[Game] Kings @ Grizzlies - Friday, Nov. 16 - 5:00 PM PT

#1
The Kings head to the land of the King, Elvis Presley to take on the only grouping slower than molasses: The Memphis Grizzlies. With Gasol who is thicker than the sauce slabbed over those sweet Memphis ribs and Conley who plays slower than a ride on the river boat, the Grizzlies look to temper the speed of the accelerating royalty.

With Bogdan back, the Kings appear to be able to climb to even higher heights. Interesting fact, the Kings are only behind the Warriors in team 3-point shooting. Yet, the Kings are one of them only two teams below 70% team free throw shooting. The other, the Pacers, are only .002 points below 70%. The Kings are clearly the worst free throw shooting team in the NBA. Clearly the Kings have to improve the area of their game where the team begs them to take the free points being offered. Every miss is basically the team saying, "No thank you, I don't want free points".

In addition it seems as if one of the keys to beating the Grizzlies is convincing, to take all the shots. He is averaging an impressive 19 points a game but is shooting less than 40% from the field while taking nearly 16 shots per contest. Though he does seem to take care of the ball as he has roughly a three-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio.

Who wins when great offense meets great defense?
 
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#2
Not writing off the young Kings in this one, but the Grizzlies just beat the Bucks and have had one day of rest to prepare for the upstarts from Sactown.
 
#5
Memphis has been playing great. Watched them defend Giannis this week and think the Kings should employ a similar strategy--they put Kyle Anderson on Giannis, shaded him right (he's right hand dominate) then ran the off the ball defender at him when he drove. Didn't stop him on every play, but well enough to mitigate his usual, enormous impact. Next game--Bags/Willie plays him on the ball then run Kosta/Giles at him off the ball.

The key to tonight's game is Fox vs. Conley. Conley is just damn solid, makes the right plays, and controls tempo. Fox is going to need to speed him up when Conley is offense and run him into the ground when Conley is on defense. For betters, take the over. Memphis is playing extremely well on offense and tends to adopt the style of play of teams that push tempo rather than dictate a slower pace.
 
#7
Some people thought Jaren Jackson was good enough to go #2 overall, so I'm sort of selfishly hoping he plays poorly so I can feel better about our pick should Bagley not pan out. I haven't seen Jackson play so I've no idea how he's been doing, but his stats look decent so far for a rook (apart from his awful 21% 3pt shooting). It's still super early but I'm a little worried about Bagley. Doncic has been really good, and a few of the guys behind him have been playing good as well.

EDIT: Also, I just want to say I don't think Bagley has been bad by any means. It's probably just a bit of recency bias. His last 4 or 5 games have been underwhelming.
 
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#8
Some people thought Jaren Jackson was good enough to go #2 overall, so I'm sort of selfishly hoping he plays poorly so I can feel better about our pick should Bagley not pan out. I haven't seen Jackson play so I've no idea how he's been doing, but his stats look decent so far for a rook (apart from his awful 21% 3pt shooting). It's still super early but I'm a little worried about Bagley. Doncic has been really good, and a few of the guys behind him have been playing good as well.

EDIT: Also, I just want to say I don't think Bagley has been bad by any means. It's probably just a bit of recency bias. His last 4 or 5 games have been underwhelming.
Bagley always seemed like a player who could pretty easily let his lack of confidence get the best of him. He's not playing with any confidence right now. He's still getting to his same spots on the floor and is doing well in the post, he just can't finish anything. I'd love to see him get some run with Fox and Bogie at the same time just to get set up with easy baskets.
 
#11
Ringer featured the Grizz today - the spin is The Grizzlies Don’t Care About Your High-Powered Offense.

Surely not a coincidence ahead of tonight's game
They enter Friday’s meeting with the similarly surprising Sacramento Kings at 8-5, in the thick of the Western Conference playoff picture. But while the Kings have succeeded by hitting the gas, the Grizz are taking things slow and riding a back-to-the-future approach back to contention.
Hopefully we can force them to play our game.
 
#13
The Grizzlies use the old school, two pronged guard/bigman offensive model. Gasol went 6-12 from 3 against milwaukee and memphis won by 3. The only defender that they have to check one of either WCS or Bjelica is a rookie; Gasol will either have to chase WCS or guard Bjelica away from the basket, neither scenario is to his advantage.

Im most concerned about Marshon Brooks killing us off the bench because we banished him from the league years ago.
 
#14
Finally a game !

The Grizz have a hell of a defensive lineup primed to slow down any offense.

Temple has fit in very well there and regardless of what anyone says still has a lot to offer in the league as a strong two way player.

The key to this game is to hit Memphis hard early on, we should be well rested so our young legs are primed. Will be a battle of styles and youth v experience. We definitely have the firepower to overcome Memphis but must play 4 strong quarters on both ends
 
#15
The Grizz have a hell of a defensive lineup primed to slow down any offense.
Defenses can be good when theyre set. Its not like we play a style that allows the defense to key in on any of our players; our willingness to share the ball is partially what has been giving teams problems. I dont doubt that they play good D, i just think its more effective when it is set and focused on an offensive focal point. Neither of those apply to us.
 

Larry89

Disgruntled Kings Fan
#16
Finally a game !

The Grizz have a hell of a defensive lineup primed to slow down any offense.

Temple has fit in very well there and regardless of what anyone says still has a lot to offer in the league as a strong two way player.

The key to this game is to hit Memphis hard early on, we should be well rested so our young legs are primed. Will be a battle of styles and youth v experience. We definitely have the firepower to overcome Memphis but must play 4 strong quarters on both ends
The key is making sure we secure the rebounds and get defensive stops, I'd say we got a bit lucky when Marc got hurt last time we played them, We also don't have Kosta tonight. Might get ugly on the offensive boards
 
#18
The key is making sure we secure the rebounds and get defensive stops, I'd say we got a bit lucky when Marc got hurt last time we played them, We also don't have Kosta tonight. Might get ugly on the offensive boards
Hopefully Marvin's athleticism and jump can help offset not having Kosta in this game
 
#19
Defenses can be good when theyre set. Its not like we play a style that allows the defense to key in on any of our players; our willingness to share the ball is partially what has been giving teams problems. I dont doubt that they play good D, i just think its more effective when it is set and focused on an offensive focal point. Neither of those apply to us.
Agree. Individually Memphis has strong defenders and this is as much a part of them slowing down an offense then the schemes they employ.

Temple knows exactly what our youngsters are capable of and will do all he can to slow buddy, conley is a solid defender, i hope fox blows him out of the water with his speed but conley is a very good defender. Gasol will be interesting to see who he matches up with. I hope we stretch the floor well and keep him out of the paint to enable WCS to gain some rebounding parity back
 
#21
Finally a game !

The Grizz have a hell of a defensive lineup primed to slow down any offense.

Temple has fit in very well there and regardless of what anyone says still has a lot to offer in the league as a strong two way player.

The key to this game is to hit Memphis hard early on, we should be well rested so our young legs are primed. Will be a battle of styles and youth v experience. We definitely have the firepower to overcome Memphis but must play 4 strong quarters on both ends
I'm really hoping I can get the hometown feed so I can hear more commentary like this!!! :)
 
#22
Some people thought Jaren Jackson was good enough to go #2 overall, so I'm sort of selfishly hoping he plays poorly so I can feel better about our pick should Bagley not pan out. I haven't seen Jackson play so I've no idea how he's been doing, but his stats look decent so far for a rook (apart from his awful 21% 3pt shooting). It's still super early but I'm a little worried about Bagley. Doncic has been really good, and a few of the guys behind him have been playing good as well.

EDIT: Also, I just want to say I don't think Bagley has been bad by any means. It's probably just a bit of recency bias. His last 4 or 5 games have been underwhelming.
Watching JJJ from a long term perspective to me he looks to have the most potential by far and he's still raw, he's already man handling fully grown men and on 2-3 plays he bullied the current version of Giannis which virtually is impossible by anyone. I know there's a lot of talk about Luka vs Bagley in the other thread but I'm more worried about Jackson than Luka in 3-4 years.

Also the Kings should be helped out by the absence of Dillion Brooks, I also think the Kings second unit should full court press Shelvin Mack who is pretty beastly in the half court but has had issues with quicker guards pressing him end to end.
 
#24
Both these teams rely on playing the game at their tempo to win: Kings are #1, Grizzlies are #30. Think that's pretty easily the deciding factor in this one; if we play our game and get out and run, we can win this game. If we go into their building and play their slugfest tempo, we're going to lose.