[Grades] Grades v. Mavs 03/09/12

[Bricklayer]

2 down. 15 to go.

Boxscore

Gonna make my first use of the new Kings website official photos for each player to spice up these winning grades threads. I don't expect to lose again until April, so could get a little drab around here without any pictures or vids at all.

Evans ( A- ) -- played a real strong game, stronger even than the numbers this time out. Again drained an early three, and was very energetic on the glass from the beginning. Did take a couple more threes and one jumper against the clock, but subpar shooting number was more about the Mavs shotblockers meeting him at the rim repeatedly. Never quit attacking though, and had some dominant drives and raceouts on the break where he was just faster and stronger than any Mav on the floor. Had yet another halfcourter at the end of the third that was nearly in and bounced off the rim. Its nrmally a throwaway play and shot, but I actually can't recall a player consistently this close with those shots. Inevitably he's going to hit some more of them. Notable tonight was that the forcefulness wasn't just on the offense side of the ball. Completely shut down ghost of Vinsanity as his man, strong defense on Marion coming out of the timeout in the mid 3rd, and even did a nice job battling the much bigger Odom when forced into that matchup. Mavs really didn't have any player to match him on this night.

Greene ( B ) -- you know, Dirk scored over him a few times early, and and again early in the third, but in general Donte's defense on him was very good, its just that Dirk's offense is better. And the other thing is that Dirk had those few isolated hits, but otherwise got nothing going at all, and Donte actually by the end had almost matched Dirk point for point, which anyway you slice it is a win for us. After we got off to a sluggish start after half, gave us some energy in the third with fight on the boards, even when not coming up with them, and added a tough little finish inside and a three from the angle as we pushed the lead back out. Thought he also came up with an important score with a nice post move after Thornton blew a dunk late in the third and the lead had been cut to 12. But Donte quickly hit back to make it 14 again, Reke followed with a pair of FTs, and the Mavs never threatened to get back into this one again.

Cousins ( C+ ) -- did not have any energy to start this game, but still came up with several nice early steals stepping out into passing lanes, and then firing the ball ahead for finishes on the break. Post attempts were ragged though, and you could really see the lack of pep on the boards where he was caught flatfooted and not rebounding out of his area as balls he normaly would have snatched up were grabbed by the lieks of Ian Mahini instead. Found a little energy in the early thrid to help a sluiggish team however, and seemed to get stronger ratehr than weaker as the game went along. Capped things with a couple of nice moves late in the 4th quarter garbagetime (no idea why he played so long if under the weather, but that's Smart for ya) including a big spin move and dunk over Cardinal (yes, they had Brian bleeping Cardinal on him) late in the 4th. This is hard to grade. He definitely helped after half, but he also clearly wasn't himself on the glass and padded things up after it was over. I'm going to go ahead and mark this down a bit as just not the dominant player we have often seen, but he didn't hurt us on the night and still did some things.

 

[Bricklayer]

Thornton ( B ) -- with DeMarcus sputtering a bit of late, its the Marcus without the "De" prefix randomly thrown on who's been our most consistent player. You can count on him every single night to have energy, to gun up explosive bursts of points, and to do it in fairly selfish fashion. Points in a box with the number 23 stitched on. Got off to yet another hot start, this time I think with 11 early points just firing away and hitting everything. In purest scorer fashion had 11pts 0rebs 0ast before stringing together two strong offensive rebounds on the same play late in the half as he was just quicker to the ball than any of the old Mavs and wanted it more. Great 1 on 1 score to close our first half as well. Wasn't as good after the break, although others stepped up and filled the void (actually may have created the void as there still are not enough balls to go around and Marcus only got up 9 shots). Wasn't getting his shots, and when that happens Marcus's response is also very consistent: he will make selfish plays to make sure he does. That's a good and a bad. Reke will just let it happen and disappear. Cousins will pout or try to go get the ball on the offensive glass. But Marcus will make sure that when he does touch it, he gets his money's worth. Results were several questionable plays, developing tunnel vision on the break and ignoring a wide open Reke on the other side of the hoop so he could force up his own attempt, forcing a drive late in the third that felt very much "I haven't shot in a while so just get out of my way." And blew a wide open dunk on a backcut in the late third sending Dallas back the other other way to hit a three to cut it to 12. Was a scary moment for us, but Donte and Reke responded back with back to back scores, and the brief Dallas rally was stomped back out. On defense remained one of our weaker links, and just not big enough to stop Marion inside, but obviously it never really developed into a damaging situation.

Thomas ( B+ ) -- two early jumpers as Kidd not remotely quick enough to stay close and looked more physical and active than he has in weeks. Actually...what am I saying?? Was the best early stint in the history of Western Civilization! IT was our Larry Bird, singlehandedly changed everything for our franchise, and even was responsible for our great passing while he was on the bench. Ah, the perils of Bill Walton. In any case forgotten about throughout the 2nd quarter as our coach again was attracted by whatever the latest pretty bauble was, but came back to play a strong thrid quarter that effectively finished a Mavs team that never really mounted a serious run at us. Hit a three in the early third. And with Kidd just guarding him standing back with his arms down, IT said thank you very much and drained two more on him (in boxing they say there is always a fight where a boxer suddenly is too slow, can't get his punches off or block that quick jab anymore, and shoul know to hang it up -- this looked like that kind of game for JKidd). You never known when ITs long range shooting is going to be on or off, but tonight it was on, and he notably restricted himself from selfish gunning otherwise. Was maybe the good bounceback game he needed being a major positive factor for the first time in the last 5 games.

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Bench

Thompson ( C ) -- scraggly game off the bench, but was the only guy other than Reke to give us any boardwork as we again got crushed on the glass. Came in to give Cousins a breather, fumbled a rebound out of bounds, but a nice quick post move the other way. Offensive foul and stuggled against Sean Williams off the Mavs bench. Lucky tip for our final score of the quarter, but the offensive was ugly therafter as he ended up 2-7 from the field and maybe not getting the same open easy looks he does amongst the starters. As mentioned, the positve was that he gave us 8 much needed boards in his 18 minutes as he and Reke combined to grab half our rebounds.

Salmons ( B- ) -- an early hit outside and in, but then started to get a bit selfish. Sometimes its hard to tell because freed by his move to the bench to dribble around and take his jumpers off the dribble the way he wants to, it always looks like a selfish 1 on 1 play even if its drawn up. Another guy like Outlaw who is actively anti-assist. But in any case, forced a bad selfish contested 1 on 1 shot to start his third, but hit it. And his 1 on 1 shots were sustaining the sluggish reserves in the early 4th. On a ight when everybody was scoring efficiently, he was too. Could almost have called this a B were it not for hints of selfishness and the need to distinguish it a bit from the better performers.

Garcia ( A- ) -- another really good roleplayer game for us, inf act he is as clsoe to a perfect roleplayer as we have when he's on. Hit threes, hustled on defense and got his hands on lots of balls, was never selfish. these have been coming more and more often for him of late, and if it were ever possible to just figure out the huge inconsistent swings in his game (which have been there since college, so you probably can't) this kind of thing could be so useful in support of the young stars. His corener threes remain odd -- either a swish or almost not hitting the rim (as we saw in Denver). Great help defense on Dirk and good second quarter stint on both sides of the ball. In fact hasd a number of good moments against Dirk, who was fading more than people realized even last year befor ethe big playoff run, and now may be tipping toward the downhill slide. Cisco stripped him once, stopped him again int he early 4th, caused deflections with great hustle, and hit the three in the mid-4th to make it a 20pt lead with 6 min to go. IT in wiht the starters has cooled off, but maybe the bigger factor for us has been the sudden and complete reversal by that bench, worst in the league up until the All Star break, and now all of a sudden beign a consistent factor in support.

Hayes ( B ) -- one of the reasons for our suddenly soaring assist totals hasn't been our guard play at all, its been a sudden and dramatic surge in assists out of frontcourtmen, and Hayes of course primary among them. Knotched 4 again tonight as he and Cousins are combining to average 5.1/gm in March after averaging 2.2/gm season long. Pretty good defensive work on Dirk next to Demarcus in the 2nd and found a way to score when the Mavs all turned their heads at once leaving him with an easy stroll right to the hoop. Were a few more dumb offensive moments too however, as at various times he decided to jsut go 1 on 1 on Dirk and Odom. Oh BTW, the Big Redhead sagely pointed out that Chuck is not as fast as Usain Bolt (Walton, in case you somehow were not aware, is a former drug abusing nuts and twigs hippie who was scrawny and undeveloped in his playing days and routinely runs around accusing anybody with any bulk of being fat and needing to lose 50 lbs to acheive their ideal Waltonesque body, even if that would, for instance, render you a 6'6" 195 lb PF/C.

Fredette ( C- ) -- not one of his better games, and was playing in front of his parents, as Bill let us know repeatedly (it was one fo the "great honors of his life" to meet "Mr. and Mrs. Jimmer" before the game). Jimmer was immediately beat by Beaubois to the hoop to start the second, and never really could stay in front of him, although it didn't lead to much damage against us. Offensively, was just flat out chucking from three, launching 7 of them in his 17 minutes, and being egged on by the crowd to launch even more. Minor problem was that they weren't going in. Finally got his first one to fall when he inadvertently banked in a 30 footer, which is one of those shots that can get you benched. Had a bad turnover immediately after the bank, then airballed a three. Finally got a legit three to fall deep in garbagetime from Cousins. Let's call this parent related jitters and move on.

Whiteside ( INC ) -- jsut 3 min of OT. Forced a move that was smushed at the rim. Otherwise looked sluggish again.

Honeycutt ( INC ) --3 min of garbagetime. Poor decision turnover in the late garbagetime, and looked sloppy and lackadaisical fumbling it aroudn and nearly turning it over more than just the once.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

 

[rainmaker]

Really good game. And we did this with Cuz looking about 50%.

I was tough on a few of our guys for being selfish the other night, but tonight aside from the first couple minutes of the 3rd guys were looking to share. For most of the night we took the correct shots. If we can do that consistently that's a huge step for this team. Getting and taking the shots you want, and working the ball until you get them.

Don't want to take anything away from our team, but what's up with Dal? That wasn't close to an average game for them. Not much effort. Seems they have a few issues going on in the locker room.

But they can worry about that. we just dominated them start to finish.

 

[Spok22]

Kieth Smart+ Kings FTW!!!

 

[sactownfan]

Finally a blowout in our favor!!! feels good .... sorta forgot what it was like

 

[Chicken Chaser]

When was our last blow out win?

 

[kennadog]

It was really windy here in the valley earlier this week, including the day of the city council meeting. I'm beginning to think those were the legendary "winds of change" blowing through Sacramento.

This has been a great week to be a Kings fan!

 

[Tetsujin]

If we play like this for the rest of the season, Brick just may be right.

 

[AL/kfan]

Great Game, great win. Dominated and no meltdown. Loved the defense and looks like Tyreke is quelling all the trade talk. And, IT looks like he's got his swagger back. Keep 'er going.

 

[slugking50]

It was really windy here in the valley earlier this week, including the day of the city council meeting. I'm beginning to think those were the legendary "winds of change" blowing through Sacramento.

This has been a great week to be a Kings fan!

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

And All-Star level Tyreke Evans rears his head again, and again against a quality opponent. This kid is so damn bipolar it drives me nuts. Is he going to be an all-star? Solid starter? Black hole that we will all say "What if...?" at the end of his career? Honestly I have no idea at this point. All I know is that his talent is undeniably dynamic. Is the focus and drive there too?

 

[Glenn]

If we play like this for the rest of the season, Brick just may be right.

and insufferable!!

 

[jcwkings]

And All-Star level Tyreke Evans rears his head again, and again against a quality opponent. This kid is so damn bipolar it drives me nuts. Is he going to be an all-star? Solid starter? Black hole that we will all say "What if...?" at the end of his career? Honestly I have no idea at this point. All I know is that his talent is undeniably dynamic. Is the focus and drive there too?

I think hes much better suited to excel in the role he has now, his defense was great tonight and can only get better, just needs to continue to work on his outside shot and cutting in the half court. Tyreke is not a cerebral player, hes not built to be a point gaurd, but he is as physically gifted without being a freak athlete as they come, just let him be an agressive defender who runs it down your throat, im fine with that, when he gets labored with trying to look at the court at all times is when he starts thinking too much. Improved court vision could come with more experience, but for know just let him loose in the open floor.

 

[king4life89]

francisco garcia is deff a keeper hes solid off the bench hes a true leader and plays his heart out hes looking a lot better kings needa play like this from now on looked like the old kings passing and passing!!go kings

 

[mac]

francisco garcia is deff a keeper hes solid off the bench hes a true leader and plays his heart out hes looking a lot better kings needa play like this from now on looked like the old kings passing and passing!!go kings

Agreed. I really think Garcia and Salmons' resurgence has improved our bench tremendously. Thought Donte also did a pretty good job as a starter, certainly played better than JT - moved the ball well, only took good shots without forcing anything, made his open 3, helped push the ball in transition, and good D. Liking the passing from Hayes as well.

 

[Mad D]

“Anything to help us get better, I'll do it.”

John Salmons on becoming a bench player

huh?!

That's a lot different from a few years back. Since going to the bench he has been shooting 55%.

SALMONELLA is spreading across the Kings nation.

 

[king4life89]

so what grade yall givin keith smart??????commmon mannnn

 

[jcwkings]

huh?!

That's a lot different from a few years back. Since going to the bench he has been shooting 55%.

SALMONELLA is spreading across the Kings nation.

Salmons is a much better player with the ball in his hands, hes not a spot up shooter, hes a off the dribble shooter. The problem with him starting was that we were expecting him to hit spot up shots.

 

[Tetsujin]

Salmons is a much better player with the ball in his hands, hes not a spot up shooter, hes a off the dribble shooter. The problem with him starting was that we were expecting him to hit spot up shots.

He's actually not been outright terrible with the starting unit anymore either though. Definitely looking more like the player we thought we were getting last summer

 

[jcwkings]

anyone know the status on JJ Hickson? i know he has been garbage all season, but now that everyone is starting to get their role on this team, he could easily fit in the 2nd unit as a active body. The problem early in the season was that we would bring him in and give him touches in the post. The second unit plays more of a princeton high post offense with Hayes, Hickson could find his role with that unit.

 

[Bricklayer]

anyone know the status on JJ Hickson? i know he has been garbage all season, but now that everyone is starting to get their role on this team, he could easily fit in the 2nd unit as a active body. The problem early in the season was that we would bring him in and give him touches in the post. The second unit plays more of a princeton high post offense with Hayes, Hickson could find his role with that unit.

His status is he's already been stuffed in the trunk, just awaiting a call as to destination.

 

[Kingsfan23]

had to be the first time this season we were actually able to play a garbage lineup at the end of the game.. Tyreke looking better

 

[jcwkings]

His status is he's already been stuffed in the trunk, just awaiting a call as to destination.

thats what we said about salmons, Garcia earlier in the season, fact is when the team is running a system and guys have roles, its much easier for role players to focus on one thing. Earlier in the season everyone that came in thought they were a 1-4 iso scorer. Im not saying he'll do anything significant but there had to be reason he put up solid numbers in Cleveland.

 

[The Hammer]

thats what we said about salmons, Garcia earlier in the season, fact is when the team is running a system and guys have roles, its much easier for role players to focus on one thing. Earlier in the season everyone that came in thought they were a 1-4 iso scorer. Im not saying he'll do anything significant but there had to be reason he put up solid numbers in Cleveland.

Yeah that reason was called Lebron James. It's middle name was nobody else on the team was half decent.

 

[Andre87]

Dont get Cousins's low grade but anyways awesome win for us considering how badly we looked vs the mavs the last time.
Hope smart isnt thinking to use Donte as pf from now on though

 

[jalfa]

re: Hickson, I've seen some Cavs games the last few weeks and it has struck me how insanely bad Omri Casspi has become. he's been screwing up *everything*. defensively, he's been a sieve and whenever he has the ball in his hands, something bad is bound to happen (turnovers, airballs, what have you). in the offseason, everybody thought the trade was about the Cavs and Kings trading two promising young players due to fit, now it looks like the Kings handing the Cavs a pick for the right to swap two of the worst players in the NBA.

 

[Spike]

so what grade yall givin keith smart??????commmon mannnn

Probably a B+.
Overall, not too bad. Went to a 4 guard lineup, Dallas started beating us up on the boards, but then, maybe, hopefully, finally for all eternity realized it was a bad idea. Froze out IT a little, but brought him back in, and then left DMC in during some serious garbage time. Maybe to make sure Dallas didn't make it closer than it had to be.
Like I said, overall, not bad. Dallas didn't bring it, and we made sure they never found it.

 

[Kingster]

Like many others, I've been frustrated with Smart's substitution patterns. But substitution patterns are less important now than playing with discipline and playing unselfishly. For the most part, the Kings are doing that. As he implied in the post game, that's one primary theme of his coaching strategy. And he's just not going to play the guys if they're on the "hunt" to "get theirs". More power to him. It's nice to see a semblance of a team rather than a bunch of individuals.

 

[kingsnation]

SALMONELLA is spreading across the Kings nation.

This has to be setting us up for a terrible Phil Jackson insult.