November 19th is definitely a good day for Kings to play basketball. Since 99-00 season Kings are 5-0 on this particular day. On November 19th 2001 Kings massacred the Rockets 113 – 77 to improve to 8-3 at that point of a very memorable / unforgettable season. We were pretty good back then. How good ? Don’t ask !
In this particular game Rockets didn’t offer any resistance and the game was over at the half. It was a game in which Mateen not only played but also scored. Enough said. Also, it was a game where our starting PF Scott Pollard outplayed his opponent Kenny Thomas. Even Funderburke might have owned him for stretches. So Pedja lead the Kings with 25/6/1, DC had 23/7/6/3, Scott had 12/14, Mike had 10/4/5/4 and Vlade had 9/5/3. Bench scored 34 points (all 7 players). Rockets didn’t exist.
The Kings are 5-0 at home, where they have won by an average of 21 points. Sacramento scored 14 of the game's first 18 points and never trailed, leading 54-39 at halftime.
"That wasn't a loss, that was a (butt) kicking," Houston forward Kevin Willis said. "That's worst than a loss as far as I'm concerned."
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Time to introduce a new award which will be given to a Kings player who despite being injured /in pain stays in the game and contributes like Bibby and Artest have been doing these days. The award is a coproduction between VF21 and myself who each contributed half of the name. The award is called DC-DT award. It stands for Doug Christie – Duct Tape award. It is named after a player who is a symbol for such kind of effort and toughness – DC – who in one of the defining and most memorable moments on Kings history – game 3 of WCSF that was played in Allas came back with sprained ankle and together with Bobby Jackson won the game for the Kings and pretty much the series too.As for duct tape – use Your imagination. I was also thinking about a counterpart for this award but that would be a gray area that is hard to really to define. If there was such an award it would be called PS – RW award. And it would stand for Pedja Stojakovic – resident wuss. Some demons should be buried deep.
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So, our streak is over mostly due to the “scheduling loss” in a very tough back to back game. Kings still 5-3 and still unbeaten at home so things are still just fine as we are getting ready to host the Spurs on Sunday. Couple days off will help immensely as we will need all the energy we can get dealing with Spurs. It will be a nice “status check” type of game. At least we will know whether we are going in the right direction
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It is safe to say that Bibby’s defense hasn’t and never will get better. So whatever some of You saw I the preseason was an optical illusion. Mike Bibby will get abused again and again and again on defense. You are, who You are and Mike Bibby is a very good offensive player and pressure player when healthy. We have no one who is even close to replace him. He is already tired and hurting and in the back to back’s he will struggle against stars and scrubs. We need to put the blame somewhere else. Where is decent replacement ? Which player is capable of giving Mike a breather. Mike Bibby is surrounded by players who are perfectly capable of making horrible decisions over and over and over again. When he sits we fall apart. When he plays poorly we fall apart. Can’t blame the guy for wanting him to be someone he isn’t. He can’t do it alone.
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Back to back games are hard especially when You are going on the road to a team that is well rested and plays fast and furious. It doesn’t help if You are shorthanded either. There is pretty much only one way to win those games and that is dept and talent. We don’t have enough of either one and thus we will lose those games more often that not. At one point our lineup was Hart, Price, Williamson, martin and Artest. With all due respect – that won’t get it done.
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Looks like Don Nelson outdid himself tonight by playing Mike Dunleavy as a center for good stretches of the game and actually getting away with it. Even Vlade Divac with 2 packs of cigaretts was capable of doing a better job than SAR and especially KT did tonight. I am afraid that we are getting close to watching Mo Taylor getting minutes again. Small ball is prettu to watch in the regular season and it may work fairly well. When it starts to matter - forget about it. I think that watching the battles on the center position between Dunleavy and Williamson can give You an ulcer
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Trying to put a list of the opponent guards that had a career game against the Kings at any of guard positions since DC was traded.The list is long and BD was addes to it tonight. In that list there are all stars, great players, dolid players, scrubs etc. We don't discriminate against anyone. We are equal opportunity favorite opponent for the opponent's guards in the last 2-3 years. The depressing part is that we seam to be ub=nable to do anything aout it for years noow.
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Barkley said that neither team will make the post season which is a good sign because Charles has no clue and he is biased. Unfortunately, he might end up being right at the worst possible moment. The tonight’s game was a 48 minutes of pure garbage time without any intention of playing defense. Let’s just hope that it is back to back because it doesn’t look good at all otherwise. Steve Kerr mentioned Spurs3 times and Duncan once as far as I was paying attention.
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Warriors will cause us many more problems as the season goes along. Too quick, too athletic, too everything even more on back to back night. We can still beat them but it would have to be our style (ugly). We never had a chance tonight. We lost by 12 and it wasn’t even remotely as close. We are capable of competing better but not on back to back and certainly not so banged up.
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AWARD TIME
TDM award goes to M. Ellis who looked like a perennial all star for long stretches of the game. I could list his stats but it just makes me nauseated.
LW-VC award goes to Mike Bibby. He just didn’t have it tonight and there were stretches where he was outplayed by J. Hart
JHA – goes to Kenny “I suck consistently” Thomas. He was worse than the stats would indicate. Meet our starting PF and weep.
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It doesn’t get much easier with Spurs in town but we will be rested and we are playing at home and we always have a chance there. We will have to defend the perimeter much better and obviously to play well for 4 quarter. I am not sure how we will defend Duncan or Parker but we will have too. And of course let’s hope that Bowen’s and Martin’s ways don’t cross too much.
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Mike – Atkins, Davis and now Parker. Scary. We need a better game from him. He can’t get outplayed by Hart again.
Ron – will see if Manu is still in his pocket
Kevin – let’s just hope he stays healthy after the game
SAR – has looked ok against Duncan before
Brad – get well soon
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KT – why us ?
Corliss – fairly consistent
Price – not ready yet
Hart – desperation
Garcia - currently taking classes in the "Ron Artest school" of making decisions on the court
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Muss – I hope that someone else is driving tonight.
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Spurs are still a collection of Kings killers despite dumping NVE. Horry, Barry, Ginobili, Finley & co will be a challenge. You add Duncan and Parker and we are in trouble. TDM award will probably go to Fabricio Oberto just because. LW-VC award will unfortunately go to who ever will guard Duncan. Also as usual the honorary LW-VC award is by default given to Bowen for his sportsmanship and Horry.(If You are wondering why – something might be wrong with You)
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Go Bulls !!!
In this particular game Rockets didn’t offer any resistance and the game was over at the half. It was a game in which Mateen not only played but also scored. Enough said. Also, it was a game where our starting PF Scott Pollard outplayed his opponent Kenny Thomas. Even Funderburke might have owned him for stretches. So Pedja lead the Kings with 25/6/1, DC had 23/7/6/3, Scott had 12/14, Mike had 10/4/5/4 and Vlade had 9/5/3. Bench scored 34 points (all 7 players). Rockets didn’t exist.
The Kings are 5-0 at home, where they have won by an average of 21 points. Sacramento scored 14 of the game's first 18 points and never trailed, leading 54-39 at halftime.
"That wasn't a loss, that was a (butt) kicking," Houston forward Kevin Willis said. "That's worst than a loss as far as I'm concerned."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time to introduce a new award which will be given to a Kings player who despite being injured /in pain stays in the game and contributes like Bibby and Artest have been doing these days. The award is a coproduction between VF21 and myself who each contributed half of the name. The award is called DC-DT award. It stands for Doug Christie – Duct Tape award. It is named after a player who is a symbol for such kind of effort and toughness – DC – who in one of the defining and most memorable moments on Kings history – game 3 of WCSF that was played in Allas came back with sprained ankle and together with Bobby Jackson won the game for the Kings and pretty much the series too.As for duct tape – use Your imagination. I was also thinking about a counterpart for this award but that would be a gray area that is hard to really to define. If there was such an award it would be called PS – RW award. And it would stand for Pedja Stojakovic – resident wuss. Some demons should be buried deep.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, our streak is over mostly due to the “scheduling loss” in a very tough back to back game. Kings still 5-3 and still unbeaten at home so things are still just fine as we are getting ready to host the Spurs on Sunday. Couple days off will help immensely as we will need all the energy we can get dealing with Spurs. It will be a nice “status check” type of game. At least we will know whether we are going in the right direction
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It is safe to say that Bibby’s defense hasn’t and never will get better. So whatever some of You saw I the preseason was an optical illusion. Mike Bibby will get abused again and again and again on defense. You are, who You are and Mike Bibby is a very good offensive player and pressure player when healthy. We have no one who is even close to replace him. He is already tired and hurting and in the back to back’s he will struggle against stars and scrubs. We need to put the blame somewhere else. Where is decent replacement ? Which player is capable of giving Mike a breather. Mike Bibby is surrounded by players who are perfectly capable of making horrible decisions over and over and over again. When he sits we fall apart. When he plays poorly we fall apart. Can’t blame the guy for wanting him to be someone he isn’t. He can’t do it alone.
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Back to back games are hard especially when You are going on the road to a team that is well rested and plays fast and furious. It doesn’t help if You are shorthanded either. There is pretty much only one way to win those games and that is dept and talent. We don’t have enough of either one and thus we will lose those games more often that not. At one point our lineup was Hart, Price, Williamson, martin and Artest. With all due respect – that won’t get it done.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looks like Don Nelson outdid himself tonight by playing Mike Dunleavy as a center for good stretches of the game and actually getting away with it. Even Vlade Divac with 2 packs of cigaretts was capable of doing a better job than SAR and especially KT did tonight. I am afraid that we are getting close to watching Mo Taylor getting minutes again. Small ball is prettu to watch in the regular season and it may work fairly well. When it starts to matter - forget about it. I think that watching the battles on the center position between Dunleavy and Williamson can give You an ulcer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Trying to put a list of the opponent guards that had a career game against the Kings at any of guard positions since DC was traded.The list is long and BD was addes to it tonight. In that list there are all stars, great players, dolid players, scrubs etc. We don't discriminate against anyone. We are equal opportunity favorite opponent for the opponent's guards in the last 2-3 years. The depressing part is that we seam to be ub=nable to do anything aout it for years noow.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barkley said that neither team will make the post season which is a good sign because Charles has no clue and he is biased. Unfortunately, he might end up being right at the worst possible moment. The tonight’s game was a 48 minutes of pure garbage time without any intention of playing defense. Let’s just hope that it is back to back because it doesn’t look good at all otherwise. Steve Kerr mentioned Spurs3 times and Duncan once as far as I was paying attention.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warriors will cause us many more problems as the season goes along. Too quick, too athletic, too everything even more on back to back night. We can still beat them but it would have to be our style (ugly). We never had a chance tonight. We lost by 12 and it wasn’t even remotely as close. We are capable of competing better but not on back to back and certainly not so banged up.
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AWARD TIME
TDM award goes to M. Ellis who looked like a perennial all star for long stretches of the game. I could list his stats but it just makes me nauseated.
LW-VC award goes to Mike Bibby. He just didn’t have it tonight and there were stretches where he was outplayed by J. Hart
JHA – goes to Kenny “I suck consistently” Thomas. He was worse than the stats would indicate. Meet our starting PF and weep.
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It doesn’t get much easier with Spurs in town but we will be rested and we are playing at home and we always have a chance there. We will have to defend the perimeter much better and obviously to play well for 4 quarter. I am not sure how we will defend Duncan or Parker but we will have too. And of course let’s hope that Bowen’s and Martin’s ways don’t cross too much.
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Mike – Atkins, Davis and now Parker. Scary. We need a better game from him. He can’t get outplayed by Hart again.
Ron – will see if Manu is still in his pocket
Kevin – let’s just hope he stays healthy after the game
SAR – has looked ok against Duncan before
Brad – get well soon
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KT – why us ?
Corliss – fairly consistent
Price – not ready yet
Hart – desperation
Garcia - currently taking classes in the "Ron Artest school" of making decisions on the court
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Muss – I hope that someone else is driving tonight.
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Spurs are still a collection of Kings killers despite dumping NVE. Horry, Barry, Ginobili, Finley & co will be a challenge. You add Duncan and Parker and we are in trouble. TDM award will probably go to Fabricio Oberto just because. LW-VC award will unfortunately go to who ever will guard Duncan. Also as usual the honorary LW-VC award is by default given to Bowen for his sportsmanship and Horry.(If You are wondering why – something might be wrong with You)
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Go Bulls !!!
