By Stephen Tetsu, Everyone’s Second Favorite Undersized Scoring Guard
Boogie and Rudy are the only guys in the picture, which seems about right.
And the streak continues.
In case you were wondering, Demarcus Cousins is very good at basketball. Scary good. He’s so good now that the national media elite are starting to pull their fat, oversized heads from their collective asses and see Demarcus as more than a guy they can write “He’s a headcase” articles about. They also pulled their heads out of their butts because Boogie’s talent is probably going to make them poo themselves… and no one wants their head covered in poo.
You know who else is pretty good? Rudy Gay. While Demarcus had himself a night unheard of since the days of Moses freaking Malone (No, really. Look it up.), Rudy simply had to settle for a dominant performance of the 35-minute variety. There is seriously no 1-2 punch in the league that has been as dominant as our two guys to start the season aside from the guys in Golden State. Toronto Rudy seems to be under control, though I'm sure we'll see occasional Hulk-esque Toronto Rudy outbursts peppered throughout the season just as a reminder of what could go horribly wrong. Until then, the man has been playing like the best small forward in the league (not an exaggeration, though it certainly helps that Durant and George are out and Lebron is still recovering from what I can only assume is a bout with ebola). I want PDA's babies.
Meanwhile, Ben McLemore (Ben Manlymore) continues his transformation from shellshocked struggling offensive guy to hard-nosed defensive guy, this time also adding some offense as a bonus while also managing to almost get into a fight with a big Russian dude at least twice his size, which I'm pretty sure is the start of Rocky 4. While we all assumed he'd be locked in a dogfight with Nik for the starting role, Ben's pretty much won this thing without a fight, mostly because Nik has looked like last year's Ben McLemore when he's not fouling his way out of playing time.
Oh. And Reggie Evans hit a jump shot.
So, yup. We're 4-1 to start the season, a feat we haven't matched since 2001-2002 (not a typo). Yes, that's right, the last time we started off a season this well, we got screwed out of a ring by the refs. Who knows what'll happen this go-round?
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Randy freaking Foye pretty much made the Nuggets not look terrible in the second quarter, which is amazing because it's Randy Foye and also the Nuggets suck rotten eggs. Statistically, he was their best player. I think that says it all.
Shareef Abdur Rahim Award- Danilo Gallinari simply looks done. I know he's coming off multiple major injuries and he's still young but watching him now gives me flashbacks to Peja. Not good Peja but relatively bad, end-of-his-career, Mavericks benchwarmer Peja. Sad for a guy who was once pegged to be an all-star.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Awards #1-5- The entire Denver Nuggets frontline. I couldn't even narrow it down. They all pretty much sucked and not just when it came to defending Demarcus. I mean, Kenneth Faried didn't even score until Brian Shaw played him in the fourth quarter against Derrick Williams. Offensively, defensively, even in timeouts, the Nuggets big men were simply offensive.
Jason Hart Award- I might eventually just rename this the Ramon Sessions award because this is getting to be a bit ridiculous. We signed you to not suck, Ramon.
Mikki Moore Award - Timofey Mozgov is the Nuggets' starting center. Timofey Mozgov also couldn't stop Demarcus if Cuz was blindfolded and had both arms tied behind his back. But that of course didn't stop him from trying to take off his head and incite a brawl... in two sequential plays.
Yeah. Not very impressive.
Mateen of the Night- Omri Casspi, who put in another 11 point, 6 board night and contributed this assist as well.
The View from the Other Side
Once again, these views come from DenverStiffs.com *Sour Grapes Alert*
In other words, the Sacramento Kings demoralized an entire fanbase from thinking about the playoffs to thinking about blowing it all up over the course of a single game.
Tonight’s Game
Tony Allen's going for the ball... Just not sure which one...
Although the Suns have started the season off rather well with a 3-2 record, things are not all hunky-dory in the Valley of the Dusty Sun, as Goran Dragic has struggled to start off in a slightly diminished role and the IT effect has already started to forge rifts in the once content Phoenix Suns fanbase.
Here we have the holy trifecta of fan rage: small sample size overreaction, fatalistic pessimism (my personal favorite of the three), and "Gambling in Casablanca?" denial guy who can't help but throw potshots at an upcoming opponent because why the hell not? The point being, IT's played spectacularly to start the year for the Suns, which of course means it's already time for a PG controversy in Phoenix. How fun!
The whole "the Kings are competing for a lottery pick" narrative is still a prevalent one among most of the fanbases in the league, certainly a byproduct of us sucking for so dang long. The only way to remedy it? Smash their teams into the ground!!!!
It's a four game road trip. Our next big test.
Problem #1: The Phoenix Suns. Last year, they surprised the entire NBA as, instead of tanking like everyone thought they would, they went on to almost sneak into the playoffs, on the back of Goran Dragic playing like an All-NBA player. Ultimately, they came up a game short, largely because their big man depth chart largely looked like this: One of the Plumlee brothers/ Channing Frye/both of the Morris twins/ Superlame Alex Len.
Now, a rational NBA team would look at this and automatically think "Man, we really need to improve our big man situation." But nope, not the Suns. Rather, they let part of the big man depth they did have (prototypical stretch forward Channing Frye) walk in free agency. Then they signed Isaiah Thomas, who is not a big man in any sense of the word AND who happens to play a position already being manned by two potential all-stars.
The results thus far have probably been mixed at best. Although the Suns are 3-2, two of those wins came against the Lakers, which at this point is sorta like winning a trivia contest where all the other contestants have just emerged from fifty year long comas. Their two losses have come against teams sporting good front court depth in the Jazz (Favors absolutely beat the pants off the Suns inside) and the Grizzlies (Marc Gasol and Z-Bo eat smallball line-ups for breakfast). In other words, Demarcus Cousins is probably licking his chops.
Sure their guard depth is pretty good behind the three-headed monster of Dragic (when he's not sulking in the corner, being ignored by IT), Bledsoe (when he isn't doing his best IT impression), IT (when he isn't, well, being too IT-ey). They also have Gerald Green, whom each of the point guards seem to do well with when on the floor at the same time. (As you can see, this is a bit of a problem.)
So, yes, the Suns have a lot of talent. But they also have problems as well.
Tonight's Key Matchups
I only have three for you guys today:
Isaiah vs. The Kings- IT gets his first crack at revenge. The key is to get him so focused on this that he forgets he has teammates.
Isaiah vs. The Suns- The flipside to the Pizza Guy being so caught up in his attempt to stick it to Vivek and PDA, his already noticeable penchant for holding onto the ball like Boris Diaw holds onto the last donut in the box could get cranked up to eleven. This is good for the Kings. Not good for the Suns.
Demarcus vs. The Entire Suns Defense- Double-team him, triple-team him, hell, put your entire team on him. It doesn't matter. The Boogie Monster is coming after you. And there is no escape.
Final Thoughts and Prediction
A lot has been made of the Kings fast start and how it's come against good competition. Well, one thing's for sure, it doesn't get much easier from here. Let's start the road trip off right. We don't fear IT. Kings beat the Phoenix Isaiahs 103-97. IT drops 60 points. Goran Dragic leaves the arena at halftime after IT refuses to pass him the ball for the entirety of the first half. Demarcus makes Alex Len retire from basketball and join the clergy after the first quarter. Kings win. IT gets to show how good he is at scoring. Everyone goes home happy. Maybe.
Go Kings!!!
