[Grades] Grades v. Thunder 11/9/2014

[Kingfanpaul]

Would have been nice to come away with a win against the injury depleted Thunder on the road, but we can't win them all I guess. I'm still very excited about the way the season is starting. The improved play by Ben is really really nice to see. Can't wait for Nik's shot to start falling more consistently.

 

[swisshh]

Nik's shot isn't so much the problem as understanding where to go on offense and what his defensive rotation is. On the play where Collison got the open three, it really began with 1. Smith's penetration and 2. The rotation to the kickout pass to the corner three.

Both Reggie and Nik rotated to the corner. I'm going to assume that Nik should have stayed up top. When they both rotated to the corner, it forced Casspi or Gay (I forget who) to rotate to Nik's man, and then it was swung to a wide open Collison.

 

[captain bill]

Well, we had to lose eventually, so I don't mind this after ripping off 5 through an incredibly tough stretch.

I was only able to watch the first half, but my big takeaway is this: we DESPERATELY need a legit 3 point shooter in addition to Gay. I particularly remember Stauskas bricking a wide-open 3 pointer in the mid-second quarter that would have cut the lead and given us some momentum.

More teams will pack the paint like the Thunder did tonight - as of now, we should be able to beat up on teams with weaker defensive front lines (like the Clips or Blazers) but are going to have trouble against the Thunder and Grizz when they run out waves of solid bigs to clog up the middle.

Our only way to reliably punish teams for doing this is by having multiple reliable 3 point shooters.

Also, happy about BMacs play of late

 

[Kingston Jamaica]

By the way, there are no more teams without a loss this season. The team has to show maturity how to deal with losses and to be competetive right in the next game.

 

[Hadlowe]

Getting Ben going is big for the team.

I really worry about Malone on the offensive side of the ball. He is running some decent flex sets to get Cousins and Gay the ball in their spots, but he doesn't have a backup plan when the stars aren't getting theirs. It really shows when the bench comes in and the ball ends up going to Reggie Evans every other trip down the floor.

Casspi and Landry have been saving the bench from being a complete disaster.

 

[captain bill]

Getting Ben going is big for the team.

I really worry about Malone on the offensive side of the ball. He is running some decent flex sets to get Cousins and Gay the ball in their spots, but he doesn't have a backup plan when the stars aren't getting theirs. It really shows when the bench comes in and the ball ends up going to Reggie Evans every other trip down the floor.

Casspi and Landry have been saving the bench from being a complete disaster.

Reggie has been playing well, grabbing 6 boards in 15 minutes per this season. He also was the only guy fighting for (and getting) rebounds against OKC's bigs, which we will NEED over the stretch of a long season. He was pretty much the only guy who stopped OKC from getting every offensive rebound.

 

[Kingston Jamaica]

Getting Ben going is big for the team.

I really worry about Malone on the offensive side of the ball. He is running some decent flex sets to get Cousins and Gay the ball in their spots, but he doesn't have a backup plan when the stars aren't getting theirs. It really shows when the bench comes in and the ball ends up going to Reggie Evans every other trip down the floor.

Casspi and Landry have been saving the bench from being a complete disaster.

I wonder if it would better to play Reggie Evans as a starter and Thompson from the bench. Thompson would play stronger when supported by Casspi and Evans finish is less needed woth the starters. I think it's excellent that Nic plays with the bench and learns the NBA at the right pace just like in the top teams. That's why the mid, late first rounders usually become better players than most of the lottery picks. Sessions must pick it up, sooner the better, and he knows how to play. He needs to get his head organized. Meanwhile he is hurting the bench players game.

 

[mac]

Of particular concern to me is that for the second game in a row we struggled to get the ball down low to Cuz, particularly in the 1st quarter.

 

[Sluggah]

I realize it was a loss but woooo Ben! 4-6 from three...a +15...love it.

 

[HereWeBoogie]

Of particular concern to me is that for the second game in a row we struggled to get the ball down low to Cuz, particularly in the 1st quarter.

And with the Grizzlies coming up to finish off this road trip, they need to address that issue very soon

 

[The_Jamal]

Of particular concern to me is that for the second game in a row we struggled to get the ball down low to Cuz, particularly in the 1st quarter.

Because they're packing the paint. We don't want to throw the ball down with 3 guys lurking around Cuz anyway. The way you combat that is make the defense stay home and make shots. We didn't tonight and that's why we lost

 

[chasen4r1]

My highlight was watching Ben grow even more today. He's looking hungrier and more confident. He's turning into the player I had expected to see take the court after we drafted him. Keep developing, Ben!

 

[R2D2]

I almost expected girls for this thread.

I almost expected another Total Wins Prediction thread after this game.

 

[Larry89]

Everyone looked so lazy today, slow, lethargic, and no energy. Maybe it had to do with that 2OT game the early start and the travel?

 

[Prince_XY]

Pity that Ben Mac was not an option in the voting.

Very good point.

Why is that Brick?

 

[The Hammer]

Because they're packing the paint. We don't want to throw the ball down with 3 guys lurking around Cuz anyway. The way you combat that is make the defense stay home and make shots. We didn't tonight and that's why we lost

Exactly.

One way or another, we're going to have to have shooters to compliment Cuz. It was the same problem with Tyreke. You have one utterly dominant weapon, but if you don't have something else to go to, you're screwed because they can bend the defense to stop it. We've needed shooters for YEARS.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Pity that Ben Mac was not an option in the voting.

Very good point.

Why is that Brick?

I tend to presume that everything that Brick says is facetious, unless he says otherwise. So, I interpret the poll not as asking, "Which of these guys was our best player tonight?", so much as it is asking, "Which of these guys was the least objectionable player tonight?"

 

[KingMilz]

A lot of people are saying they won cause they packed the paint on Cuz but to me it was they just outworked us and wanted to win more than we did, they showed up from the start and for the 2nd game in a row we didn't (we only played well late in 3rd onwards against the Suns). The problem was not them stopping us but them scoring 100+ points with Reggie Jackson and Lamb as there two top options. There is no way we should be giving up even close to 100 points to a Thunder team without KD and WB.

I really think we have to look at these types of games as "must win's" and the players need to treat these type of games as such (if we want to have any hope of making the playoffs), I'm more worried about this team when we play teams at our level or below than I am against the top teams. We have to beat the teams we "should" beat.

 

[HereWeBoogie]

The suns smashed the Warriors in the 4th tonight, 36-16, to win the game, so our win in PHX the other night looks more impressive at least

 

[sterö]

Just a terrible game by Stauskas and Sessions. I'm happy with the way McLemore has been playing though.

 

[Albatros]

The refs missed that hack a Adams foul that was clearly before 2:00 on the replay. Then to me it looked like cuz's layup late was a goaltend, might be wrong then they immediately call on foul on cuz with no one around him.

That was a huge momentum shift botching that hack call.

Suffice to say we shouldn't have been in that position but still.

 

[hrdboild]

A lot of people are saying they won cause they packed the paint on Cuz but to me it was they just outworked us and wanted to win more than we did, they showed up from the start and for the 2nd game in a row we didn't (we only played well late in 3rd onwards against the Suns). The problem was not them stopping us but them scoring 100+ points with Reggie Jackson and Lamb as there two top options. There is no way we should be giving up even close to 100 points to a Thunder team without KD and WB.

I really think we have to look at these types of games as "must win's" and the players need to treat these type of games as such (if we want to have any hope of making the playoffs), I'm more worried about this team when we play teams at our level or below than I am against the top teams. We have to beat the teams we "should" beat.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. The three point shooting is a constant worry around here and I'm not sure why. We made 6, OKC made 6. We didn't need to shoot 24 threes. You don't beat a zone by passing the ball around the perimeter and shooting jumpers, that's exactly what they're hoping you'll do. But the big issue here is that we've now given up 100+ points in 4 straight games. These last two games in particular that early season strong effort on defense has been largely absent. Playing down to your level of competition is the mark of a mentally weak team. The joke against the Clippers was that we'd be unbeatable if our team brought the same intensity to every match up that they bring against Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Maybe there's something to that. There's no easy games this month. We can't afford to lose focus against anyone or we'll quickly find ourselves in an all too familiar position at the bottom of the standings.

 

[Albatros]

This is the foul at the end called by the ref on the LEFT hand side with absolutely no view of whether there was contact or not (there wasn't) The baseline ref who has a clear view doesn't call anything. We wouldn't have won anyway but that is a very very strange call.

 

[Albatros]

Hello????

 

[Bricklayer]

Very good point.

Why is that Brick?

For the same reason Rudy Gay was not. It wasn't a Kings player of the loss poll. It was a of the guys who weren't terrible poll, and its largely worked in that people have spread the votes. Badly constructed poll is one where everybody has the same answer.

 

[Sniggles]

Watching that first half was like playing NBA 2k where the AI blatantly cheats. Thunder missed nothing, got every offensive rebound. No movement on either end for the Kings.

 

[arusinov]

Nik's shot isn't so much the problem as understanding where to go on offense and what his defensive rotation is. On the play where Collison got the open three, it really began with 1. Smith's penetration and 2. The rotation to the kickout pass to the corner three.

Both Reggie and Nik rotated to the corner. I'm going to assume that Nik should have stayed up top. When they both rotated to the corner, it forced Casspi or Gay (I forget who) to rotate to Nik's man, and then it was swung to a wide open Collison.

Yes... It was Omri.
Nik left Jackson and decided to run to close Ibaka (which was guarded by Reggie) in the corner. Then Omri had to rotate to Jackson, left Collison open for three.
I think Reggie was alert enough to close on Ibaka would he try to shoot from corner...

Here's the episode :

http://stats.nba.com/cvp.html?GameID=0021400092&GameEventID=415#

What's interesting: Collison and Omri seem to be in opposite deirections in changing play style.... Collison for years (and there were 10 years in NBA) was shooting threes only sporadically and with bad percentage, now he takes ~2 per game and connects~38.5%... and for Omri large proportions of his shots were 3pt, now he scores around basket, takes less than 1 three per game... and didn't make even one till now.

 

[mac]

Hello????

Yeah, they missed that. Then Rudy fouled him again because they didn't call it, but that was when the clock was 1:58. There were indeed some questionable calls against us... But frankly we shouldn't even have been in a position to lose the game due to calls when facing an undermanned Thunder team.

 

[Siranthony]

We got beat by a team who's best two players are Ibaka and Lamb, we played lazy terrible basketball, shocking loss. How could we not stop Jackson/Lamb and Ibaka, I just can't understand that. It was the same thing against the Suns we came out lazy with no energy like we were better than them or something and it nearly cost us than and today it got us.

I agree. It was just like the Suns game only more so. Not enough motion on offence except when Malone got on them about it. Lazy play a lot of the time. We had poor shooting but that is more about the energy level IMO. We looked like last year when we would lose to anyone unless we felt like playing hard. We can't expect to play like this and make it to the playoffs. Drink some coffee or an energy drink or something! The Spurs DON'T play like this.

 

[ppine]

A couple of things happened last night. Number one is that the Kings were consistently out hustled by a team that was desperate for a win. The Kings learned that they need to review how to attack a zone. They went into the teeth of the zone repeatedly.

It was really interesting to see the Kings big men including DMC, JT, Reggie and Landry get dominated. I hope that is a wake up call for them after being physical so far this season.

Lamb and Jackson are probably better players than they are given credit for. They had something to prove so they did.

It was a difficult game to watch. I hope the Kings can learn from it. Ben was a bright spot.

To play poorly and still be in it right at the end is something new for the Kings.