[Game] Sacramento Kings (3) @ Golden State Warriors (6) (WCDS Game 4, 2-1) 4/23/2023 12:30pm Pacific 3:30pm Eastern (ABC)

Draymond is back! Today, he will:

  • Play a clean game

    Votes: 2 5.1%
  • Play a dirty game but get away with it

    Votes: 27 69.2%
  • Get a technical foul

    Votes: 9 23.1%
  • Get ejected on technical fouls

    Votes: 2 5.1%
  • Get a Flagrant 1 foul

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Get a Flagrant 2 foul (automatic ejection)

    Votes: 2 5.1%

  • Total voters
    39
  • Poll closed .
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I'm wanting to see a lineup of Len, Fox, Davion, Monk, and Keegan.

Just shoot their heads off or allyoop it to Len.
They are starting to look for him a little bit more.......I think Len can improve. He's not as nimble as Cauley-Stein, but takes better pride in his defense and rebounding. I think he get's more energized playing offense, but has a tendency to get offensive fouls due to his size.
 
They are starting to look for him a little bit more.......I think Len can improve. He's not as nimble as Cauley-Stein, but takes better pride in his defense and rebounding. I think he get's more energized playing offense, but has a tendency to get offensive fouls due to his size.
It's been great to see Len find his groove with this group. One think I like about him vs. Cauley-Stein is that he doesn't possess cinder blocks on the end of his arms.
 
They are starting to look for him a little bit more.......I think Len can improve. He's not as nimble as Cauley-Stein, but takes better pride in his defense and rebounding. I think he get's more energized playing offense, but has a tendency to get offensive fouls due to his size.
I'm okay with this. To quote Doris Burke, "Go ahead, use all 6."

(EDIT: Okay maybe not use all 6 on offensive foul would be ideal... lol)
 
I expect we're going to see a very different Domas next season. First, getting a max extension (I think he's eligible this off-season?). Then with an expanded repertoire of post moves. This whole season - and this series in particular - is exposing his biggest weakness. Which is that he can bully the less strong centers in the league but clearly is missing the finesse, footwork, and soft touch that will allow him to get his against guys like Looney he can't just move out the way. I think that level of scoring is what moves him into the all-NBA level, and I think he's got the work ethic to unlock it
 
I expect we're going to see a very different Domas next season. First, getting a max extension (I think he's eligible this off-season?). Then with an expanded repertoire of post moves. This whole season - and this series in particular - is exposing his biggest weakness. Which is that he can bully the less strong centers in the league but clearly is missing the finesse, footwork, and soft touch that will allow him to get his against guys like Looney he can't just move out the way. I think that level of scoring is what moves him into the all-NBA level, and I think he's got the work ethic to unlock it
I mean, let's not forget he's playing with a broken thumb for what? 4 months now? And also a bruised sternum can't be all that easy to go play 40 NBA minutes with either.

He's already All-NBA. He should be the third team center if voters don't cave to their LA bias and give it to AD. He's had a mostly bad series (for his standard), but I also think Brown needs to be better at finding the right utilization for him in this particular match-up. Kerr has our gameplan with him locked down and Brown has yet to find the answer for it,.


This is a great tweet. And honestly, Fox/Malik/Davion have been the three best Kings throughout the 4 games. HB, Huerter and Sabonis are all vets and they've been to the playoffs before.... they need to step it up. For a core that's been so consistently good throughout the season, they've really fallen short of expectation thus far.
 
I was bitter about the loss at first, but the level of shot making by the Warriors to win by 1 at home is pretty staggering. That was an A game for this version of the Dubs. And we came back from down 10 in the 4th. I truly think we are the better team. But can we knock out the champs?

Reminds me so much of the 2002 WCF. A lot of us thought we were the better team then too, but we never knocked them out. The parallel of Game 4 again being decided on a buzzer shot to send the series back tied to Sac is pretty crazy. I think we take Game 5. The question is whether we can beat the Dubs in a desperation game 6 or a winner take all game 7.

the good news is that this Dubs team isn’t near as good as the 2002 Lakers. But as good as Curry, Klay, and Poole were at shot making today, it isn’t inconceivable that they can do that twice more.

Bottom line- I hate that we lost. This was our chance to take the series by the horns. But like 2002, we are coming back home for Game 5.
 
I mean, let's not forget he's playing with a broken thumb for what? 4 months now? And also a bruised sternum can't be all that easy to go play 40 NBA minutes with either.

He's already All-NBA. He should be the third team center if voters don't cave to their LA bias and give it to AD. He's had a mostly bad series (for his standard), but I also think Brown needs to be better at finding the right utilization for him in this particular match-up. Kerr has our gameplan with him locked down and Brown has yet to find the answer for it,.


This is a great tweet. And honestly, Fox/Malik/Davion have been the three best Kings throughout the 4 games. HB, Huerter and Sabonis are all vets and they've been to the playoffs before.... they need to step it up. For a core that's been so consistently good throughout the season, they've really fallen short of expectation thus far.
I think the main issue is Domas. The Warriors are blowing up the Kings DHO game by dropping Looney to take away the back cuts and overplaying the DHO.

Domas has to be able to hit the 15-18 ft jumper to force team to honor the dribble hand off. If he can hit that shot it pulls Looney out and opens up the back door cuts. If he can’t he isn’t going to be nearly as effective next year as all teams are going to drop until he proves he can hit that shot.
 
He's already All-NBA. He should be the third team center if voters don't cave to their LA bias and give it to AD. He's had a mostly bad series (for his standard), but I also think Brown needs to be better at finding the right utilization for him in this particular match-up. Kerr has our gameplan with him locked down and Brown has yet to find the answer for it,.

This is a great tweet. And honestly, Fox/Malik/Davion have been the three best Kings throughout the 4 games. HB, Huerter and Sabonis are all vets and they've been to the playoffs before.... they need to step it up. For a core that's been so consistently good throughout the season, they've really fallen short of expectation thus far.
I believe these two statements are related. Kerr has been using Looney extremely well on Domas downlow, but they're also taking away the DHO in multiple ways - bothering it up close where it happens, but they're also sagging a lot and clogging up cutting lanes and doing a ton of switching - some might call it a junk defense - a zone/man hybrid. Our offense is meant above all to confuse a man defense - that's why you'd see some teams during the reg season switching to a zone to try to stop us.

What I've been hoping and waiting for is a series long version of what we've been seeing in games during the regular season - excellent adjustments by the coaches. I'm not used to seeing Mike Brown outcoached, so I'm very curious to see how they respond in game five.
 
I think the main issue is Domas. The Warriors are blowing up the Kings DHO game by dropping Looney to take away the back cuts and overplaying the DHO.

Domas has to be able to hit the 15-18 ft jumper to force team to honor the dribble hand off. If he can hit that shot it pulls Looney out and opens up the back door cuts. If he can’t he isn’t going to be nearly as effective next year as all teams are going to drop until he proves he can hit that shot.
Bro - great minds. I literally JUST said the exact same thing. LOL.

Edit: it appears you said yours 18 minutes before me. Took me a while to type it lol.
 
I think the main issue is Domas. The Warriors are blowing up the Kings DHO game by dropping Looney to take away the back cuts and overplaying the DHO.

Domas has to be able to hit the 15-18 ft jumper to force team to honor the dribble hand off. If he can hit that shot it pulls Looney out and opens up the back door cuts. If he can’t he isn’t going to be nearly as effective next year as all teams are going to drop until he proves he can hit that shot.
I mean, he hit that shot all season. Like 47% on the mid-range. And he was basically never shy to pull either; even from 3 when he was wide open. 37% from 3 on 83 attempts in the regular season. That's not staggering obviously, but that's enough where if you have 10 feet of space, he was more than confident to pull a jumper in rhythm.

Idk, I feel like something is up with his hand where he doesn't have good feel for the ball. Maybe he's had a set-back with the thumb and it's affecting him more now than in the regular season. He's acting like a no-range center when he gets the ball in the high post when that's not what he's been all year. I thought that was a big step forward he made this year and it's mostly disappeared.
 
I mean, he hit that shot all season. Like 47% on the mid-range. And he was basically never shy to pull either; even from 3 when he was wide open. 37% from 3 on 83 attempts in the regular season. That's not staggering obviously, but that's enough where if you have 10 feet of space, he was more than confident to pull a jumper in rhythm.

Idk, I feel like something is up with his hand where he doesn't have good feel for the ball. Maybe he's had a set-back with the thumb and it's affecting him more now than in the regular season. He's acting like a no-range center when he gets the ball in the high post when that's not what he's been all year. Not that "he's made teams pay" for giving him space, but he absolutely showed enough range where you shouldn't just be able to leave him wide open and him being unwilling to pull it
I agree - but we'll never know for sure because Domas is a warrior and also we don't want to give the enemy any info. But the timing on his shot when he does take it looks off.
 
Agreed. It's not complicated. He must take the open shots that he has proven he can make. Without that, this teams chances of making a deep run are slim
To add on to this; HB/Huerter/Lyles need to join Domas and hit the open shots as they're there the whole game. That's been the story of this series.

The Keegan 3pt explosion saved us tonight, but once again:

1-6 from HB (3-11 overall)
0-1 from Huerter (?) (1-4 overall)
1-3 from Lyles (2-5 overall)
2-5 from Monk (5-14 overall)

4-15 3pt shooting for 26%. Just not good enough and not what we need from this grouping.
 
my observations after watching the game, Keegan needs way more shots. A shooter like that simply cannot go in a seven game series without getting up double digit shots, do whatever you can to make it happen since he doesn't create for himself. When Davion isn't blanketing Curry, it messes up all of the rotations and finally, as much as Sabonis does for the Kings, he has no touch around the rim.
 
Maybe a little exaggeration on my part but he was definitely looking like a rising star... look at that highlight reel back in 2022 and he surely played with a different demeanor and aggressiveness.

He can score. Not doubting that. But the league is filled with no-conscience chuckers. Like them, Poole isn’t very interested or capable of playing defense. He’s a liability on that end, which is probably the reason why Draymond got into it with him in practice.
 
my observations after watching the game, Keegan needs way more shots. A shooter like that simply cannot go in a seven game series without getting up double digit shots, do whatever you can to make it happen since he doesn't create for himself. When Davion isn't blanketing Curry, it messes up all of the rotations and finally, as much as Sabonis does for the Kings, he has no touch around the rim.
He's been decent around the rim all year. Clearly something is bothering him between the bruised sternum and broken thumb.
 
even before the sternum incident, I'm not seeing many hook shots utilized. trying too much to bulldoze his way under the rim and by that time the Warriors have time to swipe down at the ball.
it’s tough when you have been doing that all season and getting either a score or a trip to the line and then having to flip a switch and score with finesse. Probably something he will have to solve in the summer and next season.
 
This whole season - and this series in particular - is exposing his biggest weakness. Which is that he can bully the less strong centers in the league but clearly is missing the finesse, footwork, and soft touch that will allow him to get his against guys like Looney he can't just move out the way. I think that level of scoring is what moves him into the all-NBA level, and I think he's got the work ethic to unlock it
There’s so much overreaction going on with Domas right now. I really don’t get it.

He had one off game going 5-17 by missing chippies he normally makes and suddenly he’s a liability?

He’s averaging 16-12-4.5 for the series. On 48% shooting. Not exactly bad.

Take his 5-17 Game 1 performance out of the equation and he’s averaging 17.6-10.6-5.3 on 59% shooting the next 3 games.

So WTF are we talkingabout here?
 
There’s so much overreaction going on with Domas right now. I really don’t get it.

He had one off game going 5-17 by missing chippies he normally makes and suddenly he’s a liability?

He’s averaging 16-12-4.5 for the series. On 48% shooting. Not exactly bad.

Take his 5-17 Game 1 performance out of the equation and he’s averaging 17.6-10.6-5.3 on 59% shooting the next 3 games.

So WTF are we talkingabout here?
I think the caveat is "bad by his standard that he's set this season"

Again, dude should be an All-NBA selection. Was pretty easily a top 7 MVP candidate. And that same dominance just hasn't shown up this series for a lot of the reasons we've laid out already. He's been fine, but he hasn't been the same difference maker/offensive centerpiece/Baby Jokic that he's consistently been all year.

Anyone suggesting trading him or blowing up the team is just being dumb and short-sighted. The Kings won't get another opportunity to get a player of his talent again while Fox is still on the team. If we do end up losing this series, it's on Monte to fix the flaws AROUND them not adjust the 2 elite offensive talents you built the team around
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
There’s so much overreaction going on with Domas right now. I really don’t get it.

He had one off game going 5-17 by missing chippies he normally makes and suddenly he’s a liability?

He’s averaging 16-12-4.5 for the series. On 48% shooting. Not exactly bad.

Take his 5-17 Game 1 performance out of the equation and he’s averaging 17.6-10.6-5.3 on 59% shooting the next 3 games.

So WTF are we talkingabout here?
Dude was the center version of Jordan Poole on defense today. A traffic cone would have provided more defense on the interior.
 
He's been decent around the rim all year. Clearly something is bothering him between the bruised sternum and broken thumb.
And yet the numbers are still very good from games 2, 3, and 4.

He had ONE terrible game. That’s it. He’s shooting almost 60% the three games since.

Has he been in MVP form? No. But I’m sure the injuries are having an effect, as is the officials allowing the Warriors to hack him with impunity.

But despite it all he’s still managing to average 17.6-10.6-5.3 on 59% shooting the past 3 games.

Averages don’t always tell the entire story, but they do prove a certain level of production. Domas has been highly productive offensively for all but one game thus far.
 
Dude was the center version of Jordan Poole on defense today. A traffic cone would have provided more defense on the interior.
Nobody is ever Jordan Poole bad besides Jordan Poole.

I seem to recall Domas coming up big defensively in the final minutes of GM2 working his @$$ off on switches and bothering certain Warriors out on the perimeter.

That’s more than Poole ever does.
 
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