[Game] Kings @ San Antonio Spurs 4/2/2023 3pm Pacific 6 pm Eastern

[The_Jamal]

The poor defense is probably going to be a mainstay as long as we have Sabonis. You've just got to take the bad with the good. He'll never be a rim protector of any kind.

There's a reason why Len was a +12 yesterday. When he was in, the Kings were getting stops and a lot of them. I really don't understand why Brown felt the need to put Sabonis back in so early in the 4th. He played 39 minutes but we were clearly a better team with Len on the floor for stretches. Another 3-4 minutes of Len and the Kings may have pulled it out last night.

Before anyone freaks out like I'm saying Len is better than Sabonis, that's not the case at all. It's just sometimes you gotta go with the hot hand and Len was playing his best ball of the season last night. I just thought that hook in the 4th came way too quick and the Kings were basically unable to get stops for the rest of the game.

My only counter to this is why is our DEF Rtg 9th on the Road and like 29th at home? Statistically, just doesn't make any sense.

And we've seen times, especially in the 4th quarter this season, where we've played incredible defense. So I don't know, a lot about the Kings D is just rather confusing. I don't think we could ever be a dominant defense with Sabonis, but I think adding a few other great defensive pieces, we can be around average. I just look at a guy like Kessler Edwards and the impact he's made. And the dude is still not established as a rotation player in the NBA yet.

 

[kingsboi]

My only counter to this is why is our DEF Rtg 9th on the Road and like 29th at home? Statistically, just doesn't make any sense.

from a psychological perspective, it makes plenty of sense. Even Brown alluded to it last night that it's a mental aspect where they feel the home crowd can give them that extra juice in the 4th when they usually commit defensively more and just feel they can switch it on but at that point the opposition has a rhythm and feel good about themselves and it's an uphill battle.

 

[reptilexcq2]

The poor defense is probably going to be a mainstay as long as we have Sabonis. You've just got to take the bad with the good. He'll never be a rim protector of any kind.

There's a reason why Len was a +12 yesterday. When he was in, the Kings were getting stops and a lot of them. I really don't understand why Brown felt the need to put Sabonis back in so early in the 4th. He played 39 minutes but we were clearly a better team with Len on the floor for stretches. Another 3-4 minutes of Len and the Kings may have pulled it out last night.

Before anyone freaks out like I'm saying Len is better than Sabonis, that's not the case at all. It's just sometimes you gotta go with the hot hand and Len was playing his best ball of the season last night. I just thought that hook in the 4th came way too quick and the Kings were basically unable to get stops for the rest of the game.

The Kings too many times lose assignments. I am talking about Keegan Murray or Terrance Davis allowing guy to penetrate after switching man for no reason. You're one-on-one after the the switch, there is no reason to leave an angle and allow penetration again. This is why Davis didn't get minutes off the bench, his defense is suspect sometimes. Of course the Kings got beat multiple times by back door cuts as well which probably surprise them because I never seen that many back door cuts from a team against the Kings. Unless you're the Warriors which I can deal with because of their experience, but this is the Spurs. As someone said, we have to take the bad with the good but there are players or starters in the lineups that are not defensive minded players and even though Mike Brown teach them and tell them to do things the correct way, there is limit to their ceiling. And I think the ceiling will magnify once you're in the Playoffs and see how they will have a hard time guarding superstars individually. If teams want to exploit the Kings, they will attack them individually...not collectively. The Kings hope is they attack them collectively because the Kings fair a bit better collectively, but in the Playoffs...it's all about individual matchups. If the Kings get ousted in early Playoffs exit, they will have to seriously consider upgrading the starters with better 2-way players and the only two positions available to upgrade is Huerter and Barnes because I don't see Keegan, Fox and Sabonis replaceable. It's a tricky situation...on the one hand you don't want to ruin the chemistry and lose any fire power, but on the other...if you don't do anything about it...there is always a void that teams will exploit. It's almost like the Buddy Hield situation....you love him for his shooting but man, he can't play a damm defense. That's why he was shipped out.

 

[reptilexcq2]

from a psychological perspective, it makes plenty of sense. Even Brown alluded to it last night that it's a mental aspect where they feel the home crowd can give them that extra juice in the 4th when they usually commit defensively more and just feel they can switch it on but at that point the opposition has a rhythm and feel good about themselves and it's an uphill battle.

Brown need to give FOX the green light to attack the basket any time the Kings is behind rather than waiting until the 4th. That's one way to solving the issue.

 

[ESP47]

My only counter to this is why is our DEF Rtg 9th on the Road and like 29th at home? Statistically, just doesn't make any sense.

And we've seen times, especially in the 4th quarter this season, where we've played incredible defense. So I don't know, a lot about the Kings D is just rather confusing. I don't think we could ever be a dominant defense with Sabonis, but I think adding a few other great defensive pieces, we can be around average. I just look at a guy like Kessler Edwards and the impact he's made. And the dude is still not established as a rotation player in the NBA yet.

Yeah I don't really know why either. What I do know is that they go for long stretches without getting a single stop each game. Did it multiple times against the Spurs and then basically let them score every time down the court for the first 4 minutes of OT. Sometimes teams go for 9-10 minutes seemingly scoring every single trip down the court. It's very easy for opposing wings to drive on us and lay it in and I'm not talking about all those missed assignment back cuts in the first half. I mean you've got a serious issue when McBuckets is able to drive on you at will. Keegan and Huerter really need to tighten their perimeter defense up. Both guys just get blown by with regularity.

I agree with Kessler. Dude's defense shines above nearly everyone else's other than Davion's. Difference with Kessler is he gets his hands on the ball more and creates more turnovers. If he can just be passable offensively, he'll be a good one.

The Kings too many times lose assignments. I am talking about Keegan Murray or Terrance Davis allowing guy to penetrate after switching man for no reason. You're one-on-one after the the switch, there is no reason to leave an angle and allow penetration again. This is why Davis didn't get minutes off the bench, his defense is suspect sometimes. Of course the Kings got beat multiple times by back door cuts as well which probably surprise them because I never seen that many back door cuts from a team against the Kings. Unless you're the Warriors which I can deal with because of their experience, but this is the Spurs. As someone said, we have to take the bad with the good but there are players or starters in the lineups that are not defensive minded players and even though Mike Brown teach them and tell them to do things the correct way, there is limit to their ceiling. And I think the ceiling will magnify once you're in the Playoffs and see how they will have a hard time guarding superstars individually. If teams want to exploit the Kings, they will attack them individually...not collectively. The Kings hope is they attack them collectively because the Kings fair a bit better collectively, but in the Playoffs...it's all about individual matchups. If the Kings get ousted in early Playoffs exit, they will have to seriously consider upgrading the starters with better 2-way players and the only two positions available to upgrade is Huerter and Barnes because I don't see Keegan, Fox and Sabonis replaceable. It's a tricky situation...on the one hand you don't want to ruin the chemistry and lose any fire power, but on the other...if you don't do anything about it...there is always a void that teams will exploit. It's almost like the Buddy Hield situation....you love him for his shooting but man, he can't play a damm defense. That's why he was shipped out.

I'm perfectly ok with running it back with this team for a few years before looking to make any changes. They should theoretically get better as they play together more often and Mike Brown is obvious a wiz at defense so hopefully they improve on that end as well. Huerter might be a bad defender but he's got some of the better advanced stats on the team outside of Fox and Sabonis. Replacing him could easily make the team worse. Barnes is a tricky one because he's just so randomly inconsistent for no reason but there aren't many available Barnes like wings out there that could step in and do what he does on both sides of the court.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

The poor defense is probably going to be a mainstay as long as we have Sabonis. You've just got to take the bad with the good. He'll never be a rim protector of any kind.

There's a reason why Len was a +12 yesterday. When he was in, the Kings were getting stops and a lot of them. I really don't understand why Brown felt the need to put Sabonis back in so early in the 4th. He played 39 minutes but we were clearly a better team with Len on the floor for stretches. Another 3-4 minutes of Len and the Kings may have pulled it out last night.

Before anyone freaks out like I'm saying Len is better than Sabonis, that's not the case at all. It's just sometimes you gotta go with the hot hand and Len was playing his best ball of the season last night. I just thought that hook in the 4th came way too quick and the Kings were basically unable to get stops for the rest of the game.

I'm gonna be ticked off, if it took them this long to figure out that Len could be effective in situations and matchups. It appears that may be the case and suddenly a guy who hasn't been used all season, will hopefully be ready for playoff basketball

 

[ESP47]

I'm gonna be ticked off, if it took them this long to figure out that Len could be effective in situations and matchups. It appears that may be the case and suddenly a guy who hasn't been used all season, will hopefully be ready for playoff basketball

We'll find out soon enough if Brown gives him regular minutes. We've seen Len do this in the past where he plays well and then turns into a pumpkin rather quickly. The announcing crew said he's one of the hardest working guys on the team so we'll see what happens.

What I'm confused about is why Metu randomly fell out of the rotation? He had been playing fairly well as of late after a slump there.

 

[Srzly]

I feel like I’m missing something when it comes to the criticisms of Keegan’s defense. He was poor early in the year but has been very good this second half outside of a couple of games and he has had some extremely difficult assignments in that stretch.

I have felt he has grown into a decent defender over the course of the season and I’d assume the coaches feel the same based on the assignments they give him. I certainly don’t think he is the problem anymore at least. Maybe I’m just biased though.

 

[Caccia]

What I'm confused about is why Metu randomly fell out of the rotation? He had been playing fairly well as of late after a slump there.

Same here. Len now has a defensive rating of 100.8 but in a very small sample size. Metu has a rating of 107.8, next best on the team, across 63 games. Plus, he plays well on offense with lobs and pick-and-roll plays, as well as the occasional short jumper or layup.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Lets face it, defense is the Kings achilles heel. In the playoffs games slow down into more half-court battles. Like coach said, they're being targeted. Kings have shown at times during the season ability to dig in on defensive end and get crucial game winning stops. But now they need to do it consistently or will be quick exit from post-season.

IIRC, their defensive numbers for most the season have been pretty good in Q4 and the final 5 minutes of games -- which the Nat'l media never seems to know about.

If they can keep that trend up, they may be ok -- assuming their offense doesn't sputter.

At this point, I think it's unrealistic to expect them to suddenly play good defense for most of a game. We just have to hope they can step up in Q4 and the waning moments as they've shown capable of.

 

[Kingz19]

They mentioned this morning on Dave’s show that the Kings are 1st in offense, 29th in defense at home.

on the road.. 3rd in offense, 9th in defense.

They need to tighten the screws at home even if it comes at the expense of the offense. Kings have offense to spare.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

We'll find out soon enough if Brown gives him regular minutes. We've seen Len do this in the past where he plays well and then turns into a pumpkin rather quickly. The announcing crew said he's one of the hardest working guys on the team so we'll see what happens.

What I'm confused about is why Metu randomly fell out of the rotation? He had been playing fairly well as of late after a slump there.

In reality there are not too many role players (or any player) who doesn't have some bad games or ineffective play. It's the nature of the game. I just don't agree with how the backup center position has been handled this season. It's an area where Brown can improve.

Len is playing, because they finally realized that if they match up against a bigger center in the playoffs, they could be in trouble with only Metu as an option.

 

[NewArena]

I believe the Kings are still undefeated on immediate rematches which bodes very well for any series consisting of 2 or more games.

I do love this about us

 

[kingsboi]

Brown need to give FOX the green light to attack the basket any time the Kings is behind rather than waiting until the 4th. That's one way to solving the issue.

I have no reason to believe that Brown stops Fox from attacking the rim until the 4th quarter, Fox takes plays off and that's fine. All players do, it's a way to conserve your energy for the final stretch.

 

[SLAB]

Same here. Len now has a defensive rating of 100.8 but in a very small sample size. Metu has a rating of 107.8, next best on the team, across 63 games. Plus, he plays well on offense with lobs and pick-and-roll plays, as well as the occasional short jumper or layup.

Metu was just abysmal the last couple weeks of playing time.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Metu was just abysmal the last couple weeks of playing time.

There's some kind of unwritten rule that only so many Kings can be good on any given day and Brown has to race against the clock to figure out the puzzle.

 

[hrdboild]

My only counter to this is why is our DEF Rtg 9th on the Road and like 29th at home? Statistically, just doesn't make any sense.

And we've seen times, especially in the 4th quarter this season, where we've played incredible defense. So I don't know, a lot about the Kings D is just rather confusing. I don't think we could ever be a dominant defense with Sabonis, but I think adding a few other great defensive pieces, we can be around average. I just look at a guy like Kessler Edwards and the impact he's made. And the dude is still not established as a rotation player in the NBA yet.

This is the most puzzling part. I suppose if I were to venture a guess, perhaps other teams just really like playing at G1C because every time they have since the building was built the Kings haven't offered much resistance. It's a place where they expect to win. But even that doesn't make a lot of sense. Teams expect to win at home too -- or at least the good ones do. The insanely hot shooting from other players feels flukey at times but it also has a lot to do with the way the Kings defend right now. They're getting to the right spots a lot of the times but they're not succeeding at making offensive players uncomfortable. Even Davion seems to have regressed a bit on defense -- giving up driving lanes to slower players that he would have cut off last year. Something is not clicking for them about Mike Brown's scheme yet.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I've heard players say we have really friendly nets, have we considered triple rimming our baskets?

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

I've heard players say we have really friendly nets, have we considered triple rimming our baskets?

If I'm not mistaken, NBA rims are standardized in all arenas. Back in the day, there used to be quite a difference in some of them. I remember at one point the Boston Garden's were known as "sewer rims"

 

[Kingz19]

I've heard players say we have really friendly nets, have we considered triple rimming our baskets?

It’s the friendly defense

 

[The_Jamal]

There's some kind of unwritten rule that only so many Kings can be good on any given day and Brown has to race against the clock to figure out the puzzle.

It has been really strange tbh. Basically all the ancillary guys have gone through it. And it's not just bad, it's like unplayable, lose us the game, bad sort of play. There's been very little "middle ground". Monk either looks like an elite shot maker/playmaker that should be the runaway 6MOY or he's unplayable shooting us out of a game and costly turnovers. Huerter same thing; he's had spurts where he looks like the 3rd star of this team, or he shoots 1-10 from 3 and loses us the game. All the back-up C's have taken a turn looking like the answer and then their play falls off a cliff. Trey Lyles was playing so unbelievably consistent night in and night out, but he hasn't looked the same since coming back from that injury. He's been in a bad 2-week slump and it's really shown how much we need him playing well on the floor.

And the games where the whole team IS hoopin at the same time, we drop like 150 points with ease lol.

 

[The_Jamal]

I've heard players say we have really friendly nets, have we considered triple rimming our baskets?

I know a lot of basketball shooters talk about how important sight lines and backdrops are. Maybe G1 is very " basketball shooter" friendly with how it's set up?

*edited because reading that back looked just didn't look right for the point i'm trying to make.

 

[King Baller]

Popovich still has game Who gave the go ahead for so many cuts and dribble drives? It sure took the Kings by surprise Sunday.

Pop with the timely time outs, that technical he took and him in general in the Ref's ear all afternoon. Mike Brown is good, very, very good. But Pop is still the master and he schooled us all a little bit on Sunday. Let's hope the Staff and The Fella's all paid attention to that lesson from Pop.

Plus Collins was matching Domas physical game in the paint. The rest of the Spurs were long and athletic as well as not backing down or wilting.

Perhaps the clinching of the Playoff's in Portland and ensuing attention caused a mild hang over for our Kings. Still Pop had his crew ready and he and his Guys deserve the credit.

 

[New Era]

Popovich still has game Who gave the go ahead for so many cuts and dribble drives? It sure took the Kings by surprise Sunday.

Pop with the timely time outs, that technical he took and him in general in the Ref's ear all afternoon. Mike Brown is good, very, very good. But Pop is still the master and he schooled us all a little bit on Sunday. Let's hope the Staff and The Fella's all paid attention to that lesson from Pop.

Plus Collins was matching Domas physical game in the paint. The rest of the Spurs were long and athletic as well as not backing down or wilting.

Perhaps the clinching of the Playoff's in Portland and ensuing attention caused a mild hang over for our Kings. Still Pop had his crew ready and he and his Guys deserve the credit.

I don't buy all this credit for Pop getting that win. They have 58 losses on the year - does he take the fall for those? To me it looked like Collins and a couple of other guys realized they could beat us and just got motivated to do so.