Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
And so the streak comes to an end. It was fun while it lasted and for most of the game it seemed like the Kings had a chance at winning four in a row for the first time in the Walton-era but at the end of the day, Kangz gonna Kangz and refs gonna ref and Luke Walton's gonna do something weird with his rotations that makes you question whether or not he's ever actually watched a basketball game before.
If there's one thing I can give the Kings credit for of late, it's that they've succeeded in taking their traditional 3rd quarter meltdown and transplanting it to a bit later in the game. The defense appears to have gone from being historically awful to just being mostly bad, which is a positive.
De'Aaron Fox apparently made a deal with the devil to give him fourth quarter superstar powers but at the expense of a decent free throw percentage. At the start of the fourth quarter with the Heat starting to pull away, I was debating whether or not to call it a night, only for our 23-year-old lead guard to single-handedly scratch and claw the Kings back into the game and allow for a ridiculous sequence in which Buddy missed and easy shot, stole the ball from an unassuming Heat player after he had corralled the rebounding and then swished an ill-advised three to give the Kings a good shot at coming out of South Beach with the win.
But it was not to be as the Heat, with half their roster deciding the Kings game was the perfect night to come back from the injured list for the first time in a month, did what any experienced crunch time team does and putt the vices on the team on defense and got aggressive foul calls on the other end.
***
Hey remember how great Miami's OLD city edition jerseys were? Their new ones certainly aren't.
Finally, another addition to the pantheon of bad alternative NBA jerseys. I'm glad the pee good Kings jerseys finally have new company. Unlike the pee gold jerseys, let's hope that these atrocities don't cast a curse upon their franchise that sends them on a path to unprecedented ineptitude.
Mike looks as happy playing in these jerseys as I do seeing them.
***
Awards toim!
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Kelly Olynyk, who, despite the box score showing he only hit three threes on the night, seemingly was nailing long soul-crushing threes at every opportunity all while looking like the unemployed 30-something dude who used to hang out behind your high school and hit on chicks on their way to gym class.
Cory Joseph/Jason Hart/Andres Nocioni- Cory "Canadian John Salmons" Joseph, who followed up on his best game of the season by playing perhaps the most CoJo game of his life, giving us an amazing 0-for-5 shooting performance (pretty much all open shots that didn't even look close or bad fade away iso pull ups that would have been infuriating for any player, let alone your supposed veteran 4th guard defensive role player) with three rebounds (yay), one assist, a steal, and two turnovers in 15 minutes that felt like an eternity. I've long advocated that Monte needs to move CoJo just to save Luke Walton from himself but, with performances like this, the only way we're going to be able to move him is if we attach a prospect to him.
Mikki Moore- Richaun Holmes. I thought Holmes would have a bounce back game after fouling out against the Raptors. Instead he played even worse.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award - Luke Walton, who fell back into old habits after exactly one game of accidentally using his personnel correctly.
WTF Moment of the Game - Marvin Bagley has perhaps his best performance of the year but once again gets benched in favor of a clearly struggling Richaun Holmes for the entirety of the 4th quarter. His dad goes off on twitter again. This time, I mostly agree with him.
***
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Smoothie King Center
And it's been the ruin of many a poor star
And God, I know Boogie is one.
After a well-earned day-off the Kings' tour of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida takes them to the Big Easy to face off with the Pelicans, who have sorta found their groove sometime during the span of time after beating us in that De'Aaron versus Zion game. By groove, I mean a bad boozy 1990's pop punk cover band but when you're a team struggling to not look like pure garbage like the Kings or Pels, winning two out of three after running off a long losing streak counts as back on track. (Speaking of damning with faint praise, the Kings have somehow managed to climb all the way to 29th in the league in points allowed per game after at one point have a several point lead on the next closest competitor for the cellar a few short weeks ago.)
Since the last time we played them, the Pels have started to pick up the pace offensively after starting off the season at a pace that can mostly be described as grit'n'grind-ian. This has led to their defense also getting worse in the process and, it should be noted, JJ Reddick has been hidden away and wrapped in bubble wrap until a contender comes calling to trade for him.
Zion is currently playing 33 minutes a game, which is good for him but also slightly concerning considering the fact he's built like the StayPuft Man and has had major injury concerns over the last couple of years. Nevertheless, Zion is producing in his minutes on offense thought I still have my concerns about whether he and Ingram are a good longterm fit next to each other.
Lonzo should be playing in this game unless he finds another excuse to weasel out of another battle with Fox like he normally does. It should be noted that Tyrese is already putting up better numbers than Lonzo but with better shooting splits and a better assist to turnover ratio. Big Baller Brand, baby!
Final Prediction- Kings 117, Pelicans 111
Assuming this game is still getting played (I have still heard nothing regarding the Tyler Herro's roommate getting COVID-19 bombshell we got after the Heat game), I still like the Kings' chances in this one. The Pelicans like to play biggish and those are the sorts of lineups we generally succeed against. Also it's another chance for De'Aaron to punk Lonzo and he's still angry about the Miami game so a new career high is not out of the question.
If there's one thing I can give the Kings credit for of late, it's that they've succeeded in taking their traditional 3rd quarter meltdown and transplanting it to a bit later in the game. The defense appears to have gone from being historically awful to just being mostly bad, which is a positive.
De'Aaron Fox apparently made a deal with the devil to give him fourth quarter superstar powers but at the expense of a decent free throw percentage. At the start of the fourth quarter with the Heat starting to pull away, I was debating whether or not to call it a night, only for our 23-year-old lead guard to single-handedly scratch and claw the Kings back into the game and allow for a ridiculous sequence in which Buddy missed and easy shot, stole the ball from an unassuming Heat player after he had corralled the rebounding and then swished an ill-advised three to give the Kings a good shot at coming out of South Beach with the win.
But it was not to be as the Heat, with half their roster deciding the Kings game was the perfect night to come back from the injured list for the first time in a month, did what any experienced crunch time team does and putt the vices on the team on defense and got aggressive foul calls on the other end.
***
Hey remember how great Miami's OLD city edition jerseys were? Their new ones certainly aren't.
Finally, another addition to the pantheon of bad alternative NBA jerseys. I'm glad the pee good Kings jerseys finally have new company. Unlike the pee gold jerseys, let's hope that these atrocities don't cast a curse upon their franchise that sends them on a path to unprecedented ineptitude.
Mike looks as happy playing in these jerseys as I do seeing them.
Awards toim!
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Kelly Olynyk, who, despite the box score showing he only hit three threes on the night, seemingly was nailing long soul-crushing threes at every opportunity all while looking like the unemployed 30-something dude who used to hang out behind your high school and hit on chicks on their way to gym class.
Cory Joseph/Jason Hart/Andres Nocioni- Cory "Canadian John Salmons" Joseph, who followed up on his best game of the season by playing perhaps the most CoJo game of his life, giving us an amazing 0-for-5 shooting performance (pretty much all open shots that didn't even look close or bad fade away iso pull ups that would have been infuriating for any player, let alone your supposed veteran 4th guard defensive role player) with three rebounds (yay), one assist, a steal, and two turnovers in 15 minutes that felt like an eternity. I've long advocated that Monte needs to move CoJo just to save Luke Walton from himself but, with performances like this, the only way we're going to be able to move him is if we attach a prospect to him.
Mikki Moore- Richaun Holmes. I thought Holmes would have a bounce back game after fouling out against the Raptors. Instead he played even worse.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award - Luke Walton, who fell back into old habits after exactly one game of accidentally using his personnel correctly.
WTF Moment of the Game - Marvin Bagley has perhaps his best performance of the year but once again gets benched in favor of a clearly struggling Richaun Holmes for the entirety of the 4th quarter. His dad goes off on twitter again. This time, I mostly agree with him.
***
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Smoothie King Center
And it's been the ruin of many a poor star
And God, I know Boogie is one.
After a well-earned day-off the Kings' tour of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida takes them to the Big Easy to face off with the Pelicans, who have sorta found their groove sometime during the span of time after beating us in that De'Aaron versus Zion game. By groove, I mean a bad boozy 1990's pop punk cover band but when you're a team struggling to not look like pure garbage like the Kings or Pels, winning two out of three after running off a long losing streak counts as back on track. (Speaking of damning with faint praise, the Kings have somehow managed to climb all the way to 29th in the league in points allowed per game after at one point have a several point lead on the next closest competitor for the cellar a few short weeks ago.)
Since the last time we played them, the Pels have started to pick up the pace offensively after starting off the season at a pace that can mostly be described as grit'n'grind-ian. This has led to their defense also getting worse in the process and, it should be noted, JJ Reddick has been hidden away and wrapped in bubble wrap until a contender comes calling to trade for him.
Zion is currently playing 33 minutes a game, which is good for him but also slightly concerning considering the fact he's built like the StayPuft Man and has had major injury concerns over the last couple of years. Nevertheless, Zion is producing in his minutes on offense thought I still have my concerns about whether he and Ingram are a good longterm fit next to each other.
Lonzo should be playing in this game unless he finds another excuse to weasel out of another battle with Fox like he normally does. It should be noted that Tyrese is already putting up better numbers than Lonzo but with better shooting splits and a better assist to turnover ratio. Big Baller Brand, baby!
Final Prediction- Kings 117, Pelicans 111
Assuming this game is still getting played (I have still heard nothing regarding the Tyler Herro's roommate getting COVID-19 bombshell we got after the Heat game), I still like the Kings' chances in this one. The Pelicans like to play biggish and those are the sorts of lineups we generally succeed against. Also it's another chance for De'Aaron to punk Lonzo and he's still angry about the Miami game so a new career high is not out of the question.
