Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Grades v. Sucklies 01/29
Artest ( B ) -- was a serious matchup problem for the Grizzlies to start the game. Kind of got lost as the Grizzlies defense completely collapsed in the second quarter and everyone was scoring with such ease. Made several great defensive plays with those magic hands, poking balls away, and caused the Grizz some more problems in the 4th with his strength. But then it came losing time, and Ron did his part -- forced a dumb shot at the 1:30 mark trying to play the hero, leading to a Chucky Atkins layup at the other end thta put us behind. We never recovered. Threw in some missed FTS as well.
Thomas ( C+ ) -- not much early, and in a game when virtually everybody had thier moments, Kenny managed to largely avoid the spotlight. Had a running hook. So there...very exciting. In the first half could not keep the immortal Larry Roberts from kicking out cute little buttocks on the boards, and yet in a game in which we got completely embarrassed on the glass, Kenny still tied for the team lead.
Miller ( D ) -- not much effect early, and got totally annihilated by Gasol on the other end all night long. Towards the end of the second quarter began to run the backcuts with Kevin like they were in the gym alone -- which basically they were for all the defense being applied. I wanted some of that action. Can see the stats now: Bricklayer NBA career 1gm 10-10 FG 20pts...well, maybe 9-10 field. I've been known to blow layups even when nobody else is on the court. Gave us a last gasp when he rebounded a missed Bibby three at the :30 second mark, kicked it back to Mike for a second attempt, and Mike drained it. Unfortunately his own awkward combination of reluctance to shoot and missed shots when he did shoot helped to sink us. Passed well, but everything else pretty much sucked. Shot poorly, rebounded poorly, Pau dropped the easiest 34 of his life in there...blech.
Martin ( B- ) -- in the first half got open look after open look, and hit almost all of them. And in the second quarter in particular got layup after layup on every single cut he made as the Grizzlies quit even pretending to play defense. Threw in several breakaways off steal up toip wiht the Grizz just politely throwing it right into his waiting hands. End result was a 19pt first half that he made look easy, and you were thinking if that's the way the Grizz are going to defend him, the kid is going to drop 30+ on them. (note, was having problems with Miller the other way when he as on him, but seemed minor at the time). Well anyway...not how it worked out. 19 at half, 22 by the middle of the third, and that was it. And not it as in a disappeared sort of way. But it as in a "now I'm gonna suck" sort of way. Inexplicably challenged Pau a couple of times off the drive and got the ball plastered back in his face. Just quit scoring after about the mid 3rd and began forcing. Then had a chance to be a hero and made himself into a goat -- got the play called for him out of a timeout at the 1:00 mark with us down 2, tried to drive, came up short, and compounded it by running over Chucky Atkins in frustration down at the other end of the floor. Chucky hits the FTs, and all of a sudden we are down 4 and defeat is looming.
Bibby ( B- ) -- started off the game hot, knocking down his first three shots, including two three pointers. And really the shot looked pretty solid thereafter. Most of what he pu up seeemd to be going in. Then things got down to crunch time, and the team fell apart. Miek actually hit our final shot -- missed a three at the :30 mark o bring us within 1, but Brad rebounded it and kicked it back to him for a second try, which he drained. Gave us life. Unfortunately we promptly squandered it when they came back the other way and drained a hyuge three right back in our faces. Well...it would have been in oour faces if Mike had been wihtint 5 feet of hsi man whne he hit the shot. So Mike comes back down the other way, foreces up another desperate miss, and that's that. 23pts on 50% shooting, and yet maybe the second game vs. the Grizzlies in which he's found a way to be outplayed by Chucky bleeping Atkins.
Corliss ( B+ ) --another game, another big scoring boost off the bench. Provided 11pts in the 2nd to help us open up a nice lead over the league's worst team (recordwise). Tehn returned in the second half to play an important role in our almost win over that same league's worst team (recordwise). Hit a layup to break a Grizzlies run in the early 4th which had gotten them back into it as we went into early collapse. And satyed on court as jsut about the steadiest King down the stretch again. In fact when he picked up his 5th foul with about 5-6min to go it was pretty gutsy for Muss to leave him in because he was pretty much our key offensive player at the time. Just too strong for any fo the Grizzlies skinny little scrub forwards, and was bowling through a bunch of undernourished guys who weigh about as much as one of his calves. Of course he scores so easily in there sometimes that what is NOT happeneing while he's on the floor sometimes gets missed -- and here I am of course referring to his rebounding (another nonexistent 2 tongiht for the stubby groundbound guy) and defense (where Pau towered over him, and Warrick took advanatage of his foul trouble to just jump over him inside). Proves imply too limited to save us once again, but another valiant effort.
Salmons ( ) -- looked good hitting wide open shots and slashing to the hoop uncontested in the first half, and used hsi size well on the blocks at PG once more. Quiet after the break though, and was on the court for much of our collapse back into Kingshood.
Reef ( D+ ) -- about the only King unable to score against the defense of the Grizzlies. Shots looked flat. In the first half at least kicked the ball to wide open Kings (which was basically everybody) for easy looks. After half...? Shared the defensive and reboudning woes of the rest of the frontcourt, but without any real appreciable impact back the other way.
Cisco ( ) -- good 2nd quarter stint when he was efficient and used his length to be part of our best stretch of the game. Not so great 2nd half stint when he returned to do nothing be part of our collapse.
Muss ( A+ ) -- first of all a hard game to grade since the Grizzlies are going to makle basically everybody look like an All Star, and yet whew! -- we ran into a buzzsaw of suckiness tongiht but we showed them what's what! Jerry West knows the value of a Gasol/Oden or Gasol/Durant pairing, and they are going with it with gusto. But nobody, and I do mean NOBODY, does suck the way we do suck, so we walked right onto their home floor in front of their 17 fans, and just took the loss from them. And no amount of rookies or Chucky Atkinses were going to deny us. They really have only themselves to blame -- they had Jake Tsakalidis on the bench and only broke him out for a single burst of suck in the second quarter. He might have been enough to tip the balance late. But I think that's where our edge lies -- we have managed to master the art of suckling with all of our major players helathy and n the floor. Yeah, our coach has a completely whacked substitution pattern, but in the end we can just throw our "best" out on the court and have them outsuck the best er... worst? er... whatever that you have to offer. Muss actually made some token show of resisting this one, and made some good coaching moves in the 4th. After the Grizz had cut the lead to two in the early 4th he called a quick timeout which actually worked to settle us and break the Grizzlies momentum, allowing us a few more moments before we choked the rest of the game away. And while riding the hot Corliss hand once again, he made the gutsy (stupid?) move to leave Corliss in the game with 5 fouls form the 6 minute mark. One of those things where if Corliss gets #6 a couple of minutes later the coach gets called a fool, but since Corliss played this one out, coach looks "courageous". But in any case, none of that mattered. What mattered is that a) the game got tight, and all of our guys promptly panicked once again, quit moving the ball, and each individually tried, and failed, to play hero; and b) that we allowed the Memphis Grizzlies to score 41 pts on us in the 4th quarter. 41. Now as I've recently found out from the paper, we made 12 steals tongiht, which means that we played good defense despite the 124 pts we gave up on 59% shooting. But 41 in the final quarter seems a tad excessive don't you think? Anyway...had to go A+ here for pulling off the miracle loss. Who would have thunk it against an 11-34 team wiht an interim coach? Kudos.
Artest ( B ) -- was a serious matchup problem for the Grizzlies to start the game. Kind of got lost as the Grizzlies defense completely collapsed in the second quarter and everyone was scoring with such ease. Made several great defensive plays with those magic hands, poking balls away, and caused the Grizz some more problems in the 4th with his strength. But then it came losing time, and Ron did his part -- forced a dumb shot at the 1:30 mark trying to play the hero, leading to a Chucky Atkins layup at the other end thta put us behind. We never recovered. Threw in some missed FTS as well.
Thomas ( C+ ) -- not much early, and in a game when virtually everybody had thier moments, Kenny managed to largely avoid the spotlight. Had a running hook. So there...very exciting. In the first half could not keep the immortal Larry Roberts from kicking out cute little buttocks on the boards, and yet in a game in which we got completely embarrassed on the glass, Kenny still tied for the team lead.
Miller ( D ) -- not much effect early, and got totally annihilated by Gasol on the other end all night long. Towards the end of the second quarter began to run the backcuts with Kevin like they were in the gym alone -- which basically they were for all the defense being applied. I wanted some of that action. Can see the stats now: Bricklayer NBA career 1gm 10-10 FG 20pts...well, maybe 9-10 field. I've been known to blow layups even when nobody else is on the court. Gave us a last gasp when he rebounded a missed Bibby three at the :30 second mark, kicked it back to Mike for a second attempt, and Mike drained it. Unfortunately his own awkward combination of reluctance to shoot and missed shots when he did shoot helped to sink us. Passed well, but everything else pretty much sucked. Shot poorly, rebounded poorly, Pau dropped the easiest 34 of his life in there...blech.
Martin ( B- ) -- in the first half got open look after open look, and hit almost all of them. And in the second quarter in particular got layup after layup on every single cut he made as the Grizzlies quit even pretending to play defense. Threw in several breakaways off steal up toip wiht the Grizz just politely throwing it right into his waiting hands. End result was a 19pt first half that he made look easy, and you were thinking if that's the way the Grizz are going to defend him, the kid is going to drop 30+ on them. (note, was having problems with Miller the other way when he as on him, but seemed minor at the time). Well anyway...not how it worked out. 19 at half, 22 by the middle of the third, and that was it. And not it as in a disappeared sort of way. But it as in a "now I'm gonna suck" sort of way. Inexplicably challenged Pau a couple of times off the drive and got the ball plastered back in his face. Just quit scoring after about the mid 3rd and began forcing. Then had a chance to be a hero and made himself into a goat -- got the play called for him out of a timeout at the 1:00 mark with us down 2, tried to drive, came up short, and compounded it by running over Chucky Atkins in frustration down at the other end of the floor. Chucky hits the FTs, and all of a sudden we are down 4 and defeat is looming.
Bibby ( B- ) -- started off the game hot, knocking down his first three shots, including two three pointers. And really the shot looked pretty solid thereafter. Most of what he pu up seeemd to be going in. Then things got down to crunch time, and the team fell apart. Miek actually hit our final shot -- missed a three at the :30 mark o bring us within 1, but Brad rebounded it and kicked it back to him for a second try, which he drained. Gave us life. Unfortunately we promptly squandered it when they came back the other way and drained a hyuge three right back in our faces. Well...it would have been in oour faces if Mike had been wihtint 5 feet of hsi man whne he hit the shot. So Mike comes back down the other way, foreces up another desperate miss, and that's that. 23pts on 50% shooting, and yet maybe the second game vs. the Grizzlies in which he's found a way to be outplayed by Chucky bleeping Atkins.
Corliss ( B+ ) --another game, another big scoring boost off the bench. Provided 11pts in the 2nd to help us open up a nice lead over the league's worst team (recordwise). Tehn returned in the second half to play an important role in our almost win over that same league's worst team (recordwise). Hit a layup to break a Grizzlies run in the early 4th which had gotten them back into it as we went into early collapse. And satyed on court as jsut about the steadiest King down the stretch again. In fact when he picked up his 5th foul with about 5-6min to go it was pretty gutsy for Muss to leave him in because he was pretty much our key offensive player at the time. Just too strong for any fo the Grizzlies skinny little scrub forwards, and was bowling through a bunch of undernourished guys who weigh about as much as one of his calves. Of course he scores so easily in there sometimes that what is NOT happeneing while he's on the floor sometimes gets missed -- and here I am of course referring to his rebounding (another nonexistent 2 tongiht for the stubby groundbound guy) and defense (where Pau towered over him, and Warrick took advanatage of his foul trouble to just jump over him inside). Proves imply too limited to save us once again, but another valiant effort.
Salmons ( ) -- looked good hitting wide open shots and slashing to the hoop uncontested in the first half, and used hsi size well on the blocks at PG once more. Quiet after the break though, and was on the court for much of our collapse back into Kingshood.
Reef ( D+ ) -- about the only King unable to score against the defense of the Grizzlies. Shots looked flat. In the first half at least kicked the ball to wide open Kings (which was basically everybody) for easy looks. After half...? Shared the defensive and reboudning woes of the rest of the frontcourt, but without any real appreciable impact back the other way.
Cisco ( ) -- good 2nd quarter stint when he was efficient and used his length to be part of our best stretch of the game. Not so great 2nd half stint when he returned to do nothing be part of our collapse.
Muss ( A+ ) -- first of all a hard game to grade since the Grizzlies are going to makle basically everybody look like an All Star, and yet whew! -- we ran into a buzzsaw of suckiness tongiht but we showed them what's what! Jerry West knows the value of a Gasol/Oden or Gasol/Durant pairing, and they are going with it with gusto. But nobody, and I do mean NOBODY, does suck the way we do suck, so we walked right onto their home floor in front of their 17 fans, and just took the loss from them. And no amount of rookies or Chucky Atkinses were going to deny us. They really have only themselves to blame -- they had Jake Tsakalidis on the bench and only broke him out for a single burst of suck in the second quarter. He might have been enough to tip the balance late. But I think that's where our edge lies -- we have managed to master the art of suckling with all of our major players helathy and n the floor. Yeah, our coach has a completely whacked substitution pattern, but in the end we can just throw our "best" out on the court and have them outsuck the best er... worst? er... whatever that you have to offer. Muss actually made some token show of resisting this one, and made some good coaching moves in the 4th. After the Grizz had cut the lead to two in the early 4th he called a quick timeout which actually worked to settle us and break the Grizzlies momentum, allowing us a few more moments before we choked the rest of the game away. And while riding the hot Corliss hand once again, he made the gutsy (stupid?) move to leave Corliss in the game with 5 fouls form the 6 minute mark. One of those things where if Corliss gets #6 a couple of minutes later the coach gets called a fool, but since Corliss played this one out, coach looks "courageous". But in any case, none of that mattered. What mattered is that a) the game got tight, and all of our guys promptly panicked once again, quit moving the ball, and each individually tried, and failed, to play hero; and b) that we allowed the Memphis Grizzlies to score 41 pts on us in the 4th quarter. 41. Now as I've recently found out from the paper, we made 12 steals tongiht, which means that we played good defense despite the 124 pts we gave up on 59% shooting. But 41 in the final quarter seems a tad excessive don't you think? Anyway...had to go A+ here for pulling off the miracle loss. Who would have thunk it against an 11-34 team wiht an interim coach? Kudos.
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