Kingsfans.com Gameday Thread
Game 32
Sacramento Kings vs. Charlotte Bornets
Game 32
Sacramento Kings vs. Charlotte Bornets
Gotta keep this short since I have to wake up for work in six hours AND I still haven't had a chance to watch the last couple of games on account of my being out of town for the New Year Holliday.
Tonight we face perhaps the least interesting team in the NBA in the Charlotte Hornets, a team that's not particularly good but not all that terrible either, which of course means that, in the absolutely abysmal Eastern Conference, they're a likely playoff team despite the fact they're possibly going to finish at least fifteen games under .500.
The Hornets, err, Bobcats are "flourishing" under the guidance of long-term Van Gundy disciple, Steve Clifford, which of course means that they are destined to be boring and not bad at defense. Dealing with a spate of injuries to 3/5ths of what their intended starting line-up probably was, Charlotte is now currently being led by tall Isaiah Thomas and short, chunky, older, and not-as-good Demarcus Cousins.
Kemba Walker remains a score-first kind of point guard as he largely was in college, which, considering our stellar defensive backcourt, means he's bound to have a record-breaking night tonight. Al Jefferson is his usual self, which means you can expect an array of ground-bound post action and a lack of lateral quickness.
While the Jimmer pick is widely panned by most of the members on this site (the last game excluded), the pick we traded for him (our number 7 pick for the year was sent to the Bobcats) turned out to be even more of a debacle. Considered before the draft a paint-protector in the vein of Serge Ibaka or (insert dominant defensive presence here), Bismack Biyombo has instead thus far wound up being a poor man's Justin Williams, this season producing 3.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.1 blocks per 18 minutes of action. While those stats aren't terrible and in fact translate out to decent per-36 numbers, they fail to show you Biyombo's utter lack of basketball awareness, completely neglected offensive skillset, or the fact that he's been benched in favor of the astoundingly bland Josh McRoberts. While I tend to fall in the "Collect as many shot blockers as you can" Camp, Bismack is simply one player I cannot see having a lasting impact in the league whereas Jimmer is still, at the very least, a ticket draw, and, at the most, is capable of hitting a free throw.
So how do I see this game going? Well, we're home but coming off a gnarly loss to the Suxers and Spencer Hawes and we're at home, so hopefully we actually put out a good game on the effort front. Considering the complete lack of front court talent on the Bobcats' end, we should be feeding the Boogie Monster all night and letting the game open up from there. The Bobcats defend guards relatively well. In other words, this should not be a give-IT-the-ball-every-play sort of night.
Prediction: Kings 105, Hornets 100
GO KINGS!
PS. Michael Jordan has a Hitler mustache.
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