Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
KingsFans.com Official Gameday Thread
Game 27
Sacramento Kings versus New Orleans Pelicans
No, I don't understand this picture either. (Bonus caption contest!)
The PreludeGame 27
Sacramento Kings versus New Orleans Pelicans
No, I don't understand this picture either. (Bonus caption contest!)
The day everyone has been waiting for is finally here. Yes, that’s right. We finally get to see Arinze Onuaku in action. Get your popcorn folks, buckle your seatbelts, put on your safety helmets, strap Junior into his booster chair because things are about to get crazy.
I have no idea who else is on the Pelicans roster but I’m pretty sure there’s no one important and/or anyone who has previously been on our team before. I’m also pretty confident in saying that the Pelicans have absolutely no big men on note on their roster. Also, their mascot is pretty terrifying.
The Postgame
We won! We finally won!
I don’t know what’s more impressive: the fact that we actually won a game or the fact we won a game despite Demarcus having the least impactful game of his season. Then again, it was a victory over the mighty Orlando Magic, a team clearly building for next season. (They have a conspicuous hole where a small forward should go.) While a hard fought meeting, this was less a heavyweight brawl and more Cousin Frank and Uncle Larry wrestling on the living room floor after having a little too much Christmas wine.
For the first three quarter, things looked a little dire. After single-handedly keeping the team in numerous games over the past quarter season, Demarcus finally took a break from his streak of utter dominance. Meanwhile, the entire bench took the night off to a point. Thus, even though the Kings were only down two points by the end of the 3rd quarter, you never really got the sense that they were going to win the game.
Then came the fourth quarter and the tankjob was on. Not on our part, mind you, nor do I believe that the Orlando Magic really intended to give away the game (They actually plain just don’t have that guy to go to late in the game). But when you have no defensive response for or way to counter a Rudy Gay, it makes games very difficult to win.
But give our team credit, we were not going to be outsucked down the stretch tonight. Thiost last two minutes pretty much looked like a lesson on how not to close out a game, with both sides exchanging one stupid move after another.
And we just happened to come out on top.
Observations
- After an entire season’s worth of sucking, Little Napoleon made a brief appearance in the 4th quarter, picking up the scoring to help cover the gap created by Demarcus’s low scoring night. With B-Mac starting to look like an NBA player again, Marcus could wind up being our 6th man by default once again. I’m sure you’re all very pleased.
- After a blistering start to his time with the team, Derrick Williams has largely been relegated to spot minutes since the Gay trade. Not for nothing but, I’d rather see the young guy out there than see Travis Outlaw get the majority of the stretch guy off the bench minutes.
- I think the Grizzlies really miss Rudy Gay.
- Quincy Acy’s beard. That is all.
Tyreke Evans Watch
Lance Stephenson had yet another triple-double. I remember at some point there were some of us on this site who thought the two big combo guards would be perfect fits next to each other. At this rate, Lance is out Tyreke-ing Reke.
Tweet Break
danecarbaugh
Russell Westbrook looks angry even when he's trying to help kids with presents during the holidays http://t.co/j0ta4BJaxy
12/24/13, 5:09 AM
Tonight’s Game
Despite their flurry of big offseason moves and the adoration of pundits everywhere, the mighty New Orleans Pelicans have only won three more games than we have. Of course, all of their key guys have missed chunks of the season and are only now really having a chance to mesh so that record may just be a bit deceiving.
Anthony Davis may or may not be the best young big man in the league depending on who you talk to. At the very least, he and Demarcus are in a class of their own when it comes to big men under the age of 25. Unlike Demarcus, however, the Brow has displayed a frightening knack for getting injured, something that may be attributable to his wiry frame and relatively underdeveloped body. When he's healthy, Davis's defensive prowess is enough to completely alter the course of a game. The big problem has been that he gets sidelined just about every time he starts heating up.
Ryan Anderson is having an absolute monster season as the stretch man for the Pelicans drive and dash offensive system, having kept the Pelicans dangerous while their star big man was out nursing an assortment of maladies. Unless JT suddenly remembers how to play defense on the edge, this could get ugly.
The whole Tyreke thing has been discussed ad naseum in just about every other thread on this site so I'm not going to beat that dead horse for both your sake and mine. Let's just say it'll be nice to see Reke back in Arco for a night and leave it at that.
Jrue Holiday came to the Pelicans from the Sixers in exchange for Nerlen Noels and the Pelicans's draft pick this year but hasn't necessarily been putting up the same numbers or having the same impact as he did in years past as the chief guard of the Sixer playoff teams. Meanwhile Eric Gordon has somehow managed to stay healthy for a change and has been putting up reasonable numbers but nothing too impressive. Once seen as the potential number two guy to Davis's number one, he's now pretty much become a calmer Marcus Thornton to Jrue Holiday's unique brand of justice.
The one gaping hole on the Pelicans roster is the one at small forward. Starting the relatively underwhelming Al-Farouq Aminu, Monty Williams often goes to a three guard lineup featuring some combination of Reke, Gordon, Holiday, Brian Roberts, Austin Rivers, and Anthony Morrow in lieu of a traditional small forward (Darius Miller and Lance Thomas are his two listed backup 3s). This being the new regime, small forward is of course now one of our positions of strength, with Rudy Gay and Derrick Williams forming one of the longer, more athletic small forward tandems in the league (I'm still shocked that we have actual small forwards and not John Salmons). In the past, when Keith Smart was finding new ways to play the entire team out of position, Rudy Gay was the exact kind of small forward Tyreke would have trouble guarding, simply too big and long for Reke to easily matchup with and dangerous along the perimeter. If we're going to win, it'll be because we've found ways to exploit this mismatch.
Matchups
Cuz versus Davis: Undoubtedly the matchup of the night, we may come one step closer to answering the question I posed several games ago. (Hint: we won't)
Rudy versus NOLA Smartball: Davis is a defensive mavin but even he can't help the perimeter defense when Rudy Gay is three inches taller than the guy guarding him.
Bench versus sucking: Please don't suck
Prediction/Closure
I'm having a hard time figuring out who's going to come out on top of this one. While the backcourt situation could get a little ugly because our guys have never heard of the word defense, we actually matchup with these guys pretty well on paper. Unfortunately games aren't played on paper.
I'm going to say we pull off the hometown victory, 106-101. Demarcus goes one more step down the road of all-star with an absolute monster stat line (35 points, 21 rebounds, 7 assists). Rudy lights up the smaller NOLA lineup to the tune of 25 points and six boards. IT actually remembers to guard his guy for once. Slamson banishes Pierre the Pelican back into the fiery depths of Hell from whence he emerged.
We all leave happy.
GO KINGS!
