[Grades] Grades v. Celtics 12/30/2012

Kings Player of the Game

  • Salmons

    Votes: 5 13.2%
  • Thompson

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • Cousins

    Votes: 18 47.4%
  • Thomas

    Votes: 12 31.6%
  • Johnson

    Votes: 2 5.3%

  • Total voters
    38
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Happy-New-Year-2013-Wallpapers-in-HD-Resolution5.jpg


I'm just glad we made it.


Boxscore


Stats: 33min 23pts (9-12, 2-4, 3-3) 6reb 4ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Salmons ( A- ) -- you would never know it looking at the boxscore, but John actually got off to a very slow start to this one. IT and JT and Cuz were doing the damage early. Our wings were largely forgotten about. But when he returned to the game in the mid 2nd something had happened. Actually I didn't think it was at all clear it was going to be a good something at first. You see, John came off the bench, no doubt full of Coach Smart's greenlight nonsense, thinking he was Paul Pierce. Which is to say he was taking what can kindly be called high degree of difficulty forced shots repeatedly. But what turned this from a scowling muttering snippy grade into a big shiny one was this: John came off the bench and he WAS Paul Pierce. Not sure how it happened, but all of a sudden he turned the tables on a guy who has probably kicked his butt 100 times over the years, and it was John who was banign into people and hitting fallaways, and getting his number called out of timeouts and hitting dumb spinning shots off the dribble. Everything was falling, so after a while you just sit back and munch your popcorn and say, ok, guess that's the way its going to go. On defense also started slow, not having much impact early, having none at all on Jeff Green befor ethe half. But again, as hsi overall game began to peak in the third, so did his defense, and Jeff Green was soon looking like Jeff Green again while John got up into him and smothered him. Moved over to the SG when Thornton went down, which doesn't bother us much since he's more SG than SF anyway, and with that swap, and Johnson coming in off the bench to pick up the resulting SF minutes, we finally got decent rebouding out of the two positions, wiht John coming up wiht an uncommmon 6 boards for him.

Stats: 32min 20pts (8-11, 0-0, 4-8) 6reb 0ast 1stl 2blk 1TO
Thompson ( A- ) -- will never have any highlight reels made of his play of course (or at least none anybody wants to watch) but just continues to get it, and was getting it before anybody else even knew there was something to get. Played a very strong first quarter in all the keeping it simple ways. Took passes from Cuz for layups, cleaned up misses, hit a couple of short half hooks on called postups against the ruins of the Celtics interior defense. About the only thing he wasn't doing offensively was hitting his FTs. Continued his solid play into the 3rd as the Celtics did not have an answer for him, having only one big with any potency. Wasn't a great boarding night, bt on a night when we finally got teamwide contributions on the glass, that did not matter much. And just another rock solid efficient night.

Stats: 31min 12pts (4-12, 0-0, 4-4) 10reb 10ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Cousins ( B ) -- notched his first career triple double...and yet may not even have played that strong a game by his standards. What was there from trhe very beginning was the passing. Had several good passes to JT early, and was moving the ball out of double teams. -- like Tyreke, that is how/why he can be such an effective passer. On the other end, Collins only reaosn for recieving a paycheck is to lean his big body on you and hack away (tonight he scored 0pts grabbed 1reb and had 5fouls in 18min), and Cuz never really looked comofrtable out there against him or KG. But didn't force much either A few tough misses aroudn he rim. A few missed jumpers. Nothing disruptive. Ran out for the racing dunk to close the first half for us for only his third hoop. In the third felt like it went a little too far, and some of the old problems emerged. basically, our little gunners shot too much, they ignored Cousins completely for a long stretch, and I started noticing and paying attention, and sure enoguh, Cuz started getting frustrated by it and eventually started taking those wild frustration fouls he does at times. His fault for getting frustrated? Sure. But also the fault of the perimeter gunners for not knowing their beast and feeding it now and again. Sat for a good long spell, and despite the triple double, it was not Demarcus who was he main mover and shaker of this win. That would have been IT, JT, and Salmons, who combined to shoot a ridiculous 27-38. But when he returned, it was to have some fun. Basically toyed with the Celtics down the stretch. On one end was jumping ina dn taking charges. On the other, started responding to every Celtics double team with quick passes out to Kings spot up shooters. Not as in oh once or twice a quarter, but as in at one point assisted on 4 straight Kings possessions. In fact by the final minutes he wasn't even looking to shoot anymore. You saw him doing the Vlade, posting up with the sole intetnion of passing, even when a shot opportunity opened up. And so he stormed down the stretch racking up probably half a dozen assists in the final half a dozen minutes as he hit open bombers all over the court. It was fun, and by the end it was a triple double. It just wasn't a dominant game winnnig performance like we have seen from Cuz at his best. A very welcome rturn to passing thoguh -- the 2nd half of his rookie season Westphal had tapped into that and it looked like Cuz was going to be a new Webber. He seemed to go away from that dramatically by the next season. Would love to see it back.

Stats: 19min 5pts (2-7, 1-3, 0-0) 3reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Thornton ( INC ) -- I went back and forth whether to INC this grade or not, and finally decided to do it 19 minutes is certainly long enough to grade (D ish), but Marcus's injury took away most of his second half, and came just as he was finally geting going, so nemed enoguh excuse ot call it INC. Got off to a slow start as it was Isaiah and Thomspon in the early going, and Marcus was btoh uninvolved, and ineffective when he did try to step in. But he began the third with a little jumper, and after a few selfhhs forces, had his best and most disastrous play as he pulled up for a three, got fouled on it, the ball swished..and MT landed on the defender's foot and went down holding his ankle. Had to be helped off the floor, did not return, and JJ replaced him and had to take that FT. I've mentioend repeatedly we just can NOT catch a break wiht the missed games. Its not that we've missed so many, its who has missed them all. Our three top scoresd? Cux, Reke, Thornton. Who has missed game after game, been in and out of the lineup all year? Cuz, Reke, Thornton. Makes you want ot shhake your first at The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Stats: 40min 27pts (10-15, 3-7, 4-5) 4reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( A ) -- the story of this game for IT was his ability to penetrate at will against the Celtics "defense". Really all night long. Went around Rondo with ease (although Rondo of course may not have been right physically), and Courtney Lee had no chance at all. Once he got around the corner and started in he was often met by the likes of Jared Sullinger and Brandon Bass, which is to say he wasn't met at all. Celts never did figure it out, and while he more often used it to score himself then to draw and kick, the scores were so easy in there it was hard to blame him. Added a pair of threes to close the third and open the 4th, and really made it look easy. Defensively, while I don't think this had that much to do with IT, the fact of the matter is both guys (Rondo and Lee) cobined to score zero points, and aside from Terry bombing one three over his head, the Celts weren't able to do any damage taking advantge of him at all.
 
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Bench

Stats: 6min 2pts (1-1, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 2blk 4TO
Robinson ( INC ) -- came in after being DNP'd entirely, and briefly looked liek he had taken it to heart and wasn't goign to let it happen again. Had a dynamic couple of minutes with an atheltic follow inside, and then two flying blocks on one play defensively. But it was over as quickk as it started, and he began the 2nd quarter trying to force offense and making bad passes, and quick as you could say rookie he had notched no fewer than 4 TOs and resumed his place on the bench for the rest of the game.

Stats: 16min 5pts (2-7, 1-2, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Garcia ( D ) -- largely ineffective all night long. Missed some easy shots, and Pierce was just ignoring him on defense.

Stats: 22min 10pts (4-9, 2-3, 0-0) 1reb 5ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Fredette ( B- ) --unable to finish in the early going but became the beneficiary of several fast breaks where he got easy finishes, and later returned the fast court favor with a full court pass to Salmosn running out. In fact that was really the story of the night for him -- for the lnongest time, until finally ppulling up for an idiotic off balance 28 foot three that unfortunately (because it encourages it) swished, he could not hit a shot, but he was doing a really nice job of setting guys up with passing for jumpers. Nothing highly creative again -- a reamark I often make with his passing. Nothing Nahslike. But just semi-penetration and knowing where the shooters wre going to be and hitting them. Made him effective as the backup PG on a night without Reke or Brooks around. The other way made some mistakes early, but in general did not have a major problem staying in front of an ineffective Rondo.

Stats: 16min 2pts (0-2, 2-2, 0-0) 6reb 1ast 2stl 1blk 1TO
Hayes ( B- ) -- was putting his shortness on full display inside in the early going here, but played one of his more effective games on the other end in some time. Got a nice strip steal and outlet pass to trigger a break, and good defensive and board work in the second half.

Stats: 22min 10pts (3-5, 1-1, 3-3) 6reb 3ast 2stl 3blk 3TO
Johnson ( B+ ) -- came in surprsiingly late given how strong his last game had been, and initially got off to a sloppy start. Kind of that loosy goosy stuff that he always has going, with some great plays, including a dunk on the break and a behind the back pass to Jimmer on another, mixed in with turnovers and near disasters. After half though in particular really seemed to lock in after getting extended minutes with thornton down. On defense was getting his hands on ball after ball, and added now his second three of the season in the early 4th. Another strong game as it looks like we finally have a player out of that summer deal.

Stats: 3min 2pts (1-1, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Honeycutt ( INC ) -- got in the game for the final couple of minutes and had a strogn d-board and got the broken play dunk for Boogie's 10th assist
 
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Cousins likes to say he wants to, he needs to dominate each game. Nothing wrong with that positive attitude. Tonight he dominated in so many ways and rather quietly - nice!
 
Cousins likes to say he wants to, he needs to dominate each game. Nothing wrong with that positive attitude. Tonight he dominated in so many ways and rather quietly - nice!

Because of his multiple skills, he can do the cliched "take what the other team is giving him." It's interesting how easily he has shifted into the "extra pass" mode in the midst of the chaos. Smart's interview was weird. He stated "we had a player with a triple double." Then at the end some one asked about Cuz and he went off on his canned crap that covered just about everything including, oddly, three point shooting. I think he was complimenting Cuz on the latter issue and trying to take credit for everything else. 'Course I don't like him.
 
Grass Valley? It's interesting because I don't give Smart much credit.

We lose, it's Smart's fault, we win, Smart has nothing to do with it? He's obviously doing something right with these guys the last 4 games to get them playing the way they are.

Really proud of Cousins tonight. His scoring was still a little iffy, but he did what a Star player needs to do by dominating other aspects of the game. Best of all, we saw him giving great effort on both ends of the floor
 
I voted for IT! He dominated the game on BOTH sides of the court tonight!
 
IT had a great game! So did Salmons, check his +/-. DMC had a triple double!

I did not vote because I could not choose:) Nice problem to have.

KB
 
This was my first time seeing the Kings at home and thankfully I do not regret buying tickets! Too bad Reke was out but everyone stepped up.

I can't pick either. Jason Thompson has become a great role playing big man for us, every time he came on the court he showed a lot of patience and composure that wasn't there a few years ago. And Johnson absolutely dominated Pierce and made him look like an old man (that was probably my favorite part). IT and Cousins also had nice games for reasons already mentioned. It's really nice to have multiple players perform well on the same night!!
 
IT easily the player of the game the energy/hearth/passion he brang as well as playing mostly undercontrol was the biggest reason why we won this equal second are JT,Cuz and Salmons also big props to JJ after being a scrub most the year hes shown himself last two games as maybe a guy worth keeping and was great all around agian.
 
Tough to single out one guy in this one. Thomas, Johnson, and Cousins were all impressive. That's the best overall defensive effort I've seen from this team in a long while. All good things tonight -- what a nice way to end the year.
 
We are so so much better when we don't have JJ going 1 on 1, Jimmer dribbling in circles etc. Cousins passing the ball out of the post does wonders for us - I just wonder why it's taken this long for us to get back to it. I'm most interested to see if Reke's return (erm ... not sure if that will happen in 2013) will make us a more dangerous team or result in the offense going back to cr*p.

Also, based on this game I would not trade Tyreke for Rondo. Rondo was useless on both ends, didn't put any pressure on our defense whatsoever. All he did was dribble the ball up to the 3 point line, chuck 3 pointers late in the shotclock and ... set up Garnett about twice. Didn't attempt to drive to get to the rim a single time.
 
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Mac, I agree. As much as I have watched Rondo (remember I am a UK fan, so I try to keep tabs on the Wildcat alumni) he seems to only be All-star effective when Pierce and Garnett are hitting shots. His shot has gotten better but it is still not good enough to get any real attention beyond the arc. However, he is a defensive monster when healthy. I'm not sure how healty he was last night.
 
I am happy to once again declare there is no player of the game. Another total team effort. 28 assists and 13 turnovers? - again? seriously? So much fun to watch. Everyone on the team is doing their part.

Team grade "A"
 
I hope Cousins can continue looking to pass first. As of right now, his offense is horrible and he should not be involved in any iso situations. JT's offense is head and shoulders better than Cousins' right now. If he can get 12/10/4 on most nights without shooting 3-12, we can be a competitive team.
 
WOW! Now that was a game to watch. Everyone doing their thing, sharing, hustling, pounding, scoring. Points in the paint! Bam! Fast break points! Bam! Assists! Bam! Now that Cuz has shown his best side, the bar is higher for him. Virtually everyone gets a "A". Coach is getting them on the same page and drinking his Kool Aid now. And the improvement in JJ's all around game increases every game. Now comes the first mid-term exam, a roady vs. 3 below 500 teams. Lets see them get those winnable games and we can finally say they are peeking around the corner.
 
A little off subject...anyone out there familiar with bone bruises? Tyreke is now seeking a second opinion for the bone bruise of his knee. I've never heard anyone being out with a bone bruise for this long of a time, much less seeking a second opinion. All the tests have been done presumably. So it sounds to this layman that he's going to a doctor for a second opinion because not playing on it (presumably the doctor's recommendation) isn't making it better. What's up with this?
 
I am not expecting it but I just looked and the Kings are just 5-6 games out of the playoffs :D lol. On a more serious note, there are 7 teams with worse records.
 
Trouble with Cousins has had a ripple affect on this team. When he is now willing to be the assist man (whatever it takes to win) good things happen. The level of effort is much better. If there is a team in the NBA to run on it is the creaky old Celtics. Defense and rebounding leads to layups. Spread the floor and push the ball. That is the best style of play for the Kings and I think Smart knows it.

With Evans out and Cousins kind of being a decoy, the Kings ran wild. They scored 118 against the Celtics and Kevin Garnett. The Kings should watch the tape of this game 10 times. Just skip the part where Thornton hurt his ankle. That looked bad. The Kings have the talent to win half their games. It is all about the intangibles like coaching, teaching, desire, playing as a team and sharing the ball.
 
Trouble with Cousins has had a ripple affect on this team. When he is now willing to be the assist man (whatever it takes to win) good things happen. The level of effort is much better. If there is a team in the NBA to run on it is the creaky old Celtics. Defense and rebounding leads to layups. Spread the floor and push the ball. That is the best style of play for the Kings and I think Smart knows it.

With Evans out and Cousins kind of being a decoy, the Kings ran wild. They scored 118 against the Celtics and Kevin Garnett. The Kings should watch the tape of this game 10 times. Just skip the part where Thornton hurt his ankle. That looked bad. The Kings have the talent to win half their games. It is all about the intangibles like coaching, teaching, desire, playing as a team and sharing the ball.

They had some success last year as a running team as well. I think it's their best strategy and it sure it more fun to watch.
 
We're now on game 4 of having an incredible Ast/TO ratio and we're 3-1 during that span. Hopefully, these guys get it in their heads that sharing the ball=wins
 
They had some success last year as a running team as well. I think it's their best strategy and it sure it more fun to watch.

For the first time in forever, we're actually seeing a half-court offense being ran. Jimmer was running all over the court off-screens when he wasn't running PG and we had nice ball movement off of Cousins/IT/Salmons penetration. We just got to keep hoping these guys continue to make that extra pass to get wide open looks
 
Another great win. I didn't vote either. Prime reason for good play and win was team effort. Besides that who would you pick? Thomas, Salmons, Thompson, Cousins, the bench? Like the Arco ad, too much good stuff. About the best way to set off on a road trip. Let's hope they continue this team play. If they do they won't have to worry about getting road wins. Doing that won't be easy.
 
For the first time in forever, we're actually seeing a half-court offense being ran. Jimmer was running all over the court off-screens when he wasn't running PG and we had nice ball movement off of Cousins/IT/Salmons penetration. We just got to keep hoping these guys continue to make that extra pass to get wide open looks

This team is absolutely built for the halfcourt. Execution and decision making is improving.
 
IT had a great game (I would like for him to look for Jimmer more like Jimmer does him) but I had to go with Salmons as player of the game for his offense when the game was close...creating good shots and assisting well.
 
We're now on game 4 of having an incredible Ast/TO ratio and we're 3-1 during that span. Hopefully, these guys get it in their heads that sharing the ball=wins

ya lets hope. DeMarcus looks like he's bought into it. and its sure a lot more fun to watch lately!
 
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