First home loss of the season snaps a 3 game winning streak and drops Kings to 3-5 for the season. That is right in the middle of the West which really means nothing at this point but it is still better than Mavs and Spurs which is anything but expected. No time to waste thinking about this loss because tomorrow Kings visit the silicon valley and will play the Clippers in attempt to bounce back from unfortunate but expected defeat.
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Piksi's pow(d)er rankings
In the race for the good draft pick this loss changed nothing. There are about 25-30 games this season that belong into "calculated loss" column. We will probably win some of those but they will be rare.
Chances of making the playoffs still at 0%
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We are a text book lottery team. In a home game - we started well, lead 90% of the game and lost it at the end. That is what lottery teams are supposed to do - find a way to lose and if there isn't any - invent a way to lose. Now, with Kevin - this game might have different ending but that is a part of NBA.
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Brad Miller is not and will never be a first option in any offense. I am to lazy to look up the stats but I don't think that we won too many games when Brad had the most FGAs for the Kings. I don't want to blame Brad too much because he got pushed in the role that he can't handle and because he played hard but he is too soft to play inside. He got blocked 5 times and when Kwarme is one of those - that is beating some serious statistical odds.
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JT - first start 40+ minutes and 15-9 game. Very nice and should happen more often. The 3 might not be his desired position but that is irrelevant. Is Mikki really a 4 or a basketball player for that matter ? Does Brad play like a 5 ? Main thing - he gets the time and he produces. Let's just hope that the trend continues for him and for the other kids.
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Aside from JT - this game has shown that we are still a veteran team trying to win games at all costs. Rotation was cut to 8 and starters played some heavy minutes. While we are shorthanded - that is still not a valid excuse. Now, when Kevin isn't playing and QD doesn't see any minutes something isn't right.
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Today's defensive scheme was to make sure that Pistons don't make too many layups but it ended up[ putting them on the FT line way too many times. We couldn't keep any of their back court guys from penetration. Just a difference between a good team and a not so good team. Pistons aren't a great shooting team to begin with. We just didn't give them enough chances to miss more of their shots.
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The better team won the game but we didn't deserve to lose it. We lead most of the game and were statistically better almost in every category. Yet only thing that counts is an L. We kept the tradition of the "bad team" syndrome by decomposing in the last quarter. Pistons were very beatable today but we just never really gave them a chance. We played well enough though. Compared to the Warriors game - this was class. Let's just blame it on Violet Palmer since she was there.
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AWARD TIME
Rip gets the LW-VC award. He was pretty bad today but there was no Kevin to make him pay
TDM will not be handed out tonight
RA & 1 award went to Sheed. He looked very, very old
Salmons gets the JHA award. He was supposed to be the guy tonight but he proved once again incapable
Brad gets Mikki award. 2-16 is something that we won't see from Brad very often. He was 5 misses shy from the famous 2-21 that Webber had in a game that we actually won.
WTF moment of the game - fugly 4th quarter
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Clippers are next and they have won their first game of the season beating Mavs after losing first 6 games. Clippers suck and if we are looking for the road win this season - this is as good of an opportunity as any. They seam to be at full strength which is going to cause us problems up front dealing wit Kaman and Camby leaving Thorton open to dominate. Despite all of it they are the Clippers and chances are 50/%0. We will get a chance to see Skinner and Hart again. Hopefully Hart will play.
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Brad - please make it more difficult so that isn;t too easy that the caveman can do it
Kevin - get well soon
Salmons - not good enough to be a man on a bad team
Beno - improving
Mikki - the biggert problem is that even a solid game is pretty bad
JT & Hawes - making Kings games worth watching
rest - mateen
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Clippers suck and that makes them very dangerous. They are at full strength and they will be rested. BD will have a good game. Thorton will win TDM. LV-VC will go to Ricky Davis. If Hart plays other awards will be applied. I think that under normal circumstances - we have a decent chance there but I don't see it happen this time.
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Piksi's pow(d)er rankings
In the race for the good draft pick this loss changed nothing. There are about 25-30 games this season that belong into "calculated loss" column. We will probably win some of those but they will be rare.
Chances of making the playoffs still at 0%
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We are a text book lottery team. In a home game - we started well, lead 90% of the game and lost it at the end. That is what lottery teams are supposed to do - find a way to lose and if there isn't any - invent a way to lose. Now, with Kevin - this game might have different ending but that is a part of NBA.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Brad Miller is not and will never be a first option in any offense. I am to lazy to look up the stats but I don't think that we won too many games when Brad had the most FGAs for the Kings. I don't want to blame Brad too much because he got pushed in the role that he can't handle and because he played hard but he is too soft to play inside. He got blocked 5 times and when Kwarme is one of those - that is beating some serious statistical odds.
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JT - first start 40+ minutes and 15-9 game. Very nice and should happen more often. The 3 might not be his desired position but that is irrelevant. Is Mikki really a 4 or a basketball player for that matter ? Does Brad play like a 5 ? Main thing - he gets the time and he produces. Let's just hope that the trend continues for him and for the other kids.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aside from JT - this game has shown that we are still a veteran team trying to win games at all costs. Rotation was cut to 8 and starters played some heavy minutes. While we are shorthanded - that is still not a valid excuse. Now, when Kevin isn't playing and QD doesn't see any minutes something isn't right.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's defensive scheme was to make sure that Pistons don't make too many layups but it ended up[ putting them on the FT line way too many times. We couldn't keep any of their back court guys from penetration. Just a difference between a good team and a not so good team. Pistons aren't a great shooting team to begin with. We just didn't give them enough chances to miss more of their shots.
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The better team won the game but we didn't deserve to lose it. We lead most of the game and were statistically better almost in every category. Yet only thing that counts is an L. We kept the tradition of the "bad team" syndrome by decomposing in the last quarter. Pistons were very beatable today but we just never really gave them a chance. We played well enough though. Compared to the Warriors game - this was class. Let's just blame it on Violet Palmer since she was there.
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AWARD TIME
Rip gets the LW-VC award. He was pretty bad today but there was no Kevin to make him pay
TDM will not be handed out tonight
RA & 1 award went to Sheed. He looked very, very old
Salmons gets the JHA award. He was supposed to be the guy tonight but he proved once again incapable
Brad gets Mikki award. 2-16 is something that we won't see from Brad very often. He was 5 misses shy from the famous 2-21 that Webber had in a game that we actually won.
WTF moment of the game - fugly 4th quarter
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Clippers are next and they have won their first game of the season beating Mavs after losing first 6 games. Clippers suck and if we are looking for the road win this season - this is as good of an opportunity as any. They seam to be at full strength which is going to cause us problems up front dealing wit Kaman and Camby leaving Thorton open to dominate. Despite all of it they are the Clippers and chances are 50/%0. We will get a chance to see Skinner and Hart again. Hopefully Hart will play.
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Brad - please make it more difficult so that isn;t too easy that the caveman can do it
Kevin - get well soon
Salmons - not good enough to be a man on a bad team
Beno - improving
Mikki - the biggert problem is that even a solid game is pretty bad
JT & Hawes - making Kings games worth watching
rest - mateen
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Clippers suck and that makes them very dangerous. They are at full strength and they will be rested. BD will have a good game. Thorton will win TDM. LV-VC will go to Ricky Davis. If Hart plays other awards will be applied. I think that under normal circumstances - we have a decent chance there but I don't see it happen this time.
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