The Kings hit the floor after a day (and two nights off) in Miami. How bad will the Miami flu get? (At least we don't have to worry about Keegan.)
Previously On...
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award -PJ Washington. The fact that this isn't even PJ's most dominant performance against the Kings puts him up among the pantheon of great Kings Killers of times past (move over, Rodney Stuckey!). The dude literally could not miss regardless of who was guarding him.
Shaq - Mason Plumlee. Had to google him to make sure I got the right Plumlee brother down but Mason spent the first half raining destruction down upon the ears of whatever Kings big man stood in his way (or more accurately freely allowed him straight-line drives to the rim every single time he touched the ball) and clanking free throws off the rim with his new stroke that Jay Triano kept getting blamed for. The second half was a little better and culminated with Mason turning the ball over in the closing seconds when Davion poked the ball from him from behind while he obliviously tried to play Point Plumlee but that first half was rough to watch.
The CoJo Award - Richaun Holmes continues to put up nothing burger stat lines whenever he's on the floor, even getting benched for Alex Len in the first half. When Domantas Sabonis inevitably fouled out, Mike Brown even opted to play Trey Lyles as his center over him. Not great, Rich.
Vlade Divac Great GM Award - The Hornets have drafted Nick Richards, JT Thor, Kai Jones, and Mark Williams to play center for them over the last two years alone. None of them aside from Nick Richards has even been able to see the floor, let alone beat out Plumlee for the starting role. Good going, Mitch Kupchak.
WTF Moment of the Night- Feels like Domas is one or two more nights of fouling out from going Boogie.
Random Internet Talking Head Bad KANGZ Take of the Game
We're Talking Basketball
It's the Heat... again! Usually when the Kings take on a team twice in this short a span, it's against a western conference team getting both of its road or home games against one team out of the way at once but instead we have a rare matchup sandwich, with the Heat playing the Warriors last night and the Kings playing the Hornets the night before that.
The Heat beat the Warriors last night after staging a comeback against them in the 4th quarter and a controversial review that apparently saw Steph purposely airball a three to try and get a foul called on Jimmy Butler. Taking advantage of a bad Warriors bench (Kuminga is now collecting dust on the end of Kerr's bench and James Wiseman has pretty much forgotten how to play basketball as the season has wound on) and extra bad Warriors defense (Warriors are current 29th in the league at opponents points per game), Miami pulled off it's victory despite losing Tyler Herro in the first half due to him getting Richaun-ed.
None of the Heat starters played particularly huge minutes (Herro getting his eye poked may actually have helped them in that it kept him fresh for tonight) but Butler, Bam, and Lowry all saw over 36 minutes of playing time. Unlike the last matchup, the Heat have Dwayne Dedmon back in action as their backup big, which in all honesty scares me less than if UD was seeing minutes in his place.
Sabonis was on his way to a monster night until the Heat fouled him out last time around and I kinda think/hope that that might be the case again this game. With Fox out with a bone bruise, someone has to pick up more of the offensive load and Domas is probably our most proven player at being capable of doing so. Dude just needs to avoid playing defense like Jason Thompson.
As great as Kevin Huerter and Davion Mitchell were on offense against the Hornets, Keegan Murray had his first truly bad shooting night of the season, missing the mark on even some of his makes, including his big three at the end of the game, which sorta saw a lucky bounce and rolled around the rim before going in. Keegan set his career high against the Heat at 22 points, which seems rather low for a shooter of his caliber. Without Fox to score 30 a night, I'm hoping 18+ a night Keegan can become something even more (AND it would help his ROY campaign).
Davion gets his first start of the season and it of course comes agains the Miami Heat, a team whose style he is pretty much the embodiment of (short, scrappy, great at defense, largely boring outside of an intense devotion to winning). Kings better have security on the lookout because Pat Riley might have him kidnapped after the game.
The Heat have started their season a little slower than usual and are probably missing PJ Tucker more than they'd like to admit. Their defensive number remain relatively robust but they've struggled on offense despite seeing a huge defense/offensive shift in their lineups by moving Herro into the starting five (and having to play Duncan Robinson some rotation minutes). That doesn't mean they're bad and asking a team just getting its feet under them like the Kings to beat the Heat twice in short order is probably asking a bit much.
Injury Report
Kings-
De'Aaron Fox - OUT (ate too many Sour Patch Kids)
Trey Lyles - Day-to-day (stubbed toe)
Hornets-
Tyler Herro - Day-to-day (trapped in alternate universe)
Victor Oladipo- OUT (name said backwards three times in a row)
Omer Yurtseven - OUT (Spent 8 dollars on twitter checkmark )
Final Prediction
Games in Miami are always tough (lots of times for extracurricular reasons) and I'd definitely feel better were designated Miami Killer De'Aaron Fox playing in the game but for the first time in a while I have confidence in the team stepping up without its best player and toughing one out. Miami's on the second night of a back-to-back and the Kings should have hopefully gotten some rest in between Miami nights. Keegs follows up his off-night with an on-night (we all know he probably went to bed promptly at 10PM after drinking a nice glass of lukewarm milk) and Off-Night puts up another game that makes Bill Simmons come up with a dumb trade idea.
Kings 117, Heat 116
Previously On...
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award -PJ Washington. The fact that this isn't even PJ's most dominant performance against the Kings puts him up among the pantheon of great Kings Killers of times past (move over, Rodney Stuckey!). The dude literally could not miss regardless of who was guarding him.
Shaq - Mason Plumlee. Had to google him to make sure I got the right Plumlee brother down but Mason spent the first half raining destruction down upon the ears of whatever Kings big man stood in his way (or more accurately freely allowed him straight-line drives to the rim every single time he touched the ball) and clanking free throws off the rim with his new stroke that Jay Triano kept getting blamed for. The second half was a little better and culminated with Mason turning the ball over in the closing seconds when Davion poked the ball from him from behind while he obliviously tried to play Point Plumlee but that first half was rough to watch.
The CoJo Award - Richaun Holmes continues to put up nothing burger stat lines whenever he's on the floor, even getting benched for Alex Len in the first half. When Domantas Sabonis inevitably fouled out, Mike Brown even opted to play Trey Lyles as his center over him. Not great, Rich.
Vlade Divac Great GM Award - The Hornets have drafted Nick Richards, JT Thor, Kai Jones, and Mark Williams to play center for them over the last two years alone. None of them aside from Nick Richards has even been able to see the floor, let alone beat out Plumlee for the starting role. Good going, Mitch Kupchak.
WTF Moment of the Night- Feels like Domas is one or two more nights of fouling out from going Boogie.
Random Internet Talking Head Bad KANGZ Take of the Game
We're Talking Basketball
It's the Heat... again! Usually when the Kings take on a team twice in this short a span, it's against a western conference team getting both of its road or home games against one team out of the way at once but instead we have a rare matchup sandwich, with the Heat playing the Warriors last night and the Kings playing the Hornets the night before that.
The Heat beat the Warriors last night after staging a comeback against them in the 4th quarter and a controversial review that apparently saw Steph purposely airball a three to try and get a foul called on Jimmy Butler. Taking advantage of a bad Warriors bench (Kuminga is now collecting dust on the end of Kerr's bench and James Wiseman has pretty much forgotten how to play basketball as the season has wound on) and extra bad Warriors defense (Warriors are current 29th in the league at opponents points per game), Miami pulled off it's victory despite losing Tyler Herro in the first half due to him getting Richaun-ed.
None of the Heat starters played particularly huge minutes (Herro getting his eye poked may actually have helped them in that it kept him fresh for tonight) but Butler, Bam, and Lowry all saw over 36 minutes of playing time. Unlike the last matchup, the Heat have Dwayne Dedmon back in action as their backup big, which in all honesty scares me less than if UD was seeing minutes in his place.
Sabonis was on his way to a monster night until the Heat fouled him out last time around and I kinda think/hope that that might be the case again this game. With Fox out with a bone bruise, someone has to pick up more of the offensive load and Domas is probably our most proven player at being capable of doing so. Dude just needs to avoid playing defense like Jason Thompson.
As great as Kevin Huerter and Davion Mitchell were on offense against the Hornets, Keegan Murray had his first truly bad shooting night of the season, missing the mark on even some of his makes, including his big three at the end of the game, which sorta saw a lucky bounce and rolled around the rim before going in. Keegan set his career high against the Heat at 22 points, which seems rather low for a shooter of his caliber. Without Fox to score 30 a night, I'm hoping 18+ a night Keegan can become something even more (AND it would help his ROY campaign).
Davion gets his first start of the season and it of course comes agains the Miami Heat, a team whose style he is pretty much the embodiment of (short, scrappy, great at defense, largely boring outside of an intense devotion to winning). Kings better have security on the lookout because Pat Riley might have him kidnapped after the game.
The Heat have started their season a little slower than usual and are probably missing PJ Tucker more than they'd like to admit. Their defensive number remain relatively robust but they've struggled on offense despite seeing a huge defense/offensive shift in their lineups by moving Herro into the starting five (and having to play Duncan Robinson some rotation minutes). That doesn't mean they're bad and asking a team just getting its feet under them like the Kings to beat the Heat twice in short order is probably asking a bit much.
Injury Report
Kings-
De'Aaron Fox - OUT (ate too many Sour Patch Kids)
Trey Lyles - Day-to-day (stubbed toe)
Hornets-
Tyler Herro - Day-to-day (trapped in alternate universe)
Victor Oladipo- OUT (name said backwards three times in a row)
Omer Yurtseven - OUT (Spent 8 dollars on twitter checkmark )
Final Prediction
Games in Miami are always tough (lots of times for extracurricular reasons) and I'd definitely feel better were designated Miami Killer De'Aaron Fox playing in the game but for the first time in a while I have confidence in the team stepping up without its best player and toughing one out. Miami's on the second night of a back-to-back and the Kings should have hopefully gotten some rest in between Miami nights. Keegs follows up his off-night with an on-night (we all know he probably went to bed promptly at 10PM after drinking a nice glass of lukewarm milk) and Off-Night puts up another game that makes Bill Simmons come up with a dumb trade idea.
Kings 117, Heat 116
