Kingsfans.com Official Game Thread
Game 17
Sacramento Kings versus Memphis Grizzlies
Game 17
Sacramento Kings versus Memphis Grizzlies
By Stephen Tetsu, I must have eaten Thanksgiving Dinner with Boogie
Well, that sucked. Good thing the schedule's lightening up for us n- What's that? We're playing the Memphis Grizzlies today? Well, crap. So much for easy.
The Memphis Grizzlies are currently playing like the best team in the league, a combination of their trademark defensive nastiness and surprisingly efficient offense, bolstered by Courtney Lee, who, when he's not scoring debateable game-winning layups, is providing the Grizzlies with some much needed outside shooting, which is probably necessary when your other starting wing is notoriously awful shotmaker Tony Allen (though the crazy man is quite an adept cutter when Marc Gasol is in the game). Vince Carter and Beno Udrih have provided a real boost to Memphis's previously limp, lifeless bench, even though both dudes have apparently forgotten how to hit an outside shot (noticing a theme yet?)
Really, it's amazing how both teams seem to be increasingly built out of the same mother dough. While the Kings are younger than the Grizzlies (it's hard not to be when Tayshaun Prince and Vince Carter are both playing rotational minutes for the Grizz), they have worked hard to establish a similar hard-nosed, gritty "uglyball" identity built from the inside out with Demarcus and Rudy as the interior behemoths in place of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. Despite having once been a competent offensive player, Jason Thompson now surprisingly takes the Tony Allen role of lockdown defender who can't make a basket to save his life. Also both point guards are short fast dudes who play defense and generally know how to get the ball inside, though Conley is the better outside shooter and, as a bonus, BFFs with Greg Oden.
Courtney Lee and Ben McLemore are the main outside threats for their respective starting fives. This season Lee is putting absolutely ridiculous shooting numbers (.556 from the 3-point line!) and fitting into with Dave Joerger's scheme with relative ease. Meanwhile, Ben McLemore started off his NBA career looking like a draft bust (though in fairness, a lot of that may have been Marcus Thornton's crappiness simply infesting the entire Kings SG position for the year) but this year has displayed fantastic defensive potential (if the man got his head completely into it, he could probably be the best SG defender in the league) and an ability to get really hot and hit shots so that those Ray Allen comparisons no longer seem completely insane. In short, Ben McLemore went from failed prospect we'd trade for Bench Player A to "Holy jeez, don't trade this guy unless it's for a star" guy. I'm really not sure why I went off on this long Ben McLemore tangent but I assume it's because I was going through old threads and found a couple of posts decrying the front office for picking Ben rather than Steven Adams, who is panning out to have a solid NBA career but not the future all-star people were making him out to be last season.
On the topic of "world-breaking" big men, while I do think we should see more of Ryan Hollins than we've been getting this season, I'm not sure where all this Ryan Hollins is going to solve our big man problem talk is coming from. There's a reason the dude's been an end of the bencher in almost all of his stops in the NBA and it's not because the coaches were biased against him or whatever. While he scored 15 points against the Spurs, the team's entire defensive effort plummeted as he wasn't even half the defender Boogie is and also completely failed to play the pick-and-roll without somehow leaving a guy completely unguarded. So yes, while Ryan Hollins and Mateen Cleaves sure seem like great dudes, there's a reason they're at the end of the bench waving towels and high-fiving the good players as they come off the court.
Onto the actual world-breakers of the game, Boogie (if he's not sick) faces a tough match-up against Marc Gasol, who has been getting considerable MVP talk because someone apparently deserves credit for Memphis's hot start. The crazy thing is that Demarcus is almost outproducing Gasol in every category but assists (blocks and steals are .1 away from being a draw) while playing less minutes AND having less of a supporting cast (at least in terms of experience). And this is considered Marc's best season. Just more verification that Demarcus is in fact very good at basketball.
Matchups
Demarcus vs. Aunt Karen's Bad Casseroles - I can only assume it was something that Boogie ate that sidelined him against the Spurs and Aunt Karen's Banana Corn Casserole seemed to smell strange. Only putting two and two together.
Kings fans vs. Fire Malone! Threads - Malone has us off to our best start in the better part of a decade. Maybe hold off on those posts about how he sucks until he, I dunno, actually does.
Ben McLemore vs. Being Invisible - It's becoming a theme throughout this young season. Ben is ignored by everyone early in the game, has an incredibly hot stretch and then is promptly forgotten as his teammates go back to doing whatever the hell they were doing earlier in the game.
Final Thoughts and Prediction
Grizzlies win 94-89. The Kings hang tough but then Courtney Lee gets an astounding five point play with three seconds left in the game to pull ahead.
Go Kings!
PS Sorry for the short game threads recently. I've been battling a prolonged illness and therefore haven't really been in the condition to write massive marathon threads like I normally do. I'm getting healthier so things should be back to normal soon, I swear.
Besides, no one wants to read about our losses anyways.
