[Game] Kings @ Rockets - Monday, Dec. 9 - 5 PT, 8 ET

[VF21]

Someone said recently that Vlade's philosophy about games is you can celebrate or be miserable until midnight about a particular game, and then you've got to focus on the next one.

Well, we beat Luka and the Mavs but now we're headed to Houston to finish off the Texas three-step. I'm not expecting a win here, but I do hope to see more heart, hustle, energy and effort...and DEFENSE!

It's been a great day to be a Kings (and Niners) fan.

I LOVE THIS TEAM!

 

[kingsboi]

Rockets have been a nightmare matchup for the Kings since the arrival of Harden and I don't expect much to change here.....someone correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the Kings have yet to beat the Rockets when Harden plays in them.

 

[burekijogurt]

Rockets have been a nightmare matchup for the Kings since the arrival of Harden and I don't expect much to change here.....someone correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the Kings have yet to beat the Rockets when Harden plays in them.

deja vu

 

[VF21]

Rockets have been a nightmare matchup for the Kings since the arrival of Harden and I don't expect much to change here.....someone correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the Kings have yet to beat the Rockets when Harden plays in them.

There's always a first time.

 

[luckytkp]

I look forward to their big 3: Harden, Westbrook and Ben.

 

[Cojc]

This team comes to play every game and like every game we need a few of our better players to step up.
With the Kings they need to keep playing the way they have been but a 8 man rotation last night could effect some of them in the second half tonight. I would expect some Giles and JJ tonight.

Last night to me was the team going away from what gave them their lead. Slowing the offense down to burn the clock and getting your team out of sync should only be used with a lead late in the game not for a whole quarter.

I was shocked by us not getting to the foul line last night with many of our players never once getting to the line.

Now onto Houston go Kings!

 

[King Baller]

Rockets have been a nightmare matchup for the Kings since the arrival of Harden and I don't expect much to change here.....someone correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the Kings have yet to beat the Rockets when Harden plays in them.

Mr. Holmes, Cojo and Ariza along with Walton's schemes have improved the Kings defense significantly. So The Kings have a sluggers chance to beat the Rockets. Wish it was not a back to back though.

Kings will need the same recipe as with the Mavs. Good defense and shooting. Buddy and Belly need to both have a good shooting night. Be nice if Bogi went off as well.

 

[King Baller]

This team comes to play every game and like every game we need a few of our better players to step up.
With the Kings they need to keep playing the way they have been but a 8 man rotation last night could effect some of them in the second half tonight. I would expect some Giles and JJ tonight.

Last night to me was the team going away from what gave them their lead. Slowing the offense down to burn the clock and getting your team out of sync should only be used with a lead late in the game not for a whole quarter.

I was shocked by us not getting to the foul line last night with many of our players never once getting to the line.

Now onto Houston go Kings!

I'm hoping the refs call all the games like the Mavs game. They called very few fouls either way rather than a bunch for the opposing team. Luka specifically was used to getting each and every touch foul called his way. Which is why he whined on every play until Mavs management coached him up so he would settle down.

GO KINGS, BEAT THE ROCKETS!!!!!

 

[kingsboi]

Mr. Holmes, Cojo and Ariza along with Walton's schemes have improved the Kings defense significantly. So The Kings have a sluggers chance to beat the Rockets. Wish it was not a back to back though.

Kings will need the same recipe as with the Mavs. Good defense and shooting. Buddy and Belly need to both have a good shooting night. Be nice if Bogi went off as well.

while that may be the case, teams like the Blazers and Bulls lit the Kings up which makes me scratch my head why the defense isn't always consistent

 

[kb02]

I look forward to their big 3: Harden, Westbrook and Ben.

I've watched a decent amount of Rockets games this year. Beyond Russ, Harden, and Capela, this team is incredibly thin.

Ben's numbers look good relative to his previous years, but the eye test says he's the same player. Poor handles, poor hoops IQ...he's benefiting from being in a system with Russ and Harden. Don't expect a revelation. Dude's the same player as he was with the Kings.

 

[chief bromden]

Maybe Ariza will give the team some insider knowledge on how to beat Harden and the Rockettes

 

[Livinthedream]

I've watched a decent amount of Rockets games this year. Beyond Russ, Harden, and Capela, this team is incredibly thin.

Ben's numbers look good relative to his previous years, but the eye test says he's the same player. Poor handles, poor hoops IQ...he's benefiting from being in a system with Russ and Harden. Don't expect a revelation. Dude's the same player as he was with the Kings.

Ben is minding his business, living his best life. Houston media making the case for why he should be a starter. D'Antoni having to answer media questions on if Ben should start. He's doing alright, no matter what Kings fans think about him.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

This is a game where it’s hard for me to watch in real time cause I can’t stand the opponent. I always DVR the games and often start watching 30-60 minutes after tip off so that I can skip commercials, timeouts and other nonsense. In this case, I’ll skip a lot of Houston’s possessions....lol

All it‘ll do is cause me unneeded anxiety and anger when I see all the BS they allow a certain player to get away with in order to maintain fake superstar status to sell jersey’s and other merchandise to a gullible youth.

I’d love to believe the KINGS could win, and I’ll be ecstatic and talk $#!} if they do, but I’m already expecting the same nonsense from the officials, just a different game.

Go KINGS!

 

[Kingster]

Doncic and Harden have some similarities. Hopefully, it will help some on defense that the Kings play Houston just after they played Dallas. It sure would be nice to see "healthy Bogs" once again. I thought his defense on Harden last year was stellar.

I just want some more consistency from this team. Let's see the team ready to play some D from the opening tip, not messing up from the get-go like in the Denver and SA games. Let's see them be reasonably good with not making turnovers, as they didn't do starting in the first quarter of the Chicago game. Let's see Buddy Hield be reasonably efficient with his shooting, making 1.3 points or more per shot, and for the most part take good shots as he did last night. And let's see Bjelica not revert to very bad shooter Bjelica. We don't have to see the Bjelica who shot 70% from the field last night. But we definitely don't want the Bjelica that shot 27% against Washington, 14% against Boston, 30% against Philly, and 18% against San Antonio. If he can just shoot 45% or better from the field on a fairly consistent basis, he can help this team tremendously.

It's my belief that much of the inconsistency has to do with players not diligently preparing themselves mentally before the game. For example, there's no excuse for players to begin a game not playing the defense in the way the coach prepared them to play, as happened with the SA game. Same goes for turnovers, which for the most part is a lack of focus. On the other hand, I'm less inclined to believe that Belli's massive shooting swings have to do with mental preparation. I really don't know why that happens.

 

[ESP47]

Doncic and Harden have some similarities. Hopefully, it will help some on defense that the Kings play Houston just after they played Dallas. It sure would be nice to see "healthy Bogs" once again. I thought his defense on Harden last year was stellar.

I just want some more consistency from this team. Let's see the team ready to play some D from the opening tip, not messing up from the get-go like in the Denver and SA games. Let's see them be reasonably good with not making turnovers, as they didn't do starting in the first quarter of the Chicago game. Let's see Buddy Hield be reasonably efficient with his shooting, making 1.3 points or more per shot, and for the most part take good shots as he did last night. And let's see Bjelica not revert to very bad shooter Bjelica. We don't have to see the Bjelica who shot 70% from the field last night. But we definitely don't want the Bjelica that shot 27% against Washington, 14% against Boston, 30% against Philly, and 18% against San Antonio. If he can just shoot 45% or better from the field on a fairly consistent basis, he can help this team tremendously.

It's my belief that much of the inconsistency has to do with players not diligently preparing themselves mentally before the game. For example, there's no excuse for players to begin a game not playing the defense in the way the coach prepared them to play, as happened with the SA game. Same goes for turnovers, which for the most part is a lack of focus. On the other hand, I'm less inclined to believe that Belli's massive shooting swings have to do with mental preparation. I really don't know why that happens.

Bjelica shot over 50% in 10 of the first 13 games of the season. He had a 4 game slump there where he shot like crap but he's been efficient in 3 of the last 4. This guy is the unsung hero of the team that never gets the credit he deserves. The team fell off last year when he stopped playing well. He had some of the best advanced stats in the entire league for the first half of last season. Had the impact of a top 25 player. It was no surprise that the team went from playoff contenders to just another run of the mill Kings team when his play leveled off. He may not be the engine that keeps the wheels spinning like Fox but he's a lot more important than people think.

He's off to another great start this year. He does a lot of things that go unnoticed by the majority. Take his rebounding for example. He gathers 9.4 per36. That's only 1.3 behind Holmes who you always notice grabbing boards out there. I almost never noticed Bjelica rebounding because it's always in unspectacular fashion. He plays sound defense and is shooting excellent percentages across the board. I'm hoping his drop in play last year was due to exhaustion from the pace. Hopefully this year the slower pace will ensure he's good for 82 games. To me, he's exceeded expectations by about three fold since he's been here.

Only 5 players on this team have a positive VORP so far this year by the way.

1.0 Holmes
0.8 Bjelica
0.4 Barnes
0.3 Hield
0.3 Bogdanovic

 

[Kingster]

Bjelica shot over 50% in 10 of the first 13 games of the season. He had a 4 game slump there where he shot like crap but he's been efficient in 3 of the last 4. This guy is the unsung hero of the team that never gets the credit he deserves. The team fell off last year when he stopped playing well. He had some of the best advanced stats in the entire league for the first half of last season. Had the impact of a top 25 player. It was no surprise that the team went from playoff contenders to just another run of the mill Kings team when his play leveled off. He may not be the engine that keeps the wheels spinning like Fox but he's a lot more important than people think.

He's off to another great start this year. He does a lot of things that go unnoticed by the majority. Take his rebounding for example. He gathers 9.4 per36. That's only 1.3 behind Holmes who you always notice grabbing boards out there. I almost never noticed Bjelica rebounding because it's always in unspectacular fashion. He plays sound defense and is shooting excellent percentages across the board. I'm hoping his drop in play last year was due to exhaustion from the pace. Hopefully this year the slower pace will ensure he's good for 82 games. To me, he's exceeded expectations by about three fold since he's been here.

Only 5 players on this team have a positive VORP so far this year by the way.

1.0 Holmes
0.8 Bjelica
0.4 Barnes
0.3 Hield
0.3 Bogdanovic

I don't disagree with any of this. He's one of my more favorite players this year. But his insanely wide shooting swings are as much a part of his game as the above.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Bjelica shot over 50% in 10 of the first 13 games of the season. He had a 4 game slump there where he shot like crap but he's been efficient in 3 of the last 4. This guy is the unsung hero of the team that never gets the credit he deserves.

I admit that I often undervalue and overlook Belly. I do wish he'd be more consistent, though, but he's still a really good player IMO. Very crafty. High BBIQ.

 

[ESP47]

I don't disagree with any of this. He's one of my more favorite players this year. But his insanely wide shooting swings are as much a part of his game as the above.

Are his shooting swings this year that abnormal? I just feel like if you looked through the game logs of other similar type players, like say a Marvin Williams, that they would be fairly similar to what Bjelica has done. I could be wrong but he doesn't seem that inconsistent to me. One thing that hurts him is he doesn't get to the line so when he shoots poorly, he has no way of salvaging his efficiency.

I think the team as a whole needs to work inside more. Their 3pt% is 23rd in the league and they're 2nd to last in free throw attempts. I'd like to see them try and cut about 5 of these off the dribble, home run type 3 point attempts out of the game every night and turn them into shot attempts closer to the paint. The dribble, dribble, dribble while looking for a small crack in the defense to launch a 3 has been a very inefficient play for them this year. If you're going to do that, you might as well just go inside to Barnes and roll the dice on that. Bjelica even has some nice moves and floaters himself and would do himself a bit of good to search for those rather than continue shooting from the outside, trying to salvage a night where he's 0 for 5 from deep.

 

[jcwkings]

Gotta play Harden similar to how they handled Doncic. If he's taking tough step back jumpers that are contested you live with it.

 

[Kingster]

Are his shooting swings this year that abnormal? I just feel like if you looked through the game logs of other similar type players, like say a Marvin Williams, that they would be fairly similar to what Bjelica has done. I could be wrong but he doesn't seem that inconsistent to me. One thing that hurts him is he doesn't get to the line so when he shoots poorly, he has no way of salvaging his efficiency.

I think the team as a whole needs to work inside more. Their 3pt% is 23rd in the league and they're 2nd to last in free throw attempts. I'd like to see them try and cut about 5 of these off the dribble, home run type 3 point attempts out of the game every night and turn them into shot attempts closer to the paint. The dribble, dribble, dribble while looking for a small crack in the defense to launch a 3 has been a very inefficient play for them this year. If you're going to do that, you might as well just go inside to Barnes and roll the dice on that. Bjelica even has some nice moves and floaters himself and would do himself a bit of good to search for those rather than continue shooting from the outside, trying to salvage a night where he's 0 for 5 from deep.

I agree with the bolded. The Kings nearly blew it last night because they stopped working the ball inside, whether through the pass or the dribble. They had just enough in paint breaking in the 3rd and 4th quarters to win that game. Bjelica was one of those that did break the paint just enough to hold on for the win.

Compare Harrison Barnes, who does seem consistent with his shooting. Again, I'm leaving out the first five games. HB's shooting percentage so far this year has ranged between 30% on the low end to 87.5% on the high end. Bjelica's shooting percentage has ranged from 14.3% to 80%. HB has had three games in the 30-39.9% range; six games in the 40-49.9% range; seven games in the 50-59.9% range; zero games in the 60-69.9% range; zero games in the 70-79.9% range; and one game in the 80-89.9% range. Bjelica has had two games in the 10-10.99% range; three games in the 20-29.9% range; one game in the 30-39.9% range; two games in the 40-49.9% range; five games in the 50-59.9% range; zero games in the 60-69.9% range; three games in the 70-79.9% range; one game in the 80-89.9% range. So out of 17 games, Bjelica has had five games where he shot between 10-29.9%. I'd say that is fairly significant.

 

[kingdivac]

The Kings had a great series against the Thunder with Westbrook last year, however the Rockets swept them handily last season. I think they may have only been competitive in 1 or the 3 or 4 games if I recall. They'd need big offensive nights from most or all of their primary offensive players I think to upset. An excellent shooting night is a requirement from Hield and Bogdan. And if Bagley plays, yeah they need some good output right away too.

 

[Iced Espresso]

Wanted to point out that the Kings and Warriors are tied for the least amount of home games in the Western conference. Be nice to somehow grab one more win on the road.

 

[fnordius]

Last night the Kings beat a team that they usually beat, on the 2nd night of their back-to-back. A dramatically improved team, and Kings were the underdogs by a mile, but still... tonight the shoe's on the other foot. I don't like the odds, but this team's play has varied so wildly even over the last week, that nothing much could surprise me. Go Kings!

 

[HndsmCelt]

Last night the Kings beat a team that they usually beat, on the 2nd night of their back-to-back. A dramatically improved team, and Kings were the underdogs by a mile, but still... tonight the shoe's on the other foot. I don't like the odds, but this team's play has varied so wildly even over the last week, that nothing much could surprise me. Go Kings!

"Never tell me the odd"

 

[jcwkings]

I'm still waiting for a game where Harden doesn't absolutely torch us.

 

[jellyfish]

Maybe Ariza will give the team some insider knowledge on how to beat Harden and the Rockettes

Ariza was the one who beat them...while playing for them

 

[Sluggah]

Unfortunately the rockets/harden will probably be fired up after the NBA’s ruling. Typical

 

[SacTownKid]

Different day, same story. Attack Harden with everything you've got on pick and roll. Don't just sit back and let him shoot off of a simple screen.

 

[kingsboi]

I'm still waiting for a game where Harden doesn't absolutely torch us.

I remember the Rockets broadcast one game showing Harden's highest career PPG averages and the Kings were second on that list only behind a Eastern Conference team I can't remember who it was

 

[burekijogurt]

Do we have any chance here?