[Game] Kings vs. Atlanta Hawks, 1/22/2024, 7:00p PST/10:00p EST

[Capt. Factorial]

HB posted his statline on his instagram at halftime lol

Look for yours and hype it up, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, defer, look for yours and hype it up.

 

[captain bill]

Gotta take any win you can get on slow offensive nights for Fox/Sabonis.

Sabonis was still massive in this game. If we had our crap together he'd be in the MVP conversation

 

[SacTownKid]

14 of our next 19 on the road is brutal. Will make or break the season

And things are getting scary out there. The Suns just jumped up to 5th and are getting to that cocky we can half *** our way to victory phase now that they've got their big 3 back to health. I hate superteams. Good news is Durant kind of has a history of falling flat if the swagger gets too far out of hand.

 

[206Fan]

Sabonis was still massive in this game. If we had our crap together he'd be in the MVP conversation

Domas is our best player this year. Somehow, he's playing even better than last year.

 

[MizzouKing]

I LOVE the balanced attack tonight. Bench fully involved, kicked in over 40 points, not just watching and waiting for the starters to get tired. We have a great bench, makes sense to use it!

 

[The_Jamal]

Sabonis was still massive in this game. If we had our crap together he'd be in the MVP conversation

Domas with the very slow 14-21-6 offensive night lol.
6-6 FTA is beautiful too.

Fox on the other hand.. Woof. Something's got to give because we're just not going to make the playoffs if he doesn't show up. He's been bad on defense too, other than last possession on Murray to get the steal. HB isn't going to spot us a 32 pt on 20 shots performance very often. He had a few big plays tonight in crunch time, but.. this game also should have never been in crunch time if he plays up to his norm.

 

[Makaveli]

Add it up all the way around it was a message of some kind. Now was it Harrisons, Monte's, or Mikes? And who was it to? Stay tuned folks were heading into the home stretch of deadline season!

Definitely something. Barnes finally said to somebody look I haven’t been in this league this long as a corner three guy. I’m taking it to the rack. Notice Sabonis Assist numbers down tonight.

 

[BenchMob]

Unlike other nights, Fox looked mentally disengaged this game compared to physically

 

[Makaveli]

Unlike other nights, Fox looked mentally disengaged this game compared to physically

Since 2024 he has been off a bit. Not sure what it is but just really average play. I’m just real happy kings won and Wilkins was not on the call. Pleasant listening to Atlanta announcers tonight

 

[NewArena]

Dej Murray is significantly better when Trae is out and he can be lead guard, so this is a nice win. Light the Beam! The key is to keep this momentum and focus going. Sometimes all it takes is a win like this shake off whatever that dark cloud was

 

[NewArena]

21-24 FTs tonight, 88%

Beautiful. I don’t care who they do this against - more of that, PLEASE!

 

[NewArena]

14 of our next 19 on the road is brutal. Will make or break the season

I trust this squad in the perceived brutal stretches over the “Hey, we have 7 winnable games coming up against sub .500 teams” stretches any day. I actually think this is just what the doctor ordered! *Knocks on wood*

 

[NewArena]

Fox saving his cooking for the warriors on Thursday. I’m here for it!

 

[NewArena]

Sabonis was still massive in this game. If we had our crap together he'd be in the MVP conversation

Eh, we were just 9 games above .500 and the media didn’t give a damn. Last season as well

 

[NewArena]

And things are getting scary out there. The Suns just jumped up to 5th and are getting to that cocky we can half *** our way to victory phase now that they've got their big 3 back to health. I hate superteams. Good news is Durant kind of has a history of falling flat if the swagger gets too far out of hand.

Yea they genuinely don’t scare me at all and i mean that. That taking turns ISO’ing teams to death on offense never does anything special when it matters IMO

 

[NewArena]

Monk had some really nice plays and dimes tonight

 

[NewArena]

Would be interesting if we stayed around the 4th-6th seed and end up taking on OKC in round one. I think it would be very similar to the Warriors and Kings last year, in terms of the more experienced team coming out on top eventually. Kings can beat them in 6 IMO, maybe even 5 if they do everything right.

 

[sactowndog]

Nice win. The Kings clearly benefitted from Barnes play. Makes you wonder if they need to run a few more plays for Barnes

 

[TheMobb]

Maybe it’s just me, but the Kings were EXCESSIVELY going to HB out of nowhere. 20 FGA and pretty much the 1st or 2nd option. Think it’s possible a team asked to see what he has left as a primary scoring option.

 

[sactowndog]

Would be interesting if we stayed around the 4th-6th seed and end up taking on OKC in round one. I think it would be very similar to the Warriors and Kings last year, in terms of the more experienced team coming out on top eventually. Kings can beat them in 6 IMO, maybe even 5 if they do everything right.

OKC is very long and would give us tremendous issues

 

[captain bill]

21-24 FTs tonight, 88%

Hawks 4th Q run when they cut it to 9 looks very different if we're shooting 60-70% again

 

[The_Jamal]

OKC is very long and would give us tremendous issues

We're one of the only teams OKC has struggled with this season. Granted, it was earlier in the year before Chet has really gotten going, but they just don't have an answer for Domas physicality in the post. Just babied him all game long.

Part of the reason NOP is such an insane matchup for us is: 1. they have a defender for Fox 2. they have a physical beast C to match Domas physicality and 3. They're crazy long everywhere. I don't think Chet can guard Domas and I don't think Dort is anywhere close to Herb level defensively.

Pretty fun 3v3 battle though. Shai vs Fox, Keegan vs J-Dub, Domas vs Chet.

 

[sono]

Fox saving his cooking for the warriors on Thursday. I’m here for it!

Two more days off, hopefully, it'll give him enough time to recover whatever he's been dealing with for another stretch.

 

[SacTownKid]

Yea they genuinely don’t scare me at all and i mean that. That taking turns ISO’ing teams to death on offense never does anything special when it matters IMO

Yeah, but that's another one right in that muck where the Kings are and the less the merrier. The Clippers and Suns are trending up right now.

 

[NewArena]

Maybe it’s just me, but the Kings were EXCESSIVELY going to HB out of nowhere. 20 FGA and pretty much the 1st or 2nd option. Think it’s possible a team asked to see what he has left as a primary scoring option.

I don’t know about that, but it is good to see him consistently getting to the freethrow line and make em all. We’ve missed that desperately on this team.

 

[NewArena]

We're one of the only teams OKC has struggled with this season. Granted, it was earlier in the year before Chet has really gotten going, but they just don't have an answer for Domas physicality in the post. Just babied him all game long.

Part of the reason NOP is such an insane matchup for us is: 1. they have a defender for Fox 2. they have a physical beast C to match Domas physicality and 3. They're crazy long everywhere. I don't think Chet can guard Domas and I don't think Dort is anywhere close to Herb level defensively.

Pretty fun 3v3 battle though. Shai vs Fox, Keegan vs J-Dub, Domas vs Chet.

Agreed!! I think it would be FUN and i trust our guys in the clutch, last week aside

 

[hrdboild]

Even after losing 4 in a row, the Kings are only at 18 losses on the season while Minnesota and OKC are in the 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, with 13 losses each. If we'd won those last 4 games instead we'd be only 1 game back in the loss column from the #1 seed. That's a missed opportunity for sure, but also, we're still right in the mix for a top 4 seed.

There's still a ton of season left and no one has truly separated from the pack at the top of the conference yet. Another big post All-Star game push would likely get us home court advantage in the first round again and might get us a second consecutive division title. As one of the only contending teams left with future first round picks available to trade, this would be a good time to be aggressive about identifying and fixing our problem areas.

Tonight's game does present an interesting hypothetical, however. With Huerter and now HB both erupting for 30 point outings in consecutive games, maybe we have most of what we need already on the roster without making a trade? In those recent losses the TO and missed free throws really started to snowball. That suggests to me a lack of focus, which should be correctable. The shot distribution tonight was also night and day from what we've been seeing -- 10 different guys had at least 4 shots and there was a more balanced mix of 2s and 3s. If these things are sustainable -- Huerter finally fighting out of his horrendous slump, Davion giving us 22 minutes of pesky defense every night, HB looking like a cagey veteran scorer again instead of a human traffic cone, Vezenkov hitting 2-3 threes off the bench and crashing the boards -- the cumulative effect would be as if we'd pulled off a nice mid-season trade for reinforcements.

 

[sactowndog]

We're one of the only teams OKC has struggled with this season. Granted, it was earlier in the year before Chet has really gotten going, but they just don't have an answer for Domas physicality in the post. Just babied him all game long.

Part of the reason NOP is such an insane matchup for us is: 1. they have a defender for Fox 2. they have a physical beast C to match Domas physicality and 3. They're crazy long everywhere. I don't think Chet can guard Domas and I don't think Dort is anywhere close to Herb level defensively.

Pretty fun 3v3 battle though. Shai vs Fox, Keegan vs J-Dub, Domas vs Chet.

yeah that’s true. They don’t have a good Domas match up. Forgotten about that point

 

[Caccia]

Monk had some really nice plays and dimes tonight.

Like a couple of other teams recently, the Hawks were trying to double-team him to get him to cough up the ball, but he had only one turnover. He also had only one against the Pacers and the Bucks, compared to five against the Suns. Overall, that gives Monk a 1.8 average in January, which is very good considering he has served as the bench's primary ball handler.

 

[thingfish]

Since 2024 he has been off a bit. Not sure what it is but just really average play. I’m just real happy kings won and Wilkins was not on the call. Pleasant listening to Atlanta announcers tonight

Have you raised babies? Raising a baby is definitely something different for Fox this year. Some days are just a challenge.