Welp...yep, feels like another Kings season is underway already.
5-15
1-3
4-14
0-5
4-12
3-10
3-5
1-4
1-3
0-3
1-3
1-1
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24-78
Ballgame.
We sure do know how to compete with a Game 7 World Series victory don't we?
Given the game was televised in India, no doubt through Vivek's hard work, we may also have just set back the cause of basketball in an entire subcontinent by several decades too.
Boxscore
Stats: 34min 14pts (5-15, 0-2, 4-5) 9reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 3TO
Gay ( D ) -- ok, well, cause for concern as the malaise that was there throughout the preseason has carried over into the season now. And the type of malaise is the problem: this was the iso focused tunnel vision, tough forced drive into traffic and long jumper off his own dribble mess that Toronto was dealing with at the beginning of last year. Because he's highly talented there were a scattering of spectacular takes to the hoop, mostly on the break or semibreak. But the reason they were spectacular was because they were right into the teeth of the defense and beating 3 or 4 guys to get those finishes. And far more often what we got was just team killing lazy jumpers directly resulting in Golden State fastbreaks. On multiple occasions he missed, as in just didn't see or acknowledge open guys on go 1 on 1, and he seemed almost annoyed or determined to take over, except he didn't. Gets a little credit for some defensive hustle plays on the break, he was on the glass, and Barnes/Iggy didn't do anything against him the other way. But this was a flat bad and worrisome performance because of how/why it was bad. Important he buys in and clicks into gear here pretty quick.
Stats: 21min 2pts (1-3, 0-0, 0-0) 7reb 0ast 2stl 1blk 4TO
Thompson ( C ) -- if it hadn't have been for the sloppiness (there is no excuse for notching 4 TOs when you only take 3 FGAs) this would have been an ok little roleplaying effort. Offensively he got an early post move, and then that was it. He was done and gone and contributed nothing but turnovers and clumsy offensive fouls thereafter as he appeared to be sort of fighting his offensive irrelevancy and wanting to do something he could not. One particular clumsy drive into a defender for an offensive foul on the break particularly stood out as fitting in with the general theme of the night that guys weren't making the extra pass. Had some trouble with Draymond Green's stretchiness, but he was active on defense and on the glass, and at a time when Cuz was not winning the battle of the big bodies inside JT was often the guy cleaning up in there and being physical. He was less settled when he returned, and we were treated to DeMarcus Cousins, level head, coming over to counsel him when JT picked up a technical. Came up with some good open court rim protection when Cousins went out in the third with foul trouble, but with us completely unable to score after half Malone went away from him while searching for more offensive punch.
Stats: 31min 20pts (4-14, 0-0, 12-18) 11reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 6TO
Cousins ( C- ) -- well, if you know the history of the Boogie/Bogut matchup you were worried about something like this. because Andrew Bogut has been bar none the most frustrating center opponent in the league for Boogie. He's taller than Cuz, physical to the point of dirty, can hold his position, block shots up top, and damage his calm with cheap little elbows and chucks, and for all his physicality Boogie still likes to dish it out more than he likes to absorb it. So anyway, fast forward to tonight and in the early going you had DeMarcus not taking his time and throwing up too quick junk reminiscent of his rookie season, looking like he just wanted to get his shot up before something bad happened. He was 0-6 by the mid first quarter. But this wasn't just about Bogut. Bogut only played 18 min on the night. This was about a Steve Kerr strategy that appeared to involve instructions for every one of his bigs to hack and foul and bang Boogie with reckless abandon all night long. Bogut had 4 fouls in 18min, Ezili 4 fouls in 8 minutes, something called Kuzmic had 4 fouls in 6 minutes, and the result was Cousins living at the line, where unfortunately he has been a little off all preseason. Tonight it was frequently 1 of 2 for him as he hit 12 of 18 from the line to account for the bulk of his offense. And the physicality and early Bogut fright appeared to have Cuz just off offensively until late in the game. He made several nice moves but just lacked the touch around the hoop he normally has, on one play he held his hands in fornt of them and looked at them like they were betraying him. He missed his jumpers. He just was not comfortable/himself. And even on the glass the first half was a frustration as guys were banging him and getting over his back and double teaming him and the rest. So why was this not a complete disaster? Well, because this is the new and improved more mature Boogie now. This game was very physical, but he didn't lose his cool in an outrageous way. He wasn't perfect, he almost went for a derisive arm wave that would have got him teched up, but pulled it back. There was some aggressive swiping of the I'm going to get a foul now variety after several plays, and a back and forth hard foul sequence with Ezili. But in a game where he hit the floor a lot and a couple of years ago absolutely would have taken himself out of it, he hung tough for the most part, continued to display the defensive improvements, took charges, cut off penetration (several times allowing his man to step in behind him for a dunk -- was trying to figure out if it was his responsibility to get back or if somebody (Gay?) was supposed to rotate) and in general made contributions. After the 0-6 start, and despite the terrible touch he had on the night, he shot 4-8 the rest of the way. Despite losing the early board battles, he eventually notched 10 on the night. When he finally was out there with a "shooting guard" who can actually shoot (i.e. not Ben) he zipped a crosscourt pass to Stauskas for an open three. He made a loose foul to get himself back into foul trouble again, but there was still focus therafter, and while it sometimes hurt us when he let Speights go around him to avoid picking up more fouls, that was smarts he didn't used to have to stay on the floor. And you looked up and at the end of the game he had fuglied his way into a 20-11 night with some defense. Late in the game he finally seemed to start clicking into gear and making a series of Cuz plays, but it was too little too late. This was obviously a poor performance, but there was something of grit about it, of hanging in there and finding ways to contribute, that was nonetheless encouraging. He didn't quit and he didn't give in. He just wasn't very good.
Stats: 26min 0pts (0-5, 0-2, 0-0) 2reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( D+ ) -- last year Ben was a disaster. He was terrible on offense AND terrible on defense. You don't see that very often because most guys who pair those two traits don't play, but we were determined. Well this game...Ben was not terrible on defense, and he was...well, pretty terrible on offense. First the good, or at least ok: Ben stuck with Klay, did nto directly stop him so much as stayed in his area and challenged most of his shots. He was still out saavied by Klay on several occasions and baited into fouls, but on a night when bad defense would easily have thrown his opening night grade straight into F territory, Ben was at least competitive. Now for everything else...there was no everything else. Ben simply cannot shoot. A waste of perfect shooting form, but then again you have to be careful about perfect shooting form. Peja Stojakovic threw the ball up with a funky twist, Kevin Martin looked like he was taking every ball off a ball rack, but things went in. Ben looks like a textbook, and then he shoots like me. Incredibly frustrating when Cuz draws a tripel team, kicks it right to your "shooting" guard wide open with nobody with 10 feet and clank. Just kills you. Once mysteriously just decided to come down and quickshoot a long three off his own dribble. He never does that. Frustration with himself or the offense? His handle is less keystone cops at this point, but when they put Iggy on him it was no match and I did not understand why we even bothered to let Ben touch the ball at that point. Perhaps his most egregious play happened on the final play of the half while we were somehow still ahead. Speghts threw up one of his long jumpers, Ben was right underneath the hoop on the left side where the ball came off, and yet he barely moved for the ball and didn't get his hands above his waist as Speights lumbered on in in front of him, grabbed the ball away and laid it in for a free hoop he never should have had if Ben chases that ball aggressively. So, less disastrous defense, but come on here, another year of Ben having flame outs at SG? Really? On a night when you cannot score getting 0 points out of a scoring wing spot isn't helping.
Stats: 36min 13pts (4-12, 1-4, 4-6) 4reb 8ast 5stl 1blk 1TO
Collison ( B ) -- finally a good grade. Despite joining in the teamwide shooting woes looked good. But also looked like what he is: a good support player who isn't going to step up and carry you when the main guys aren't clicking. Was using his speed to make plays on both ends in the early going, and throughout the game made a series of nice smart dropoff and pocket passes to Cousins that if Cuz had been on should have led to more points. Was basically the only player on the roster who really looked like he got this whole passing thing. Which you should just expect out of your PG, but obviously its been a while for us. Like the rest of the team never did get his won offense really going, continued his preseason FT struggles, and could not hit his threes from his spots until finally breaking through with a aside/corner three in the lead third as we were fading. Didn't lead anywhere though, and attempts to join the 1 on 1 party and carry us in the early 4th while Cuz and Gay were both out proved futile. He's just not that guy. What he was though was 13pts 4reb 8ast 5stl with only 1TO and most definitely not the problem on this particular evening.
