[Game] Kings @ Lakers - Sunday, Dec. 30 - 6:30PT/9:30ET

Kingster

Hall of Famer
I thought WCS's defense was pretty good in the Lakers game. Bjelica's was not. He didn't help the helper at all, and seemed lost in some situations. One play in particular that stood out was in the first quarter when Chandler came into the key from 18 feet out to slam the ball uncontested. Bjelica was guarding "nobody" and didn't recognize Chandler running toward the basket. Maybe that's why Joerger doesn't use him at center? Overall, the Kings D just wasn't as good as the Lakers' defense. The Kings were contested much more in their shots than the Lakers. Like I said in a previous post, Hield was contested by two Lakers in his shots. Now that's what I call a contested shot! The only King that really had space on his shots was Fox (also Bjelica for a brief time) and that's because he's so darned quick that he creates his own space.
 
For a #2 pick, he totally sucks. You know the Lakers won that game last night partially when they took him off the floor. They were better without him. And they lost the game against the Grizzlies when they didn't. He lost that game for them and he probably would have lost the game for them against us if Walton kept him on the floor. Walton knows better or has learned from experience. When Josh Hart is better than you, that's not good. That would be like Mason being better than D-Fox.
He can't shoot, at all. He doesn't have the physical gifts needed to cover for his lack of shooting ability, either. This means that he sucks.
 
The Willie hate on here is ridiculous. It’s always the same half dozen posters, but that is all they know how to do anyway is whine and complain. They think he should get every rebound and block every shot. They cut and paste the same comments over and over regardless of how the game really went down. Sometimes I even wonder if they watch the game. It’s just like propaganda, if you keep saying the same thing over and over, pretty soon people start to believe. Is Willie perfect? Not even close. Is he as bad as they say? Not even close.

You have this little clique of negative posters, that dominate the board especially after a loss, and it’s not just Willie. Everything is negative with them, it’s what they live for. They remind me of certain sets of parents I used to have to deal with when I was involved with Little League baseball a few years ago. A bunch of whiney entitled whiners who didn’t know jack about baseball, always looking for somebody to blame.

It was a game they should have won, but trying to put all the blame on Willie is ridiculous. Willie played a good game. It was a team loss. They lost because they couldn’t make shots that they normally make. It happens. I’ve watched that 4th quarter four times now and comparing it to ESPNs GameCast play-by-play, here is the way the game went down. (I apologize for the length, but it is what it is).

At the 7:26 mark, Fox gets a +1 putting the kings up 108 – 101, 7-point lead. It started to fall apart after that.

7:16 mark, Bogdanovic gets caught on a Chandler screen Willie switches and does a nice contest of a 15 foot pull up jump shot, but Ingram makes the shot. It was a basketball play, not Bogdanovic’s “fault” not Willie’s “fault”. 108 – 103.

At 7:01 mark, Bogie attempts a 17-foot pull up jumper, but Ingram blocks the shot. Kuzma gets the rebound off the blocked shot. Maybe, Bogie hesitated just a bit, but again, it was a basketball play.

6:46 mark, Ball misses 29-foot shot, Willie gets the defensive rebound.

6:34 mark, Jackson misses wide open 25-foot shot, off a pass from Willie at the top of the key, but it didn’t go. It was good shot selection, certainly within the Kings normal offense. Lakers had 4 guys in the paint including Chandler, Buddy battled for the rebound but Ball came away with it.

6:20 mark, Kuzma posts Jackson and drives to the basket, but misses the layup, Willie gets the defensive rebound, brings the ball up the court and at the 6:16 mark, passes to an open Buddy for a 25-foot attempt that is in and out. Again, good shot selection, within the Kings normal offense.

6:11 mark, Willie hustles for the offensive rebound, secures it and passes off to Bogie.

6:04 mark, Fox passes to Willie breaking to the basket, but Ball fouls him on the floor preventing the basket or Willie would have had a dunk. Smart play by Ball.

5:51 mark, Fox misses a 13-foot jumper, a bit of a forced shot, but there was less than 3 seconds left on the shot clock when the ball left his hand. Chandler gets the rebound, it’s what he does.

5:41 mark, Fox blocks Balls 26-foot shot, Willie gets the rebound and brings it up court and attempts to drive to the basket. Probably poor judgement (let’s shoot him now), but he was trying to make something happen and in fact in the previous game did almost the same thing resulting in a made basket. The reality is Chandler fouled him hard with a fore arm shiver separating Willie from the ball and it was not called, Ingram is credited with the steal.

5:28 mark, Pope misses a layup, Kuzma misses tip, and the ball goes off of Kings for Laker’s possession.

5:24 mark, Willie blocks Chandler’s layup attempt, Jackson gets the rebound and the Kings have a potential 2 on 1 fast break, but, Joeger has called timeout. Armchair warriors up in arms, Joerger cost them the game! Ridiculous! Just bad luck, Joerger had already determined to call timeout as soon as Kings gained next possession. No way to know how the change in possession would play out.

5:06 mark, Shump misses wide open 13-foot shot after putting ridiculous move on Hart, but shot wouldn’t go down. Again, good shot selection within Kings normal offense. McGee gets the defensive rebound.

4:45 mark, Kuzma works his way into the lane for a 6-foot jumper, but misses and Fox gets the defensive rebound.

4:30 mark, Fox makes a nice 17-foot jump shot, Kings up 110 – 103, 7-point lead, first score by either team in over 2-1/2 minutes.

4:20 mark, Willie deflects the ball away from Ingram, Fox and Hart chase it into the back court before Hart comes up with it with 12 seconds on shot clock, defense is now disorganized leaving Pope open for a corner 3, both Willie and Jackson close on him

4:11 mark, Pope misses 3 point shot, with Willie and Jackon out of the paint, McGee corrals the offensive rebound, Willie hustles back to the paint, McGee finds Pope for what at first appears to be an uncontested layup, but Willie hustles over and prevents the shot forcing Pope to pass the ball back out to Ingram, the Lakers swing the ball around the horn finding Kuzma for an open 3 point shot at the 4:02 mark which he makes. Kings still up 110 – 106. Just good hustling basketball by both teams.

3:44 mark, Jackson misses a challenged driving layup, not the greatest shot selection, but certainly within the Kings offense (despite the Jackson haters opinion). Willie gets the offensive rebound, passes the ball out to Fox who finds an open Shump for a corner 3 pointer, but it misses, again good shot selection, within Kings normal offense. McGee gets the defensive rebound.

3:34 mark, Ingram just absolutely blows by Fox and has a wide-open straight path to the basket. He has the angle, Willie picks him up about 10 feet out, but Ingram does what you’re supposed to do and gets into Willie’s body limiting his leaping ability and pretty much pinning Willies left arm to his body and Ingram makes the layup. Maybe Willie could have played it better, but I am not sure how, Ingram deserves some credit for being a good offensive player, but it really started with Fox letting him blow by him. Kings up 110 – 108.

3:32 mark, Kings call full timeout.

3:17 mark, Fox again finds Shump for wide open corner 3, but he misses. Repeat again, good shot selection, within Kings normal offense. McGee gets the defensive rebound.

2:55 mark, Ingram hits a contested 19 foot pull up jump shot with 5 seconds on the shot clock that bounces all over the rim before dropping through. Tie game, 110 – 110.

2:42 mark, Fox misses floater in the lane, Willie battles 3 Lakers for rebound, but McGee come out with it. Willie haters will say he should have come up with rebound, even though surrounded by 3 Lakers, and give no credit to Lakers for doing what they are supposed to do.

2:21 mark, McGee misses 8-foot contested hook shot over Willie, Willie goes for the rebound and has to reach back over his head for it and McGee knocks it out of bounds and according to the ref, off of Willie, Laker’s possession. The argument can be made that Willie should have secured the ball better (draw and quarter him?). The argument can also be made that McGee came over his back when he knocked the ball loose. A foul could have been called and it really looked like McGee should have been the one the ball was called off of when he knocked it loose, but the ref was right there and it was not reviewable at that point.

2:19 mark, Kuzma misses a 24-foot shot, badly, it barely catches the underside of the rim and comes straight down, no kick back at all. Willie haters will say he should have had rebound, but this one is on Buddy. Willie had leaked out on McGee about 10 feet from basket. When the shot went up, Willie was closing to the basket in good rebounding position on that side of the basket, but the ball came down to Buddy and Pope, and Buddy did not block Pope out and he got the offensive board.

2:13 mark, after Pope passed the ball out to McGee, he found Ingram for the open 25 foot shot and the Lakers go up 113 – 110.

2:01 mark, Fox finds Buddy for an open 26-foot shot, Buddy misses. Repeat again, good shot selection, within Kings normal offense. Ingram gets the defensive rebound.

1:46 mark, Pope drives on Fox for a layup, Willie leaves McGee and attempts to challenge shot. The argument can be made that maybe Willie was a little late, but maybe Fox needed to do a better job of staying in front of Pope, it was just a one-on-one move, you would think that Fox is a better defender than that or maybe you just have to give some credit to Pope. Lakers lead 115 – 110.

1:39 mark, Buddy missed 3 second defensive violation FT.

1:31 mark, Fox misses 13-foot pullup shot, well short off front of rim. 4 Lakers, 2 Kings (Willie and Fox) in the paint, Kuzma gets the defensive rebound.

After a Shump foul and a Laker timeout, at the 1:08 mark, Shump steals the ball from Ingram and makes layup, could have been a +1, Lakers 115 – 112.

0:54 mark, Hart gets by Buddy for a layup, another blow by, Willie contested the shot well, made Hart change his shot in mid-air, but he still made it. Willie haters will say he should have made some spectacular super human play and blocked the shot. Give some credit to Hart. Maybe Buddy should have stayed in front of him, it was just a one-on-one move. Lakers up 117-112.

0:38 mark, Fox misses 24-foot 3-point shot, ball goes half way down and comes out. Pretty much the game at that point. Lakers make their FT, Bogie has a 26-footer in and out like Fox’s. Lakers win 121 – 114.
Not hating on WCS at all. The small ball line up was working when the Lakers were taking jump shots. When they started attacking the rim and boards using their length we were out matched.

You can argue we had no solution just like against the Clippers. You may well be correct but once it was clear Jackson isn’t physical enough and Beli isn’t quick enough it remains interesting Dave didn’t try Giles. Especially after all the hype we heard.