[Game] Kings vs. Cavaliers, 11/09/2022 7pm Pacific 10pm Eastern

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The weak link on the Cleveland team currently seems to be Garland. With all his highflying talent, he still plays a little erratic and turnover-prone.
I’m not sure about that…. He’s normally pretty awesome. I think he’s still off because of his eye injury.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
I feel the same way. These games are all nail biters because the defensive stops are few and far between. That makes it hard to build up much of a lead. But unlike past Kings teams, this one actually does have stretches where they look very good on defense and are active in disrupting the other team's sets. Why do you think they're so hot and cold on defense right now? I've been watching and I can't put my finger on what the issue is.
I don't know many teams that can play 48 minutes of relentless defense while still trying to keep it respectable on offense. Fatigue and endurance is clearly an issue here and it needs to get built up over the long term.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
I can't diagnose it, but I can hope that it's got a lot to do with with still putting together Coach Brown's system. Tonight the paint defense was just a sieve most of the game, and maybe that's Cleveland finding a weakness that we can close up later, or maybe that's personnel. I kind of suspect the latter on tonight's problems. We really need that big mobile defender on this squad, that's what we're missing.
I worry that's not something we can get until next year, but won't be the end of the world.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
I don't know many teams that can play 48 minutes of relentless defense while still trying to keep it respectable on offense. Fatigue and endurance is clearly an issue here and it needs to get built up over the long term.
Walton's Kings could do it for about 5 games afterwards they would follow up going 1-9 over the next 10 games.
 
Shout out to Keegan Murray. The stroke was there
If this team can get those set shots like they got tonight for both he and Barnes everything else will flow along with it. Also, his defense on Mitchell was pretty good overall even with the blow by's. Any time he got a step closer than he should have Mitchell blew right by him but overall he did well early giving a little space and relying on his length.
 
I worry that's not something we can get until next year, but won't be the end of the world.
Yeah, I agree. I wouldn't wanna really shake this roster up too much as they are still gelling. Next year's rookies are pretty stack in talent, maybe we can draft ourselves a Mobley type.
 
I can't diagnose it, but I can hope that it's got a lot to do with with still putting together Coach Brown's system. Tonight the paint defense was just a sieve most of the game, and maybe that's Cleveland finding a weakness that we can close up later, or maybe that's personnel. I kind of suspect the latter on tonight's problems. We really need that big mobile defender on this squad, that's what we're missing.
I was a little surprised we didn’t see Len get some minutes. Also thought KZ could have put the clamps on Mitchell when he got cooking in the third. But we won so what do I know…
 
I mean, our defense wasn't that bad. We had a third quarter let down but overall the defense wasn't worst in the league terrible. More like middling defense terrible, which is a big improvement. But the Cavs were the top one or two defense in the league currently and they couldn't really stop us either.
Yeah, the Kings did better most of the time staying man to man with some bloopers here and there on bad matchups. The issues were the rebounds for sure. The Cavs got 10 more shot attempts in this one.
 
I feel the same way. These games are all nail biters because the defensive stops are few and far between. That makes it hard to build up much of a lead. But unlike past Kings teams, this one actually does have stretches where they look very good on defense and are active in disrupting the other team's sets. Why do you think they're so hot and cold on defense right now? I've been watching and I can't put my finger on what the issue is.
Could just be they're 10 games into a new coaching regime with essentially a brand new player rotation. Fox/Barnes/Mitchell/Metu are the only guys still playing who played on the team game 1 of last year. And Metu was a guy who had to play into his spot, wasn't even a guy they were going to be counting on.

That's what's exciting to me. We're seeing A LOT of good, especially offensively and there's still obviously a whole lot of kinks to be worked out that hopefully comes with more court-time/practice time together. What we saw tonight was all our key cogs clicking at the same time, for the first time all season, and we end up beating a Cavs team that arguably has been the best in basketball through 10 games.

Davion really turned the tide there in the 4th quarter. Brown is going to have some tough decisions because man, his ball pressure on Mitchell and Garland turned this game heavily in favor of the Kings. So they have their guard stopper, but priority #1 needs to be someone who can stick on wings and find some semblance of rim protection. Also loved Fox seemed very content to let that unit go well into the 4th and he was JUCIED up defending Mitchell the final 3 minutes. That's as big a star effort as any.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
Could just be they're 10 games into a new coaching regime with essentially a brand new player rotation. Fox/Barnes/Mitchell/Metu are the only guys still playing who played on the team game 1 of last year. And Metu was a guy who had to play into his spot, wasn't even a guy they were going to be counting on.

That's what's exciting to me. We're seeing A LOT of good, especially offensively and there's still obviously a whole lot of kinks to be worked out that hopefully comes with more court-time/practice time together. What we saw tonight was all our key cogs clicking at the same time and we end up beating a Cavs team that arguably has been the best in basketball through 10 games.

Davion really turned the tide there in the 4th quarter. Brown is going to have some tough decisions because man, his ball pressure on Mitchell and Garland turned this game heavily in favor of the Kings. So they have their guard stopper, but priority #1 needs to be someone who can stick on wings and find some semblance of rim protection. Also loved Fox seemed very content to let that unit go well into the 4th and he was JUCIED up defending Mitchell the final 3 minutes. That's as big a star effort as any.
NGL I was really scared after the start Brown would lose the team but actually seems like they've used that start and the two L2M screwjobs to light a fire.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
I can't diagnose it, but I can hope that it's got a lot to do with with still putting together Coach Brown's system. Tonight the paint defense was just a sieve most of the game, and maybe that's Cleveland finding a weakness that we can close up later, or maybe that's personnel. I kind of suspect the latter on tonight's problems. We really need that big mobile defender on this squad, that's what we're missing.
Yeah, those are good points. Maybe the reason it's hard to pin down is that it isn't the same problem every night. Cleveland is a load for anyone so getting crushed on the boards isn't a surprise. The layup drill we allowed to Orlando's wings was more alarming. And it's not like we haven't seen Golden State go on crazy Steph Curry fueled runs before. So some of it is match-up related but this is the league -- you can't call yourself a playoff team unless you have solutions for other team's weapons. Our wings show flashes but aren't consistently strong. Our big rotation this season skews very strongly in favor of offense. I'm still waiting for the Neemias Queta show to begin in earnest. Maybe that's wishful thinking. A Clint Capela type would be a godsend.
 
I believe in this team. We've gone through 10 games into the season, and just about each one has gone down to the wire. We haven't seen this much competitiveness and functionality since Adelman? Even under Joerger we'd win a tough game by 5pts one night, only to lose by 20pts against a tanking team.

It's really early in the season, but this is probably the best offensive Kings team since 2005? We look like we're running a legitimate offense with all the actions, hand offs, screens, passing, and ball movement. The unselfishness also speaks volume. Anyone remember when we'd have players frozen out of the offense? I don't feel like that here. Everyone touches the ball
 
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