[Grades] Grades v. Pacers 11/3/2012

Who was the Kings Minister of Defense this trip?

  • James Johnson

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tyreke Evans

    Votes: 24 46.2%
  • Chuck Hayes

    Votes: 26 50.0%
  • DeMarcus Cousins

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 2 3.8%

  • Total voters
    52
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Wowza wowza. Much much defense. Much bad offense. Two OTs. And in the end just ran out of steam and lost. No hanging heads we're the worst team in the league nonsense tonight though. Time to go home and get some of these wins.

Kingsflix highlight vid:

Postgame quotes:

Boxscore

Stats: 20min 4pts (1-5, 0-1, 2-2) 2reb 1ast 1stl 3blk 2TO
Johnson ( D ) -- okay, red flag here is that Johnson has only been getting worse on offense, by this game looking completely lost, scared to shoot since he can't hit anything, and basically disrupting our offense just by his presence on the court. Result = his minutes got slashed so we could play Thornton and get some balance out there. Started the game missing jumpers, then turning them down, then finally hesitating and shuffling his feet for a TO. Now on the flip side of the ball was very active as so many of our guys were, nothcing 3 blocks and a steal in only 20 min of action, but while active I don't think he was that tremendously effective on his own man. With Granger out the Pacers were instead playing big guard sized repalcements in Gerald Green and Lance Stephensen, and Johnson's strength wasn't of great use against guys running around on the perimeter popping open. He lost them several times for open threes. Thing is sthat still getting big defensive hustle plays to help us set the defensive tone we have been maintaining. Length and activity inside. Can't go F with that no matter how bad the offense gets. But also can't go above this D until he figures it out and settles into a comfort zone, because he's not been just not accomplishing anything on offense, he's been mucking up the spacing and timing for everybody else.

Stats: 24min 4pts (2-6, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 1ast 0stl 3blk 0TO
Thompson ( C- ) -- well, after two solid games to start the trip, upon the first watch of this game I thought Jason was largely ineffective. Second partial watch later and I still thoguht so, but noticed him doing more good things than the first time around. The ineffective would have taken all the major forms, as JT didn't score, didn't rebound (David West, who is a poor rebounder, dominated JT/Chuck to the tune of 18rebs to 8), and didn't slow the PF across from him. So kind of a clean sweep. But upon the rewatch you noticed that like the rest of the team Jason was hustling on defense and came up with several saving blocks on help defense, and that the rest of his game was within the flow of the offense, such as it is. He didn't get much accomplished, but it wasn't like JJ situation where he was actually messing us up. Just had a quiet night and gave way to Hayes for the stretch and OT minutes. Need mroe rebounding out of him though -- JT, Hayes and TRob combined for 70 minutes and 8 combined rebounds. Tyreke had 9 himself.

Stats: 42min 21pts (9-27, 0-0, 3-6) 13reb 1ast 4stl 1blk 1TO
Cousins ( C ) -- well...what to say here. First it should be noted that Demarcus Cousins "only" notched 21pts 13rebs 4stls and a blocked shot while playing 42 minutes and avoiding the foul trouble which has limited him so badly the first two games. He was our only rebounder aside from Reke (this was the game where our top 3 talents really stepped forward as such), only turned the ball over 1 time (albeit he got lucky on that front with some very loose passes ahead on the break), and if you are fortunate enough to be in a fantasy league which does not count shooting percentages he put up a heck of a statline. Back in real life however, it would be hard to call this a good game, at least for as prodigous a talent as Cousins. Faced with the biggest/longest roadblock in the league in Hibbert he shot only 9-27. That was 5-12 at half, so it was a 4-15 second half. And it wasn't wild stuff. Wasn't even often his offensive tip game. Most of it was little pop jumpers and us throwing it into him in the post and saying go to work big guy. I.e. a perfect situation for him to win the game for us -- in fact obviously in a game that went to 2 OTs, all he had to do was hit one more shot in either regulation or the first OT and we win. Just one. 10-27 and we go home happy. But time and time again things bounced off the rim or were blcoked by Hibbert (6 blocks). Flips, half hooks, jumpers, you name it. And at the 1:45 mark of regulation went inside, got fouled...and bricked both FTs. Again, all he had to hit was one. Hugely frustrating with everybody, including Boogie himself, working so hard. Came up with his only credited block of the night on a back to back (with Hayes) block sequence with 15 seconds left and the game tied. Saved us from defeat and sent Reke and Thornton off to the races the other way with a chance to win it before Marcus forced a tough tough layup and we came up empty. Things did not improve for Boogie in the OTs though. Got one dunk off a nice Reke dish late in the first OT to help force the second, and a largely meaningless and even harmful layup late in the 2nd OT when we needed a three. But generally we kept going to him, and he just could not get anything to fall. You don't crap all over 21pts 13rebs 4steals and a block in a long scrappy battling effort with a terrible grade. But neither can Boogie be really happy with this one.

Stats: 44min 14pts (5-15, 0-0, 4-4) 9reb 4ast 3stl 2blk 4TO
Evans ( B ) -- offensively we struggled early in this one, not getting a shot in the arm until we brought in MT midway through the quarter. But defensively it was a war every quarter the starters were the main guys, and Reke was again a huge part of that. In fact his first quarter here was nearly as strong defensively as his first quarter in the home opener, not only one of the best he's played himself, but All Defense level stuff getting his hands on ball after ball, saving several hoops, picking off passes and going the other way etc. Just extremely aggressive and attacking in a way we've only seen flashes of before. That aggression bled over to the offensive side of the ball, where Reke was not gunning nor dominating, but was slashing and banging hard into the paint. Sometimes it was too much as there were turnovers and blocked attempts. But until the ragged stretch and OTs when the attempts got extremely tough, this was a 5-10 shooting night, and he once again was the main creative force amongst the starters, notching 4 of the 9 assists that group got on the night and setting up several nice dunks with his slashing passes. Unable to hit midrange jumeprs in the third and it looked like last year as the attempts were off balance, so responded with a couple of amazing finishesas we went on our big run to mae this into a dogfight the rest of the way. Made a bad error with a bad alley oop pass meant for JT near the end of the third -- George picked it off and the Pacers went her other way to make it a 10pt lead instead of 6. And may have made a poor decison trying to start a break with MT to win the game at the 10 seconds mark -- easy to say that now of course because MT missed the potential game winning layup -- but maybe we should have pulled it out. In any case played the game fast and hard, filled up all corners of the stat sheet in an Iggy like fashion, and what mistakes were made were mostly of the over aggressive variety.

Stats: 23min 5pts (2-6, 1-4, 0-0) 2reb 2ast 1stl 0blk 5TO
Thomas ( D ) -- not effective in his minutes once again, and again gave way to Brooks to run the team down the stretch and through the OTs. Hard to tell what the deal is, but through the first 3 games IT is averaging 24.3 min 1.7ast and 3.3 turnovers. That's not going to get it done as a PG. Tonight was largely a forgotten man as the war was really waged with the big bodies inside, but every once in a while would just pop up wiht an almost random turnvoer. Had them of all types, rarely seeming forced. Dribbling, passing...just was somehow off and never looking comfortable. Both his made shots were set up for him, so he was not necessarily disrupting the team by gunning, but he missed 3 of his 4 threes, and then would jsut randomly throw it to the other team every couple of minutes. Not just not dynamic right now. Looks uncomfortable and ineffective, and did through much of preseason too.
 
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Bench

Stats: 42min 26pts (9-21, 4-10, 4-4) 6reb 4ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Thornton ( A- ) -- easily his best game of the early season. Came in for Johnson in the first quarter and immediately really gave us a boost, adding his offense to a hardworking crew that was busting its butt on defense but was unable to put much on the board on the other end. In fact played most of his minutes with the starters this time out, and was more effective with them than he was with our bench. This is an offensive grade of course, but when out there with our defensive scrappers joined right in and this was also his best and most energetic performance thus far. Helped on the glass, ran the floor with reke, made a nice alley opp pass to TRob in the early 4th, and played a well rounded game. Bulk of ths grade is still for his late offense though, as he scored a dozen points in the fourth quarter and first OT, including the clutch game tying threes to send it to each OT. Not a perfect game, had some problems with 6'8" Paul George shooting right over him at several key moments, and was in volved int he dicey break along with Reke with 10 seconds to go in regulation when they maybe got overaggressive, and Marcus ended up throwing up a tough tough layup attempt against two Pacers rather than pulling it out and trying to get a better shot. But this was strong, and obviously without his late heroics we aren't in the league's first double OT game no matter how hard everybody was working.

Stats: 35min 11pts (4-11, 3-7, 0-0) 5reb 2ast 1stl 1blk 2TO
Brooks ( B- ) -- was quiet again in his first stint with our ineffective reserves in the 2nd quarter, aside from one lightning quick drive not long before leaving. But with IT struggling, came in in the mid 3rd and earned the rest of the minutes in the game with three big threes in the late 3rd/early 4th as we were into the dogfight. Would be the last of his points, and there were several mistake sin the OTs, including a dumb 28 foot three point attempt as we lost our composure, and a bad pass meant for Reke in the 2nd OT as the wheels fell off. But the thing he did was join in with the defensive effort and scrap. Grabbed several big boards despite his size, and while the Pacers were able to take advantage of his heroin chic build once or twice down the stretch in the post, he was generally not a liability and doing his part. Not a great outing, but he contributed, and fit in plugging a hole we otherwise had in our lineup.

Stats: 12min 9pts (3-6, 0-0, 3-4) 0reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Robinson ( B- ) -- in his first stint had one nice quick post move, but otherwise was struggling again, not finishing and not rebounding and was soon replaced. But in his second stint in the late 3rd/early 4th had his best stretch a an NBAer, largely just using his athelticism as we repeatedly fed him flying to the hoop. Also hit a jumper with no hesitation soon after entering, picked up a steal stepping in front of a pass on the baseline, and got a goal tend, which was actually a good sign since he for some reason rarely uses his athleticism for those purposes. Still never grabbed a rebound during the game but gave us a dunking energy boost and left an impression.

Stats: 14min 2pts (1-3, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Cisco ( C- ) -- well..he was out there. Continued to put up empty statlines just trying to stay out of the way. Hit a single jumper in the early 2nd, and had a steal soon after retunring in the late 3rd. Inserted here when he was in an attempt to give us some spacing just by being out there. But eventually we just went with our best guys and did the 3 guard with MT and Reke together instead. There is almost nothing to grade on with these Cisco performances.

Stats: 34min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-0) 6reb 4ast 0stl 3blk 0TO
Hayes ( B+ ) -- was actually not that effective in the early going of this one, as his lack of verticality was an issue on the boards and our defense, spectacular for 3/4, fell apart in the 2nd. But after Hayes returned in the second half as a designated David West cooler he settle in and played a mjaor steadying role form there on out. Actually took him a while to lock into West, as he was mysteriosuly leaving him open for his patented 18 foot jumpers. But once he did lock infor the final 15 minutes of the game he had an incredibly impressive stretch of man on man defense against West, completely shutting him out of the late game scoring. Made other contributions along the way, including several good passes, including the one out of crowd to MT for the second game tying three in OT, scoring on an insane palycall -- a pick and roll for Chuck Hayes from Reke at the 1:00 mark of a 3pt game, and a big block to close our defensive stand at the 10 second mark, followed by a Cousins block to trigger that ill fated break to try to win it. Also played excellent D on West to close the game and send it to OT.
 
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Cousins needs to step up. Plain and simple. This 9-26 crap will kill us every time if he doesn't learn how to finish. The defense was there, his support from Reke and Thornton were there, and he flat out choked in OT and throughout the whole game.
 
OK Smart, the rest is up to you and how this season progresses. Tyreke with the ball? Check. Thornton spreading the floor? Check. Hayes guarding the best offensive big on the other side? Check.
 
OK Smart, the rest is up to you and how this season progresses. Tyreke with the ball? Check. Thornton spreading the floor? Check. Hayes guarding the best offensive big on the other side? Check.

if he doesn't figure this out from the past 3 games ill lose all hope
 
well all 3 games were winnable, which gives me a sliver of hope. unfortunately i have zero hope that Smart will make the obvious adjustments to fix it
 
it's amazing to me how bad Cousins is at finishing inside the paint with a guy his size and strength. My goodness this is going to be a hair pulling season if this continues.
 
I picked Reke for the trip but would probably put Chuck for this game. Reke's defense was phenomenal the 1st quarter though and solid throughout.

Any chance of girls, Brick? If so, Jessica Biel please.
 
I picked Reke for the trip but would probably put Chuck for this game. Reke's defense was phenomenal the 1st quarter though and solid throughout.

Any chance of girls, Brick? If so, Jessica Biel please.


Nope, I'm not with all the whining and wimping on this one -- I am happy with this loss. Good hard fought loss. Girls are for disasters. :p
 
Proud of this team and the defensive intensity we showed. Reke was dominant as was Hayes. Out stalling offense lost us this one. Not of effort or play on defense.

TRob did well also.

Hard fought loss. We will own GS and Detroit if we get some better production out of Boogie
 
Overall it was a hard fought game. Indiana has been a good team in the Eastern Conference, so losing to them, in front of a packed arena in double O.T. is not bad.

However, Cousins was bad, and its been awhile since I was tempted with the notion to single-handedly pin a loss on a certain player. He has been a far cry from the consistent 20/10 type elite big we have been pineing for.

In any event, I'll be looking for opening night
 
First it was that we need to run through the offense through Cuz and that Tyreke only pounds the ball. Now we need to let Tyreke run the offense?

Problem goes much deeper than that, gentlemen. This is a poorly constructed team and it is the Maloofs and Petrie's fault. I think the most we have a chance to win this year is 30 games. That is a small improvement based on last year's 82-game season pace of 27. Our defense looks improved, but we're still going to struggle with cohesiveness and fouls as long as our roster doesn't fit like this.
 
Nope, I'm not with all the whining and wimping on this one -- I am happy with this loss. Good hard fought loss. Girls are for disasters. :p

Yeah, I thought there were a number of positives tonight. Defense was very solid most of the game. Sub patterns were improved. Saw the Reke/Cuz two man game a bit more, although that needs to increase. MT arguably had one of the top 5 games of his career thus far, especially taking into account boards and assists. We got impressive defensive stops both at the end of regulation and the first OT.

Only thing I really question is Brooks' role. I liked how IT/Reke played off each other and Reke handled the ball a decent amount. Brooks pounded the hell out of the rock and was pretty poor at setting up the offense, and hurt us defensively, although everyone elses defense did a pretty decent job covering up for him. Biggest thing which you hit on is we ran out of steam.

Big question is does Smart learn from the positives, because they were there for all to see. I'd rather have the problem of fixing our offense while watching the improved defense we saw tonight and at Chi, than the reverse.
 
First it was that we need to run through the offense through Cuz and that Tyreke only pounds the ball. Now we need to let Tyreke run the offense?

Problem goes much deeper than that, gentlemen. This is a poorly constructed team and it is the Maloofs and Petrie's fault. I think the most we have a chance to win this year is 30 games. That is a small improvement based on last year's 82-game season pace of 27. Our defense looks improved, but we're still going to struggle with cohesiveness and fouls as long as our roster doesn't fit like this.

You do realize this was basically a 50 win team (52 win pace last season) in its home opener, right? Second night of a back to back we take them to double OT?
 
Missed the games this season so far. Has Hayes been proving he's worth the contract?


He was solid. He was in David West's grill towards the end of the game and made some timely plays.

I never really fault the Chuck Wagon, because by nature he puts it out on the floor. Yes, he had a down year and lost his starting position, and is short on talent, but the guy gives his all in terms of effot, and thats more than I can say for at least 1/3 the roster
 
Missed the games this season so far. Has Hayes been proving he's worth the contract?

Closer. He's looked much better than last year, through preseason and carrying into the first few games. The over the top Grant 'n Jerry he's the best player on the court stuff is ridiculous, but he's made contributuons every game, and unlike last year where he wasn't even very good at the things he's was supposed to be good at, this season we've been using him much better, getting something out of him as a passer on offense, and a man defender on defense. Tonight a lack of boardwork hurt, but otherwise he locked into West late in the game, made a key hoop on a pick and roll with Reke in a 3pt game (an insane playcall, but hey), got an assist on one of Thornton's tying threes etc.
 
Lol. Maybe Grant and Jerry going crazy over Chuck is why 5 people so far think he was the best defender on this trip. Game maybe, but trip? No way.

I had the Ind broadcast so didn't hear the Grant and Jerry crap. I can imagine it though, given all the IT will be an all star and a hybrid Stockton/Magic talk last year.

I will say Chuck is making a strong argument for starting, as JT has been poor. JT as a backup center actually helps our bench with size and I'd be in favor of it.
 
If Boogie played 25% better the past 3 games we would have gone home 3-0. The team is clicking way better on defense this season. No easy picks n rolls for any opponent and we're hammering them hard down low especially with Reke's superb help defense on all of his teammates.

I'm proud of this team's improvement defense. But we have to get wins sooner before some players starts to question Smart's focus on defense, which is actually really showing in the last 3 games.

And Hayes should be starting and JT to the bench as the back-up C. With Reke and JJ doing all scrappy weakside blocks, we should worry less on Chuck being shorter than most PF. Chuck his high IQ and rarely allows his opponent to take advantage of his height.

A for TRob, btw.
A for Chuck on the D.
And F for the worst shooting percentage of this team.

With George Hill posting any of our PGs, Smart should have gone with Reke/MT/JJ backcourt and bagged that game home. OT is about defense and domination, that's where you'll put Reke at PG, just my opinion.
 
I missed this game ... had a wedding rehearsal dinner. DVR somehow didn't record it. Verizon DVR is terrible.

I'll catch it on LP broadband archive ... but it looks (and sounds) like we played better tonight? Looking at the box score, the shooting is still way off the mark. We have got to be more efficient.
 
Missed this game as well, but it sounds like a lot of the same problems. Defensive improvement, but inefficient offense as well. Poor shooting from the team's main three scorers and no reliable three point shooting. Cousins playing below par to start the season.
 
Defense best in many, many years. Major progress. Cuz still pushing too much at times missing shots at bad times (like in 2nd OT). A learning process that takes time. His best game overall. Pieces coming together but it will take quite a bunch of games for Smart to figure out just what assets he has for various situations. Kings had multiple opps to beat a 52 win team on their home court and took them to 2 OTs. They'll get there. Tonight was step 3.
 
Fun stat of the night: Chuck Hayes somehow wound up with 3 blocks.

Not-so-fun-stat of the night: We were outrebounded by 20 boards. T-Rob had 0 in 12 mins of play.
 
The defense for large stretches looked REALLY good. Indiana had a hard time getting a shot off quite on quite a few occasions. Tyreke was everywhere on defense. Hayes might as well have put handcuffs on david west. Thornton made some big shots as usual. If the team brings this defense to every game then theres no need to worry. As soon as Cousins goes back into beast mode the kings will win more games than they lose.
 
Yeah, I thought there were a number of positives tonight. Defense was very solid most of the game. Sub patterns were improved. Saw the Reke/Cuz two man game a bit more, although that needs to increase. MT arguably had one of the top 5 games of his career thus far, especially taking into account boards and assists. We got impressive defensive stops both at the end of regulation and the first OT.

Only thing I really question is Brooks' role. I liked how IT/Reke played off each other and Reke handled the ball a decent amount. Brooks pounded the hell out of the rock and was pretty poor at setting up the offense, and hurt us defensively, although everyone elses defense did a pretty decent job covering up for him. Biggest thing which you hit on is we ran out of steam.

Big question is does Smart learn from the positives, because they were there for all to see. I'd rather have the problem of fixing our offense while watching the improved defense we saw tonight and at Chi, than the reverse.

Holy crap. I agree with all of this.

IT is better than Brooks at everything outside of pure scoring. He's also much more willing to play off-the-ball the Brooks and is a better spot-up shooter. Brooks can be incredibly valuable, but he needs to be used 15-20 minutes a night; not 30+.
 
Haven't watched the game (been at work), but how does a team touted as having so many offensive weapons only muster 98 pts in a double ot game?
 
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