Holy buckets Batman! Jeesh. How to sum this up. well...we finally found a way to give up 113 or more points and win a game? The sad/scary part is that across the board it looked like our defensive effort was up, and then the 4th quarter came and things just went nuts and we ended up giving up 119 even on a night when we really tried. As I said, scary. So, I guess pointers:
-- Ben finally lost his starting job to Thornton. Thornton tried hard but there is no room for an offensive player in that role.
-- IT came out in this one notably subdued, and passing rather than shooting. After half he became more shooting oriented.
-- Boogie and Rudy combined to destroy the Blazers defense with 35 and 32 pts respectively
-- in three meetings this year, Cousins has completely annihilated the Blazers to the tune of 35pts 9reb, 33pts 12reb, and 35pts 13reb.
-- there were a ton of very shaky calls in this one, touch calls, a pack right at the end of the half against us, and another pack at the end of the game against us. Hmmm. Rudy got fouled out with 32 points on an absolute nothing 6th foul.
-- people called for it, and so the Kings obliged: Meet Rudy Gay, part time SG as for stretches of the game we simultaneously solved the empty SG problem and the minutes/role for DWill problem by playing Gay, DWill, and a PF all at once.
-- the 4th quarter was insane. Damian Lillard went absolutely nuts. After holding the Blazers to 13 3rd quarter points, they scored 46 in the 4th. 46!!! Lilalrd scored maybe 26 by himself. And yet we held on by scoring 43 of our own. Nuts.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Spudfan
Rainmaker
MassachusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 31min 32pts (10-16, 3-5, 9-9) 5reb 4ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Gay ( A ) -- Tonight we saw what a full-fledged 2nd option looks like when he's clicking and the #1 option, Cuz, is also clicking and when they're clicking together it's a thing of beauty to watch. Rudy started this one off relatively slow(compared to his finish) but was playing a solid all-around game while not forcing the issue. Had a reverse dunk on a pass from Cuz off a baseline back-cut. Didn't settle for jumpers and attacked the paint. Missed a shot inside but got the rebound and putback. Showed his improving chemistry with Cuz and found him with a pinpoint pass lobbed over the defense for a finish and the foul. For a stretch in the 2nd we saw something a few have campaigned for, which is Rudy lining up at SG and while he didn't impact the game all that much offensively during the 2nd, he did do a very good job defensively while matched up against Matthews. Finished off the 1st half with an iso post where he hit a tough turnaround. Came out in the 3rd and cranked up the aggressiveness. Set Isaiah up for a 3. Hit a wing jumper. Attacked inside and got to the FT line. Drilled a 3 as we kept a slight lead over Portland. Then, the explosion. Danced behind a Cuz screen up top and drilled a 3 off the dribble. Got a tough offensive board inside, pumped once and got the basket and the foul. Next possession came down and hit another 3 off the dribble. Was working the two-man game with Cuz, acting as our primary ball handler and it was working extremely well. They, being Gay and Cuz, really were picking Portland apart playing off one another. Gay set Cuz up for some nice looks but also attacked off the picks when opportunities were there. Came hard off a Cuz screen to hit a layup and blow the game open as we pushed to an 18 point lead, thanks in large part to Gay who scored 11 points in the first 4 mins of the 4th. We again saw the "big" lineup with Gay playing SG for this stretch and it is definitely an enticing lineup to experiment more with going forward. Rudy's defense on Matthews whom he matched up with most of the night and against Batum whom he matched up with some of the night was very good. Neither was able to get anything going against Rudy's size and length. The only real downside to Gay's game tonight was the foul trouble. Picked up three fouls in the 4th, including his 6th which ended his night early(a call the league office should receive a complaint about btw, as I'm rougher with my cat when I'm scratching her belly) and was a big reason for Portland coming back and making a game of it at the end. Tonight we saw flashes of what a Gay/Cuz duo can become. Simply put, dominant. One of the top pairings in the league. They played very well off each other and the Blazers had no answers for them. Rudy's ability to handle and facilitate, which he did well this evening(at times as a SG) makes the pairing that much tougher to guard. Let's hope this was a teaser of what's to come as Cuz very likely could have found his wingman going forward. --Rain
Stats: 35min 7pts (3-4, 0-0, 1-2) 6reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Thompson ( B ) -- Jason Thompson was really good tonight in a Jason Thompson sort of way. His offensive game has always been limited, and with this roster his touches are scarce. That being said, he gave you the sort of production on that end tonight that you can live with. He shot 3-4 (2 jumpers and a putback) and never really tried to interrupt what Cousins and Gay had going on. That’s all you can ask for. Thompson is in the starting lineup for his defense, and his defense fluctuated from solid to great all night. He basically shut Aldridge down inside. LA scored on broken plays, bad pick and roll coverage, or on the break – but when it was 1 on 1 against Jason Thompson, JT won a lot more than he lost. He also did a great job denying the ball from ever getting into the hands of Aldridge. He had two steals tonight, but they were legit steals, and he had more than a couple deflections. Twice Jason Thompson hedged on the LMA / Lillard pick and roll, got back to LMA with his hands up, and just by being in the area Lillard accidentally hit JT while trying to get it inside, resulting in a turnover. I thought Thompson and Cousins did a very good job switching and moving on defense. It was the best they’ve looked as a duo all year in my opinion, considering the year Aldridge is having. There was one play in the third quarter where JT hedged another pick, this time Lillard got it to Aldridge, and right when the pass was heading towards him Cousins was already helping with a body on him. JT turned around and without even taking a glance at his original man (Aldridge) he sprinted towards Lopez to cover Cousins guy. It was so crisp, which is why it caught my attention. Cousins had to have communicated this to JT because he didn’t even look back. That’s progress. That’s something we rarely saw through 30+ games. It’s a shame the Blazers went crazy in the fourth quarter, because I thought the defense tonight was much better than the final score suggests, and JT was a huge part of it. --Mass
Stats: 43min 35pts (13-28, 0-0, 9-15) 13reb 2ast 1stl 2blk 2TO
Cousins ( A+ ) -- This was the big boy game. This was the statement game. We’ve seen all the accolades that LaMarcus Aldridge has been receiving from the NBA media, talking about him as a fringe MVP candidate, and sure I can see how his big numbers on a very good winning club could bring him into the discussion. Don’t think for a moment that Cousins isn’t aware of all the talk that Aldridge is receiving and the fact that Aldridge is a lock for making the All-Star game while Cousins still isn’t getting the recognition that he deserves for the type of dominance that he’s been displaying. (I heard an analyst say the other day that Cousins is playing great, he just needs to finish working out his personal issues and maybe next year he’ll get the nod. No respect just yet for DMC.) So this was a statement game and not only did Cousins know it, but Malone knew it as well. Malone allowed Cousins to spend 43 minutes on the court in this one, including the entire 2nd half, and this was the most minutes he’s ever played in a regulation game for the Sacramento Kings. And one of the keys in this game was the personal foul situation. Cousins only had 1 personal foul at the end of the half and not once did he stick his arm out to try and poke the ball away from a guard to pick up a cheap foul. He also didn’t attempt to take any charges which half the time gives the refs the ability to tack on another foul. He's finally starting to learn. So Cousins was not in foul trouble and was being guarded by a good defending big in Robin Lopez. And Cousins just went to war out there. He attacked, bulldozed, and bullied the Blazers all night long. He mostly used his quickness to face-up on Lopez and drive to the rim, and when Lopez gave him space he used his outside shot to pepper in jumpers. Cousins used his big body to clear out space in the lane and had almost as many offensive rebounds as Aldridge had total rebounds. Now Lopez absolutely bothered Cousins with his length and Cousins forced a lot of tough shots which resulted in missed shots and shots getting blocked at the rim. But even with that Cousins took a lot of shots and made half of them. Just as importantly he found himself constantly at the free-throw line as he got the Blazers in early foul trouble in pretty much every quarter of the game. Cousins could have had a 40 point night had he made more of his FTs, but getting to the line 15 times showed his relentless aggression. What was also interesting is that he played good defense in this one. His rotations were quicker and more decisive, he did a great job quickly doubling Aldridge when called for, and Lopez wasn’t able to do anything when going one-on-one against him. What was also great to see was Cousins’ defense on Aldridge. Cousins completely shut down Aldridge anytime Aldridge isolated on him, where-as the Blazers never really let Aldridge try to guard Cousins, presumably because they didn’t want Cousins to foul him out. The Blazers are the current NBA darlings due to their unexpectedly great play and the great play of Aldridge, but you could tell that Cousins was having none of that. He wanted to put his smash his foot onto the neck of the Blazers and dominate against the current ‘best playing big man’. It was a beat-down in this one where Aldridge looked good but Cousins looked to be in an entirely different league. Aldridge had a good game, but the majority of his shots were open jumpers on the pick-n-pop. Cousins on the other hand, went to war in the trenches, and after the dust settled not only did the Kings come up with the victory, but Cousins clearly showed anyone who was watching what a dominating big man is supposed to look like. NBA Beware. --Uncia
Stats: 22min 3pts (1-5, 1-2, 0-0) 8reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 1TO
Thornton ( C+ ) -- finally got the start again after Ben's steady failure to launch, and ran into the same wall Ben ran into: there just are no shots anymore for the SG/SF in the starting lineup: our C/SF/PG combined to take 58 by themselves. But really, that part is not his fault, and I thought he gave us about as good an effort as a Marcus Thornton can give you at the other things. He was noticeably busting his butt on defense, which given that he is not a natural defender quickly led to him picking up 2 fouls quick fouls.on defense within the first 5 minutes and never getting back into the game until after half. Very quiet in the third and a bit lost like any SG has a tendency to look in our system until late in the quarter he suddenly snatched a tough rebound in traffic and tried to race up the court with it before getting fouled. In fact his main contribution after half was on the glass, as with IT starting to add to the gunning out there after the break there again was no way anybody as giving him a shot in scoring rhythm. Played the entire 3rd as we smothered the Blazers and opened up a double digit lead, but only got back into the game after he refs really screwed Rudy Gay over with a weak ass phantom foulout call at the 4:15 mark. Immediately got involved in a good hustle play defending the break. Made some late mistake, missing a wide open jumper and letting the Blazers poke a ball away from behind after he came up with an offensive board, but he was coming up with those boards, and really chipped in with 8 of them, several of the strong variety, and some good hustle. Guy looks a little lost and frustrated on offense when the ball doesn't come his way, sometimes now even when it should. But SG is a roleplayer's position for us so long as Cuz/Gay/IT remain paired, and Thornton was sucking it up and doing his best to make a contribution in those roleplaying areas. 1-5 for 3pts can't get you too big a grade, but for the most part I thought he gave us what we needed from the position. --Brick
Stats: 37min 22pts (5-14, 2-6, 10-12) 7reb 8ast 2stl 0blk 0TO
Thomas ( B ) -- Players meetings to discuss the recent problems? Check.Malone saying the guard penetration was killing the Kings in the pre-game interview? Check. Isaiah Thomas matched up against a star point guard? Check. Tonights game seemed to be set up as a challenge to Thomas and I am happy to say he responded positively. Soon after he stepped on the court you could tell he was focusing on different aspects of the game. His aggressive drives to the lane that usually result in a tough shot were instead being dropped off to the open man. The screens that he usually struggles to get through were not an issue. He was able to both fight through screens, and drop under them with an intensity that we have not seen before. Passing lanes that are normally wide open were being watched and IT stole the ball three times in the opening quarter (one was removed for some reason). The three shots he took in the first quarter were good looks, as were the 2 he took in the second quarter. The restraint IT showed in only taking good shots was impressive. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in, and at the start it was mainly that kind of night for him but he was doing other things to help the team. Not recording a single turnover and committing only 1 foul all game are a couple of those other things. It was a much different type of play than what we normally see from IT and it was refreshing. In the second half IT reverted to more of his usual style of play. There wasn’t as much of a focus on getting the ball to his teammates. It worked though, as he caught fire and scored 11 points while playing every minute of the third. A quarter in which the Kings started off down 5 but finished up 7. IT got a breather to start the fourth and didn’t come in until there were only 7 minutes remaining and the Kings were up 13. That lead would stretch to 18 with 5 minutes left and with proper clock management the game would be out of reach for the Blazers. I am in the minority, judging by the game thread, but I thought IT did a good job of managing the clock. He would burn off as much time as he could and scored or was fouled with seconds left on almost every possession. Yes, he should have played better defense on Lillard who went insane but it shouldn’t have matter what Lillard did as long as the Kings made their free throws and managed the clock. IT managed the clock, and he made 7/8 free throws in in the final two minutes. As a result we won, even with Portland playing almost perfect to end the game. His play tonight was highly entertaining, one can only hope to continue to see more of the team focus and defensive energy. --Spud
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