Kingsfans.com Official Game Thread
Game 2
Sacramento Kings vs. Portland Trailblazers
Game 2
Sacramento Kings vs. Portland Trailblazers
By Stephen Tetsu, Amateur Auteur
Yep. One of those nights.
Well that was fun. One game in and we’ve already devolved into plans for next year’s lottery pick. All in a week at kingsfans.com.
While we didn’t win the home opener as we normally do, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Whereas we normally get a super boost of confidence from an opening season win only to have our hearts crushed in subsequent games, this year we get to start out feeling crappy and building ourselves back up from there. You can only go up from a .000 winning percentage.
As for the game itself, enough has been made of the chaotic and ineffective offense and everything else you’d expect from a franchise that’s been conditioned to think about offense since the days of Reggie Theus and Danny Ainge. But, besides that all, I though the Kings actually did a family good job on the defensive end. While some of the Splash Brothers’ overall poor night can be attributed to a bad shooting night, some credit has to be given to our starting backcourt for really making them work for good looks. While Ben McLemore can be rightly criticized for still being rawer than a living veal calf on the offensive end, his defensive game has, for one night at least, taken a leap. Meanwhile, Darren Collison displayed good communication on the perimeter, and I thought both guys did a very good job of playing different switch situations and the like.
But of course, we only shot 30 percent for the game, so the sky is falling.
Post of the Game
Sharing the post with the most likes from the prior game thread.
WE’RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEEE Pessimism of the Game
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Marreese Speights, who simply ran roughshod over our transition D in the second half. Also, his first name is a nightmare to spell, so that is a few extra tallies in his ledger. Honorable mention goes to Draymond Green.
Jason Hart Award- Ramon Sessions, who almost single-handedly torpedoed any chance of winning during his stint in the third quarter by simply passing the ball to the other team on seemingly every possession.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award-Going against the grain here (most of y'all would probably want Ben McLemore listed), Ramon Session pulls off the incredibly rare double award victory for his craptacular third quarter. Really, really, the stuff of legends. I thought PDA did good by locking him up for cheap but I apparently thought wrong.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Award- Andre Iguodala, now relegated to sixth man and generally out of sorts for the game. Still provided hard-nosed defense but generally was unproductive on the offensive end and seemed preoccupied by what the old folks home would be serving for breakfast than what was going on on the hardwood.
WTF Moment- No pins given out at the games apparently. Or something of that nature. I dunno, I wasn’t really paying attention. The disasterous third quarter is pretty WTF-worthy, though.
The View From the Other Side
The opinions of the Golden State Warrior fanbase during the course of the game, as taken from Golden State of Mind:
Tonight’s Game
Happy Halloween. Afraid yet?
Game two brings us another spooky match-up with a western conference playoff team, this time the Portland Trailblazers, led by multiple time (for some reason) All-Star Lamarcus Aldridge and greater IT and potential spawn of Satan, Damien Lillard. Coming off of a playoff season last year, the Blazers added famous bench viking Chris Kaman to the roster and neglected to pick-up Thomas Robinson's option for next year because they aren't morons. In other words, the Blazers continue to work to improve their relatively fleshy interior.
Also they beat the Thunder to start the season (albeit a Thunder team that happened to be missing arguably the best player in the world) in a game where Lamarcus Aldridge managed to score 27 points while only hauling in three boards. I'm no professional basketball player but I'm pretty sure that if I set my mind to it, I'd be able to pick up more rebounds in a single NBA game than Lamarcus sometimes does. For a seven-footer, Lamarcus displays a distinct disinterest in playing like a tall person.
Meanwhile, Damien Lillard is a poorman's IT, if a poor dude prefers more defensive ability and someone being picked in the first round (and also being passed up by Geoff Petrie). While he's an All-Star, he's not quite a Steph Curry all-star, not that there's too much space separating them as players.
Matchups
Game two brings us more strong guards to contend with. Also, Thomas Robinson, which is always a bucket of fun.
Demarcus vs. Lamarcus- How long into the game before someone get their names confused? My wager is six minutes, ten seconds. Also, they're both their team's best player so that's cool.
Damien Lillard v. Darren Collison- Can Darren score as many points as Dame? After all, as Jerry has constantly reminded us over the past several seasons, that's all that matters in a point guard match-up.
Ben v. Nik- Two kids, both missing one portion of the game. Only one can start, but both aren't quite worthy of the spot just yet, so cool.
Batum v. Gay- Things don't get much easier for Rudy in game two as Batum is one of the better wing defenders in the game today. Also he's French so he's loaded up on baguettes and dark coffee.
Thomas Robinson v. Thomas Robinson- Were it not for Javale McGee, T-Rob would probably be considered the dumbest player in the NBA, as it is now, he's in the top three. Also, he still kinda sucks at anything that isn't a transition dunk.
Predictions and Final Thoughts
It's 1 AM and I have work in six hours so let's wrap this up fast, shall we? After last game's disappointment, we need a strong effort from our big two to win game 2. Demarcus needs to bound back from a poor opener. If he does like we know he can, things can open up for the rest of the team.
And so, in my sleepy haze, I say the Kings are victorious 97-94.
Go Kings!!
PS. Bonus Halloween Picture of the Day:
