Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
This one I actually watched...
Salmons ( D- ) -- Well...pretty much got his butt kicked tonight. Ron Artest came out obviously fired up about this matchup and just beat the crap out of John on both sides of the ball there in the early going. And of course as we have seen when Ron is focused he can be a brutal matchup for any normal size/strength swingman type. Methinks Ron wanted to contest the idea that somehow John Salmons was his equal, and by the end of the first quarter it was something like 13pts for Ron, 2 for John, and those on a fastbreak. Along the way Ron had also poked the ball away from him on numerous occssions, and bullied his way to the hoop at will. John had to be relieved after half to see that Ron Ron was done for the night, and better yet that his replacment would be Mike Harris, a relatively lumbering tweener SF/PF type. Predictably he looked better against the lesser competition and and had some moments of effective play there in the early third. But he still had a lot of problems finishing inside, and while he as able to move aroud the court much freer, he began to force things badly as the quarter wore down. Pondered D here, as facing a focused Ron Artest is no picnic for anybody. But rarely do you see such an obvious pantsing in the NBA, and the frustrated forcing in the late 3rd considerably hurt us, so added the minus.
Mikki ( B+ ) -- got the better of Scola in the early going, who seemed, of all things, unsure of how to defend Mikki in the post. Did nothing for us on the glass of course, but watching the game you would definitely have said that he was outplaying the Argentinian, and by the end Mikki was the player who had easily our best +/- on the team.
Miller ( B ) -- struggled with his outside shot and certainly was not running la belle offense from a couple of nights back, but actually had a pretty solid game. It was not so much about what Brad did himself as what Yao did not or could not do back the other way in the early going. Brad was very active on defense and combined with Yao's sluggishness he was able to disrupt a lot of post feeds. Missed his jumpers, but played a pretty good floor game. Predictably late in the game had a lot of problems against Carl Landry's quickness and activity when the Rockets went small.
Martin ( C ) -- very quiet early, as the Rockets made the most of not having TMac tonight, and wise to the quickness issue with Kevin (the advantage of having both his ex coach as well as his ex best player teammate perhaps) just started two PGs, one to guard Beno, and the other (Rafer Alston) to guard Kevin. And it worked. Kevin struggled his way to a 1-7 first half and got his only first half basket on a tough continuation in the face of some tight defense by DJ Strawberry. But Kevin came out much more aggressive after half, and while the Rockets had largely shut it down and were playing their bench, Kevin at least was still being guarded by the same player -- Rafer. So it was a more legit heating up than if he had suddenly found himself guarded by a fringe player. In any case heated up big time, and by the end of the quarter you had one of those characteristic things with Kevin -- he wasn't really that good tonight, struggled for much of it, but all it took was one hot streak and he was back up near the 20pt mark.
Beno ( C ) -- have fewere notes about Beno than I do any other King tonight. Some good flashes early, but was having trouble on defense against little dart Aaron Brooks, and was surprisingly unable to consistently take advnatage of him on the other end with his superior size. End result = our starting PG finishing the game with 4 points, while Brooks finished with 23 (in half again as many minutes of course).
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Thompson ( C ) -- came in and immediately had a turnover (or rather Beno probably did) on a misiommunication. Second time I have seen that this preseason between he and Beno, and not sure the chemistry between those two guys is great right now. Largely ineffective out there in the first half except for one block, on his man unfortunately (unfortunate if you are still waiting for him to emerge as a strong help defender), against little Chuck Hayes. In the second half had a lot of problems guarding various Rockets PFs, missed a side jumper again, but did come up with back to back post hoops that were good to see. Also finally got a help block...albeit against DJ Strawberry, who probably should have followed dad into baseball.
Spencer ( C- ) -- came in, took one look at 7'5" Yao Ming, and turned into a jumpshooter, tried to work inside when it became a small frontline of Haywes and Landry, but no luck there either. Struggled until the 4th when he began to move more freely (note there was no more Yao and the Rockets were small), and came up with an impressive up and under dunk behind Scola. It may be time for everybody to start calling him out again, as it seems that the burst of energy he got from being called a wuss has been slowly dissipating ever since that first post-Oden game, and I think he needs a new burst of inspiration. So Spencer...your mom dresses you funny!
BJax ( D+ ) -- did not have a good ngiht, but gets a little credit here for coming into the game and immediately giving the Rockets, and Artest, a taste of their own early medicine to close the first, as he too was playing against his old team and picked Ron clean up top and headed the other way for the layup (he was fouled and ended up at the line -- actually on replay it appeared he wasn't fouled, but...details). Remained his highlight for the remainder of the game however as he missed his jumpers and had no better luck trying to contain Aaron Brooks when he was on him than anybody else did.
Brown ( D+ ) -- another toughish night for the kid, who like each of our rookies has given us one big game flashing his potential, and then a lot of question marks. Came in and immediately got out on the break looking for the dunk and got it disrupted by Landry leading to an embarrassing clank off the front rim. Struggled with his shot again (not getting it off -- that he is expert at, but actually getting it in the hoop), and for the second game in a row got out-mighty-mited by another young dart, this time it was Aaron Brooks who won the matchup. Picked a good time to finally get a hit, with a three pointer in the final minutes that helped draw us back close again, but wiped away any goodwill there by getting selfish and forcing up an airball three in the last minute that helped finish us.
Greene ( B ) -- a minor bright point here --gave us his best minutes since the first game. Not anything spectacular, but for the first time since that 18pt game was playing within himself. Hit a three in rhtyhm. Followed up a bricked Brad layup with a dunk. And then had the good sense to scamper on out of the game just as Ron checked back in to educate him. Returned in the 4th and again looked more like an NBA basketball player than a kid just flailing about, contributing in a variety of ways, drawing a charge, hitting a shot and a pair of FTs. Not star stuff, but contributor stuff.
Williams ( B- ) -- hey, a midget in there against Yao, but at least he did not back down. Actually has been emerging this preseason -- finally -- as a somewhat reliable post defender. Did better against that strength however than he did late in the game against the Rockets' smallball, which I think is kind of his M.O.
Salmons ( D- ) -- Well...pretty much got his butt kicked tonight. Ron Artest came out obviously fired up about this matchup and just beat the crap out of John on both sides of the ball there in the early going. And of course as we have seen when Ron is focused he can be a brutal matchup for any normal size/strength swingman type. Methinks Ron wanted to contest the idea that somehow John Salmons was his equal, and by the end of the first quarter it was something like 13pts for Ron, 2 for John, and those on a fastbreak. Along the way Ron had also poked the ball away from him on numerous occssions, and bullied his way to the hoop at will. John had to be relieved after half to see that Ron Ron was done for the night, and better yet that his replacment would be Mike Harris, a relatively lumbering tweener SF/PF type. Predictably he looked better against the lesser competition and and had some moments of effective play there in the early third. But he still had a lot of problems finishing inside, and while he as able to move aroud the court much freer, he began to force things badly as the quarter wore down. Pondered D here, as facing a focused Ron Artest is no picnic for anybody. But rarely do you see such an obvious pantsing in the NBA, and the frustrated forcing in the late 3rd considerably hurt us, so added the minus.
Mikki ( B+ ) -- got the better of Scola in the early going, who seemed, of all things, unsure of how to defend Mikki in the post. Did nothing for us on the glass of course, but watching the game you would definitely have said that he was outplaying the Argentinian, and by the end Mikki was the player who had easily our best +/- on the team.
Miller ( B ) -- struggled with his outside shot and certainly was not running la belle offense from a couple of nights back, but actually had a pretty solid game. It was not so much about what Brad did himself as what Yao did not or could not do back the other way in the early going. Brad was very active on defense and combined with Yao's sluggishness he was able to disrupt a lot of post feeds. Missed his jumpers, but played a pretty good floor game. Predictably late in the game had a lot of problems against Carl Landry's quickness and activity when the Rockets went small.
Martin ( C ) -- very quiet early, as the Rockets made the most of not having TMac tonight, and wise to the quickness issue with Kevin (the advantage of having both his ex coach as well as his ex best player teammate perhaps) just started two PGs, one to guard Beno, and the other (Rafer Alston) to guard Kevin. And it worked. Kevin struggled his way to a 1-7 first half and got his only first half basket on a tough continuation in the face of some tight defense by DJ Strawberry. But Kevin came out much more aggressive after half, and while the Rockets had largely shut it down and were playing their bench, Kevin at least was still being guarded by the same player -- Rafer. So it was a more legit heating up than if he had suddenly found himself guarded by a fringe player. In any case heated up big time, and by the end of the quarter you had one of those characteristic things with Kevin -- he wasn't really that good tonight, struggled for much of it, but all it took was one hot streak and he was back up near the 20pt mark.
Beno ( C ) -- have fewere notes about Beno than I do any other King tonight. Some good flashes early, but was having trouble on defense against little dart Aaron Brooks, and was surprisingly unable to consistently take advnatage of him on the other end with his superior size. End result = our starting PG finishing the game with 4 points, while Brooks finished with 23 (in half again as many minutes of course).
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Thompson ( C ) -- came in and immediately had a turnover (or rather Beno probably did) on a misiommunication. Second time I have seen that this preseason between he and Beno, and not sure the chemistry between those two guys is great right now. Largely ineffective out there in the first half except for one block, on his man unfortunately (unfortunate if you are still waiting for him to emerge as a strong help defender), against little Chuck Hayes. In the second half had a lot of problems guarding various Rockets PFs, missed a side jumper again, but did come up with back to back post hoops that were good to see. Also finally got a help block...albeit against DJ Strawberry, who probably should have followed dad into baseball.
Spencer ( C- ) -- came in, took one look at 7'5" Yao Ming, and turned into a jumpshooter, tried to work inside when it became a small frontline of Haywes and Landry, but no luck there either. Struggled until the 4th when he began to move more freely (note there was no more Yao and the Rockets were small), and came up with an impressive up and under dunk behind Scola. It may be time for everybody to start calling him out again, as it seems that the burst of energy he got from being called a wuss has been slowly dissipating ever since that first post-Oden game, and I think he needs a new burst of inspiration. So Spencer...your mom dresses you funny!
BJax ( D+ ) -- did not have a good ngiht, but gets a little credit here for coming into the game and immediately giving the Rockets, and Artest, a taste of their own early medicine to close the first, as he too was playing against his old team and picked Ron clean up top and headed the other way for the layup (he was fouled and ended up at the line -- actually on replay it appeared he wasn't fouled, but...details). Remained his highlight for the remainder of the game however as he missed his jumpers and had no better luck trying to contain Aaron Brooks when he was on him than anybody else did.
Brown ( D+ ) -- another toughish night for the kid, who like each of our rookies has given us one big game flashing his potential, and then a lot of question marks. Came in and immediately got out on the break looking for the dunk and got it disrupted by Landry leading to an embarrassing clank off the front rim. Struggled with his shot again (not getting it off -- that he is expert at, but actually getting it in the hoop), and for the second game in a row got out-mighty-mited by another young dart, this time it was Aaron Brooks who won the matchup. Picked a good time to finally get a hit, with a three pointer in the final minutes that helped draw us back close again, but wiped away any goodwill there by getting selfish and forcing up an airball three in the last minute that helped finish us.
Greene ( B ) -- a minor bright point here --gave us his best minutes since the first game. Not anything spectacular, but for the first time since that 18pt game was playing within himself. Hit a three in rhtyhm. Followed up a bricked Brad layup with a dunk. And then had the good sense to scamper on out of the game just as Ron checked back in to educate him. Returned in the 4th and again looked more like an NBA basketball player than a kid just flailing about, contributing in a variety of ways, drawing a charge, hitting a shot and a pair of FTs. Not star stuff, but contributor stuff.
Williams ( B- ) -- hey, a midget in there against Yao, but at least he did not back down. Actually has been emerging this preseason -- finally -- as a somewhat reliable post defender. Did better against that strength however than he did late in the game against the Rockets' smallball, which I think is kind of his M.O.
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