[Grades] Grades v. Bobcats 03/03/2013

Kings Player of the Non-Fish?

  • Thompson

    Votes: 9 32.1%
  • Cousins

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Evans

    Votes: 6 21.4%
  • Thomas

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • Thornton

    Votes: 3 10.7%
  • Hayes

    Votes: 1 3.6%
  • Fredette

    Votes: 3 10.7%
  • Johnson

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Aldrich

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • Outlaw

    Votes: 2 7.1%

  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1


Ho hum. We outscore a team 70-32 in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, have them down 44, our largest margin of the season, score the most points on them in a quarter in their franchise history...and it gets a 4 page Game Thread. Does remind though of why I once considered having Girls to celebrate the blowout wins rather than soften the blowout losses. Well, it was fun for those who actually got to see it. Even had a Cole Aldrich sighting, during which he looked and acted very much like Cole Aldrich.

Highlights:

Full Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden


Boxscore

Stats: 30min 22pts (6-13, 5-10, 5-5) 3reb 2ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Salmons ( A- ) -- I debated on this one. Should it be a B+ or an A-. And I decided, what the hell, lets celebrate a little. We probably won't have many like this one to enjoy. Once again, it was the tale of two halves with John. He started out the 1st half on a good note with a nice pass to JT who scored with a little floater. Later a pass was deflected to him and he missed an open three. He went to the bench with 3:38 left in the 1st quarter, and was back with 11:44 left in the 2nd quarter after Tyreke got his second foul. The rest of the half was a series of missed opportunities. He pulled up and missed a 14 footer. Then he missed an 18 footer. He then missed a wide open three. Finally, with 56 seconds left in the 1st half, John hit a three. The second half started the way the 1st half started. He missed a pass from IT right under the basket. He missed a three off a pass from Hayes, and then he got stuck with the ball with one second on the clock, and missed another three. But then the world turned upside down, and John couldn't miss anything. He started by hitting a highly contested three. He hit another three off a pass from Tyreke. I don't believe he missed another shot before he went to the bench for the night. John was a huge part of the blow out in the 3rd quarter. His 6 of 13 overall isn't bad, but his 5 of 10 from the three is outstanding. It was a good night for Salmons, who seems to be in a little grove right now. Lets hope it continues. --Baja

Stats: 28min 18pts (6-8, 0-0, 6-6) 14reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Thompson ( A ) -- Tonight JT went back to being the opportunistic player. He simply took what came his way and didn't force anything. As luck would have it, a lot of opportunities came his way. He had a lot of putbacks, and his teammates found him in the right place at the right time. Salmons passed it to JT in the lane and he hit a little floater. A bit later, IT found him right under the basket and he laid it in. In another sequence JT grabbed a tough rebound in a crowd off a Salmons miss, kicked it out, and Tyreke kicked right back to JT for a dunk. When he wasn't scoring through baskets, he was scoring at the freethrow line, where he went 6 for 6 tonight. And most of that was in the first half. In the second half, once again the opportunities were abundant. IT tried a bounce pass to Cousins which hit around his ankles, bounced through a couple of defenders and ended up in JT's hands. He promptly drove to the basket and was fouled. Where he made both freethrows. A bit later he tipped in the ball off of a Tyreke miss. He also added 14 rebounds and 2 steals to his stat sheet. A lot of positives, and very few negatives.
--Baja

Stats: 23min 14pts (6-14, 0-2, 2-4) 9reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Cousins ( C ) -- started the game overpowering Biyombo in the early going, but played a sloppy out of sorts first quarter again on both ends of the court -- the funny thing in this game is that there was at one point a FIFTY (50!) point turnaround on the scoreboard as Boogie started us off with a quick burst of inside power, but then he and we started playing some just awful passionless ball for the remainder of the quarter. Always chicken and egg there with Boogie, but I think he was frustrated with Isaiah playing selfishly and out of control again (it was extremely distinct in this game that when IT quit forcing and started passing our fortunes turned), couldn't get his touches where he wanted them, the body language got bad, and he started making all kinds of unfocused plays. Even got out of rhythm enough to chuck up a corner three for no reason, and cost Reke a made FT with a lane violation. Finally had another power move through Biyombo late in the half (for all his rep as a defensive focused big, Biyombo is just too small an had no hope against Big Cuz), and a highlight reel play with a big athletic follow dunk in the final minute. Took a fugly force in the early third as he looked for a foul and picked up his 4th foul just as the party was getting started and it certainly looked like the big guy was going to be limited to 18 minutes on the night. But was mysteriously back to start the 4th in what was already a 40pt blowout. He didn't really play those minutes going 100% so much as he just tried to help out our poor scrubbies. Unfortunately the scrubbies would have none of it, and Boogie got visibly upset at Jimmer on multiple plays as Cuz very consciously looked for and set him for wide open jumeprs, and Jimmer just refused to take them. Had to be content to grab a few boards before finally leaving. Guess Smart just didn't want Boogie to feel his night had ended too early/badly with the fouls. --Brick

Stats: 24min 13pts (3-6, 2-3, 5-7) 7reb 4ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Evans ( B ) -- Like the rest of the team, Tyreke started out the first quarter on a defensive low note. He allowed all 7 points he was to allow in the first quarter, on a jumper where he left MKG open, and then two transition possessions. one where MKG pounded it down his throat and one where he overprotected the lane leaving Walker open for a corner three. Still, he had four rebounds and one fast break declined to overchallenge and pulled up for an easy jumper. Tyreke didn't get much floor time in the second, but he managed one steal and hit a big three at the buzzer to cement momentum for the Kings at halftime. As the kings were breaking it open in the third Tyreke did hit an open 3, but had some flawed play, missing two layups (one so wild it had no chance), getting a block on Sessions on a drive but immediately turned it back over trying to go behind his back on a coast-to-coast drive, and playing some very lazy defense on Gerald Henderson that nonetheless resulted in a missed 3. Still, for the game Tyreke only allowed 7 points on 8 shots and while he didn't score a ton, he got the line consistently - an imperfect night but good enough to beat the Bobcats. --Capt.

Stats: 27min 10pts (4-10, 2-5, 0-0) 2reb 7ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( B- ) -- IT didn't really have the best of first quarters, going 1-5 from the floor and committing a bad turnover simply losing the ball on a baseline drive. He did find JT under the basket and Cuz cutting down the lane for two assists, but made the questionable decision to kick out to Cousins for a badly-missed three. Defensively, the first quarter was the one time that the Bobcats attacked IT, and to pretty good effect. As usual he had trouble getting through screens and staying in front of Kemba Walker, resulting in 7 points on 6 shots (not terrible numbers, but the three shots Walker missed were wide open). However, he did once again show that he's pretty good on post defense, this time frustrating Kidd-Gilchrist and forcing him to kick it out. Things got better for Thomas in the second quarter, where he picked up three assists in limited minutes (two for three-pointers) and the Bobcats offense stopped focusing on beating him - he even made a nice recognition play and stepped up to stop Kidd-Gilchrist on help defense. IT had a pretty good offensive quarter in the third, scoring 8 (hitting two threes to seal the rout) and dishing a couple of assists to Salmons when he was on fire. It wasn't all good - he made three bad passes, two of which weren't turnovers only because the Kings got the loose ball. It's probably obvious that when IT (and the team) was playing poorly the Bobcats were in the game, and when he (and the team) started playing well, the blowout was on. But he was a decent part of the blowout despite an imperfect game, so I can't hit him too hard. --Capt.
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Bench

Stats: 20min 18pts (7-11, 2-4, 2-2) 2reb 3ast 2stl 0blk 2TO
Thornton ( B ) -- with Tyreke playing such a solid all around unselfish game there was a danger that Marcus was going to come in muck up the mojo, but that was the dead lost Marcus of last week, not this guy. Actually was in first for Salmons, who mysteriously led the team in first half minutes despite doing nothing with them, but quickly ended up next to John as Reke sat down wiht some sort of mouth injury. Took a while to get going, but finally hit a strong challenged pullup jumper and while he was aggressive and wild therafter, he was playing in that extra gear he's found again for 12 points in about 12 first half minutes as two bench guys -- MT and Chuck -- joined the starters in opening the lead out. Came back in in the third and was notably unselfish himself as the spirit of the thing was infectious by that time. Looked for Salmons in the midst of his big run, surprised with an unselfish decision and sharp quick pass to JT inside. Hesitation dribble completely fooled his defender to start the 4th and he darted in for the easy layup. Minutes ended up being short as the game got so out of control that even our top bench guys were too good for it. Preferred Reke's all around game and so will let that grade guide this one, but MT was extremely effective again as its just been night and day the last 4 games. Where was this guy all season while Rome burned?--Brick

Stats: 19min 7pts (3-11, 1-6, 0-0) 3reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Fredette ( D ) -- one of the few Kings to play poorly in this one as its just not coming around for Jimmer. That early season run of good play seems a distant memory now as he's shooting 55-156, 36.1% since the new year. With Brooks gone was back out there at PG again, and while you can hardly call it being thrown to the wolves when its the Bobcats you are playing, he was missing his shots, trying to do too much and got himself taken out and benched after only 6 minutes of it. Returned to the game with the rout completely on and immediately got beat to the hoop for a Bobcats dunk. Couldn't hit his shots no matter how open, and compeltely refused on multiple wide open setups from Cousins in the 4th to fire them up, pissing Cousins off in the process. Did set up Aldrich for his first hoop on a pick and roll. This was quite poor, but in a 40pt blowout there are no F's, just do betters.--Brick

Stats: 21min 6pts (3-5, 0-0, 0-1) 12reb 4ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Hayes ( A- ) -- Hard to fault with anything Chuck did out there tonight. He did what he was hired to do, and maybe a little bit more. Oh he only scored 6 pts, but then he only took 5 shots and made 3 of them. He also pulled down 12 rebounds, and had 4 assists. He also played his usual stellar defense in the post. He is the unmovable object. I won't go into the details, but it was just Chuck doing what Chuck does. Its not spectacular, or fancy. Just effective and efficient. He's a very unselfish player thats always looking for his teammates. He's the perfect example of a player knowinig what he can, and can't do. All we need to do is find another player like Chuck thats 7 feet tall. Hey, I'll settle for 6'9". Good job tonight Chuck! --Baja

Stats: 17min 5pts (2-4, 1-2, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Patterson ( C- ) -- I felt sorry for Patrick tonight. He didn't get much time in the first half. It seemed like he was in the game, and then he was gone. And by the time he got back into the game in the 2nd half, the game was essentially over. So he really had little impact on the outcome. But I really can't blame him for that. It was basicly a coaches decision. I actually thought about giving him an INC, just to be fair to him. But he did play 17 minutes, even if most of the 17 minutes came at a time when it was meaningless. He only scored 5 pts on 2 of 4 shooting, including one three pointer. And he did have one blocked shot. So since I'm feeling generous, I gave him a decent grade.
--Baja

Stats: 15min 2pts (0-4, 0-1, 2-2) 3reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Douglas ( B ) -- Douglas came in when the Kings had just put together their largest lead of the season, but at least he played his 15 minutes like he meant it. On offense, he missed all four shots he took and only managed two assists, one to Chuck Hayes as he was falling down and looked like he was going to turn it over. On the other hand, Douglas played some pretty good defense. He was pestering Ben Gordon most of the night and forced two badly missed jumpers (one by Gordon, one by Jeff Taylor) and only allowed 3 points on 5 shots. He had consecutive possessions where he had near-steals down the stretch, another nod to his defense. He didn't dominate out there, but these days anytime I see a guy play defense that hard while wearing the purple and black it brings a smile to my face. --Capt.

Stats: 8min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Johnson ( INC ) -- I was just so happy that we were blowing out the 'Cats so that I"d get to watch 8 minutes of JJ, who is sure not to disappoint. Let's just say that with a 40-point lead, JJ wasn't exactly playing inspired D out there. Sure, Jeff Taylor missed the three that JJ left him wide open for and we didn't really need that rebound he didn't try for, but is a blowout an excuse? Maybe. JJ didn't care out there and managed three turnovers to one assist in his 8 minutes. Fortunately for him, it didn't matter. Fortunately for me, his performance out there isn't exactly going to earn him more minutes. --Capt.

Stats: 7min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-0) 3reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Aldrich ( INC ) -- in in the mid 4th of the 40pt blowout, and immediately got the block you mgiht expect out of him, and then went down thje other way and got a flip on a pick and roll with Jimmer. So all part of the aprty. Unfortunately that was largely it as the game got even more garbagey, and Aldrich began to resemble, and likely feel, similar to he did in Houston and OKC, where he was almost completely ignored out there. So Cole Aldrich, career 7.1min 1.7pts 1.9reb tonight was 7min 2pts 3reb.
--Brick
 
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#7
not too rain on parade, but there is only 2-3 other teams in the league we could have played with even the possibility of this being a result, and it would have to be at home too (not counting the recent Orlando away game). With that being said, it is one of the few good nights of the year and for a forum that has had to deal with a lot it does feel good
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#8
not too rain on parade, but there is only 2-3 other teams in the league we could have played with even the possibility of this being a result, and it would have to be at home too (not counting the recent Orlando away game). With that being said, it is one of the few good nights of the year and for a forum that has had to deal with a lot it does feel good
Okay, I'll bite: exactly why doesn't the Magic game count?
 
#10
Great win. Thanks guys for making my day. Loved the way the team set up Salmons and did it again and again. They also seemed to realy enjoys it. And from there everyone chipped in. It's ashame that we on here seem to pitch in more when we ***** than when we can praise. One of the few down sides to this forum.
 
#12
Well, the good news is that we are clearly superior to the bottom feeders of the NBA. (yay?) One positive we can take from this year is that lack of talent is not as big an issue as it might be with other 21 win teams. We should be able to be competitive against better teams with proper direction from coaches/ FO
 
K

KingMilz

Guest
#13
Great win regardless of who we are playing to be up by 40 points on any NBA is good, now hopefully Salmons/Thornton can keep making shots and everyone keeps moving the ball and please for the love of god stop playing Jimmer @ PG it does not work.

Hopefully Denver does not do to us what we did to the Bobcats, there should no excuses for us Cousins has not played more than 25 mins in like 3 games and same goes for most the starters they should all be FRESH and ready to run with the Nuggets.
 
#14
I don't ever want to see James Johnson attempt a shot, ever. He's more selfish than the rest of the players on the team combined.
 
#15
I don't ever want to see James Johnson attempt a shot, ever. He's more selfish than the rest of the players on the team combined.
I just shake my head and expect the worse whenever that guy has the ball in his hands...it's either going up or a turnover.
 

CruzDude

Senior Member sharing a brew with bajaden
#19
Key to this game was one item in Cousins grade: he (Cuz) was frustrated with Isaiah playing selfishly and out of control again (it was extremely distinct in this game that when IT quit forcing and started passing our fortunes turned) And when Cuz gets frustrated he acts like a spoiled kid.

Dam if you do and dam if you don't as to using IT. But once Kings get a real Coach who can stop that selfish foolishness, Kings will get to next level. It will also reduce the Cuz frustrations of not knowing if he will or won't get a good pass. Once that consistency begins we all will love the results.