-How can you not love Domas man? Dude is just always battling, he shrugs off 2 Miami players to get that board and tip. Takes the most abuse in the league, never gets respect of the refs, but still in there when it matters to come up clutch. Just an absolute warrior. Bam was low-key playing pretty dirty most of the night and still was able to come out ahead.
-The Kings with Star Fox are absolutely capable of being a top 4 team in the West. That third quarter showed when he's rolling, this team goes up several tiers, on both ends of the court. He cooled off a bit offensively in the 4th, but was just as locked in on the defensive end. He's just got to find a way to harness that throughout the game; that's the dude who's going to make an All-NBA team.
-The Kings might have 2 wins if DDR is not on this team. Might. We've had several games already this year that in previous seasons, we would have just gone home in the third quarter. But he kept this thing from getting out of control in the 1st half and he's just ice in his veins come crunch time. He really reminds me of older Paul Pierce offensively (but not the corpse version); not flashy, not going to wow you with athleticism, but he's for damn sure going to get to his spot, on his time to get the shot he wants.
-Kings are a different defensive team with Keon and Keegan on the floor together. Might have to think about closing with Keon over Monk, simply because we sort of know the ball is going to go Fox or DDR on 95% of clutch time possessions. Keon's still a work in progress offensively, but he's just such a defensive menace that it's hard to keep him off the floor. Especially in crunch time when we need him on the opposing teams lead ball-handlers.
-Jimmy got Keegan a few times in the 4th, but man it wasn't because he wasn't playing him and contesting his shot. And it's Jimmy freaking Butler, that's what he does. All you can do is contest the shots the best you can. The 14-6 stat line from Keegs doesn't look super impressive, but my god is he just our most important defensive player and it's really not close. If (when) the 3-ball comes back, he's going to threaten being in all-star consideration. If the season ended tomorrow, I'd bet he'd be on an All-Defensive team roster too. It's just so dang impressive.
-Heat with only 4 3's in the 2nd half. Domas mentioned at half time it got heated; good. Seemed to have worked and we got our ass in gear not to get beat to death by the 3.