Game discussion - Sonics @ Kings - 10/9 (pre-season)

[Entity]

Greene looked very good as a defensive hustle guy. He would be good to have to slow down a pesky player as he did Delonte West tonight. Greene could be a good 6 min guy. Mikki looked alot better when he was in with Brad. He definetly plays better off the ball and it should never go to him to start a play as it does Brad. KT Hustled in the 1st half then he settled down in the 2nd but, came back in the 4th and played good defense. Artest looked good as did Martin. Bibby brough some defense and kept the floor spread on offense with his 3's although not a great offensive night for him. Justin Williams was quite got about 3 rebounds in only a handful of min. The guy that looks to be headed for a good season is Quincy Douby, he looks as thought he may fill that Bobby Jackson void we have had the last few seasons. When QD was in he was everywhere on defense and made some tough shots on offense. He did however have poor judgement a few times. Salmons was solid off the bench for the 2 and the 3. I can't wait to see Cisco with that second unit we had tonight you could tell it lacked the floor general it needed. Reggie Theus stuck to his guns leaving the 2nd unit in even with it tight at the end. I think he is going to do just fine. He seemed paitent when he needed to be and called timeouts when i thought he should have (haven't seen that in the past even with Rick Adleman).

 

[JB_kings]

Good defense? Hey Theus was able to hold Martin to 27 points tonight. LOL
Just kidding. Kevin doesn't need to run big minutes in the preseason. But it's good to see that Kevin is going to drop 30 on any team that doesn't focus their defense on him.

 

[Entity]

Kevin didn't have any more minutes than anybody else. He is just that good.

 

[Merdiesel]

House Party Live was just showing the press confrence of Reggie Theus after the game and had a caption underneath him that read Eric Musselman!...lol

 

[PixelPusher]

House Party Live was just showing the press confrence of Reggie Theus after the game and had a caption underneath him that read Eric Musselman!...lol

HPL must be serving up the kool-aid from last season.

Well, in spite of all the pre-seasony sloppiness, this game was much more entertaining and uplifting than I expected it to be.

 

[Tarindel]

psst...they're playing Seattle right now...that was video taken less than 2 hours ago.

Heh, that's funny, I was watching the game on and off but I didn't catch the corn rows live. I assumed it was taken a few years back or something.

 

[6th]

Tonight was FUN! It was nice to see some defense, individually and by team. They may need to improve, but they are already showing that they can play defense.

I liked the tempo. We have some athletes who can handle the up-tempo. It was just fun to watch.

It will be enjoyable watching this team come together in the pre-season. I missed Kings basketball. It's good to have it back.

 

[Gtronic]

Why no Cisco?

 

[Jechtsphere]

He got hurt in practice.

 

[HaraWish]

I was also impressed by Greene. His defense was pretty good, and offense was not bad. He can torment opponents' guards, both 1 and 2. And Douby was good, too. His shooting looked quite good, and defense was impressive. But I doubt he can be a backup PG. He can handle a ball well, but he hesitated several times. I wish he can find a spot at offense guard, paired with Garcia or Salmons.

Generally I was happy. Sonics mainly try extremly early offense - rebound and just an outlet pass, and we defended that well. And offensively I think we need more time to train, but I am just happy to see Kevin.

 

[creAtivetfh]

Kevin Martin looked great and i was really impressed by Orien Greene's play

 

[PurpleHaze]

A few Observations:

As fantastic as Kevin Martin was tonight he was helped out immensely by Kevin Durant's TOTAL inability to stay with him on defense.

The Kings defensive intensity was notable throughout except during quite a few transition breakdowns, but LESS breakdowns in second half. When was the last time any Kings team pressured to get two 5 second turnovers off inbounds? Mike Bibby deflecting passes on defense and pressuring the ball in the back court - NICE!

Q. Douby looked ready to contribute this season. O. Green will make the team if he continues to play like tonight. He slowed down D. West in the 4th quarter which was KEY to holding the lead and eventually producing the win.

Mikki Moore was slow to get into the flow, had a bunch of fouls and turnovers, but in "twin-tower" tandem with Brad Miller seemed to get untracked. Both Brad and Mikki were not rebounding forces but if they can maybe average 5-6 apiece this season that could be enough. Brad had a couple very nice off the dribble drives and dunks - showing off slimed down cool moves. Opps, I almost forgot about Justin Williams. I can't remember much about him, but 3 boards in his 7 mins is positive.

K9 as a rebounder was solid, leading the team on the boards. In isolation one-on-one he couldn't do anything - what's new?

Ron Artest looks about mid-season form - too bad he's suspended the first 7 games of the regular season.

Johnny Salmons was very solid and might be the best point guard back up for Bibby.

Looks like the Kings like playing for new Coach Reggie. Just like Musselman he's been preaching defense-defense-defense, but the execution and desire wasn't there last season. Maybe there's now hope in Kingsville even if it's just the first pre-season contest.

 

[Fear the Putin]

Greene heckled Durant whenever he had the chance...even forcing him to the ground to scramble for the ball
Had a good block or two and even showed a good stroke from the outside. Disrupts the opposing player a whole lot.

 

[kingzzzfan4ever]

I liked the Douby Block!

 

[creAtivetfh]

Our attempt to get Brad Millers hair

 

[PurpleHaze]

Greene heckled Durant whenever he had the chance...even forcing him to the ground to scramble for the ball
Had a good block or two and even showed a good stroke from the outside. Disrupts the opposing player a whole lot.

I completely agree Green was all over West and Durant with hustle and in your face D. Based on this game, Green was a bit better than Douby overall I thought. I don't want to trash Q. with his nicely blocked shot which looked like it was a sure deuce for the Sonics. But he blocked it three rows out of bounds and the Sonics then inbounded and scored. Bill Russell once said a bit tongue-in-cheek those kind of blocks should only count one-half, since blocking a shot and getting possession of the ball is WAY better. Also, I didn't like seeing Douby launch a 35 foot air-ball heave with about 5-6 seconds on the shot clock instead of making one more pass or driving deeper. Green lost track of the clock at the end of the third period I believe with it costing the Kings a scoring opportunity.

I think both Douby and Green have a ways to go before they take many minutes away from Salmons and Garcia at the point guard or shooting guard - back up positions.

 

[fnordius]

I didn't get to watch tonight, so I'm going by PBP + box score + KHTK, and I might be wrong, but...

Did Mikki Moore not really play very well? 4 points (2 of 6), 1 rebound and 2 assists in 24 minutes, along with 5 PFs and 5 TOs doesn't seem all that hot. Did those of you who got to watch it share my impression?

 

[creAtivetfh]

I didn't get to watch tonight, so I'm going by PBP + box score + KHTK, and I might be wrong, but...

Did Mikki Moore not really play very well? 4 points (2 of 6), 1 rebound and 2 assists in 24 minutes, along with 5 PFs and 5 TOs doesn't seem all that hot. Did those of you who got to watch it share my impression?

He looked very out of sync. What worried me the most was his defensive presence. He attempted to take charges instead of getting up to block shots which drew several fouls

 

[PurpleHaze]

I'm sure Mikki Moore isn't happy with those numbers one bit, but he did play somewhat better as the game went along it seemed - especially when he was paired along side Brad Miller. Miller gave him several passes which he scored the ball, passed out of in the flow, or unfortunately turned it over. Maybe just some opening night jitters being in a Kings uni for the first time. We can all hope, including Moore, that he plays better against the Suns on Thursday.

 

[tyrant]

a kingsfan worst nightmare. kenny thomas with 30 minutes

 

[mac]

IMO Thomas played way better than Moore. I found Moore rather irritating and fairly useless compared to everyone else, considering the minutes that he played.

 

[CaminoChaos]

I really was impressed by Greene. I thought his defense was very good. I also like KT's effort but once again....don't give him the ball on offense! Douby was solid and could play a big role on the Kings bench. Brads hair looked terrible. K-Mart is well worth his extension. Good defense by Mike. Finally, I love this style of play. Much more entertaining to watch.

 

[tyrant]

what about brad miller? is he still as slow as an old lady

 

[VF21]

1. No, Brad Miller isn't anywhere near as slow as he was last year.
2. I was also VERY impressed with Orien Greene.
3. I was NOT impressed with KT, who seemed once again to resort right back to his old habits of dumb turnovers and missed layups. Even Grant and Jerry mentioned several times that Kenny needs to realize his role with the team and not try to do more.
4. I, too, really liked the combination of Moore and Miller on the court. And while it was obvious Moore has some rust to shake off, I think he can be pretty useful.

 

[tyrant]

thanks.

 

[Rockmeister]

I have dish network and it's not on league pass sadly, it has been the previous years

I have dish network and was watching the Kings on channel 409.

 

[Bricklayer]

Here's the deal: with this group of frontline weenies, either Kenny Thomas or Justin Williams HAS to play this season or we get just ruined on the glass again. If Brad has slimmed down that might help in several areas, boardwork is probably not one of them. SAR is hurt and not likely to ever be a boarder again with the knee problems. Mikki has never baorded and had a career year to even have numbers almost identical to SAR's, and is getting well up there in age. And one of Hawes's biggest questions marks for his career was going to be can he rebound even before he went down with knee surgery likely to slow him down and set him back well into the season. Its got to be either KT or Justin. Or a nightly pummeling of course.

I mentioned in the who will start at PF thread that I would have tagged KT as the starter had he not done the normal KT and pouted/avoided team functions all summer. But if there are no hard feelings from Reggie, he still could be the guy if Justin is just going to be treated as a bit player. Which is moderately grotesque of course, but that is KT -- the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[PurpleHaze]

It looks like the plan (at least at this point) is for K9 to start with Justin his backup at 4. Brad and Mikki to fill the middle at 5. Thomas and Williams combined for 12 boards against Seattle. K9 also swatted a couple balls out for teammates to rebound. The Kings were way behind in total rebounds to the Sonics at the half, but eventually caught up and it was virtually even numbers by the end of the game. The Kings aggressive team rebounding overall wasn't bad last night. Oddly, even Mike Bibby was fighting for some rebounds around the paint, keeping his hands active last night for defensive deflections and loose boards.

 

[Jechtsphere]

I have dish network and was watching the Kings on channel 409.

I have CSN but when it comes to kings games they are blocked I guess because I'm out of the Sac area so instead they play Warrior games on FSN.

It just wasn't on League Pass for me, it only showed two channels for LP, but it's ok I listened to the radio so better than nothing.

 

[dude12]

My observations:

KT can't finish around the basket like he should
J Williams will play more eventually
I like Moore's length and athleticism
Douby is a consistent 3-point and jumper away from being pretty good...I like him on the floor
Bibby was working hard on defense...great to see
Miller knocking down the outside shot is nice, if he can't hit that he shouldn't play
Greene can't shoot but sure is active on the floor on defense
None of our PG's create shots for others unless its off a pick and roll or pick and pop
Artest's shot looked good to me...I sure like the guy on the court
I missed seeing Cisco and Hawes
KMart is the guy on this team...our first option on offense
The team played hard and that was satisfying unlike last years sleepwalk
I'd like to see Shakur and Watkins...see what they got
At least for one game, the team is buying into Theus.