ragged start, kept it simple early and just went into catch and shoot mode, and after that settled his game he began to get aggressive and take the ball to the rack against the always porous Warriors defense (and of course as usual the Warriors rarely had more than one non-guard in there to challenge shots -- must have looked a lot like college to Kevin). Also managed to combine another good game on the glas with the scoring, and threw in several nice kick out passes as well -- soemthing he doesn't always do, but tonight there were occassional drives with the intention of creating a shot for somebody else after the defense collapsed rather than for himself. Benefitted as well by the refs calling a lot of touch fouls in the first half, including one breathing foul on Monta Ellis on a Kevin drive that was just silly. An important notation mind you, because the refs, who were just pathetic tonight, abruptly changed the way they were calling the game in the final few minutes. The result was a critical non-call on a Kevin drive at the 1:30 mark that would have put us up four. Biedrins came over, blocked the shot, and it appeared part of Kevin's arm, and the refs who had spent the whole game tweet tweet tweeting on a variety of B.S. that would not be a foul in golf let alone basketball, suddenly swallowed their whistles. Golden State came back down the other way, canned a three, and boom, there went our lead, and the game as it turned out. Even before that play, stop me if this sounds familiar, Kevin had been having a big game and then abruptly disappeared in the late third, and had all of one FT to his credit in the final quarter, and that was a technical. The Warriors paid attention to him, sure. But it was still only single coverage, no doubles, no traps. And yet it was another AWOL 4th for our leading scorer. This was right on the border of B+/A- for me, but the loss tips it I think -- we needed Kevin late, and he was nowhere to be found.
Artest ( C+ ) -- got off to an active start working over old fellow thug Stephen Jackson in the early going, and seemed to be comfortable and know how he wanted to attack the game. Began to get out of control however, and you almsot have to wonder if maybe he was trying to show off for Jackson or something. After a layup in the first quarter decided to give us a muscleman flex for no apparent reason in what at the time was an ugly game of about 10-10, and after almost coming up with a monster flying follow jam in the early second quarter, otherwise started pressing and throwing up some ugly stuff. Reggie actually ended up sitting him down after that, and he did not play for the remainder of the half. Started to cause those huge matchup problems he does with his strength down inside in the third, but also renewed his FT struggles after he started getting to the line repeatedly, and was having trouble converting if the refs did not bail him out with a whistle. Got himself pulled after making a dumb open court foul on Baron in the early 4th. You can pick a lot of guys, but come on Ron. And with Baron with 5 fouls late in the game, Ron kept on getting guarded by him off of switches, and yet mysteriously refused to take him into the post? Baron is a tough guy, maybe the strongest of the PGs. But Ron is much mucg bigger, and all of a sudden he starts chucking jumpers instead? Missed a series of desperation threes late after our offense repeatedly broke down in the final minutes and we had to throw up junk. This one was the dreaded Ron Ron press/hero game, where he simply tried to do too much, started dominating the ball, pressing, forcing bad shots, and then coming back and forcing more bad shots in an effort to make up for the bad shot he had just taken. The result was a 21pt 9reb game, but on 7-24 shooting in only 32minutes. Just too much Ron for his, or our, own good.
Moore ( B ) -- had an effective first half with some follow jams and actual rebounds against a team where being a a 7'0" stickman still makes you a better rebounder than the 6'7" SF that is guarding you. Has settled now into a true roleplayer's game, which is how he can be useful. Just going to the glass on offense, shooting only when the shot is created for you by your teammate, and every once in a while doing something saavy, like the time he blocked his man out of the play to allow an uncontested drive by..Kevin maybe? Or the time he came up with a drawn charge in the final minutes by racing over and jumping under the Warriors driver (Jackson I think). And if that sounds like I am sceptical and have little respect for that play, its because I don't. But its what Mikki can do, and he again was playing within himself. Really timing his emergence here pretty much simultaneously with the return of Artest, and discovery of Beno. Lets him just play off the ball and not sweat the lack of talent thing, and since that time has been quite efficient. However when finally called upon in this one to make a big play that wasn't an uncontested layup, Mikki came up short when we needed it. Bricked an open elbow jumper set up by Beno that would have kept us in it late, and that was the ballgame.
Miller ( B+ ) -- Tough one to grade. Ragged up and down first half with Brad trying to find a role/comfort zone against the wackiness that is Nellie ball. Tried to be aggressive, but missed most of his shots. Did grab a fair share of rebounds as by far the biggest body on the floor. Meanwhile we were in a zone too much, but Brad was still making Andris Biedrins look like Wilt in there in the first half. Just catch and lay it up, rinse, repeat, with nary a contested shot. Waded in there for some big aggressive rebounds down the stretch, but his inability to hit shots hurt. Normally any King, ANY King, who had the temerity to go out and grab 18 rebounds in a game despite our explicit corporate rules about such behavior, would be getting an A of some sort. But this game was ragged, and Brad's poor offense was a real impediment to us winning this one. The defense on Biedrins got better, and I think Brad largely got the better of that matchup in the late going. But he never could get much going either with his own shot, or by setting up others.
Martin ( B+ ) -- big first half back in his preferred uptempo style. After a ragged start, kept it simple early and just went into catch and shoot mode, and after that settled his game he began to get aggressive and take the ball to the rack against the always porous Warriors defense (and of course as usual the Warriors rarely had more than one non-guard in there to challenge shots -- must have looked a lot like college to Kevin). Also managed to combine another good game on the glas with the scoring, and threw in several nice kick out passes as well -- soemthing he doesn't always do, but tonight there were occassional drives with the intention of creating a shot for somebody else after the defense collapsed rather than for himself. Benefitted as well by the refs calling a lot of touch fouls in the first half, including one breathing foul on Monta Ellis on a Kevin drive that was just silly. An important notation mind you, because the refs, who were just pathetic tonight, abruptly changed the way they were calling the game in the final few minutes. The result was a critical non-call on a Kevin drive at the 1:30 mark that would have put us up four. Biedrins came over, blocked the shot, and it appeared part of Kevin's arm, and the refs who had spent the whole game tweet tweet tweeting on a variety of B.S. that would not be a foul in golf let alone basketball, suddenly swallowed their whistles. Golden State came back down the other way, canned a three, and boom, there went our lead, and the game as it turned out. Even before that play, stop me if this sounds familiar, Kevin had been having a big game and then abruptly disappeared in the late third, and had all of one FT to his credit in the final quarter, and that was a technical. The Warriors paid attention to him, sure. But it was still only single coverage, no doubles, no traps. And yet it was another AWOL 4th for our leading scorer. This was right on the border of B+/A- for me, but the loss tips it I think -- we needed Kevin late, and he was nowhere to be found.
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