Our coach is a clown.
This is the second time in a month that we have had a team on an epic win streak on the ropes, in their own building, and decisions made by our coach could be directly pointed to as reasons why we did not pull the games out. Its maddening.
In this one:
-- Tyreke Evans sits the entire 4th quarter so that Marcus Thornton can shoot 4-13 and provide us with 2reb 1ast and 1 terrible turnover down the stretch.
-- DeMarcus Cousins is brought back early in the 4th to beat up on Anthony Randolph...except we do not run a single post play for Cousins while Randolph is out there, and instead the golden opportunity is wasted while Cousins picks up 2 fouls, misses a drive, and has Randolph hit a jumper on him.
-- Patrick Patterson is playing efficiently again (3-4FG) and helping keep us in it as a rare King who could shoot, so midway through the 4th he is promptly subbed out for JT (3-11FG) again and never returns until its desperation time
-- DeMarcus Cousins is dominating the game, scoring every trip, and generally trying to singlehandedly win it. IT apparently spots a hot Nuggets cheerleader and turns his head to stare at her rather than Andre Miller, end result is that the Nuggets push the lead to 6 with 42 seconds to go...and so the coach pulls Cousins. He pulls the one guy keeping us in the game. And better yet, he does this while leaving JT on the floor, so you can't even say it was just to get all shooters in the game, since Boogie is certainly more likely to hit a three than JT, more likely to get a rebound than JT...and in general I hope somebody eggs Smart's house tonight.
Phooey.
Full Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 18pts (7-12, 4-8, 0-0) 3reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Salmons ( B+ ) -- John didn't have a great game, but he certainly had a good one. He played good defense the entire game, and he had his hands full trying to guard the much taller Galinari. Except for a few defensive breakdowns, he made Galinari work for every shot. Thankfully, the good shooting Salmons showed up tonight, and the Kings needed every shot he made. The game started badly for John when he lost Galinari, who ran a backdoor and dunked. He then missed a wide open corner three, that Cuz rebounded and put back in. But with 29.9 seconds left in the first half he hit a pullup 16 footer, and then hit a three with one second left in the half. That was to bode well for the second half. He started the second half by hitting a corner three. After missing a three from the top of the circle, he laid it in on an absolutely beautiful pass from Cuz. He then hit another three on a pass from Tyreke. He finished out his half by driving through the entire Nugget team and dunking, and then hitting a clutch, but probably irrelevant three with 16.2 seconds in the game. His only glaring mistake in the half was driving into the lane, spinning and having the ball stolen. Good game for John, and the game wouldn't have been as close as it was without his contribution. --Baja
Stats: 26min 6pts (3-11, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 0TO
Thompson ( D ) -- JT started the game well enough with a dunk on a nice pass from IT. A bit later he made a nice move in the post for a half hook, but it rolled off. Before heading to the bench in the first quarter, he hit a little flip shot off of a nice pass from Cuz. He returned with 6:10 left in the half, missed another hookshot, and that was about it. The second half was a virtual repeat of the first half. He started by rebounding a Tyreke miss and laying it in. He did a nice job of posting up the smaller Faried, but once again missed the shot. And that was about it. The rest of the time he was invisible, and he was particularly invisible on the defensive side of the ball again. JT has never been great defender, but no one could ever accuse him of not hustling. In the last two games, Mr. Hustle has been replaced with Mr. Passive. He's not rotating on defense, and he's not rebounding. Once again he failed to stop the ball in pick and roll defense, and once again in the second half, Smart had seen enough and got Patterson in the game quickly. The usually expressive Jason, even seemed a distant version of himself when called for a foul. Something going on with JT. Or at least thats how it appears to me. --Baja
Stats: 36min 24pts (10-16, 0-0, 4-8) 15reb 3ast 0stl 5blk 6TO
Cousins ( A- ) -- a game that started out of sorts and sloppy for Boogie as we just did not come out ready to play, ended up in a big thuggy effort as we took our big center and started beating the Nuggets over the head with him until they damn near said uncle. That's happened sevral tiimes in the last month, and its the way its supposed to be done. Didn't look like that was how it was going to go in the early going, as Cuz looked tired and distracted, and his teammates generally looked too brainless to make much of his advantage inside. He was very strong on the glass from the start, and was completely carrying us in that respect in another lone ranger effort night on the glass (he wrestled down 15, no other King grabbed more than 4), but his struggle to settle into this game was clearly reflected in a constant barrage of head slapping turnovers that started Nuggets breaks. He passed when he should have shot, creating a 24 sec violation, charged, threw several bad passes so off that the intended recipents were actually looking around thinking there had to be another King somewhere behind them that was the target. Just out of sorts. But there was a current of a power game running underneath. He wasn't getting many shots, but when he did get them he was throwing them down with power, and IT did an unusually good job on looking for him on pick and rols that began to pile up inside points. Despite a number of defensive mistakes there was effort there in another uncommon shotblocking night for him, and later on he would add taking a charge, with 5 fouls no less, to the tally. . Started the third in strong fashion, scoring on our first possession out of halftime and grabbing another rebound, and you could see the engine begin to get revved up. Punctuated things by absolutely posterizing Anthony Randolph for the +1 in the mid 3rd, and for once Smart did not freeze him out until the 4 minute mark or whatever the most recent stupidity is going to be. Instead was brought back in at the 9min mark of the 4th presumably to punish the Nuggets for running Randolph at center...and then largely ignored on offense to completely negate the tactic as our stupid team did not post him up once during that stretch. When we finally did start going to him on offense though -- ironically after Randolph had been evacuated by Karl -- things turned 90s monster center as we went to him again and again and pounded away at the Nuggets' weakness inside. Was dominating play, but getting scarce support from either teammates or his coach, who had him surrounded for much of the quarter by 1 John Salmons, and 3 guys who shot a collective 10-38. Was laboring out there but still just thumping away when Smart abruptly panicked at the 42 second mark and us down 6, and pulled Boogie to insert 3pt shooters (yet bizarrely leaving JT in instead). Boogie never returned as we lost this one with 24pts 15reb sitting on the bench. The early slop once had this grade pretty low, but not many teams have an interior weapon they can just hitch up and ride the way we did with Boogie after half. --Brick
Stats: 23min 4pts (2-5, 0-1, 0-0) 2reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Evans ( D ) -- Tonight was definitely not Tyreke's night. He didn't get the job done scoring, with a lot of shots going to the frontcourt; he didn't get the job done rebounding; he didn't get the job done distributing. He didn't get the job done defensively, either. There were multiple bad plays, but the most notable were his failure to box out the backcourt man on a Denver FT attempt, allowing the Nuggets to come right down the lane for an easy offensive rebound, and the Clear Path foul on Gallinari which not only could not possibly have been called any other way but also occurred on a play where it looked like Gallo might be passing instead of shooting. It was just the worst possible brainfart and the capper to a down defensive day. In the end, the only question that falls in Tyreke's favor is this one: Was he frozen out of the offense? Yeah, a bit, and that's really the only reason that I didn't go down to a F here, because 4 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds is a terrible outing for a guy we have to make a qualifying offer to this offseason.--Capt.
Stats: 33min 10pts (3-12, 2-8, 2-3) 1reb 9ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( B- ) -- IT had a lousy shooting night (3-12), but made up for it by distributing the ball well, racking up nine assists, not only finding open three-point shooters but also repeatedly feeding the hot Cousins in the post. Notably he went to Cuz in the post three times in a row in the late 4th, when Cuz went 2-3 and brought us within three points. "The hand that giveth", however, turned around to make the defensive lapse of the game, allowing Andre Miller to drive right around him on the baseline with 50 seconds left to stretch a 3-point Nuggets lead to 6 and that was it. Outside of that, Thomas actually had a pretty good defensive play with few lapses and two very nice plays, getting a steal by nabbing an outlet pass in transition, and getting a virtual steal by deflecting a pass and forcing a Denver foul to avoid a break. The shooting was ugly, but the passing was good and the defense was up to par, so I think IT deserves a decent, but not great, grade. --Capt.
This is the second time in a month that we have had a team on an epic win streak on the ropes, in their own building, and decisions made by our coach could be directly pointed to as reasons why we did not pull the games out. Its maddening.
In this one:
-- Tyreke Evans sits the entire 4th quarter so that Marcus Thornton can shoot 4-13 and provide us with 2reb 1ast and 1 terrible turnover down the stretch.
-- DeMarcus Cousins is brought back early in the 4th to beat up on Anthony Randolph...except we do not run a single post play for Cousins while Randolph is out there, and instead the golden opportunity is wasted while Cousins picks up 2 fouls, misses a drive, and has Randolph hit a jumper on him.
-- Patrick Patterson is playing efficiently again (3-4FG) and helping keep us in it as a rare King who could shoot, so midway through the 4th he is promptly subbed out for JT (3-11FG) again and never returns until its desperation time
-- DeMarcus Cousins is dominating the game, scoring every trip, and generally trying to singlehandedly win it. IT apparently spots a hot Nuggets cheerleader and turns his head to stare at her rather than Andre Miller, end result is that the Nuggets push the lead to 6 with 42 seconds to go...and so the coach pulls Cousins. He pulls the one guy keeping us in the game. And better yet, he does this while leaving JT on the floor, so you can't even say it was just to get all shooters in the game, since Boogie is certainly more likely to hit a three than JT, more likely to get a rebound than JT...and in general I hope somebody eggs Smart's house tonight.
Phooey.
Full Grading Consortium for tonight:
Bricklayer
Capt. Factorial
bajaden
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 18pts (7-12, 4-8, 0-0) 3reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Salmons ( B+ ) -- John didn't have a great game, but he certainly had a good one. He played good defense the entire game, and he had his hands full trying to guard the much taller Galinari. Except for a few defensive breakdowns, he made Galinari work for every shot. Thankfully, the good shooting Salmons showed up tonight, and the Kings needed every shot he made. The game started badly for John when he lost Galinari, who ran a backdoor and dunked. He then missed a wide open corner three, that Cuz rebounded and put back in. But with 29.9 seconds left in the first half he hit a pullup 16 footer, and then hit a three with one second left in the half. That was to bode well for the second half. He started the second half by hitting a corner three. After missing a three from the top of the circle, he laid it in on an absolutely beautiful pass from Cuz. He then hit another three on a pass from Tyreke. He finished out his half by driving through the entire Nugget team and dunking, and then hitting a clutch, but probably irrelevant three with 16.2 seconds in the game. His only glaring mistake in the half was driving into the lane, spinning and having the ball stolen. Good game for John, and the game wouldn't have been as close as it was without his contribution. --Baja
Stats: 26min 6pts (3-11, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 0TO
Thompson ( D ) -- JT started the game well enough with a dunk on a nice pass from IT. A bit later he made a nice move in the post for a half hook, but it rolled off. Before heading to the bench in the first quarter, he hit a little flip shot off of a nice pass from Cuz. He returned with 6:10 left in the half, missed another hookshot, and that was about it. The second half was a virtual repeat of the first half. He started by rebounding a Tyreke miss and laying it in. He did a nice job of posting up the smaller Faried, but once again missed the shot. And that was about it. The rest of the time he was invisible, and he was particularly invisible on the defensive side of the ball again. JT has never been great defender, but no one could ever accuse him of not hustling. In the last two games, Mr. Hustle has been replaced with Mr. Passive. He's not rotating on defense, and he's not rebounding. Once again he failed to stop the ball in pick and roll defense, and once again in the second half, Smart had seen enough and got Patterson in the game quickly. The usually expressive Jason, even seemed a distant version of himself when called for a foul. Something going on with JT. Or at least thats how it appears to me. --Baja
Stats: 36min 24pts (10-16, 0-0, 4-8) 15reb 3ast 0stl 5blk 6TO
Cousins ( A- ) -- a game that started out of sorts and sloppy for Boogie as we just did not come out ready to play, ended up in a big thuggy effort as we took our big center and started beating the Nuggets over the head with him until they damn near said uncle. That's happened sevral tiimes in the last month, and its the way its supposed to be done. Didn't look like that was how it was going to go in the early going, as Cuz looked tired and distracted, and his teammates generally looked too brainless to make much of his advantage inside. He was very strong on the glass from the start, and was completely carrying us in that respect in another lone ranger effort night on the glass (he wrestled down 15, no other King grabbed more than 4), but his struggle to settle into this game was clearly reflected in a constant barrage of head slapping turnovers that started Nuggets breaks. He passed when he should have shot, creating a 24 sec violation, charged, threw several bad passes so off that the intended recipents were actually looking around thinking there had to be another King somewhere behind them that was the target. Just out of sorts. But there was a current of a power game running underneath. He wasn't getting many shots, but when he did get them he was throwing them down with power, and IT did an unusually good job on looking for him on pick and rols that began to pile up inside points. Despite a number of defensive mistakes there was effort there in another uncommon shotblocking night for him, and later on he would add taking a charge, with 5 fouls no less, to the tally. . Started the third in strong fashion, scoring on our first possession out of halftime and grabbing another rebound, and you could see the engine begin to get revved up. Punctuated things by absolutely posterizing Anthony Randolph for the +1 in the mid 3rd, and for once Smart did not freeze him out until the 4 minute mark or whatever the most recent stupidity is going to be. Instead was brought back in at the 9min mark of the 4th presumably to punish the Nuggets for running Randolph at center...and then largely ignored on offense to completely negate the tactic as our stupid team did not post him up once during that stretch. When we finally did start going to him on offense though -- ironically after Randolph had been evacuated by Karl -- things turned 90s monster center as we went to him again and again and pounded away at the Nuggets' weakness inside. Was dominating play, but getting scarce support from either teammates or his coach, who had him surrounded for much of the quarter by 1 John Salmons, and 3 guys who shot a collective 10-38. Was laboring out there but still just thumping away when Smart abruptly panicked at the 42 second mark and us down 6, and pulled Boogie to insert 3pt shooters (yet bizarrely leaving JT in instead). Boogie never returned as we lost this one with 24pts 15reb sitting on the bench. The early slop once had this grade pretty low, but not many teams have an interior weapon they can just hitch up and ride the way we did with Boogie after half. --Brick
Stats: 23min 4pts (2-5, 0-1, 0-0) 2reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Evans ( D ) -- Tonight was definitely not Tyreke's night. He didn't get the job done scoring, with a lot of shots going to the frontcourt; he didn't get the job done rebounding; he didn't get the job done distributing. He didn't get the job done defensively, either. There were multiple bad plays, but the most notable were his failure to box out the backcourt man on a Denver FT attempt, allowing the Nuggets to come right down the lane for an easy offensive rebound, and the Clear Path foul on Gallinari which not only could not possibly have been called any other way but also occurred on a play where it looked like Gallo might be passing instead of shooting. It was just the worst possible brainfart and the capper to a down defensive day. In the end, the only question that falls in Tyreke's favor is this one: Was he frozen out of the offense? Yeah, a bit, and that's really the only reason that I didn't go down to a F here, because 4 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds is a terrible outing for a guy we have to make a qualifying offer to this offseason.--Capt.
Stats: 33min 10pts (3-12, 2-8, 2-3) 1reb 9ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( B- ) -- IT had a lousy shooting night (3-12), but made up for it by distributing the ball well, racking up nine assists, not only finding open three-point shooters but also repeatedly feeding the hot Cousins in the post. Notably he went to Cuz in the post three times in a row in the late 4th, when Cuz went 2-3 and brought us within three points. "The hand that giveth", however, turned around to make the defensive lapse of the game, allowing Andre Miller to drive right around him on the baseline with 50 seconds left to stretch a 3-point Nuggets lead to 6 and that was it. Outside of that, Thomas actually had a pretty good defensive play with few lapses and two very nice plays, getting a steal by nabbing an outlet pass in transition, and getting a virtual steal by deflecting a pass and forcing a Denver foul to avoid a break. The shooting was ugly, but the passing was good and the defense was up to par, so I think IT deserves a decent, but not great, grade. --Capt.
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