Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( B+ ) -- got off to the strong start in this one, as we repeatedly called his number for iso postups to open the game, and he responded and actually may have forced them to switch into a zone. Also dominated the glass in the early minutes. But started struggling to convert as the Warriors pulled away. Came back out in the third as our only source of fire, and had a burst of domination on both ends of the floor, poking balls away for steals and crashing inside on the other end to draw fouls, which he converted at an amazing 13-13 pace for a 70% FT shooter. Also as promised took Baron a lot of the time and did a good job of disrupting him (from scoring at least -- he still dished out 13 assists). The 4-14 does not look pretty , but really thought that of all of our guys, Ron was the one (Kevin included) who came closest to controlling and turning things in this one.
Thomas ( C-) -- not terrible, but a complete nonfactor on the glass and defensively, where we were getting killed in the first half while he was out there. And it was good ole Matty Barnes who got the start at PF opposite him and just lit him up. Made some poor turnovers that may have contributed to his short night, but mostly I think it was just him being a low skill player in a high skill game, and not shwoing any ability to impact it with boardwork or otherwise.
Miller ( D ) -- slow start with the greyhounds racing up and down, and did not even take a shot until midway through the second. Nor was it like he was dominating inside on the glass where our erstwhile AllStar got badly outplayed by skinny little 21 yr old Andris Beidrins. Scored a couple of hoops finally on a pair of slow I'm-7'0"-and-you're-not rumbles down into the lane, but still ended up with a weak 4pts 5rebs 4TO effort in the same building where he scored a career high 38 a couple of years back. Trade value is sinking by the hour Geoff. Wake up.
Martin ( A-) -- free and easy up and down game of course played right into Kevin's hands, and he had the best looks he's had in weeks. And more than that, in the first half he was notably aggressive, repeatedly forcing the issue, not always wisely. Closest thing we've seen to Kevin acting like a goto scorer. Missed more than a few, had some misadventures, got into foul trouble late, but really got to display much of the repertoire with the exception of his FT shooting, where our 90% shooter hit only 9-13 and actually missed a pair of them back to back in the first quarter. Also thought he did a pretty good job on the Warriors own promising young guard Monta Ellis on the other end. Despite the 32 I decided to add a "-" here just because...hard to explain. But he scored, looked good doing it. But really didn't matter. He was just playing the up and down game dictated by the Warriors, doing his part to keep us in it, but never seemed to dominate or threaten them the way you would expect out of a 32 pt game (probably because when the other team scores 126, 32 is a drop in the bucket). Nice numbers, modest impact.
Bibby ( F ) -- Do not let the numbers decive you! Finished with 16pts, but there was just something so very wrong with this "performance" by Mike. Yo, morons over at Kings HQ! Sit this guy. Now. Let him get healthy, get his stroke back. We've lost 6 of 7 with him. And he's not helping. In any case another rough start for Mike, off to a 1-7 start. And get this, of the 1-7, 1-6 of it were threes.
In fact that was the way the entire game went -- Mike finished 4-14 (only because he hit a handful of shots in semi-garbagetime down the stretch after the game was over), and of the 14 shots, 12 were threes! What the hell is that? That's the extreme lazy Peja game. Can't shoot because of the wrist or whatever, and just chucking up junk. Bad bad game. Needs a rest.
Reef ( B+ ) -- Gotta admit, I had pretty much given up ont his guy in recent weeks (no, not earlier
), His flatline personality had bled over into his game to such a degree that this 30 yr old (Happy Bday Reef) was playing like he was 40. And in the first half it looked like more of the same as Reef just did nothing for us out there once again despite what appeared to be favorable macthups. But he finally woke up through sheer frustration at the end of the third after he kept on getting into scrums down inside missing shots, rebounding the miss, getting shots blocked, rebouyndig again, missing some more, getting smacked etc. Finally blew up and damn near got himself kicked from the game (nice save there by Salmons going over to grab him actually). But at least there was a spark of fire, some pulse. And inj the early 4th Reef, soft passive finesse little Reef, discovered his inner scrapper and began to really thrash around inside. Still not terribly effectively -- could not get over Biedrins, but relentlessly pursuing the misses, getting it back up again and again until the damn thing went in or he was fouled. Signs of life and fight appreciated. Unfortunately down on the other side fo the court Biedrins was matching him hoop for hoop and far more effienctly, just going over, through, or around him on a layup drill. So poor first half, spotty defense (the good spots being a couple of blocks where again Reef looked inspired), but more life than we've seen out of this guy in weeks.
Salmons ( B ) -- started off slow, and did little in the early going, but as the half wore on began to find the seams in the Warriors' zone defense and as the ball was swung around the perimeter he began to use ball fakes and drives to get to the hoop to score and dish off assists. In fact as we of course went small to match the Warriors, Salmons essentially palyed the whoile game as our SF with Ron at PF, and finished with a double double with 18pts 10 assists. Began to force, and miss, shots as the game wore on, particularly from the outside as he tried to shoot over the zone. Problem being he is not a good distance shooter (2-7 3pters). And defensively obviously did not have much impact. But still, our #3 guy tonight, and if not an impact performance, the other guy along with Kevin who seemed generally comfortable in this little pickup game we were caught up in. Actually pondered a "-" here, as in a bit of a reversal form his normal pattern, in this one it felt like he might actually be less effective than his numbers mihgt indicate, rather than more. But 18 and 10 is 18 and 10, and from a guy who gives you about 7 and 3 that's gotta be something.
Hart ( B ) -- You know what? I was pretty happy with much maligned Jason Hart tongiht. Got the first half beckup PG minutes instead of Price, and acquitted himself well, hustling on defense and knocking down a pair of straight ahead 18 footers from the top of the key. And came back in the second half and again went right to work competing hard against Davis or whoever else was in front of him. Of course has all of the talent of a used pair of Bibby's sneakers, but worked hard, did not make mistakes, and scrapped his way until he fouled out. Was all I could really ask for from him this time out.
Garcia ( C ) -- short stints, missed too many shots, including an airball, and did little else well. Going with that gentleman's C here again because I barely noticed him except for an occasional screwup.
Price ( INC ) -- couple of minutes of garbagetime
Muss ( C- ) -- I was actually pretty happy with how we started this one out -- repeatedly and obviously using Ron to punish them down in the interior and jumping out to a 6-0 lead. Unfortunately that was rougholy the last thing I was happy with tongiht. The lead of course evaporated in record time. We went away from that early startegy, and in a truly shocking development no defense and no rebounding were on display. We did really buckle down though at the end fo the second quarter, and stopped the Warriros from dropping another 70pt half on us.
In any case, moves of interest included moving Jason Hart up in the rotation ahead of Price (which worked well tonight actually), dropping Corliss entirely out of the rotation after the big scoring night last game (which may have just been a matchup thing), the early iso postups by Ron, a good play call out of a timeout resulting in an open Kevin 3pter, and of course our decision to once again follow Nellie and try to outsmallball a smallballing team, wiht the normal results. Muss also repeated his stupidity in "garbagetime" as once again there we are running out Ron Artest and Mike Bibby in an apparent desperate effort to get them hurt down 16 with 1:30 to go. Not that them being healthy is helping. And through it all, I dunno, Muss's demeanor is bothering me -- amusingly a common complaint from the old anti-Adelman crowd of years past. But Muss alternated from looking annoyed and chippy to just looking shellshocked and depressed. He was practically begging for a technical from...is it Brothers? whoever that big *** musclebound ref is, but the ref was just ignoring him like an irrelevant yipping little gerbil. Probably pondering whether to T him up or just turn around and knock him on his ***. And then, that ploy having failed, he sat back down to stare off into space. I don't like to get too much into sideline demeanors of coaches etc., because frankly they vary wildly and there is no consistent pattern amongst the big winners. But Muss right now just looks beat. As do we. Everybody's healthy now, more or less. If its not the coach, and its not the players, who leads us out of this depressing morass? And right through the teeth of another brutal three game swing too.
Matt Barnes ( F ) -- revenge is a dish... If we were going to lose, I'm glad it was Matt doing the damage. Went off on a ridiculous career game where he was clearly the best player on the floor with 32pts 11rebs and just raining threes down on our heads from all angles. Same guy we dumped as a throw in in the Webb trade, and then simply refused to take back even after he hung out in Sacto waiting for us to invite him back all summer. So good for you Matt. Now just don't do it again.
Thomas ( C-) -- not terrible, but a complete nonfactor on the glass and defensively, where we were getting killed in the first half while he was out there. And it was good ole Matty Barnes who got the start at PF opposite him and just lit him up. Made some poor turnovers that may have contributed to his short night, but mostly I think it was just him being a low skill player in a high skill game, and not shwoing any ability to impact it with boardwork or otherwise.
Miller ( D ) -- slow start with the greyhounds racing up and down, and did not even take a shot until midway through the second. Nor was it like he was dominating inside on the glass where our erstwhile AllStar got badly outplayed by skinny little 21 yr old Andris Beidrins. Scored a couple of hoops finally on a pair of slow I'm-7'0"-and-you're-not rumbles down into the lane, but still ended up with a weak 4pts 5rebs 4TO effort in the same building where he scored a career high 38 a couple of years back. Trade value is sinking by the hour Geoff. Wake up.
Martin ( A-) -- free and easy up and down game of course played right into Kevin's hands, and he had the best looks he's had in weeks. And more than that, in the first half he was notably aggressive, repeatedly forcing the issue, not always wisely. Closest thing we've seen to Kevin acting like a goto scorer. Missed more than a few, had some misadventures, got into foul trouble late, but really got to display much of the repertoire with the exception of his FT shooting, where our 90% shooter hit only 9-13 and actually missed a pair of them back to back in the first quarter. Also thought he did a pretty good job on the Warriors own promising young guard Monta Ellis on the other end. Despite the 32 I decided to add a "-" here just because...hard to explain. But he scored, looked good doing it. But really didn't matter. He was just playing the up and down game dictated by the Warriors, doing his part to keep us in it, but never seemed to dominate or threaten them the way you would expect out of a 32 pt game (probably because when the other team scores 126, 32 is a drop in the bucket). Nice numbers, modest impact.
Bibby ( F ) -- Do not let the numbers decive you! Finished with 16pts, but there was just something so very wrong with this "performance" by Mike. Yo, morons over at Kings HQ! Sit this guy. Now. Let him get healthy, get his stroke back. We've lost 6 of 7 with him. And he's not helping. In any case another rough start for Mike, off to a 1-7 start. And get this, of the 1-7, 1-6 of it were threes.
In fact that was the way the entire game went -- Mike finished 4-14 (only because he hit a handful of shots in semi-garbagetime down the stretch after the game was over), and of the 14 shots, 12 were threes! What the hell is that? That's the extreme lazy Peja game. Can't shoot because of the wrist or whatever, and just chucking up junk. Bad bad game. Needs a rest. Reef ( B+ ) -- Gotta admit, I had pretty much given up ont his guy in recent weeks (no, not earlier
), His flatline personality had bled over into his game to such a degree that this 30 yr old (Happy Bday Reef) was playing like he was 40. And in the first half it looked like more of the same as Reef just did nothing for us out there once again despite what appeared to be favorable macthups. But he finally woke up through sheer frustration at the end of the third after he kept on getting into scrums down inside missing shots, rebounding the miss, getting shots blocked, rebouyndig again, missing some more, getting smacked etc. Finally blew up and damn near got himself kicked from the game (nice save there by Salmons going over to grab him actually). But at least there was a spark of fire, some pulse. And inj the early 4th Reef, soft passive finesse little Reef, discovered his inner scrapper and began to really thrash around inside. Still not terribly effectively -- could not get over Biedrins, but relentlessly pursuing the misses, getting it back up again and again until the damn thing went in or he was fouled. Signs of life and fight appreciated. Unfortunately down on the other side fo the court Biedrins was matching him hoop for hoop and far more effienctly, just going over, through, or around him on a layup drill. So poor first half, spotty defense (the good spots being a couple of blocks where again Reef looked inspired), but more life than we've seen out of this guy in weeks.Salmons ( B ) -- started off slow, and did little in the early going, but as the half wore on began to find the seams in the Warriors' zone defense and as the ball was swung around the perimeter he began to use ball fakes and drives to get to the hoop to score and dish off assists. In fact as we of course went small to match the Warriors, Salmons essentially palyed the whoile game as our SF with Ron at PF, and finished with a double double with 18pts 10 assists. Began to force, and miss, shots as the game wore on, particularly from the outside as he tried to shoot over the zone. Problem being he is not a good distance shooter (2-7 3pters). And defensively obviously did not have much impact. But still, our #3 guy tonight, and if not an impact performance, the other guy along with Kevin who seemed generally comfortable in this little pickup game we were caught up in. Actually pondered a "-" here, as in a bit of a reversal form his normal pattern, in this one it felt like he might actually be less effective than his numbers mihgt indicate, rather than more. But 18 and 10 is 18 and 10, and from a guy who gives you about 7 and 3 that's gotta be something.
Hart ( B ) -- You know what? I was pretty happy with much maligned Jason Hart tongiht. Got the first half beckup PG minutes instead of Price, and acquitted himself well, hustling on defense and knocking down a pair of straight ahead 18 footers from the top of the key. And came back in the second half and again went right to work competing hard against Davis or whoever else was in front of him. Of course has all of the talent of a used pair of Bibby's sneakers, but worked hard, did not make mistakes, and scrapped his way until he fouled out. Was all I could really ask for from him this time out.
Garcia ( C ) -- short stints, missed too many shots, including an airball, and did little else well. Going with that gentleman's C here again because I barely noticed him except for an occasional screwup.
Price ( INC ) -- couple of minutes of garbagetime
Muss ( C- ) -- I was actually pretty happy with how we started this one out -- repeatedly and obviously using Ron to punish them down in the interior and jumping out to a 6-0 lead. Unfortunately that was rougholy the last thing I was happy with tongiht. The lead of course evaporated in record time. We went away from that early startegy, and in a truly shocking development no defense and no rebounding were on display. We did really buckle down though at the end fo the second quarter, and stopped the Warriros from dropping another 70pt half on us.
In any case, moves of interest included moving Jason Hart up in the rotation ahead of Price (which worked well tonight actually), dropping Corliss entirely out of the rotation after the big scoring night last game (which may have just been a matchup thing), the early iso postups by Ron, a good play call out of a timeout resulting in an open Kevin 3pter, and of course our decision to once again follow Nellie and try to outsmallball a smallballing team, wiht the normal results. Muss also repeated his stupidity in "garbagetime" as once again there we are running out Ron Artest and Mike Bibby in an apparent desperate effort to get them hurt down 16 with 1:30 to go. Not that them being healthy is helping. And through it all, I dunno, Muss's demeanor is bothering me -- amusingly a common complaint from the old anti-Adelman crowd of years past. But Muss alternated from looking annoyed and chippy to just looking shellshocked and depressed. He was practically begging for a technical from...is it Brothers? whoever that big *** musclebound ref is, but the ref was just ignoring him like an irrelevant yipping little gerbil. Probably pondering whether to T him up or just turn around and knock him on his ***. And then, that ploy having failed, he sat back down to stare off into space. I don't like to get too much into sideline demeanors of coaches etc., because frankly they vary wildly and there is no consistent pattern amongst the big winners. But Muss right now just looks beat. As do we. Everybody's healthy now, more or less. If its not the coach, and its not the players, who leads us out of this depressing morass? And right through the teeth of another brutal three game swing too.Matt Barnes ( F ) -- revenge is a dish... If we were going to lose, I'm glad it was Matt doing the damage. Went off on a ridiculous career game where he was clearly the best player on the floor with 32pts 11rebs and just raining threes down on our heads from all angles. Same guy we dumped as a throw in in the Webb trade, and then simply refused to take back even after he hung out in Sacto waiting for us to invite him back all summer. So good for you Matt. Now just don't do it again.
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