Holy sockhops Batman! We blew somebody out! Woohoo!
The 44 point margin of victory here was the 4th largest margin in franchise history...as in the entire Kings/Royals franchise history dating back to 1948. It was the third largest in the Sacto era, and the biggest margin since 1993. In March of last year though we did beat the Bulls by 42, so not completely unprecedented of late.
Best part about it wasn't the extended garbagetime, best part is that we did it with defense. After allowing a punchless team to score 32 against us in the first quarter, we held them to 48 points combined in the final three quarters. Kyrie was awful. They pretty much all were awful.
We are now 7-8 since Gay entered the lineup. But now comes the big test. A brutal roadtrip/road heavy stretch lasting all the way into early Feb. it could squish burgeoning improvement right out of existence, or it could forge it into something more legit and reveal us as a dangerous trap team. We'll see, but this was certainly the way to enter onto a stretch like that.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Rainmaker
Spudfan
Bajaden
MassachusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 30min 20pts (8-12, 3-5, 1-1) 5reb 3ast 1stl 3blk 2TO
Gay ( A+ ) -- Tonight was another highly efficient game for Rudy in which he was the best player on the court. The start of the game was a bit rocky though, as Deng scored 5 points in the opening minute. A few possessions later things would change for good after Rudy blocked a Deng jump shot. That block would foreshadow how strong his defense would be the rest of the night. Fast forward to the start of the second quarter and Rudy’s play would shift the momentum heavily in the Kings favor. The shift started when he hit a tough jumper as the shot clock wound down. On the next play he scored again and he followed that up with a steal and full court assist to Williams for an and-1 play. His three pointer soon after would give the Kings a four point lead and force the Cavs to call a timeout. It was a two minute sequence where the Kings went from being down 3 to up 4, they would never trail again. Rudy had an equally impressive defensive sequence in which he blocked back to back shots against Tristan Thompson and Andy Varejao. The second block was picked up by a Cavs player who unfortunately made the jump shot. That was a fake out though, as during the next timeout it would be changed to a 24 second violation and which demoralized the Cavs. His 7 point 3 rebound 2 assist 2 block and 1 steal second quarter was a thing of beauty. The beauty continued in the third and was highlighted by two three pointers and an assist to IT before Rudy got an early night off due to the 28 point lead. So far this season we have went 7-8 with Rudy and there haven’t been many signs of the ball hog or offensive gunner everyone in media told us we were getting. There is no way he can continue to be this efficient, is there? Just imagine if he can keep it up… scary. --Spud
Stats: 31min 8pts (4-11, 0-0, 0-0) 16reb 0ast 1stl 2blk 0TO
Thompson ( A ) -- you know, I'm trying to balance all these grades from Consortium members, and there's all these A's, but I can't really object to them. When you beat a team by the 4th highest margin in the 65 year history of your franchise, must be doing something right. And with Jason, there was only one wart tonight: he shot 4-11 from the field. But first of all, he missed his first three and then settled in and shot 50% the rest of the game, and secondly, he was so good in other areas tonight you barely noticed a couple of extra misses this time out. In the early going he mishandled what should have been a pass for a chippee from IT, and missed several tough contested shots over the other Thompson (notabbly undersized Thompson). But he was a major help on the glass from the beginning on the back line, and we dominated the boards all night against the Cavs. And when he returned to start the 2nd quarter as our backup center not only did the boardwork continue (at one point he was threatening to break his career high), but he started playing one of his best defensive games of not only the season, but...well let's not gush. But he was a major factor in how we were able to start dominating this one defensively, and for one night protected the rim with some passion. Came up with a great follow dunk on a Gay miss after he returned to PF with Cousins back on the floor, and started to get some little offensive moves inside as we again utilized his height advantage. Grabbed board after board after half as we smothered the Cavs and turned it into a rout, and got to watch from the sidelines as the end of the bench cleaned up one of the longest garbagetimes we've had since the Webber years. I did consider the minus for the 4-11, but really, this was the perfect defender/rebounder roleplayer role that we need out of that position every night. For one night Jason brought it for possibly his most effective roleplaying night of the year. --Brick
Stats: 30min 16pts (5-9, 0-0, 6-7) 11reb 2ast 0stl 2blk 3TO
Cousins ( B+ ) -- This was a rare game in that we didn't ask or need much of Boogie on the offensive end, yet we controlled played and ran Cleveland off the court. He didn't see much of the ball on the block nor was he put into iso situations all that often. Part of it was Mike Brown's game plan but part was also us choosing to run a more guard/perimeter oriented attack for whatever the reason. He did come out strong and make his presence felt immediately as he did his work inside early on, to the tune of 9 pts and 5 rebs through the end of the 1st but would add only 7pts/6rebs the rest of the way as statistically roughly half his damage was done in the first 12 minutes. Our offense was clicking pretty well when he returned halfway through the 2nd but didn't take a shot or pick up an assist during that stint. While he wasn't seeing as much of the ball as he normally does, his presence did open opportunities for others as Cle had the focus/attention of their defense geared towards him and shaded him with multiple defenders. We appeared to try to reestablish Boogie to start the 3rd and he did draw a few fouls inside, got to the FT and powered through a double team for an +1 opportunity but our offense then returned to being more perimeter oriented. Cle also was collapsing multiple guys on him every time he attacked the paint as his teammates started feasting on the extra attention being paid towards him as we blew the game open. Had a highlight reel pass when he received the ball outside the 3pt line in transition, hesitated, then dropped a perfectly placed no-look pass into Thornton's hands for the layup. I want to point out that Boogie's defense was at an improved level tonight. Yes he picked up the charge on Waiters and blocked two shots but his defensive rotations down low and especially his pick & roll defense were very good. His reading of where to be, where to help, when to show and then getting his butt in position to follow through on his rotations was one of, if not the biggest factor in our defensive performance tonight. He absolutely did anchor our defense tonight. Yes Cle had an off night but I thought that deserves recognition. Nights where Boogie takes only 9 shots and we run away with the game and post one of the biggest point spreads in franchise history are not something we'll see often but I wouldn't mind making them a more frequent occurrence. --Rain
Stats: 22min 5pts (2-4, 1-3, 0-0) 1reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Thornton ( C+ ) -- To be honest, Marcus really didn't do much wrong. To the point, he really didn't much. Usually when I grade a player, I have a whole page and a half of notes. In Thornton's case, I only have half a page, because there just wasn't much to write about. If the Kings had lost, he probably would have gotten a D. But since it was a blowout, and everyone has on a happy face, he gets a C+. He got off to a rocky start by picking up a loose ball off of a blocked shot, dribbled down court and attempted a bounce pass that resulted in a turnover. Marcus almost seems gun shy when it comes to shooting the three. Although he took three 3's, he passed up several. It wasn't all bad though. On one occasion he passed up an open three, drove into the lane and made a nice pass to Cousins who scored. Before going to the bench at the 3:37 mark of the 1st quarter, he did hit his one three of the night. He got the 3rd quarter off to another bad start by making another ill advised pass for turnover. He followed by missing another three from the left wing and a bit later, passed up another open three, put the ball on the floor and drove into traffic and was called for a charge. He closed out his scoring on a backdoor and a beautiful pass from Cuz. To his credit, Marcus did hustle all night long on defense. He only took 4 shots, but it didn't appear that his teammates were looking for him either. When you have three other scorers on the floor, and you passing up open shots, pretty soon the ball stops coming your way. Especially if your missing the one's you do take. Marcus, where have you gone? --Baja
Stats: 35min 26pts (7-15, 2-5, 10-11) 4reb 6ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( A- ) -- Grant and Jerry love to remind us all how badly Isaiah Thomas outplays Kyrie Irving. As annoying as their Thomas propaganda can be, the narrative is true and it happened again tonight. After the game was over Thomas even admitted that Irving was having an off night, which I would obviously agree with, but that didn’t mean Thomas didn’t make a lot of really nice plays on defense. He was a pest for most of the night on that end, contesting a lot of questionable Kyrie Irving jumpers. He only registered two steals on the night but it felt like he had 3-4 more deflections. He was better than usual defensively. It was an interesting game for Thomas offensively in that he didn’t really get going until the Kings had a healthy lead in the 2nd half. His first half offense wasn’t very efficient, and he never really got his jumper going. He was beating Irving off the dribble consistently, though, as most of his points were off of nifty drives to the basket or FT’s from all of his aggressive takes inside. He finished the game with 6 assists, most of which also came when the game was right on the line between real game and garbage time. The Kings would only have 21 total assists anyways, which is pretty low considering they scored 124 points. Thomas was good tonight. Much better than his matchup, but not quite as good as his stat line would suggest only because so much of his damage was done after Rudy Gay, DeMarcus Cousins, and the bench unit gave us a comfortable lead.--Mass
Last edited: