Its the Defense Stupid -- A Consequence of Poor Defense

Bricklayer

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
PART I -- Immediate Consequences

On Sunday we lost a critical game against the New Orleans Pelicans 115-112. During that game DeMarcus Cousins went for 40pts and 16 rebounds, and we still lost.

Some stats:

-- There have been 97 games of 40pts and 16rebs in the NBA since 1983-84 (32 years -- first year the rebs are searchable).

-- of those 97 games, 73 have been wins for the team with the 40-16 player, 24 have been losses

-- of the 24 losses the average score of opposing teams has been a staggering 113.4pts. Placing our 115 allowed well within the tradition of how to lose with your star putting up 40-16.

-- of the 73 wins the average score of opposing teams has been 106.7pts, and that includes a couple of ridiculous 150-140 type games from the early 80s.


PART II -- Career Long Consequences

Over his career Cousins has scored 35+ points 22 times, averaging an enormous 38.4pts 14.3rebs in those games. We are 11-11 in those games. Much better than we are in games where he hasn't scored 35 of course, but lower than you might expect for such monster performances.

-- average opponents score in 11 losses? 113.1pts

-- average opponent's score in 11 wins? 106.3pts

PART III -- Other Bigs When They Go Big

Pau Gasol has scored 35pts 9 times in his career (hint, because he is a lesser player than Boogie). He is 6-3 in those 9 games.

-- average opponents score in 3 losses? 111.7pts

-- average opponent's score in 6 wins? 93.4pts

Chris Webber scored 35+ 28 times in his career. His career record in those games was 20-8.
Patrick Ewing went 62-31 in those games.
Alonzo Mourning went 14-9 in those games.
Hakeem Olajuwon went 61-36 in those games
David Robinson went 46-18 in those games.
Moses Malone went 67-23 in those games.
Yao Ming went 12-5 in those games.
 
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Bricklayer said:
PART I -- Immediate Consequences

On Sunday we lost a critical game against the New Orleans Pelicans 115-112. During that game DeMarcus Cousins went for 40pts and 16 rebounds, and we still lost.

Some stats:

-- There have been 97 games of 40pts and 16rebs in the NBA since 1983-84 (32 years -- first year the rebs are searchable).

-- of those 97 games, 73 have been wins for the team with the 40-16 player, 24 have been losses

-- of the 24 losses the average score of opposing teams has been a staggering 113.4pts. Placing our 115 allowed well within the tradition of how to lose with your star putting up 40-16.

-- of the 73 wins the average score of opposing teams has been 106.7pts, and that includes a couple of ridiculous 150-140 type games from the early 80s.


PART II -- Career Long Consequences

Over his career Cousins has scored 35+ points 22 times, averaging an enormous 38.4pts 14.3rebs in those games. We are 11-11 in those games. Much better than we are in games where he hasn't scored 35 of course, but lower than you might expect for such monster performances.

-- average opponents score in 11 losses? 113.1pts

-- average opponent's score in 11 wins? 106.3pts
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Looking at the full season splits we can see that:

Opponents scored an average of 103.1 points in Kings wins
Opponents scored an average of 113.6 points in Kings losses

So yes, the Kings are clearly squandering Boogie's monster games but it appears that it doesn't really matter whether he's having one or not since the stats are more or less the same for his big games and the Kings' games overall.
 
Haven't we as fans been saying it's the defense for a decade now? even before Boogie, the Kings were always bottom 5 in defense. It's a culture, it's never been established as a priority, therefore you get to watch rec ball since 2005.
 
Curious what the Kings record is when Cousins scored 25+ with 15+ rebounds. The high rebound numbers normally equate to more work inside and more fouls on opposing bigs.
 
swisshh said:
Curious what the Kings record is when Cousins scored 25+ with 15+ rebounds. The high rebound numbers normally equate to more work inside and more fouls on opposing bigs.
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as mentioned he actually averages 38.4 and 14.3 when he gets over 35, so pretty close as a subset.

35+pts = 11-11 (.500) record

25 and 15 = 16-18 (.471) record

Just trying to isolate the offensive rebounding as proxy for 'inside play" nets less impressive results. 20+pts and 5+ offensive rebounds = 23-32 (.418) record.

Approaching it another way, 10+ FT games = 47-62 (.431) record.


All are well north of career 143-260 (.354) of course. So play = good. Geton offense glass = good. Draw fouls too = better. Score big = even better. Score huge = best.
 
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I've said it before. There's more of a correlation to the Kings winning when Cousins makes good decisions offensively rather than point totals.

Kings have a winning percentage of 61% (equates to a 50-32 record) when Cousins meets the following criteria:
  1. .500 or higher FG%
  2. 4 or more Assists
  3. 3 or fewer Turnovers
Now I'm not saying the defense is fine because it absolutely is not, but if the defense is fixed and we become a good defensive team, the next step to contention is Cousins making better decisions. I don't doubt that we could be a 50 win team if Cousins doesn't improve in that area but we have the right players around him, but to have a shot at making a run at a title, he'll need to learn how to absolutely pick a part a team offensively. Whether that is through scoring or passing.
 
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In order for Boogie to make 'better decisions' he would have to have options. I have not seen any player movement (in the half court) aside from one player making a half hearted cut along the base-line no matter what player has the ball in this entire half. In other news, LeBron had 3 pancakes, 6 pieces of bacon, freshly squeezed Orange Juice for breakfast. He has blinked exactly 5736 times since awakening this morning and our broadcast team is intent on making sure we know about it. He has 11 points at the half. They said so. How many do our guys have? Hold on, I have to go look
 
Kingsgurl said:
In order for Boogie to make 'better decisions' he would have to have options. I have not seen any player movement (in the half court) aside from one player making a half hearted cut along the base-line no matter what player has the ball in this entire half. In other news, LeBron had 3 pancakes, 6 pieces of bacon, freshly squeezed Orange Juice for breakfast. He has blinked exactly 5736 times since awakening this morning and our broadcast team is intent on making sure we know about it. He has 11 points at the half. They said so. How many do our guys have? Hold on, I have to go look
Click to expand...

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Kingsgurl said:
In order for Boogie to make 'better decisions' he would have to have options. I have not seen any player movement (in the half court) aside from one player making a half hearted cut along the base-line no matter what player has the ball in this entire half. In other news, LeBron had 3 pancakes, 6 pieces of bacon, freshly squeezed Orange Juice for breakfast. He has blinked exactly 5736 times since awakening this morning and our broadcast team is intent on making sure we know about it. He has 11 points at the half. They said so. How many do our guys have? Hold on, I have to go look
Click to expand...
He has plenty of options when a defense sends double & triple teams at him. He needs to not force the issue and find the open man to give his team a better shot.

I've always liked this particular quote: “The way you handle double teams is you can’t fight them. That’s part of making your team better because it comes down to simple common sense. Do I try to score on two guys or do I pass the ball to an open teammate? There are guys who try to fight the double team and only two things can happen and they’re both bad. You can either take a bad shot and miss or you can turn the ball over.”

Sound familiar? Cousins is so talented that he can get away with it here and there, but if he wants to get to that next level, this is the next step for him.

I also like the story I heard about Popovich on calling plays for Leonard. Leonard was talking to a reporter and was explaining back when Pop first started calling plays for Leonard that Leonard's response was "so you want me to score?" Popovich replies, "No. I want the team to score."

This is exactly the mindset Cousins needs to have. Giving him the ball on the block or at the top of the key is not code for 'we're relying on you to score.' Cousins gives us the best chance at getting easy buckets AS A TEAM. If he gets there, he realizes his full potential in my opinion.
 
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