[Game] Kings vs. Heat, 1/30/21, 5pm PST, 8pm EST

[SacTownKid]

Winnable game that hopefully leads us to our final piece of the puzzle, I guess.

I do wish Bagley had been out there in the final possession, even if he has given us no reason to trust his defense, with 4 seconds left and a 1 point game come on Luke.

One thing about Luke that is partly admirable is his loyalty to those role guys. Eventually that might come back around the bad way though. He went around that wheel once with his young franchise big prospect, second time is on the horizon. Overall Holmes is still the best bet if they continue to play pick and roll defense like this but still.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

also I’m fine with Walton riding his guys (it is what it is) but how the hell did Holmes play more minutes than Bagley tonight AND why the hell did CoJo get 14 minutes despite being a total net negative on the night?

I'm gonna have to go back and review the tape.

 

[KainLear]

I'm not blaming just the fouls we didn't get, both sides got some missed calls. But the question remains, why is a multi-million dollar league have games where there are always some fans who bring out bad officiating in every game? As I said, I know a lot of time it's just passionate fans wanting calls to go their ways, but if you check the officiating last 2 mins report, you'll see how many calls were misjudged. Now you can imagine if they do that for every full game.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

I don't understand the hate of Bagley by the coaching staff. It's unexplainable at this point. Even if we won I still question this bs against Bagley. 7 for 8 hitting 3s getting boards what else do you want! I'm sick of this and starting to agree with Bagley idiot father.

 

[SacTownKid]

Can't really complain too much about Walton tonight. He's starting to actually show some life on the sidelines at least. Getting into the refs and eventually he might even donate some dough to the cause. Last year in the bubble he was keeping those purse strings tight! haha.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

One thing about Luke that is partly admirable is his loyalty to those role guys. Eventually that might come back around the bad way though. He went around that wheel once with his young franchise big prospect, second time is on the horizon. Overall Holmes is still the best bet if they continue to play pick and roll defense like this but still.

I imagine the glory years where Funderburke and Cleaves were getting 10 mins a night.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

also I’m fine with Walton riding his guys (it is what it is) but how the hell did Holmes play more minutes than Bagley tonight AND why the hell did CoJo get 14 minutes despite being a total net negative on the night?

I'm NOT fine with Walton riding his guys If there not the right guys. I want him to be a dam coach

 

[Tetsujin]

I imagine the glory years where Funderburke and Cleaves were getting 10 mins a night.

Lots of random iso plays for Chucky Brown.

 

[SacTownKid]

I don't understand the hate of Bagley by the coaching staff. It's unexplainable at this point. Even if we won I still question this bs against Bagley. 7 for 8 hitting 3s getting boards what else do you want! I'm sick of this and starting to agree with Bagley idiot father.

This all goes back to having a transitional coach on potentially his last gig on top. This is Monte's fault to a large degree. How can Walton think about anything other than trying to survive? Holmes on average will lead to more stability but he also hinders the Kings development in some ways. Marvin so far has swallowed the pill well but we know it's coming back around at some point.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

Can't really complain too much about Walton tonight. He's starting to actually show some life on the sidelines at least. Getting into the refs and eventually he might even donate some dough to the cause. Last year in the bubble he was keeping those purse strings tight! haha.

Can't complain? Please explain to me the reasoning behind Bagley not getting min in 4th today. If you can give me a reasonable answer then I won't complain either

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

I'm gonna take some solace in that this was the second night of a back to back and the guys were clearly tired, settling for jumpshots rather than moving the ball and making cuts, and also not rotating hard on defense at times. Unfortunately the mail service was a little slow from Sausalito to Miami and the team didn't get the bulk shipment of my noni's lasagna before tipoff. There will be some very happy arena workers though.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

This all goes back to having a transitional coach on potentially his last gig on top. This is Monte's fault to a large degree. How can Walton think about anything other than trying to survive? Holmes on average will lead to more stability but he also hinders the Kings development in some ways. Marvin so far has swallowed the pill well but we know it's coming back around at some point.

I don't think Bagley is a downgrade at all. He's not taking allstar minutes Holmes is a above average role player period. I love him but he is what he is

 

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1355722405080141824

 

[KainLear]

Can't complain? Please explain to me the reasoning behind Bagley not getting min in 4th today. If you can give me a reasonable answer then I won't complain either

He's not here to give you the reason, or it would've been Coach SacTownKid. We'll see if the question is asked in Walton's press conference.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Winnable game that hopefully leads us to our final piece of the puzzle, I guess.

I do wish Bagley had been out there in the final possession, even if he has given us no reason to trust his defense, with 4 seconds left and a 1 point game come on Luke.

I have largely defended Walton on his minutes to Bagley but not tonight. Marvin was hitting that corner three and playing solid defense. Holmes was struggling and playing Bags would have been the right decision.

 

[SacTownKid]

Can't complain? Please explain to me the reasoning behind Bagley not getting min in 4th today. If you can give me a reasonable answer then I won't complain either

Dude, with a drunk 3 days sober is celebration time, haha. There has been some degree of change so that's something. Obviously Gentry, or somebody has helped re-arrange some strategy here. That's good. The question is whether or not Luke runs back to his bad habits and starts running more of his system and rotations that are really questionable. He went small a little late this game. Stayed big a little too long. But overall is was improvement. He's for the most part just simply giving the floor to his best players and that's all he really needs to do. Rotate effectively, cheer his guys on, defend them to the refs, and stay the heck out of his own way. What he's doing to Bagley is an issue though. I agree.

 

[luckytkp]

Walton was out-coached in the last play. Miami knew exactly what the kings was going to do.

 

[SacTownKid]

I don't think Bagley is a downgrade at all. He's not taking allstar minutes Holmes is a above average role player period. I love him but he is what he is

Talent wise no but experience wise he is. There's no question about that. I can see why he has Holmes in there at the end but I can also see why Bagley shouldn't be getting 20 mpg when he's rocking it either. If Walton fully commits to playing smaller earlier and staggers Holmes and Bagley better then it can work. He has to play Bagley more at C though and I think there isn't an issue against teams like this doing it.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

I don't think Bagley is a downgrade at all. He's not taking allstar minutes Holmes is a above average role player period. I love him but he is what he is

I'm gonna take some solace in that this was the second night of a back to back and the guys were clearly tired, settling for jumpshots rather than moving the ball and making cuts, and also not rotating hard on defense at times. Unfortunately the mail service was a little slow from Sausalito to Miami and the team didn't get the bulk shipment of my noni's lasagna before tipoff. There will be some very happy arena workers though.

Tired? Bagley averages 25 min a game or less. Looked like he had fresh legs all f

He's not here to give you the reason, or it would've been Coach SacTownKid. We'll see if the question is asked in Walton's press conference.

You flipped my question. He said he's comfortable with Waltons coaching today meaning he's comfortable with Bagley being benched. I simply asked why? Help me understand

 

[SacTownKid]

Walton was out-coached in the last play. Miami knew exactly what the kings was going to do.

True and Spoelstra is a really smart coach. Walton to his credit draws up decent schemes out of timeouts most of the time. It's the overthinking and the end of halfs that kills him. He will match up to the other team and will have no issues losing the talent battle to do it when that just doesn't fly in todays league.

 

[SacTownKid]

Tired? Bagley averages 25 min a game or less. Looked like he had fresh legs all f

You flipped my question. He said he's comfortable with Waltons coaching today meaning he's comfortable with Bagley being benched. I simply asked why? Help me understand

Haha, overall I'm fine with it and yes, low expectations have a lot to do with that but I will give credit where credit is due. Now, as I've said before fool me once, we've seen this from him last year only to watch it all go into the dumpster at the first sign of trouble with him reverting back to HIS style of ball and rotations. I commented right after the game my displeasure of Bagley being left out and have been fairly vocal in my support of playing him at center to get the job done in the past.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

17 7 of 8 3 of 4 from 3pt 4 boards. What exactly did Holmes to so special to get those minutes that Bagley didn't do?. And why the hell was guy getting so many minutes today?

Real question. With rook fox and buddy playing in 4th. How can Bagley ever get real minutes in 4th? He's not a true center imo he's a pf

 

[SacTownKid]

17 7 of 8 3 of 4 from 3pt 4 boards. What exactly did Holmes to so special to get those minutes that Bagley didn't do?. And why the hell was guy getting so many minutes today?

Real question. With rook fox and buddy playing in 4th. How can Bagley ever get real minutes in 4th? He's not a true center imo he's a pf

So is Holmes pretty much. Bam isn't a traditional center. Having good athletes with natural scoring instincts can work a lot better for teams if they devise a way for that to work. Look at Amare Stoudemire under D'Antoni. I think that's the comp for Bagley long term in terms of fit/role. Blast the heck out of teams. Spread the floor and let him put pressure on the opposing bigs. If that 3 gets consistent the nightmare for teams begins. He's so quick off the drive he'll start getting calls and a lot of teams will run out of centers to put up against him.

 

[iowamcnabb]

The good news is it appears we are no longer historically bad on defense. We are moving really well on those around the horn swing passes that in the past have led to a wide open 3. We still need a perimeter defender. We need news on Daquan!

 

[KainLear]

The good news is it appears we are no longer historically bad on defense. We are moving really well on those around the horn swing passes that in the past have led to a wide open 3. We still need a perimeter defender. We need news on Daquan!

If only we have gotten DiVincenzo.

 

[reptilexcq2]

I think Luke should not played Whiteside that much...i think he's one of the worst defenders when it comes to pick n roll. He doesn't guard nobody...guys can just do pick n roll all game long and get wide open look. This is why he should have played either Holmes or Bagley. Also, I don't understand why he pulled the starters earlier in the game when they were playing well? I understand it's back to back game but they were exploding putting up a bunch of points. You don't bench them because the other team is doing it....if it ain't broke don't fix it...that's how things work. You're shifting momentum when everything seem to go in your favor.

I got to say, the refs suck tonight. They seem to either hate the Kings or a fan of the Heat because some of these calls are suspicious. They're very questionable like the call against Guy which look clearly an offensive foul. I think ref is the reason Kings lost this game. You can pick on anything but the refs play a huge impact imo.

 

[sactowndog]

Just for a different take I thought Fox went full Westbrook tonight. 30 points on 26 shots at a low percentage with only 6 assists is poor point guard play. He needs to set up his team mates more effectively and make his damm free throws.

 

[KainLear]

"Have never won 4 straight games under coach Luke Walton"

 

[iowamcnabb]

Just for a different take I thought Fox went full Westbrook tonight. 30 points on 26 shots at a low percentage with only 6 assists is poor point guard play. He needs to set up his team mates more effectively and make his damm free throws.

you can tell he is being asked to take more shots and drive and pressure defenses. He has been a bit of a one trick pony on the drives though and needs to dish out of it and or hit a floater I remember him taking more of in the past. I also think he rushes his free throws. Kinda bouncy and not very fluid with his release

 

[King Baller]

Refs gave the Heat the game at the free throw line.