[Game] Kings v Hornets, Saturday, Jan. 12 - 7PT/10ET

#1
Watching Portland and Charlotte right now... we're going to destroy the hornets tomorrow night.... the blazers will be tough but very winnable... then destroy the hornets AGAIN.
 
#2
Destroy? Why? Blazers are better than the Kings. That’s not debateable. Hornets don’t have a lot of talent outside of Kemba. But, they do play like a team,
Unlike the Joke Pistons.
Blazers also have 3 players better than any 3 on the Kings.

Kings should win. But, Destroy? I think it will be close.
Detroit got smoked because their 25ppg was resting. Detroit might have still lost, but not by much.

If Blake plays the next game. Kings will have to play a lot better.
 
#3
Watching Portland and Charlotte right now... we're going to destroy the hornets tomorrow night.... the blazers will be tough but very winnable... then destroy the hornets AGAIN.
I feel the kings need to see how Portland played. They built a big lead and had a 20 point lead. But instead of letting up on the gas, they kept pushing and had 30+ point lead by the end of the 3rd and kept it a blowout til the end. Don't lose focus.
 
#4
I feel the kings need to see how Portland played. They built a big lead and had a 20 point lead. But instead of letting up on the gas, they kept pushing and had 30+ point lead by the end of the 3rd and kept it a blowout til the end. Don't lose focus.
Or conceivably Charlotte waived the white flag early hoping for a win against us. Looking at team minutes seems more likely.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#5
I feel the kings need to see how Portland played. They built a big lead and had a 20 point lead. But instead of letting up on the gas, they kept pushing and had 30+ point lead by the end of the 3rd and kept it a blowout til the end. Don't lose focus.
Exactly. I want to see a lead from the start, growing larger throughout the game. Take no prisoners time. If the Kings are going to take the next step up the ladder, they absolutely must develop the killer instinct.

GO KINGS!
 
#7
Blazers are better than the Kings. That’s not debateable.
Everything is debatable.

Their record says they are better right now, but that doesn't mean they really are. I mean, there are 3 teams with better records than the Warriors right now too, but not many believe those teams are really better.

I'm not saying that Portland isn't better than the KINGS, but it certainly could be argued. Not only should the KINGS have beaten the Blazers when they played recently, if they hadn't blown other games against the Lakers, Warriors and Nuggets --- or just managed to hold on to win half of them -- they'd be in the same neighborhood record wise. A lot changed during that awful week and it can swing back the other way just as fast.

I personally don't believe Portland is all that good. But perhaps that's just me. The only thing they've got going over the KINGS as far as I'm concerned is the saavy and experience of their guards. But that won't last forever.
 
#12
Destroy? Why? Blazers are better than the Kings. That’s not debateable. Hornets don’t have a lot of talent outside of Kemba. But, they do play like a team,
Unlike the Joke Pistons.
Blazers also have 3 players better than any 3 on the Kings.
The Kings have more talent than the Blazers. McCollum is not the same player he was. He's declined. I assume the other two players you are citing are Nurkic and Lillard. Fox is better than Nurkic and about tied with Lillard as an impact player when you factor in defense (Lillard doesn't play much defense) but I don't want to argue that point. The Kings would have equal or better record to the Blazers if Willie was as good as Nurkic. The Blazers and Kings are interesting to compare in that they are two guard dominant teams while Bagley and Giles develop into potential greatness. The strength of our respective teams until then is the backcourt. Our three guards of Fox, Buddy and Bogs do NOT take a backseat to their trio of Lillard, McCollum and Curry. The stats say as much. I would take our trio over theirs. The Blazers have more length on the wings with Harkless and Aminu. Harkless and Aminu are not world beaters but far ahead of Justin Jackson, for example. That length on the wings is important to slow down the likes of Durant, Tobias and Luka. We don't have it. But the real difference is at center. Nurkic is good. Willie pretends to be good. If we had a center performing like Nurkic we would be 25-17 too instead of .500. Also if we had Bagley for the games he missed to take minutes away from Willie and do his own thing we'd be closer to their record:

Nurkic (Age 24): Rebound rate 20.2%; 57% TS; Block rate 4.1% Steal rate 2.0%; Assist to TO 1.3; Net Rating +12
Willie (Age 25, 12 months older): Rebound rate 16.1%; 53% TS; Block rate 2.0% Steal rate 1.9%; Assist to TO 2.1; Net Rating +3

Nurkic has done everything better than Willie this year except assist to TOs. He's simply a better player and one year younger. This difference correlates to the difference in the two teams in the standings. Nurkic contract is 3/36 including this year, 12M per year. Unless Willie shows dramatic improvement over the most important 40 games of his career, if not traded first, he is a 8M per year player, 3/24M is about right for a decent backup and nothing more.
 
#13
The Blazers are a good team, but we are just getting started. The Blazers really aren't headed anywhere IMO, their two best players are good to great on offense, but less than stellar on defense. Their best player is by and large a PG that really is an undersized SG. They are older than us too and their experience has helped them get to the record they have now. I would love to have Nurkic, but that isn't happening.

Now onto today's game, I would really love a win here as a birthday present from the Kings to me! The Hornets can be dangerous especially if Kemba starts going off, but they are on a back to back and we aren't. We should push push and push some more. We have the advantage, but as we saw with the Suns game, one never knows.
 
#14
Kemba vs D-Fox is worth the price of admission. Fox gets up for these challenges. Kemba doesn't have the end to end speed of Fox but I think he has the matching quickness and some of the best juke moves in the half court. I hope we see old collegiate teammates go at it too. The Hornets took Monk over Mitchell. Oops. He is doing better than his disastrous rookie season but he is only 53% TS% and 34% on threes. The kid is too slight of build to be a star SG and does not have the handling to be a full time PG. I was never high on him. Fox was clearly the better prospect at Kentucky. I was high on Miles Bridges and he is having a relatively poor rookie year save a few vicious jams. The Hornets, like the Magic and Pistons, are going nowhere. They are easy fodder if we show up with the right attitude, which I think we will. That Suns loss stung and we are not going to take these lightweight teams lightly.
 
#16
The Kings have more talent than the Blazers. McCollum is not the same player he was. He's declined. I assume the other two players you are citing are Nurkic and Lillard. Fox is better than Nurkic and about tied with Lillard as an impact player when you factor in defense (Lillard doesn't play much defense) but I don't want to argue that point. The Kings would have equal or better record to the Blazers if Willie was as good as Nurkic. The Blazers and Kings are interesting to compare in that they are two guard dominant teams while Bagley and Giles develop into potential greatness. The strength of our respective teams until then is the backcourt. Our three guards of Fox, Buddy and Bogs do NOT take a backseat to their trio of Lillard, McCollum and Curry. The stats say as much. I would take our trio over theirs. The Blazers have more length on the wings with Harkless and Aminu. Harkless and Aminu are not world beaters but far ahead of Justin Jackson, for example. That length on the wings is important to slow down the likes of Durant, Tobias and Luka. We don't have it.
And Ball! Do not neglect the necessity of having lengthy wing players to stop the subtle genius of the basketball virtuoso that is Lonzo Ball. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
 
#17
It would be hard for me as a fan to get up for the Hornets except for one thing. I'll never forget the double-overtime loss to the Hornets, in Arco, when the Kings were on the cusp of being a playoff contender - and DeMarcus was having one of his best games ever (maybe 50 but I'm not sure)... and it slipped away. We lost the game and spiraled from then until this current season. That game vs Hornets was one of the most horrible things that happened to the DeMarcus Kings.

So I want to see us CRUSH Kemba Walker and will pay to see it!!
 
#18
It would be hard for me as a fan to get up for the Hornets except for one thing. I'll never forget the double-overtime loss to the Hornets, in Arco, when the Kings were on the cusp of being a playoff contender - and DeMarcus was having one of his best games ever (maybe 50 but I'm not sure)... and it slipped away. We lost the game and spiraled from then until this current season. That game vs Hornets was one of the most horrible things that happened to the DeMarcus Kings.

So I want to see us CRUSH Kemba Walker and will pay to see it!!
Pretty sure Cousins had 56 at the time and grabbed an offensive rebound and was whistled for an offensive foul as he made a move to the hoop.

The dude had 56 points! You don’t take him out of the game with a stupid call like that! Not his fault they couldn’t stop him.
 
#19
The Hornets have the most random mashup of players to me. None of the pieces seem to fit together and there isn't any one player who really excels in one area aside from Kemba.

Batum: Can supposedly defend and hit 3s, but his offensive output is really low. Doesn't provide much else in the stats column.

Lamb: Decent offensive player who does everything OK but not great.

Marvin Williams: I don't know what this guy provides. He just appears to be the king of the "jack-of-all trades master of none" moniker.

MKG: This guy is such a mystery to me. He can't shoot. Maybe the occasional (really awkward looking) jumper. He really doesn't have any offensive game at all. His defense is solid all-around but he doesn't have one marketable skill and is sort of a bust.

Hernangomez: He is putting up pretty good stats. High scoring %, great rebounding numbers, but only gets like 13 MPG for some reason. I'm guessing his defense is poor.

Monk: Remember when this board was discussing doubling down on guards by selecting him in the draft two years ago after selecting Fox? Well, maybe not doing so was a good decision. Monk is underwhelming so far. He's supposed to be a pure scorer but he's been pretty bad thus far.

Kaminsky: Slow-footed 7 foot stretch four who can shoot, but can't defend or rebound.

Miles Bridges: No idea what this guy brings. Apparently he's athletic and has some defensive ability, but his scoring percentages are really horrendous as of today. For an early mid-round pick he appears underwhelming.

Parker: Crafty, super-veteran PG who is pretty much done. But he's solid in limited minutes and a good locker room presence.

Seller: F/C with short wingspan who, similar to M. Williams, is just meh. Simply average across the board.

Anyway, point is this strange assortment of "master of none" players just doesn't work together. Sorry for the long post.
 
#20
It would be hard for me as a fan to get up for the Hornets except for one thing. I'll never forget the double-overtime loss to the Hornets, in Arco, when the Kings were on the cusp of being a playoff contender - and DeMarcus was having one of his best games ever (maybe 50 but I'm not sure)... and it slipped away. We lost the game and spiraled from then until this current season. That game vs Hornets was one of the most horrible things that happened to the DeMarcus Kings.

So I want to see us CRUSH Kemba Walker and will pay to see it!!
I’m surprised nobody else mentioned this. Charlotte and Kemba have gotten under my skin in recent years because they’ve bested the KINGS in several shootouts. Kemba has all but owned them.

That OT game really hurt. I for one am amped up for tonight because of it. I hope the KINGS win and leave no doubt doing it.
 
#22
The Kings have more talent than the Blazers. McCollum is not the same player he was. He's declined. I assume the other two players you are citing are Nurkic and Lillard. Fox is better than Nurkic and about tied with Lillard as an impact player when you factor in defense (Lillard doesn't play much defense) but I don't want to argue that point. The Kings would have equal or better record to the Blazers if Willie was as good as Nurkic. The Blazers and Kings are interesting to compare in that they are two guard dominant teams while Bagley and Giles develop into potential greatness. The strength of our respective teams until then is the backcourt. Our three guards of Fox, Buddy and Bogs do NOT take a backseat to their trio of Lillard, McCollum and Curry. The stats say as much. I would take our trio over theirs. The Blazers have more length on the wings with Harkless and Aminu. Harkless and Aminu are not world beaters but far ahead of Justin Jackson, for example. That length on the wings is important to slow down the likes of Durant, Tobias and Luka. We don't have it. But the real difference is at center. Nurkic is good. Willie pretends to be good. If we had a center performing like Nurkic we would be 25-17 too instead of .500. Also if we had Bagley for the games he missed to take minutes away from Willie and do his own thing we'd be closer to their record:

Nurkic (Age 24): Rebound rate 20.2%; 57% TS; Block rate 4.1% Steal rate 2.0%; Assist to TO 1.3; Net Rating +12
Willie (Age 25, 12 months older): Rebound rate 16.1%; 53% TS; Block rate 2.0% Steal rate 1.9%; Assist to TO 2.1; Net Rating +3

Nurkic has done everything better than Willie this year except assist to TOs. He's simply a better player and one year younger. This difference correlates to the difference in the two teams in the standings. Nurkic contract is 3/36 including this year, 12M per year. Unless Willie shows dramatic improvement over the most important 40 games of his career, if not traded first, he is a 8M per year player, 3/24M is about right for a decent backup and nothing more.

Fox is equal to Lillard? You don’t watch much basketball my friend. Lillard is twice the player Fox is. You have a short memory. Lillard absolutely tore Fox up in the 4th and Ot of that Kings loss. Lillard is also a much better shooter and sniper. Lillard makes it a common practice to take over games. Extremely high IQ and has done it for years.

Fox wishes he could be Lillard.
I like Fox and he’s improved quite a bit over last year. But equal. I don’t think you’re going to find one coach or basketball expert who agrees with that comment

Putting him in the same class as Lillard. That’s hilarious. When Fox takes over a game, not a quarter of 2 against Elite competition and does it consistently than we can talk.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
#26
Fox is equal to Lillard? You don’t watch much basketball my friend. Lillard is twice the player Fox is. You have a short memory. Lillard absolutely tore Fox up in the 4th and Ot of that Kings loss. Lillard is also a much better shooter and sniper. Lillard makes it a common practice to take over games. Extremely high IQ and has done it for years.

Fox wishes he could be Lillard.
I like Fox and he’s improved quite a bit over last year. But equal. I don’t think you’re going to find one coach or basketball expert who agrees with that comment

Putting him in the same class as Lillard. That’s hilarious. When Fox takes over a game, not a quarter of 2 against Elite competition and does it consistently than we can talk.
While I do agree Fox =/= Lillard, I feel you’re underselling Fox quite a bit.
 
#27
Miles Bridges: No idea what this guy brings. Apparently he's athletic and has some defensive ability, but his scoring percentages are really horrendous as of today. For an early mid-round pick he appears underwhelming.
Miles Bridges is one of the most ferocious dunkers around.


this first one was always one of my favorites.
 
#30
Everything is debatable.

Their record says they are better right now, but that doesn't mean they really are. I mean, there are 3 teams with better records than the Warriors right now too, but not many believe those teams are really better.

I'm not saying that Portland isn't better than the KINGS, but it certainly could be argued. Not only should the KINGS have beaten the Blazers when they played recently, if they hadn't blown other games against the Lakers, Warriors and Nuggets --- or just managed to hold on to win half of them -- they'd be in the same neighborhood record wise. A lot changed during that awful week and it can swing back the other way just as fast.

I personally don't believe Portland is all that good. But perhaps that's just me. The only thing they've got going over the KINGS as far as I'm concerned is the saavy and experience of their guards. But that won't last forever.
I don't want to pretend I'm an authority on Portland but they are a team good enough to tread water in the 3-8 seeds with no shot ever at a championship. They've hit their ceiling and are arguably a better team this minute while we're up and coming. I have a feeling when our players reach their primes more than a few will be more highly regarded than the Blazers players are today.