[Grades] Kings @ Trailblazers, 10/20/21

On a scale of 0-10, rate the performance of the refs tonight.


  • Total voters
    25

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#1

Richaun Holmes (B) - 29 minutes, 21 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steals, 1 turnovers
A typically efficient night from Richaun Holmes (with the addition of another buzzer beating three). The only reason I'm giving him a B is because he continued to struggle on defense on Nurkic and, and this may be a schematic thing more than a Richaun thing, his constant need to press into the guy he was switching onto in pick and rolls on defense kept leading to open buckets for the Blazers. Aside from that, the man earned his new contract money tonight.

Maurice Harkless (C) - 22 minutes, 7 points, 2 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 blocks, 1 steals, 1 turnovers
Much has been made of Moe's offensive limitations causing potential woe for the starting unit but tonight that didn't seem to be too much of an issue, as his defensive intensity largely helped the Kings get off to a solid start on the night. Spent far more time guarding Dame man-to-man than I thought he would and did help limit him to a pretty bad night by Dame Lillard terms. Not an impressive performance by Moe but also going to make Bagley's agent any happier.

Harrison Barnes (A+) - 37 minutes, 36 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 blocks, 2 steals, 0 turnovers
Quite simply, the Kings probably lose by double digits without Harrison Barnes tonight. In the second half, Barnes put together quite simply one of the most exquisitely efficient scoring performances this side of Klay dropping 37 points on us in a single quarter. The dude simply was incapable of missing a shot. More notably, he contributed 9 boards and zero turnovers and was typically solid for us on defense. He was 8-of-11 from downtown! What else were we to expect from the greatest prep prospect in Iowa history?

Tyrese Haliburton (F) - 29 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 0 blocks, 1 steals, 1 turnovers
This was easily the worst game of Tyrese's time as a pro. Don't want to dwell on it too much but the man came out of the gates incredibly passive and pretty much stayed that way all night save for a single transition bucket in the third quarter. Obviously that turnover in the closing seconds of the game looms large but (a) it looks like he got fouled there, (b) forcing ridiculous turnovers to help his team win is sort of part of the Dame Time experience, and (c) at least the came down with the rebound in the first place. The offensive passivity is more concerning to me in that he needs to be looking for his own shot in order for that starting lineup to work. But it's only the first game fo the year and there's no way to go but up.

De'Aaron Fox (C+) - 36 minutes, 27 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 block, 0 steals, 5 turnovers
Tie your shoes, young man. De'Aaron's shoe randomly flying off of his foot while he tried to make something out of another terrible possession may be the perfect encapsulation of his night in general. The dude still put up a 27/5/8 night but didn't look particularly great doing it, which is to say that he's reached the tier in which a dude putting up nearly 30 points can still be considered a bad night. In the first half, De'Aaron largely had his way with the Blazers saggy perimeter defense, his increased bulk absolutely making him unstoppable against smaller/weaker defenders in the paint. In the second half as the Blazers defense started to tighten up and guys started helping off their man in the the Tyrese and TT lineups, De'Aaron really struggled to both get calls and finish in traffic as he mostly did last year. Then his shoe fell off while still tied and we almost lost the game.

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Buddy Hield (B) - 31 minutes, 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 blocks, 0 steals, 0 turnovers
I guess all those "Buddy's got no place on this team" comments were premature, huh? In the first game of the new 6th man Buddy era, Chavano delivered an incredibly efficient shooting performance, notching 17 points on nine shots (really should have been 20 points considering the refs randomly waved off an and-1 bucket even though they still called the foul), pulling down six boards, and not picking up a single turnover in 31 minutes of action. Buddy got the most minutes of any non-Fox/Barnes player and did what he does best. He also tied Peja for most threes in franchise history. If this is the Buddy we're getting every night, not only should the Kings keep him, he's going to get talk for sixth man of the year.


Tristan Thompson (C) - 19 minutes, 6 points, 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks, 0 steals, 1 turnovers
Not the greatest of debuts for TT. I thought his first stint was ultimately more effective than the second but the refs were calling the game weird all night and Tristan was certainly on the wrong end of a lot of those calls. My biggest gripe with Thompson's night is more about how long Luke Walton stuck with him in the fourth quarter rather than any concern with Tristan's contributions to the game in general.

Davion Mitchell (B) - 24 minutes, 2 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 blocks, 0 steals, 0 turnovers
This would probably have to be the most impressive two point debut performance I have ever seen. Davion's shot was absolutely gone tonight but in true Davion fashion, he still found a way to help the team with his absolutely stifling defense. Watching him clamp up CJ McCollum, who otherwise was having his way against the Kings, and Dame whenever the Blazers weren't annihilating him with moving screens was a sight to behold. Davion had no steals of his own but it feels like he generated turnovers and negative Blazer plays pretty much every single time the ball came his way. On offense, Davion did a solid job of facilitating the second unit and, to his credit, didn't force the issue on offense to try to boost his scoring numbers. All-in-all, an encouraging start from the best defensive rookie I may have ever seen.

Terence Davis (C) - 13 minutes, 6 points, 0 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 blocks, 1 steals, 1 turnovers
This was an all-time great "Shooters gonna shoot" performance as Terence put up 10 shots in 13 minutes, only connecting on two of them. He did somehow pick up three assists which I'm sure must be a typo because it seemed like he was shooting the ball the second he felt leather. Terence generally tried on defense but didn't see much action late as the Kings went to other variations of the three guard lineup to stay afloat against the surging Blazers.
 
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#2
I’ve got all the respect in the world for Dame, just not his night. CJ has just hated us ever since he got drafted when we didn’t select him and has it made a personal mission to terrorize us. Nurkic… that dude is going to injure someone if the refs continue to allow him to do what he did tonight. There must be a dozen calls and non calls that directly came from him alone. Not a fan.

Barnes saved us tonight. If he hit one less 3 we would have lost. Fox ran out of steam and just became sick of being killed in the paint repeatedly with no call. Buddy played a great game and Holmes was simply superb. Tyrese… total dud of a game and came really close to costing us at the end there. Mitchell had himself a solid game and had some simply great defensive possessions. All in all for a rookie debut facing Dame and a scorching hot CJ, it was more than solid. The refs need drug testing after this game.
 
#3
Kings won and 2-3 months from now a W is all you will see. That’s the good news.

But if you are counting on their best player going 0-9 from 3 it will likely be a long year. Plenty to be improved upon for the next game.

Ball movement was poor. Fox needs to move the ball. Hali looks like he is pressing. Let’s hope he settles in and finds his groove. Barnes was awesome but not sure that night is sustainable. Would love to see Metu or a young forward get some minutes.

On to the next game. Not sure any conclusions can be drawn from this game. We shall see what happens after 10 games or so. If Barnes keeps playing at that level he will be an all-Star.
 
#4
Tough grades. I'd give Holmes a A- I thought he was fantastic. Harkless and Tristan I honestly don't feel are upgrades to Bagley. Not enough to not activate the man. But I could be wrong. We won and I'm over Bagleys ways so I'm good regardless

Hali played worst game I've ever seen him play but I'm not worried at all.
 
#6
Tough grades. I'd give Holmes a A- I thought he was fantastic. Harkless and Tristan I honestly don't feel are upgrades to Bagley. Not enough to not activate the man. But I could be wrong. We won and I'm over Bagleys ways so I'm good regardless

Hali played worst game I've ever seen him play but I'm not worried at all.
They don't look particularly impressive and in fact aren't particularly impressive, but Bagley not playing is about his deficiencies. He gets targeted to a hilarious degree. Their defense breaks in seconds when you put him at small-ball C. (Also on the perimeter, but the C position defensively is more important).

Harkless you can switch onto Dame and he'll be serviceable doing it. Bagley gets humiliated and probably records a mediocre diss track about it after he's done crying to daddy.
 
#7
They don't look particularly impressive and in fact aren't particularly impressive, but Bagley not playing is about his deficiencies. He gets targeted to a hilarious degree. Their defense breaks in seconds when you put him at small-ball C. (Also on the perimeter, but the C position defensively is more important).

Harkless you can switch onto Dame and he'll be serviceable doing it. Bagley gets humiliated and probably records a mediocre diss track about it after he's done crying to daddy.
Yeah Harkless and TT did the "I'm an ok 8th-9th man" vet thing. What makes them different from most past Kings in this role is they skew more towards being good defenders than offensive players. TT had some real good post-hook finishes at the rim and some really really nice defensive stops on Nurk especially. He got left in too long in the 4th where he started getting hunted in the 4th, but largely, he was a solid 15 MPG back-up C.

Harkless same deal. Had some really nice defensive possessions and switches onto the guards (we started the game with him on Dame interestingly enough) and a few good hustle plays on O. Dude really needs to be 35%+ from 3 in his limited shots, but felt he was ok for the most part and played some solid D.

Point of these guys is they keep the train churning at least and they don't make the team actively worse when they're on the floor. Bagley unfortunately has too many deficiencies to account for and the other 4 guys have to make up for it.
 
#8
Yeah Harkless and TT did the "I'm an ok 8th-9th man" vet thing. What makes them different from most past Kings in this role is they skew more towards being good defenders than offensive players. TT had some real good post-hook finishes at the rim and some really really nice defensive stops on Nurk especially. He got left in too long in the 4th where he started getting hunted in the 4th, but largely, he was a solid 15 MPG back-up C.

Harkless same deal. Had some really nice defensive possessions and switches onto the guards (we started the game with him on Dame interestingly enough) and a few good hustle plays on O. Dude really needs to be 35%+ from 3 in his limited shots, but felt he was ok for the most part and played some solid D.

Point of these guys is they keep the train churning at least and they don't make the team actively worse when they're on the floor. Bagley unfortunately has too many deficiencies to account for and the other 4 guys have to make up for it.
Interesting you bring up Harkless' 3-pt shooting.

Because he's been all over the map for his career.

He's been 41%, 38%, and 35% twice, but has also lingered around 27% for the rest of his career. And there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it, like he didn't start out a bad shooter and slowly improved.

Harkless' 3 pt shooting I think might be the most underrated x-factor to the Kings' success or lack thereof this year.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
#9
Good win, with the enthusiasm completely pulled out from under me by the incredibly awful officiating. Refs were blatantly doing everything they could to get Portland back into the game, and it worked.

Our D was great for almost all the first half, and then deteriorated severely in the second half, so there's work to be done there.

Mitchell did what we wanted to see on the defensive end, Barnes had a career night on the offensive end, Lillard 0-9 from three and we barely squeaked it out.

Offense was a bit disjointed - we were getting open threes both with ball movement and drive-and-kick, but I didn't feel like I saw enough motion and cutting to get easy shots.

Looks like we've still got a ways to go to be a .500 team, particularly if we get that 5-on-8 action all year, but a good win nonetheless.
 
#14
2 out of 3 of TD/Davion/Tyrese need to play a lot better on the offensive end for us to win consistently. Everyone pretty much did their job except them with Barnes essentially picking up the slack. To be clear, I thought Davion did fine, but point being he can't be scoring 2 points when TD and Tyrese combine for 8 points on 3-15 shooting) unless you're expecting both Buddy and Barnes to go for 25.
 
#18
They don't look particularly impressive and in fact aren't particularly impressive, but Bagley not playing is about his deficiencies. He gets targeted to a hilarious degree. Their defense breaks in seconds when you put him at small-ball C. (Also on the perimeter, but the C position defensively is more important).

Harkless you can switch onto Dame and he'll be serviceable doing it. Bagley gets humiliated and probably records a mediocre diss track about it after he's done crying to daddy.
Kings lose this game last year. Matador defense on the perimeter, soft as jelly interior defense. They moved the biggest culprit on the perimeter to the 6th man role and added an elite defensive perimeter player. Took the biggest culprit in the interior out of the rotation and added a physical beast in Thompson. Win the game by a field goal instead of losing by 6.
 
#19
Happy that the Kings won. It was far from perfect, but they played pretty well for game 1. I thought Fox went a little too much iso for my liking. His assist total is a bit misleading since about 5-6 of them were just giving the ball to Barnes and he makes a 3.

I want to write about the refs. Normally I vent about the officiating after a loss. However, even after a win I feel some venting is in order.

1. There were several Fox drives in the 4th quarter where it clearly looked like he got fouled. I know you don't get every call, but I dont think he got any call.

2. Late in the game Buddy got a basket (and 1) to make the game 119-114. Billups challenges the call arguing tat the foul occurred on the floor and therefore no basket. After review the officials say the challenge was unsuccessful and yet they take away the basket.

3. Late in the game a blatant over the back offensive rebound by Nurkic that was never called.

4. Late in the game Barnes gets hit in the head by Nurkic. Should have at least been reviewed for a flagrant.

5. This one I am not sure about. Late in the game when Haliburton turned the ball over and Lillard got the basket a Blazer player dove to save the ball and keep it in bounds. I think it was McCullom. I never saw a replay but it looked to me that the Blazer player was out of bounds when he saved the ball
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
#20
Give the refs an A for effort. They tried like hell to bring that win home for Port, but they get a C for failing to seal the deal. My sources say they were confused and distraught in the locker room.
 
#23
Happy that the Kings won. It was far from perfect, but they played pretty well for game 1. I thought Fox went a little too much iso for my liking. His assist total is a bit misleading since about 5-6 of them were just giving the ball to Barnes and he makes a 3.

I want to write about the refs. Normally I vent about the officiating after a loss. However, even after a win I feel some venting is in order.

1. There were several Fox drives in the 4th quarter where it clearly looked like he got fouled. I know you don't get every call, but I dont think he got any call.

2. Late in the game Buddy got a basket (and 1) to make the game 119-114. Billups challenges the call arguing tat the foul occurred on the floor and therefore no basket. After review the officials say the challenge was unsuccessful and yet they take away the basket.

3. Late in the game a blatant over the back offensive rebound by Nurkic that was never called.

4. Late in the game Barnes gets hit in the head by Nurkic. Should have at least been reviewed for a flagrant.

5. This one I am not sure about. Late in the game when Haliburton turned the ball over and Lillard got the basket a Blazer player dove to save the ball and keep it in bounds. I think it was McCullom. I never saw a replay but it looked to me that the Blazer player was out of bounds when he saved the ball
Don't forget the play where Nurkic literally pushes Davion to the floor at half court. Not even being subtle about, just straight up shoves him down, no call.

And yeah, it was McCullough. He was clearly out of bounds.
 
#26
Happy that the Kings won. It was far from perfect, but they played pretty well for game 1. I thought Fox went a little too much iso for my liking. His assist total is a bit misleading since about 5-6 of them were just giving the ball to Barnes and he makes a 3.

I want to write about the refs. Normally I vent about the officiating after a loss. However, even after a win I feel some venting is in order.

1. There were several Fox drives in the 4th quarter where it clearly looked like he got fouled. I know you don't get every call, but I dont think he got any call.

2. Late in the game Buddy got a basket (and 1) to make the game 119-114. Billups challenges the call arguing tat the foul occurred on the floor and therefore no basket. After review the officials say the challenge was unsuccessful and yet they take away the basket.

3. Late in the game a blatant over the back offensive rebound by Nurkic that was never called.

4. Late in the game Barnes gets hit in the head by Nurkic. Should have at least been reviewed for a flagrant.

5. This one I am not sure about. Late in the game when Haliburton turned the ball over and Lillard got the basket a Blazer player dove to save the ball and keep it in bounds. I think it was McCullom. I never saw a replay but it looked to me that the Blazer player was out of bounds when he saved the ball

1. There were several Fox drives in the 4th quarter where it clearly looked like he got fouled. I know you don't get every call, but I dont think he got any call. Everybody complains about this every year with Fox. Yes, he might have gotten fouled on a couple but he creates so much contact that a lot of times the referees pass on that because the offense is initiating. Dame and CJ had drives where they felt like there was contact too, with no call.

2. Late in the game Buddy got a basket (and 1) to make the game 119-114. Billups challenges the call arguing tat the foul occurred on the floor and therefore no basket. After review the officials say the challenge was unsuccessful and yet they take away the basket. They did it correctly by rule - Billups challenged the foul and it was unsuccessful. If, during the review, they see something else that can be adjudicated correctly, they have the power to do that. They saw that Buddy was clearly fouled prior to the act of shooting so they were able to waive that off. Also, you realize that New York pretty much makes these decisions, right? Has nothing to do with the crew on the floor.

3. Late in the game a blatant over the back offensive rebound by Nurkic that was never called. That is never going to be "over the back" in the NBA. He is a foot taller and controlled the rebound before any contact was made. The contact after he got the ball was incidental. He never went through the Kings player to get the rebound. This is the kind of call you'll see made in high school games - not the NBA. By the way, there is no rule called "over the back."

4. Late in the game Barnes gets hit in the head by Nurkic. Should have at least been reviewed for a flagrant. It wasn't flagrant. He made no contact to the face. He never wound up. Even had it been reviewed, it wouldn't have been ruled flagrant. No chance.

5. This one I am not sure about. Late in the game when Haliburton turned the ball over and Lillard got the basket a Blazer player dove to save the ball and keep it in bounds. I think it was McCullom. I never saw a replay but it looked to me that the Blazer player was out of bounds when he saved the ball. You are correct. Looks like the Blazers player had a hand on the line slightly before he threw the pass back.
 
#28
Good
Barnes - had a career game and not just the 3's, but got to the line when we needed points.

Davion - off to a great start. Has the tools (physically and mentally) to guard elite offensive guards. Favorite play of the night was Davion hitting the deck to deflect a pass. It did not result in a steal, but was the only time a kings player hit the floor. He shows me something every game.

Holmes - had a solid game. Yes, he is undersized, but he battled down low and put up 20 and 10. Second favorite play of the night was a deep triple with the shot clock running down - swish, 3-logo.

Buddy - as a person not fond of Buddy, he produced last night. Biggest play of the game was the Kings not being able to buy a bucket and Buddy takes it to the rack, which should have been a three-point play (if not for home cooking). He is grabbing rebounds which has always been a strength, but he didn't force it and make foolish mistakes. I hope he continues this type of play.

Bad
Fox - Fox forced the issue. He called his own number for what seemed to be four consecutive plays, which resulted in zero points, a Shatin-a-Fool gem, and increased blood pressure by all Kingsfans. Fox obviously spent the summer bulking up, when he should have spend more time working on his shot.

Ty - I don't know what's up with Ty, but there seems to be a mental block. I don't remember him taking FIVE shots, but the two points in almost 30 minutes, the turnover late, and the lack of other contributions such as poor rebounding and horrible defense do not make up for good passing.
 
#29
I am encouraged by the starting lineup change, as well as our look on the court. Its early, but we look long, quick, and scrappy. Those starting lineup changes look like a commitment to defense. Obviously we were terrible defensively last year and there is a ton of room for fine tuning and improvement. That being said, we were getting after it with on ball defense and running down open shooters. In his first game, Davion looks like a very impressive athlete.
 
#30
2 out of 3 of TD/Davion/Tyrese need to play a lot better on the offensive end for us to win consistently. Everyone pretty much did their job except them with Barnes essentially picking up the slack. To be clear, I thought Davion did fine, but point being he can't be scoring 2 points when TD and Tyrese combine for 8 points on 3-15 shooting) unless you're expecting both Buddy and Barnes to go for 25.
Yeah and we still scored 124 with all of them basically sucking. Think that shows the potential offensive upside where we aren't so depth deprived like we were last year off the bench. Add on Fox really struggling in the 2nd half, you could say 4 of our top 7 scorers were off their game.
 
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