KingsFans.com Official Gameday Thread
Game 35
Sacramento Kings versus Cleveland Cavaliers
By Stephen Tetsu, KingsFans.com Resident Poodle ShaverGame 35
Sacramento Kings versus Cleveland Cavaliers
The Kings have been beating playoff teams for weeks but when it came to playing teams in the playoffs for Parker and Wiggins, they would usually come out flatter than a bottle of beer left open to sit in the summer sun for a week. In order for our team to take the next step, we would need to start beating bad teams and beating them consistently. While one game doesn’t count as consistently, it’s a start and a start is something.
The only thing the Magic are competing for at this point is pingpong balls but don’t let that fool you, they put up a fight as our superior talent stole their lunch money. Despite missing their one full-sized post player, the Magic did a commendable job defending Demarcus Cousins, which of course means that he only dropped 24 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, and three steals in 39 minutes. Their backcourt thoroughly outplayed anyone in our backcourt save Jimmer, who is suddenly becoming a viable backup PG for our team but Rudy Gay, Derrick Williams, and Jason Thompson all had their way with Orlando’s mishmash of tweener 4s and undersized 3s, Rudy doing so to the tune of 22 points, 10 boards, five assists, and a block that made NBA.com’s top plays feature.
With Coach Malone beginning to get comfortable wit the current roster, we’re starting to see him establish a relative clearcut rotation with Cuz, IT, and Gay all roughly getting the customary 38 minutes per game that most go-to players in the league get and everyone else roughly settling in behind them. Jason Thompson remains the gadget garbage guy on our frontline and has started warming up in that role over recent games. Marcus Thornton remains, well, Marcus Thornton but at this point, we’re getting enough production out of our Big 2.5 to compensate for the goose egg we usually receive from our SG. Our bench backcourt at this juncture is Jimmer and B-Mac who will both usually get around 15 minutes each (with B-Mac usually getting a bit more due to MT usually sucking a big fat egg). The team’s new sixth man is Derrick Williams, who seems to be settling into a good groove in his new role. Rounding out the rotation is the energy, dirty-work, good teammate duo of Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray, both of whom aren’t particularly good at anything but seem to be great guys and also perfectly happy to just be role players who do the grimey stuff. After seasons of Smartball substitution nonpatterns, it’s good to finally start seeing some stability. Of course, Carl Landry’s return and any future trades loom on the horizon to change things up once again.
Did I also forget to mention that we sorta played defense for once? Sure it was against a bad team that can’t really score anyways but it was a good defensive showing nevertheless. I thought we did an overall good job of making Afflalo’s life difficult scoring the ball, which is crucial since he’s the one guy on that team who’s a consistent outside scorer. Oladipo reeeally struggled with his shot but that’s been his story for years so there’s nothing new there. Overall the Magic shot just 33 percent from the field which is both a testiment to our team’s defense and the fact the Magic just aren’t very good.
Inside the paint, Orlando’s legion of undersized big men had almost no impact on the game. Glenn Davis had a 12 and 12 game but it also took him 12 shots to reach that point.
And yet, the Magic managed to keep it relatively close until the fourth quarter. Aside from making the act of beating down the weaker teams a norm instead of an exception, taking their lunch money and using it buy drugs is the next step in our journey back to relevancy.
And so onwards to today’s matinee game.
(Pictured:The expression on Harkless's (21) face is that of a man who has given up on life)
- Ray Mac scored this first bucket of his career in the closing minutes of the game, which made me flashback to the time in summer league when I called him the next Andre Miller. Like Andre Miller, he probably won't be seeing minutes on the Kings for the rest of the season.
- The apparent failure of the Andre Miller trade has largely been chalked up to Travis Outlaw's stupid contract, which we insisted on the Nuggets taking with Jimmer in exchange for Miller. After starting hot this season, Outlaw reverted to his rotting trout phase and has now pretty much been exiled to the end of the bench. The Kings have conveniently started winning games since this happened.
- That was a nice turnout for a relatively low-stakes game. Keep it up Arco faithful.
- I generally try to veer away from the arena conversation in these game threads but I think the pro-arena coalition made a grave mistake holding that press conference in a cemetery... Remember to tip your waiters on the way out.
- Those nickname jerseys worn in the Heat-Nets game may be the greatest/worst things ever. I say that but I'm fully aware that the sleeved jerseys are in fact the worst things ever, narrowly beating out Violet Palmer's refereeing.
- Tyreke Watch 2014: Tyreke sprained his ankle again. I'd say I'm surprised but Tyreke seems to sprain his ankle more frequently than Old Faithful erupts. That's definitely one thing I do not miss about Tyreke.
- You know your center's pretty good when you consider a 24/14/6/3/1 night a solid but unspectacular outing.
All comments taken from OrlandoPinstripedPost.com. You know the deal.
EDIT: My computer was a moron and ate the file with this section on it. VFTOS will return for the next game thread.
Awards Time
Spencer Hawes Chucker Award - Glenn "Big Baby" Davis
Mateen Cleaves Bench MVP Award- Aaron Gray
Tonight's Game
Of course all the talk about the Cavs starts and ends with Kyrie Irving, the dynamic point guard for Cleveland now in his third season in the league. With our uninspiring guard defense, he's probably going to hit his season averages and then some by the end of the third quarter. Of course, IT always seems to flip a switch against Kyrie. The key there will be if he's able to f;lip the switch without freezing out the rest of his team. This is Cuz and Rudy's team, if IT enters heroball mode, we might be in trouble.
The Cavs wingman situation has solidified with their recent acquisition of former All-Star Luol Deng from Chicago. One of the best defensive small forwards in the league, his matchup with Gay will be crucial to the outcome of the game. That said, he is still adjusting to his new team, that is to say he is still not entirely in sync with his teammates. If we can exploit those miscommunications, our winning percentage probably climbs a little. Cleveland's shooting guard situation is anchored by Dion Waiters, the second year scorer whose game reminds me a bit of Marcus Thornton when he was actually a useful NBA player and CJ Miles, a man who will test our ability to defend beyond the arc.
In the paint, the Cavs are obviously now unfettered by the specter of Andrew Bynum. Instead they rock a collection of crazy-haired hustle dudes (Anderson V), normal-haired hustle dudes (Tristan Thompson and Earl Clark) and Tyler Zeller. None of these guys is particularly talented but they bring a lot of energy and disruptive effort on the defensive end. It will be up to Demarcus to keep his head and get his usual 20/10.
Also keep your eye on Jarret Jack off the bench, who, though a little older and slower, is still among the best bench guards in the league.
PS. No matter how bad Ben plays this season, he's still been better than the great Anthony Bennett, this year"s number three pick. So at least there's that. Aside from Kyrie, none of Cleveland's recent draft picks have been good in any sense of the word.
Predictions and Closure
After the combined efforts of the past two games, I'm beginning to feel bait of confidence growing in both the team and the fan base. Thus, I'm going to be optimistic and say we win 102-93 but who knows. All I know is that Kings basketball is fun again.
GO KINGS!
Last edited:
