Good bounceback. Fun game. Yay.
How you like these for 4th quarter numbers: Kings 42 Bad Guys 20.
Resign this man.
Daly is now averaging 12pts 11rebs and 1.5blks in 28min per since the All Star break. Numbers just exactly where you'd want them from a guy playing that role.
This one too.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D+ ) -- one of only a handful of Kings not to have a good game. Hit an early three, but was generally missing his shots and doing nothing else statistically. Felt like he was getting into a fair number of hustle plays though and Beasley wasn't killing him in the early going. Made a couple of nice passes to set up Pooh and Daly for hoops. Continued to struggle offensively, but was brought back at the end of the third when Beasley started heating up. Could not control him and started hacking, leading to the return of Donte to the game -- finally a reasonable use of Donte by Westphal.
Cousins ( F ) -- speaking of Kings not having a good game, our starting forward line just didn't get it done, even with us figuring out that the way to win was to injure both of the other team's star forwards across from them (Love left early a groin, Beasley was in and out with a hip). We tried to hide DeMarcus on defense again by putting him on Darko, but all that did was turn Darko into prime years Shaq, as he was able to back Cousins down at will into the paint and drop little hooks right over him. And the other way DeMarcus seemeed intimidated byt Darko's size. This is nto the first time we've seen that -- for all his aggressions and bravado against most centers, the truly huge guys, the guys who obviously have several inches on him, have sometimes seemed to intimidate DeMarcus. Like he has never seen people that big before in his career and is afraid to attack them and get smnushed inside. Shaq, Kwame Brown, Andrew Bynum, Darko...the 7'1"+ guys. In any case, do't think DeMarcus's jumper is feeling good right now and so he ended up just kind of fluttering...yes, fluttering like a not terrribly beloved Kings center of old. Sort of passively taking a few dribbles, moving wihtout much purpose, starting to try things, then abruptly getting nervous and stopping and fluttering back outside. Getting too cute rather than anything meat and potatoes. Too scared to even try to beat Darko. And so he didn't. Took all of 2 shots in the game, the only one he hit being a long jumper in the second quarter. Grabbed all of one rebound for the entire game. And actually got pulled because he was getting killed out there so badly. Late in the third had maybe his best moment of the game, rifling a pass to JT at the hoop -- the one thing he could still do tonight was make another bundle of top big man passes (he's averaged 4 assists a game in March). And then of course for the cherry on top went out and got himself ejected from the game:
Now actually Luke Ridnour started it. That should be underlined. DeMarcus did not just randomly lose his head -- Ridnour lost his and charged over for a running two handed shove in DeMarcus's chest. But DeMarcus of course could not play it cool after that, would have gotten away with the return shove on Ridnour, but was also getting into it with half the Wolves team, and so off he went. In no way was this a basketball loss to us the way he was playing, but that moment nearly undid us in the game, as an inspired Wolved team, Beasley in particular suddenly went on a big charge and chopped our lead all the way down to 6pts before Donte Greene led our huge pushback to turn this back into a major blowout. And so DeMarcus, in front of the one crowd he has always wanted to show off for after their silly Wes Johnson pick, instead was his own worst enemy and gave them all the hating material in the world with one of his season's worst, capped with what will be taken as proof of his mental instability.
Dalembert ( A ) -- and if DeMarcus turned in one of his worst, Sammy came back the other way and turned in one of his very best, having another huge near career game as the inside to Thornton's outside in a potent 1-2 punch. Not able to convert over Love 1 on 1 in the early going, but got several offensive tips of of Kings misses. And just started using his length moving without the ball and once again became our main interior guy. Worked and worked his way to a 14pt 9reb 1st half, and nearly duplicated that production after the break on his way to a monsterish 26-17-2 on 13-20 shooting. Settled and saved us at the end of the third as we were melting down, with an offensive tip finish and then a post move as well for his 24th point to get that lead back to 10 going into the 4th. Flirted with both another career high in points, and a 20-20 game. Not much else to say really. Oh yeah: resign this dude. Now. He's put up better numbers than Joakim Noah since the break, has been putting up rebounding and block numbers like these for years, and is a hell of a lot better offensively than anybody knew. Is also a classy guy, and the pickup is beginning to feel like potentially this decade's version of a certain other classy foreign born veteran center with humanitarian impulses who we teamed up next to a wildly talented but sulky big guy once upon a time.
Thornton ( A ) -- almost lost behind DeMarcus's struggles, and Daly's interior beasting, all Marcus did was threaten a triple double and come up with a career high in assists. Bit sluggish to start, but heated up rapidly getting out on the break and capping the run with a three. Had a few dumb/selfish moments, forcing drives into heavy traffic, but really for the most part played a heck of a floor game, and in another very promising sign for a potential pairing with Reke, showed some PG stuff really on his way to 9 assists. Canned not one, but TWO threes in the last 10 seconds of the half. The first on a nice Donte drive and kick, and then the second on a halfcourt heave drawn up by Westphal in atimeout wiht 3 seconds to go. Got physical and feisty in the third on both ends of the court, attackign the rim on one side and blockign one of Johnson's shots as he schooled him. Left with over 6 minutes to go in this one, but in a closer game could easily have had that triple double. And while neither Marcus Thronton nor Beno Udrih is a guy you normally think of as triple double material, if those two are guards #2 and #3 alongisde Reke, how many teams can say that all 3 guards in their main rotation have had triple doubles?
Udrih ( B ) -- for the first half of this one was quiet, playing in the shadows and actually on the game getting outplayed by Ridnour. Did have a very nice 1/2 court touch pass ahead on the break, dropping it in just over the defender. But otherwise was an afterthought, right up until he wasn't. Started to wake up afer the break, and quietly peppered in little jumpers throughout the 3rd. In the 4th got less quiet as his late shots, including the capping three, put the exclamation point on our 21-0 4th quarter run to blow this thing wide open as we were the oen doing the charging down the stretch for once.
Bench
Thompson ( C ) -- not one of our stronger games, althoguh ended up filling in for long minutes with DeMarcus struggling/ejected, and working quietly as the "other guy" in steh shadows between Daly and Thornton he racked up a huge +33 +/-. Did better against Love in the early going, with a quick post move and back to back jumpers, than he did against mostly Anthony Randolph the rest of the way. Randolph was beating him with mobility, and Jason's offense disappeared the other way.
Jeter ( A- ) -- after being largely eliminated from the rotation in recent weeks, and facing a likely total elimination of his minutes once Reke gets back, Pooh came in firing, and hitting. Knocked in multiple early jumpers in the early going, and stepped in front of big ole Pekovic on the break to take a charge. Set up Donte for several chunks of his explosion, and added a three in the corner in the 4th. Capped things with a fancy between the legs pass to Darnell on the break in the garbagetime. Just played a really good game all over the court.
Casspi ( D ) -- and the last of our guys who struggled....just could get nothing going on either end. Took his eye off a ball on the break and lost it out of bounds. Bricked both his threes, and both his FTs. To cap things Beasley started to heat up against him in the late third, triggering the emergency insertion of first Cisco and then Donte to try to get the situation under control. Poor game.
Greene ( A- ) -- Actually got into the game in the first half of this one, and made a nice drive and dish to Thronton for a corner three right at the close of the half, but made an error the other way and fouled Ridnour, who split the pair. And then in the second half...We finally did it right! Finally used Donte right! With Beasely taking over, we finally brought Greene in as a cooler to close the third after Casspi and Cisco both could not slow him. And what do you know, it worked -- Beasely was immediately put into the cooler. Less easy to predict was what happened ont he other end where Donte just went nuts with one of those games he has every once in a while that shows you just what he could be if he actually could shoot. Was just smoking the other way as he knocked down his first three shots, including 2 threes. Made a nice full speed catch of a pass thrown behind him by Pooh as he was heading to the hoop that got him to the line, but bricked the pair. Added a tough contested shot and a three late, but also threw up a pretty blatant heat check that had no chance. Seems silly to put 4 A grades up for a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves playing with only part time eforts from Love and Beasley, but what are you going to do? We had a bunch of guys come up with truly superior games, and Donte was the closer and largest factor in our huge run to close this one out.
Jackson ( B- ) -- in the game when Demarcus went ballistic and got thrown out, Jackson first got into the game as he was chosen as the replacement to shoot the FTs, and he ended up splitting the pair. As per his usual as the season has worn on, did not give us much except scoring, but was very much in the spirit of the blowout as he ran up and down the court, and even hit a three late in the game that had our bench up and waving towels.
Taylor ( B ) -- got to truly play the old garbagetime superstar role previously occupied by such high flyers as Henry Turner back in the good ole days, and Gerald Walalce of more recent vintage. After a missed alley oop, hit a nice baseline jumper. Fullcourt dribble and turned the tables with a nice fullspeed alley oop to Jackson that got the bench hopping. Then after a quick Wolves turnover, Pooh hit him out on the break for an oop of his own to close things and put an exclamation on it. Not enough minutes, but I'm going to go ahead and give hima grade anwyay because he packed a lot of numbers into such a short stint.
How you like these for 4th quarter numbers: Kings 42 Bad Guys 20.
Resign this man.
Daly is now averaging 12pts 11rebs and 1.5blks in 28min per since the All Star break. Numbers just exactly where you'd want them from a guy playing that role.
This one too.
Official Boxscore
Garcia ( D+ ) -- one of only a handful of Kings not to have a good game. Hit an early three, but was generally missing his shots and doing nothing else statistically. Felt like he was getting into a fair number of hustle plays though and Beasley wasn't killing him in the early going. Made a couple of nice passes to set up Pooh and Daly for hoops. Continued to struggle offensively, but was brought back at the end of the third when Beasley started heating up. Could not control him and started hacking, leading to the return of Donte to the game -- finally a reasonable use of Donte by Westphal.
Cousins ( F ) -- speaking of Kings not having a good game, our starting forward line just didn't get it done, even with us figuring out that the way to win was to injure both of the other team's star forwards across from them (Love left early a groin, Beasley was in and out with a hip). We tried to hide DeMarcus on defense again by putting him on Darko, but all that did was turn Darko into prime years Shaq, as he was able to back Cousins down at will into the paint and drop little hooks right over him. And the other way DeMarcus seemeed intimidated byt Darko's size. This is nto the first time we've seen that -- for all his aggressions and bravado against most centers, the truly huge guys, the guys who obviously have several inches on him, have sometimes seemed to intimidate DeMarcus. Like he has never seen people that big before in his career and is afraid to attack them and get smnushed inside. Shaq, Kwame Brown, Andrew Bynum, Darko...the 7'1"+ guys. In any case, do't think DeMarcus's jumper is feeling good right now and so he ended up just kind of fluttering...yes, fluttering like a not terrribly beloved Kings center of old. Sort of passively taking a few dribbles, moving wihtout much purpose, starting to try things, then abruptly getting nervous and stopping and fluttering back outside. Getting too cute rather than anything meat and potatoes. Too scared to even try to beat Darko. And so he didn't. Took all of 2 shots in the game, the only one he hit being a long jumper in the second quarter. Grabbed all of one rebound for the entire game. And actually got pulled because he was getting killed out there so badly. Late in the third had maybe his best moment of the game, rifling a pass to JT at the hoop -- the one thing he could still do tonight was make another bundle of top big man passes (he's averaged 4 assists a game in March). And then of course for the cherry on top went out and got himself ejected from the game:
Dalembert ( A ) -- and if DeMarcus turned in one of his worst, Sammy came back the other way and turned in one of his very best, having another huge near career game as the inside to Thornton's outside in a potent 1-2 punch. Not able to convert over Love 1 on 1 in the early going, but got several offensive tips of of Kings misses. And just started using his length moving without the ball and once again became our main interior guy. Worked and worked his way to a 14pt 9reb 1st half, and nearly duplicated that production after the break on his way to a monsterish 26-17-2 on 13-20 shooting. Settled and saved us at the end of the third as we were melting down, with an offensive tip finish and then a post move as well for his 24th point to get that lead back to 10 going into the 4th. Flirted with both another career high in points, and a 20-20 game. Not much else to say really. Oh yeah: resign this dude. Now. He's put up better numbers than Joakim Noah since the break, has been putting up rebounding and block numbers like these for years, and is a hell of a lot better offensively than anybody knew. Is also a classy guy, and the pickup is beginning to feel like potentially this decade's version of a certain other classy foreign born veteran center with humanitarian impulses who we teamed up next to a wildly talented but sulky big guy once upon a time.
Thornton ( A ) -- almost lost behind DeMarcus's struggles, and Daly's interior beasting, all Marcus did was threaten a triple double and come up with a career high in assists. Bit sluggish to start, but heated up rapidly getting out on the break and capping the run with a three. Had a few dumb/selfish moments, forcing drives into heavy traffic, but really for the most part played a heck of a floor game, and in another very promising sign for a potential pairing with Reke, showed some PG stuff really on his way to 9 assists. Canned not one, but TWO threes in the last 10 seconds of the half. The first on a nice Donte drive and kick, and then the second on a halfcourt heave drawn up by Westphal in atimeout wiht 3 seconds to go. Got physical and feisty in the third on both ends of the court, attackign the rim on one side and blockign one of Johnson's shots as he schooled him. Left with over 6 minutes to go in this one, but in a closer game could easily have had that triple double. And while neither Marcus Thronton nor Beno Udrih is a guy you normally think of as triple double material, if those two are guards #2 and #3 alongisde Reke, how many teams can say that all 3 guards in their main rotation have had triple doubles?
Udrih ( B ) -- for the first half of this one was quiet, playing in the shadows and actually on the game getting outplayed by Ridnour. Did have a very nice 1/2 court touch pass ahead on the break, dropping it in just over the defender. But otherwise was an afterthought, right up until he wasn't. Started to wake up afer the break, and quietly peppered in little jumpers throughout the 3rd. In the 4th got less quiet as his late shots, including the capping three, put the exclamation point on our 21-0 4th quarter run to blow this thing wide open as we were the oen doing the charging down the stretch for once.
Bench
Thompson ( C ) -- not one of our stronger games, althoguh ended up filling in for long minutes with DeMarcus struggling/ejected, and working quietly as the "other guy" in steh shadows between Daly and Thornton he racked up a huge +33 +/-. Did better against Love in the early going, with a quick post move and back to back jumpers, than he did against mostly Anthony Randolph the rest of the way. Randolph was beating him with mobility, and Jason's offense disappeared the other way.
Jeter ( A- ) -- after being largely eliminated from the rotation in recent weeks, and facing a likely total elimination of his minutes once Reke gets back, Pooh came in firing, and hitting. Knocked in multiple early jumpers in the early going, and stepped in front of big ole Pekovic on the break to take a charge. Set up Donte for several chunks of his explosion, and added a three in the corner in the 4th. Capped things with a fancy between the legs pass to Darnell on the break in the garbagetime. Just played a really good game all over the court.
Casspi ( D ) -- and the last of our guys who struggled....just could get nothing going on either end. Took his eye off a ball on the break and lost it out of bounds. Bricked both his threes, and both his FTs. To cap things Beasley started to heat up against him in the late third, triggering the emergency insertion of first Cisco and then Donte to try to get the situation under control. Poor game.
Greene ( A- ) -- Actually got into the game in the first half of this one, and made a nice drive and dish to Thronton for a corner three right at the close of the half, but made an error the other way and fouled Ridnour, who split the pair. And then in the second half...We finally did it right! Finally used Donte right! With Beasely taking over, we finally brought Greene in as a cooler to close the third after Casspi and Cisco both could not slow him. And what do you know, it worked -- Beasely was immediately put into the cooler. Less easy to predict was what happened ont he other end where Donte just went nuts with one of those games he has every once in a while that shows you just what he could be if he actually could shoot. Was just smoking the other way as he knocked down his first three shots, including 2 threes. Made a nice full speed catch of a pass thrown behind him by Pooh as he was heading to the hoop that got him to the line, but bricked the pair. Added a tough contested shot and a three late, but also threw up a pretty blatant heat check that had no chance. Seems silly to put 4 A grades up for a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves playing with only part time eforts from Love and Beasley, but what are you going to do? We had a bunch of guys come up with truly superior games, and Donte was the closer and largest factor in our huge run to close this one out.
Jackson ( B- ) -- in the game when Demarcus went ballistic and got thrown out, Jackson first got into the game as he was chosen as the replacement to shoot the FTs, and he ended up splitting the pair. As per his usual as the season has worn on, did not give us much except scoring, but was very much in the spirit of the blowout as he ran up and down the court, and even hit a three late in the game that had our bench up and waving towels.
Taylor ( B ) -- got to truly play the old garbagetime superstar role previously occupied by such high flyers as Henry Turner back in the good ole days, and Gerald Walalce of more recent vintage. After a missed alley oop, hit a nice baseline jumper. Fullcourt dribble and turned the tables with a nice fullspeed alley oop to Jackson that got the bench hopping. Then after a quick Wolves turnover, Pooh hit him out on the break for an oop of his own to close things and put an exclamation on it. Not enough minutes, but I'm going to go ahead and give hima grade anwyay because he packed a lot of numbers into such a short stint.
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