Kingsfans.com Official Game Thread
Game 22
Sacramento Kings at Las Angeles Lakers
Game 22
Sacramento Kings at Las Angeles Lakers
By Stephen Tetsu, Lightning Lad
It certainly wasn’t pretty and wasn’t impressive in any regard but in this sad, sick post-Demarcus-getting sick world, I’ll take any win as long as it doesn’t cost us the services of any of our other players.
Rudy continued his very good start to the season with a 29 point, 6 rebounds, 3 steal, one block game, including a couple of baskets in the fourth quarter to help the Kings pull ahead of the feisty if not particularly good Utah Jazz. Contrary to the opinions of almost every Utah Jazz fan I’ve read over the last few hours, Rudy has been money on the season, most of the bad Toronto Rudy gone like breath on a mirror. While I won’t come out and say that he’s definitively better than Gordon Hayward, I will say that Rudy took it to him on this particular night.
Elsewhere, Nik Stauskas awoke from a season-long nightmare to completely overwhelm the inexperienced Jazz backcourt (part of that is that his former college teammate Trey Burke is pretty much the NBA equivalent of a Walmart greeter). For at least this night, the former Wolverine looked like the guy we drafted with the number eight pick. And the thing is that Ben wasn’t playing particularly badly either, putting together a fantastic defensive effort in the third quarter even as he hits a dry spell shooting the ball. If the two young guys can continue to build on this momentum, there are only good times ahead.
Darren Collison also had another characteristically solid night of basketball, not doing anything particularly amazing but, at the same time, not doing anything malignantly awful to stymie the efforts of the rest of his team. I don’t know if we’ve already settled on a nickname for DC but, if we haven’t, I’d like to nominate The Tortoise. While Darren is anything but slow, his steady play and floor general demeanor help put the squad in a position to win almost every night. Also Ramon Sessions suddenly looks like the solid back-up we signed him to be after that monthlong stretch of whatever the hell that was. He still needs to work on his free throws though.
The two starting big men played solid games, although Reggie’s hands seemed to have been coated with vaseline all night, a bunch of normally catchable balls somehow getting away from the Joker’s mitts. JT continues to contribute more on the offensive side of the ball without Boogie on the floor, though his defensive game against the Jazz and their more traditional big men somehow wasn’t as good as his defense on stretch big Channing Frye against the Magic.
The bench aside from Nik and Ramon was essentially a heck of a lot of meh, Carl Landry, Derrick Williams, and Ryan Hollins not being all that awful but not really being all that extraordinary either. Meanwhile, Coach Malone did a terrible job of telling his assistant coaches not to tear their Achilleses. Yet another sign of how he is the worst coach in the NBA.
On the subject of the Jazz, did Tyrone Corbin take all of their shooting with him after he got fired? For forty three minutes or so, Utah struggled to make point blank shots, let alone open perimeter jumpers. I mean, when Gordon Hayward is displaying the outside efficiency of Josh Smith, you may have a bit of a problem. Also Enes Kanter took several three pointers in the game, which is something I can never support. Rudy Gobert is going to be awesome though, just give him a few years of practice first.
This one goes in the W column and that number doesn’t change no matter how ugly the road to the final buzzer was. Only one game behind the Suns for the (quarterseason) eighth seed. All things considered, I’ll take it!
Post of the Game
Pessimism of the Game
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Alec Burks came off a shoulder injury some expected to end his season and had perhaps the best game of all the Jazz starters, which I suppose would mean something if the rest of the starters hadn’t all played like turds stuck to the walls of a truck stop latrine.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Award- Carl Landry, who has sucked since he hit that game winner and even before that. The man’s no longer an explosive player by any means and his veteran guile currently isn’t doing enough to compensate.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award- Rodney Hood played 21 minutes. His one statistical contribution beyond missed shots: two fouls and an assist. Now that’s efficiency.
Spencer Hawes “Big Man” Award- Enes Kanter suddenly decided to jack up threes in the fourth quarter despite no precedent throughout the rest of the game. The first one hit the side of the backboard and the second one went in. He also threw his mouthpiece into the stands in a temper tantrum meltdown.
WTF Moment of the Night- The entire ****ty crapty first quarter.
The View from the Other Side
The following have been unceremoniously grabbed from the depths of jazzfanz.com, featuring people who apparently haven’t looked at our record this season.
1:59 The 5-15 Jazz look to avoid their first 9-game losing streak since the 2004-05 (they had two such streaks that year btw) while the 10-10 Kings are trying to survive until DeMarcus Cousins comes back.
Will the streak end tonight?
6:02 Rudy Gay tries too hard .. shoots 7 for 22.
Jazz - 99
nutSAC - 88
7:29 Kings are like 1-17 the last couple years without Cousins, so we have a good shot at this one. Watch out for Casspi, McLemore, or Collison to step up. Casspi has a high motor and runs the floor hard and Collison is a fast player who can give Burke trouble. Teams shoot a high percentage against us and we aren't good at defending three pointers, and McLemore can shoot lights out, especially with Rodney Hood chasing him around. Also got to make sure Reggie Evans doesn't get every rebound.
edit: I guess Burks is starting tonight, not Hood
7:40 want gay to take 30 shots. he will miss most of it. let's go jazzzzz
8:01 who is Trey Burke "guarding" tonight ??
9:18 Boy did we miss Burks... My goodness is he good
9:24 Corbin is injured
9:25 Keep shooting gay
9:28 didn't know corliss williamson is one of the assistant coach for sac kings. used to like his game.
9:29 what is Darren Collison's career high ?
9:30 Corbin probably wondering why Quin has not sent in Novak.
9:31 collison probably carrer high tonight..
nothing new.
Jazz are good at giving those away
9:32 STAUSKUS??
9:33 I don't even care if Hood missed that. That confidence/cockiness is something the Jazz desperately need.
9:36 Hey, JAzz team...look what happens when you get offensive boards instead of giving them up. Of course it's a lot easier without Cousins playing.
9:38 Wow. Stauskas is garbage.
9:41 Satsumas looks like Jimmer.
9:42 Exum is too nice. Kid's parents need to get divorced or something. Just kidding. That was a joke.
9:44 Anyone notice gobert slapping hollins hands when hollins was trying to put his hands on rudy?
I love the attitude
9:45 kanter what hahahaha
thats what i mean..
1 good play then a brain fart.
9:45 let the boys play! so sick of these ticky tack fouls
9:52 Why does Ingles always leave his feet to pass? I thought European League players were suppose to be smart.
9:55 stauskas... dat stroke doe
9:57 hayward>>>>gay
9:57 Love the Gayward matchup, Hayward showing him who's boss
9:58 but coach k will still go with gay.... **** that guy
9:58 Hayward playing some great individual defense on Gay. More Utah perimeter players need to play like him on defense. Just get up into your man and be strong. Go for the ball enough to keep the offense honest, don't bite on pump fakes, and fight through screens.
10:04 Christ, everyone on our team falls for pump fakes besides Hayward.
10:05 Well, we do own 3rd quarters.
10:06 Both of Hayward's 3pt missed have rimmed out.... bummer.
10:06 What's that? The Jazz completely collapse in the second quarter and go on to lose yet again? You don't say.
10:07 sputtering end to the half. we're a long ways away folks.
10:08 32-18 in the second quarter. We suck for whatever reason in the second
10:13 we can't even beat sac kings without boogie cousins
10:15 There's really no excuse for Favors only having 3 shot attempts, they don't even have a center. We need his efficient scoring. Not sure if that's on Quin or Favs.
10:22 and our front court doesn't scare anybody. we are just collectively bad.
10:25 rudy gay is underrated
10:27 Taking Gobert out. wtf?
10:40 lol at the guy holding the mouthpiece.
10:41 that was so funny. Going to be on Shaqtin the Fool
10:41 Angry Kanter is sexy.
10:42 Exum passive even when 5 on 4.
10:42 Gobert playing Hollins is like Gobert playing a ****tier version of himself.
10:44 Kanter was mad because sacramento only had 4 players on defense and Hayward and exum. (Mostly exum) just dribbled the ball around waiting for the kings player to get back on defense.
Kanter was yelling for them to move the ball and take advantage
10:44 I really hate watching Exum play. I think he will be goood in the future, but it's so ****ing boring watching him play right now.
10:44 Gobert could be Dwight Howard in a few years. What a ridiculous pickup that was.
A disrupter on the defensive end and an absolute terror in the post. His quickness and touch around the rim is just insane for someone his size and age.
10:48 Rudy does not give a **** tonight. This guy could be big time.
10:48 I can't remember the last time 2 crappy teams played with this much intensity.
10:52 Wow, it is brick f'ing city in Sacramento tonight.
10:52 Can someone please create a vid of Kanter throwing his mouth piece and the fan in the stands waving it... Classic
10:53 It felt like Burke was very cognizant that whole time standing there of how ****ing bad he was about to get burned.
10:54 Gobert is a ****ing stud. I bet you anything his parents are divorced.
10:58 Burks needs to try and destroy Stauskas.
11:00 wow we suck ass
11:00 The first team to hit 2 consecutive jump shots will win this game.
11:01 This Jazz team sucks so so so bad.
11:02 Guys. Franklin... Franklin was right. It's not the coach, the Jazz players are just terrible
11:02 God damnit. Sub in Gobert already and feed it to him. We can't make anything.
11:04 leave it to the jazz for a breakout game for a player everytime
11:04 Good timeout coach. Jazz come out with a brick and zero defense.
11:04 our shooting coach is doing a bad job
11:04 **** don't lose to Sacramento please...
11:05 Like holy ****. This has become absolutely humiliating.
11:08 Kind of worrisome that Stauskus is beating Burks at will. Burks had a nice reach around tap steal, but his defense has been baaaaaad.
11:11 Burks making plays and showing great ball handling.
Also stripped stauskas
11:12 Hayward is a great player. But he will never be the #1 guy on a successful team.
11:16 Lol Stauskus having his way with Burks or Hood.
Just not our game. Couldn't hit a shot.
11:16 Hayward got killed on a screen. Favors with great help d.
Gay his the shot anyway
11:17 Stauskas treating us like we're some division 3 college, embarrassing.
11:18 and the coaching / sub patterns are starting to really frustrate me, i really don't know what he's trying to achieve with some of his rotations ..
11:21 This site needs to take a chill pill.
As Aaron Rogers said, relax. RELAX.
We only have the Spurs tomorrow night...
11:23 ball shattering.
we might end up bottom 3 for the lottery
ill take it.
11:24 hope we dont waste a pick on a guy like exum again
11:25 Reggie Evans is a great screener.
Stopped Hayward in his tracks allowing gay to get to the rim
11:26 Enes is embarrassing himself with his composure (or lack thereof) on the court. Very immature. Time to cut 'er loose. Kevon Looney, your table is ready.
11:26 I thought the torture was over after Corbin left, but watching Trey Burke play 30+ minutes a game is stomach-churning.
11:37 Exum reminds me way too much of Kirilenko. Tall, lanky, flashes of greatness, but little to no drive.
I don't know, is killer instinct something that can be developed? Or you either have it or you don't?
11:44 Hey were weren't down by 20 this game. Had a good start. It's a road game, every road game will be hard for us. We were still in it for until about the middle of the fourth quarter. Yeah we probably should have won... but at least it wasn't a blow out.
11:59 Hayward is a number 1. It's too bad we don't have a #2 or even a #3 right now.
Burks playing like a 4th option most of the season and Favors fades in and out of being an option at all.
Kanter and Burke can score and playmake but our huge defensive liabilities (Kanter has gotten better though).
12:03 Hayward played a great floor game tonight. He played good man defense most of the night (at the end got worse because he was overplaying to try to force steals), got his teammates involved, got out in transition, made a lot of steals, and got to the FT line. He basically did everything you would want out of your 1st option but he just had a bad shooting night. His floor game was #1 option worthy vs. a top 5 SF in the game.
Tonight’s Game
Ladies and gentlemen, your 2014-2015 Los Angeles Lakers.
Another night. Another nationally televised game… Wait. What did I just type?
I feel like the Kings have played more national games over the last month than in the last five years combined. Every week, there’s at least one and, while that’s quite nice, I’m not so certain that struggling and Demarcus-less is how I want the nation to remember the Kings when we fade back into non-national TV-dom over the next several months.
Aaaaanywho, the Kings are facing the Lakers tonight on semi-national television in a game that ten years ago would have been national must see TV but is now a battle between a team really struggling to find itself and stay in the playoff hunt and quite possibly the single saddest/best wreck of a team in the NBA this season. Seriously, if you've been living under a rock since the start of the season, this is not your daddy's Lakers.
And it's all Kobe's fault (Well, not really but also yes).
At approximately age 57, Kobe is still chugging along through his NBA career, body strained and battered from years of NBA play and several serious leg injuries. While his athleticism has faded, the Black Mamba (or now, more accurately, Fat Snake in Crazy Dude's Trailer) still certainly shoots like he's still 28-year-old Kobe, which recently led to Kobe taking the all-time NBA lead for career missed shots. Really, at this point, Kobe's like that dude you play ball with at the gym who thinks he's Kobe so he's just throwing junk up at the rim every time he gets within 30 feet of the basket. While it's amazing that Kobe's scoring as much as he is at his age, how he's scoring those points is not.
Elsewhere on this roster, the Lakers are generally a cesspool of suck. Jeremy Lin just got benched in favor of former Kings 3rd string point guard Ronnie Price after being horrible at defense AND offense for the first twenty games of the year. And the thing is that Ronnie Price has been horrible too, just less horrible than Jeremy Lin, which on the 2014-2015 Lakers means you get to have your shots taken away from you by Kobe.
The big free agent splash for the floundering Lakers wasn't Carmelo as Laker fans hoped it would be but rather Carlos Boozer. Well, guess what? He's been benched too after playing uninspired old guy basketball. Think last night's Carl Landry, only starting. He's also bad at defense but that's probably actually the least of his concerns.
Now, the Lakers are going with the starting line-up of Ed Davis and Jordan Hill, two guys who'd be bench bigs on good teams but now also get to have their shots stolen by Kobe in the starting line-up. Ed Davis has shown more offensive capabilities than previously thought but isn't particularly amazing in any sense of the word. Jordan Hill is okay at rebounding but not very good at much else. The gaping hole in the Lakers big man rotation is of course Julius Randle, who broke his leg on opening night once he realized how bad the season was going to be.
Aside from Kobe, the Lakers are Nick Young's team as much as a team could ever really be Swaggy P's. Nick's an explosive scorer. He's also a crazy person.
Kobe may also hate him.
The unfortunate thing for the Lakers is that, even if they suck for the rest of the year, they still stand the risk of losing their first round draft pick thanks to their trade for Steve Nash. If you're a Laker fan, that sucks. If you're a Kings fan like the vast majority of us, woohoo! The more the Lakers are miserable, the better!
Matchups
The Kings versus Kobe- Even though he's now a one legged chucker, there's still always that chance that Kobe has a Kobe game and single-handedly rips us a new one. Because there are two things that are always going to happen: (1) Death and (2) Kobe ruining the nights of Kings fans everywhere.
The bench versus sucking- Last night was a welcome improvement. Let's build on it tonight, yeah? It's not like Carlos Boozer and Robert Sacre are going to stop you.
Byron Scott versus being good at coaching- At this point, I'm just trying to figure out why Byron Scott keeps getting hired for jobs. His two successful jobs were pretty much results of his having two of the best point guards in NBA history.
Final Thoughts
Last night was ugly and I don't care if tonight is either so long as we get the win. In the immortal words of real life Mister Burns and crazy person Al Davis, "Just win, baby."
GO KINGS!!!
oh. And Beat LA.
