[Grades] Grades v. Hornets 11/21/10

Who's defense/hustle impressed you the most tonight?

  • Donte Greene

    Votes: 23 41.1%
  • Samuel Dalembert

    Votes: 8 14.3%
  • Tyreke Evans

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Luther Head

    Votes: 22 39.3%
  • Beno Udrih

    Votes: 3 5.4%

  • Total voters
    56

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
11-d-fence.jpg


That was seriously, no exaggeration or hyperbole, the best defensive game I can remember us playing since 2003. Its a real bummer to lose one when you put in that kind of effort. but damn, if we could just bottle that...

Theme will be Top Sacramento Kings Defenders Through the Years:

Official Boxscore

Greene ( A ) -- this was a pretty remarkable effort. If it were not for the up and down nature of Donte's career thus far, you would be tempted to point to it as a breakout game. Let's get to the negative first -- he still isn't hitting his threes. And if he had, we win this game. In particular missed a big one on a nice setup to the corner by Reke at the 2:00 mark that we just had to have. Almost enough to bring on a minus here. Almost. Except that in all other ways Donte was kicking *** and chewing bubblegum for us tonight, and teaming with fellow defensive roleplayers Head and Daly (if this keeps up the trio may need a nickname) to inspire a ferocious defensive effort the likes of we have not seen in Kingsland in many a season. He hit his only three in the early going, but he was attacking teh hoop all night long, getting out on the break, and coming up with a couple of are you kidding me alley oops, including one airballed Landry jumper that Donte picked out of midair and finished with the flush. Was making use of that great length to be a formidable help defender, and came up with several big help blocks on what would have been point blank shots for the Hornets. Great hustle on the glass to close the first half, making a huge effort chasing and tipping a ball across the key on a missed FT that got him fouled and to the line himself for a brief 3pt lead until either Cisco or JT belw their defnsive assignemnt and let the Hornets tie it going into the break. Smacked the hell out of an Okafor hook in the early 3rd. Bill russel would not have approved as it flew into the stands, but it was an inspiring play...at least hopefully to his teammate, because the Arco crowd just sucked this afternoon, and reacted to an actual display of defense as if it were some brand new sport that confused them. Donte was really using his size on both boards this time as well. As mentioned he missed the three at the 2:00 mark that we really needed, which sucks, but again came back with a great help block on Ariza to save a hoop and give us a few more chances in the last minute+. Note to Arco fans: defense is fun too. And on that standard this was a very fun effort by a guy we were drawing up trade proposals for a week ago.
brown_090701.jpg

Randy Brown -- one of my favorite old time early 90s Kings precisely because he was one of the few who played defense. You know that smothering efforting thing stuff that is winning Head fans right now? Well Randy brought that every game, and as you can see from the pic above, brought it with some muscle as well. His achilles was his jumper and being injury prone, but it did not prevent the Bulls from scooping him up as a member of their second threepeat. Defense wins championships.

Landry ( D+ ) -- this was on, off, and ultimately a fail for Landry, but it should be noted that his struggles were pretty much mirrored by every other primary weapon on either team as the defenses were just strangling out there and any attemtp to force the action led to failure (Landry, Reke, Cousins, CP3 and West combined for 21-67 from the field). In the early going Carl was actually almost completely ignored offensively, as we again got off to the very odd offensive start centering around Head and Daly -- that keeps happening, and at some point you ahve to suspect that for whatever reason we are doing it intentionally. But despite being compeltely uninvolved on offense ( had only one shot, a miss, in the first quarter), I thought Carl was actually contributing to the early defensive effort. The offensive woes continued into the second, but I thoguht the defense/rebounding woes began to reappear, and he was eventually replaced by Cousins as we went big (huge actually, not only twin towers, sometimes tri towers), and often, in this game. Came out of the halftime break firing with a layup from Daly and a pair of jumpers, but that little burst was almsot all the offense he would provide on teh whole evening. Started settling for too many jumpers and not converting, then going inside into double teams and not passing. Nor was the defensive intensity any better, and he began to hurt us as the quarter went along. Again started the 4th with a turnaround hit, but it was his last basket. Shaky play in the final minute helped seal our fate, and made sinjking this grade a bit easier. Got it knocked away against the clock on our possesion at the 45 second mark, then shot over by West for the game sealer a few seconds later. Responded by trying a three on our next possession, and airballed it. That kind of night.
vital_small_nba.jpg

Keon Clark -- the stickman, and last major King to be a truly intimidating shotblcoking presence before Daly arrived. Sure he was an idiot who would rather get high than earn millions of dollars to play a game, but he upped our interior defense to previously unacheived levels during the best defensive season in Sacto King history (02-03).

Dalembert ( A- ) -- another flat out defensive star on the night, and notice an A- grade despite an 0-5 nothgin offensive night. The D was that special, and watching Daly smush shot after shot was fist pumping hand clapping fun even from the couch at home. His offensive incompetence in the early going was a problem, but he again was anchoring the interior as we got off to a great defensive start. Back in the 2nd and loomed over Okafor again with a great block after Okafor pinned him under the rim and it did not matter. Hit Landry for a layup to start the second half in what was probably a called play. Dominated the interior defensively in the third, and just made Okafor look small and incompetent. Erased Bellinelli at the 2:20 mark to keep the lead at 2. Not only was the last a huge play for us, but it was notable because amazingly enough most of his defensive work on the night was in squelching Okafor and entirely taking away the post option -- our perimeter guys were doing such a good job that rarely did anyone get beat and send somebody screaming down the lane, and when they did, we often had 3 near 7 footers back there waiting for them.
smith_f.jpg

Michael "the Animal" Smith -- Animal was a tweener forward, too short to play PF, too bulky and unskilled to play SF. That's normally not a formula for much defensive success (just ask Landry). But Animal came from the "if I tear your scrawny little leg off and use it a as backscratcher you're going to have a hell of a time taking me off the dribble" school of defense, and when you are in a defensive dogfight you always want the big mean drunk guy on your side.
 
Last edited:
Head ( A- ) -- Luther is going from camp invite, to scrub, to folk hero right before our eyes. After shutting down Devin Harris a few nights back, for an encore he comes out and largely shuts down the best PG in the game? Really? Who is that masked scrub! Its really no joke or exaggeration either. Luther was just relentless out there, and along with occasional help from Reke cut off almost every CP3 foray. On top of which he himself hit every one of his shots, was the only guy hot from three (hit 3-3), and basically never took a bad shot. Did miss a terchnical FT though. Got his hands on a ton of ballson defense, and while Reke picked up 4 steals, Head may have had even ore defelctions, tips, and strips. Made maybe the play of the night on a tremedous effort play, diving forward full out like a wide receiver in football to jump on a ball CP3 was rolling up the court to try to save seconds. I've never seent hat before. I've especially never sen that before agiant CP3. And os after all of that how does he end up with a minus? Well firstly, as impressed as I was wiht our effort, I am by tradition goign to be very reluctant to hand out two straight As for agame that we lost while scoring 71pts. But more specifically here, it was a handful of ill timed turnovers that gave me the exuse here, including a critical one at the 2:45 mark with us up 2 -- just a bad forced pass after we had jsut taken the lead and were starting to look toward home, and it led to a three from the Hornets as they took the lead back and never relinquished it. We'd worked so hard, and then that was just a blow to the solar plexus. So that's my excuse, but my goodness have he, Donte and Daly got something started here. combined with Reke that is 4 of 5 starters going out there and bringing it on defense, and it has been years and eyars since we have seen that in these parts.
ron-artest-1-med.jpg

Ron Artest -- the defensive captain, nutter style. Has to be right there as the greatest defender in Sacto era history, and in his own cracked fashion fucntioned as something of a defensive leader. After we traded him away but otherwise returned the same core of players, just how much he had been carrying that sad crew on defense became evident.

Evans ( C- ) -- yooohoooo...Reeeekeee...where you at my man? Team needs you to step up now. Many a great defensive team has been built around 2 or 3 offensive players, and then hardcore defensive roleplayers to give it a spine. MJ's Bulls did it. So did the title winning Spurs teams. OKC does it today. Its a classic structure. But in order for it to work, the stars need to step up and dominate offensively. You ARE the offense now, so no more passive stuff, no more feeling around. The team needs you to carry it now at the ripe old age of 21. For a short while it looked like maybe Reke had got my missive. He torched Bellinelli repeatedly in the early going, and the to the basket game was back as he was getting to the rim effortlessly. The Hornets put Ariza on him and took that away, but really had a pretty strong first half all around though. Was on the glass, had most of our assists, and got his hands on a ton of balls defensively as the critical "star who plays defense" you need to complement your defnsive specialists and make a defensive focus hum. But he never got anythign at all gong after half, and went back to looking confiused and tentative out there. Poor third quarter offensively, unable to find a rhythm. The rim was closed and he missed a couple of unnecesary jumpers as well. Gave us one little bump when he returned late in the 4th and immediately used a couple of screens to slash down the right side for another layup, then drove the baseline, drew the attenton, and set up Donte for a perfect look on the short corner three...which Donte bricked. But that was it. We tried using Landry in the final two minutes, and Reke was invisible. And there comes a time when you are the star player where you, in exact contradicion of what you sometimes hear around here, just absolutely neeed to step up and carry your team home, and Reke did not do that. Its One for all, All for one and a team effort to ramp the defense, and Reke gets the grade he does here for being a significant part of that. But when it comes time to close the deal, you need your star to step up, demand the ball, and make the plays to win it, and he barely blipped for us tonight.
doug_christie_pass2.jpg

Doug Christie -- the defensive captain, non-nutter style. Well...that stuff with his wife was very weird. But compared to Ron Ron? Completely stable. Four times he was NBA All Defense First or Second team through our peak contending years.

Bench

Cousins ( D ) -- bad performance coming back down to Earth and looking very much the out of control rookie. Just not ready for a game of this intensity and was constantly forcing the issue, and coming up short. Playing out of control turnign it over and missing shots. We frequently brought him in for Landry to forma monster frontline with Daly and Greene, but it was those minutes when he was the center, and Landry oftent he PF, when we again got victimized. Still pressing in the third and hurting us with turnovers and forced shots. Saved a smidge of a grade here for coming up wiht two big plays late int eh game -- virtually his only ones on the night. first taking a pass on the cut and bringing a thunderous dunk, and second coming up with a huge 3pt play off of a strong offensive rebound at the 32 second mark that left us a sliver of daylight. Nonetheless this was not good, and in such a tight hardfought game was another one of those what if performances -- he hurt us when he was out there, and that too may have cost us the game. All he had ot be was solid and maybe we get a W out of this.
pollardyell.jpg

Scot Pollard -- the wacky one was maybe never quite a true defensive stopper, but his role was absolutely defensive/rebounding rolepalyer. Come in, bang bodies, shut down the lane behind the always bordering on soft Vlade/Webb pairing. Be our phsyical presence. And besides the one Keon year he was our key interior defender right through our best seasons.

Thompson ( B- ) -- some good offense in a solid stint in the early 2nd, but was letting Smith shoot too many open jumpers on a night when a guy hitting three shots in a row and scoring 6 points counted as an important team carrying offensive outburst. Forgotten about after half in what I think was a mistake given Landry's extreme stuggles at times. A few minutes of a bigger solid PF rather than either Landry or Cousins after half is another one of those things that you wonder if it might have been enough. Certainly seemed no call to just forget about him with those guys struggling.
d600f9c6-c8e1-4341-92b0-9446497edc7b.jpg

Duane Causewell -- tapping Causie for a list like this is always dubious, because there has long been debate about just how much defensive impact he had. Just so so dumb about how he approached the shotblocking art. But I think he still owns the Kings single season shotblocking record, and as it was with randy brown going to the Bulls, was paid a tremendous compliment by Pat Riley when he was brought in to be Alonzo Mourning's longtime defnsive roleplaying backup in Miami. Pat knows defense, and big man defenders especially.
 
Last edited:
Cisco ( C+ )-- I'm not sure how I felt about this effort. Coming off the bench, it was probably good enough to keep our defensive ball rolling. Did a nice job flying over for help blocks, and on one of our few defensive breakdowns with Jason Smith right on top of the hoop, Cisco went airborne and just jumped on his back to foul him and stop the layup. That's all good. also had a key 3pt play in the mid-4th to retie the game as the dogfight continued. But he's not hitting those outside shots for us now, and the game feels emptyish without that. Also did not leave a good impression on a play that I should have mentioned as part of JT's grade -- every play counts in a tight low scoring affair, and after Donte made a big effort to give us a 3pt lead heading towards halftime -- which BTW would have been the FIRST time all season that the Kings had a lead going into halftime (amazing stat there), we came down and on the last play of the half Cisco appeared to blatantly and intentionally ignore Trevor Ariza standing wide open in the corner for three. He saw him, looked at him, half pointed at him, but as CP3 was bringing up the ball he was off semi-cheating over behind Reke 15-20 feet of Ariza. Meanwhile JT was trapped underneath the hoop having to guard a Hornet in the paint on a simple overload play. And what do you think happens when you have a situation like that with a PG like CP3? A game tying three that had to be a punch to the gut for a team busting its behind out there. I could not tell if Cisco's reaction was "**** I screwed up" or "damnit JT you screwed up" (although maybe if it was the latter it would explain no second half Jason minutes). But it was Cisco's man, it was an easy play to cover, and he just didn't for whatever reason, and it cost us. All those little things, those single play mistakes cost us in a game this hard fought.
tumblr_kwm2kjfCDx1qay78vo1_500.jpg

Greg Kite -- specializing in dismemberment in an era when that was considered a core bball trait, Kite was a hack. but like so many defensive hacks, a hack with an elite team pedigree as he had one titles with the Celtics before showing up in Kingsland to thug people for a year.

Udrih ( C+ ) -- maybe his lowest statistical output of the season, but this was nto an entirely disatisfying effort, and you know why? The defensive effort was contagious. It spread, and even Beno was busting his butt out there for us. He knocked down a couple of his little stop and pop jumpers, but started missing them in the 4th when we could have used the boost. but at the same time beno Udrih, noted non-defender, was getting up and putting heavy pressure on the Hornets' backup guards (who are NOT PGs it should be mentioned -- Beno knew that and took advantage) and heavily disrupting what the Hornets wanted to do. With CP3 a threat and Head playing so well, he got squeezed for one fo the few times in the last year in the final minutes, finished with only 6pts 2ast in 22min, bt I can't say I am entirely dissatisfied with what he brought tonight. He's played with Pop and the Spurs, and tonight he showed again that he can be part of a tough defensive team.
8e6790ec-be00-4cc2-887b-95ab3e3a2dd7.jpg

Mark Olberding -- coming from the Jerry Sloan school of old school bent noses and missing teeth enforcers, Olberding was one of several defensive roleplayers on that first Sacramento Kings team that arrived in town. A team which in retrospect was better constructed (and thus somewhat more successful -- 37wins and an 8th seed) than most of those that followed. It was overflowing with jump shooting weenies, but that was balanced by defensive roleplayers like Olberding, Terry Tyler, Tank Thompson that took care of the dirty work while the weenies chucked shots.
 
Last edited:
Tonight really made me question why Westphal didn't bother to use Donte earlier. Regardless, we played hard but really shot ourselves in the foot with stupid turnovers. Eliminate those and play like we did tonight and we're in good shape.
 
Tonight really made me question why Westphal didn't bother to use Donte earlier. Regardless, we played hard but really shot ourselves in the foot with stupid turnovers. Eliminate those and play like we did tonight and we're in good shape.

I bet you if Donte had more playing time under his belt this season he hits that 3 at the end.
 
I bet you if Donte had more playing time under his belt this season he hits that 3 at the end.

Not so sure about that but I do think that if he were inserted in some of the other games this season, we'd have a couple more wins under our belt.
 
Donte Greene had a good overall game. He did not shoot all that well but he did the other things to help his team. Head played good defense on Paul all night long and he even made all his shots! Watching Carl Landry chuck jumper after jumper just makes me want to trade him, he is so frustrating to watch at times. I can understand if his jumpshot is falling, but he just kept throwing up bricks and still shooting. He needs to just move to the bench. A little strange that JT didn't see any more playing time after the 1st. He had 6/3 I believe in however many minutes he played. Lastly, Tyreke, sigh. Healthy ankle or not, 9 points is just not what we need from him. He needs to just force his way and not accept defeat when there isn't a lane to drive through. Dalembert, I applaud his defensive effort, he altered many shots on the inside.
 
The stat of the game: New Orleans' 32% from the field.

Most intriguing stat of the game: 4:54 seconds*

*Mystery question for tonight - what does that represent?
 
Dally is educating the FO on the importance of a shotblocker methinks. I hope we resign him. I extra hope Whiteside becomes a good enough player to take the goalie job in a couple seasons. I love having a paint defender on this team. Its a nice feeling. No more layup drills for the opposition.

Reke continues to be meh. His defense was pretty good though, but his stinking it up now that teams are gameplanning him. Should be interesting to see if he can figure it out and go back to kicking *** and chewing bubblegum like last season.

Greene.... My goodness. I actually (am going to get flak for this) think that his string of DNP-CDs did him a world of good. He was really awful in the summer league and preseason. Now he's back and this is the most aggressive I've ever seen him play. And the rebounding! He's rebounding like an athletic 6'11 player should! Agressive moves to the hoop. Putbacks. He still takes too many 3s, but if he starts hitting them I'll stop minding it.

Cuz sucked. But he's a rookie big so whatever. In a couple seasons his aggressiveness is going to be awesome but right now it is hurting us.

JT: 6/3 in seven minutes. Our best rebounder/defender at the 4. Is this guy going to get a chance before we trade him (for a sack of peanuts) to a team that will actually utilize him? I think that if he had some time at the 4/5 we would have had a chance. Landry/Cuz is not a frontline we want to use if we're going to be a defensive team.

Landry AKA Flandry (Flan being that soft dessert. Get it?). Dude sucks. He needs to play like a 20/10 allstar just to HOLD EVEN with whoever he is "guarding". When he isnt playing like an allstar we're losing the battle at PF. No D. Blackhole. Terrible defensive rebounder. Has no business being on the starting 5 of ANY team. And yet, Westphal has a huge mancrush on him. ..Sigh.. Now, I understand that he is our second best offensive option after Reke. But he is such a liability on the other side of the court (we're talking Kevin Martin level liability here), that he NEEDS to play next to either JT or Dally at all times. Somebody has to cover for him.

Also, Head is a mini-Artest. Really like him in the starting lineup. Beno is finding his stride off the bench as well.
 
Last edited:
I like that Donte is getting mins again, and that D. Jackson and Wright were DNP's but Casspi??? he should at least get a few mins... I mean he was good enough to start a ways back im sure he could have given a solid effort in maybe 5-10mins?
 
Great Game on defense. I cant figure out how we didnt score enough to win this one. All we needed was 76 points and we couldnt get it done.

The starting lineup is cleary working. 2 very competative games in a row is good for this team when you consider how bad we looked during the 6 game losing streak.

When you lose such a close game, every little thing counts for or against you. Westphal didnt have a great game. Having Head shoot that tech free throw ( he missed ) was very confusing because Udrih ( and Garcia ) were both on the court. Im not sure why we didnt see JT in the second half. He played really well when he got the chance. The terrible offense has to at least partly fall on him too. Going to Dalembert = bad idea. Lots of little frustrating things, but honestly I dont remember ever being so satisfied after a loss. The fact is we deserved to win - we played better for the most part, but once again the more experienced/talented team won. Very encouraging though. Another TOUGH test coming up against Utah.
 
The starting lineup that you talk about and say should continue because of its better defense includes Landry. Hopefully folks will take notice and rethink their utter disgust for him. I say start the guys that have brought us to this improved play.
 
Dally is educating the FO on the importance of a shotblocker methinks. I hope we resign him. I extra hope Whiteside becomes a good enough player to take the goalie job in a couple seasons. I love having a paint defender on this team. Its a nice feeling. No more layup drills for the opposition.

Reke continues to be meh. His defense was pretty good though, but his stinking it up now that teams are gameplanning him. Should be interesting to see if he can figure it out and go back to kicking *** and chewing bubblegum like last season.

Greene.... My goodness. I actually (am going to get flak for this) think that his string of DNP-CDs did him a world of good. He was really awful in the summer league and preseason. Now he's back and this is the most aggressive I've ever seen him play. And the rebounding! He's rebounding like an athletic 6'11 player should! Agressive moves to the hoop. Putbacks. He still takes too many 3s, but if he starts hitting them I'll stop minding it.Cuz sucked. But he's a rookie big so whatever. In a couple seasons his aggressiveness is going to be awesome but right now it is hurting us.

JT: 6/3 in seven minutes. Our best rebounder/defender at the 4. Is this guy going to get a chance before we trade him (for a sack of peanuts) to a team that will actually utilize him? I think that if he had some time at the 4/5 we would have had a chance. Landry/Cuz is not a frontline we want to use if we're going to be a defensive team.

Landry AKA Flandry (Flan being that soft dessert. Get it?). Dude sucks. He needs to play like a 20/10 allstar just to HOLD EVEN with whoever he is "guarding". When he isnt playing like an allstar we're losing the battle at PF. No D. Blackhole. Terrible defensive rebounder. Has no business being on the starting 5 of ANY team. And yet, Westphal has a huge mancrush on him. ..Sigh.. Now, I understand that he is our second best offensive option after Reke. But he is such a liability on the other side of the court (we're talking Kevin Martin level liability here), that he NEEDS to play next to either JT or Dally at all times. Somebody has to cover for him.

Also, Head is a mini-Artest. Really like him in the starting lineup. Beno is finding his stride off the bench as well.

BINGO! You win the prize for accurately connecting the dots on Donte Greene. Congratulations!:D
 
The starting lineup that you talk about and say should continue because of its better defense includes Landry. Hopefully folks will take notice and rethink their utter disgust for him. I say start the guys that have brought us to this improved play.

Landry is a glaring weak link defensively, and very selfish on offense. I remain disgusted.

I actually do think he should start though. As terrible as he is at everything else, we need his offense in the starting lineup. I do however think he should be limited to bench minutes, something between 24-26mpg, with the rest of his minutes given to JT. Despite the team's newfound D, opponents have still gone on runs against us, and its usually by exploiting the matchup at PF (Humphries when we played the Nets, West killing it in the 4th tonight). If he gave half the effort on defensive rebounding that he gives on offensive rebounding then he'd be a lot better in my eyes. Dude averages 2.7 defensive rebounds a game in 30 minutes. JT averages 2.8 in 14 minutes. Teams get a lot of second chances when Landry is on the floor (see: Nets game 3rd quarter), assuming they dont just outright steamroll him with their PF.

Also, a pattern I have noticed with Landry is that he has really great 1st quarters, and then falls off. Which causes Westphal to ride him even when he's jacking up ill advised 3 pointers, getting blocked inside, getting destroyed by scrubs, allowing guards to snatch rebounds from him, et cetra. I'd actually like him if he played a more limited role for us off the bench. But then JT would start next to Dally, and a JT/Dally frontline is just as bad on offense as the Landry/Cousins lineup is on D.

Landry/Dally starting and JT/Cousins off the bench seems like it could work out quite well for us, maybe Westphal will try it eventually.
 
Last edited:
If Tyreke would just get back to being effective we would have won this game. Don't know what's been up with him on the offensive end
 
Tonight really made me question why Westphal didn't bother to use Donte earlier. Regardless, we played hard but really shot ourselves in the foot with stupid turnovers. Eliminate those and play like we did tonight and we're in good shape.
I thought otherwise. This game made me think Westphal was right afterall for giving Donte those DNPs. Donte now looks like a player with a mission. He looks like more ready to take his mission seriously - both physically and mentally.
 
I thought otherwise. This game made me think Westphal was right afterall for giving Donte those DNPs. Donte now looks like a player with a mission. He looks like more ready to take his mission seriously - both physically and mentally.
If it turns Donte into a more prepared, focused player going ahead, then I can't fault the decision. It might jumpstart Donte fulfilling some of his potential.
 
WTF moment of the game - Landry Turn Around Three pointer to try and ice the game for the hornets
 
Voted for Luther Head in the poll. As much as I was yelling "he is not a point guard, stop dribbling!" I was impressed with his defense. The defense in whole is what kept the Kings in this game when their turnovers, inability to hit free throws and perhaps lack of big time play from their big time player(s) hurt them.

Its a process though, we have to remember with this team especially--more than we've ever experienced
 
Last edited:
Heads hands down our defensive player of the night. He singlehandedly challenged, and succeeded id say at stopping Paul from having any real significant effect on the game.

edit: it was funny how last week there were folks here who didnt think Head deserved to be playing any minutes at all.
 
Last edited:
Voted Head cause of the work he put on CP3, that was just fantastic.

Donte came a VERY close 2nd tho, awesome to have him back setting the defensive tone again!