[Game] Kings vs. Cavaliers, 11/09/2022 7pm Pacific 10pm Eastern

[TaxMan]

The weak link on the Cleveland team currently seems to be Garland. With all his highflying talent, he still plays a little erratic and turnover-prone.

I’m not sure about that…. He’s normally pretty awesome. I think he’s still off because of his eye injury.

 

[dude12]

Did Domas make 11-12 FTs? Why yes, yes he did

 

[Entity]

Monk and heuter got my pumping my fist again. Big shots down the stretch for both of them. Monk is an X factor we haven’t had since Bobby jackson. Hell if we had anybody that good the last 16 years they would have been starter.

 

[kingsboi]

I feel the same way. These games are all nail biters because the defensive stops are few and far between. That makes it hard to build up much of a lead. But unlike past Kings teams, this one actually does have stretches where they look very good on defense and are active in disrupting the other team's sets. Why do you think they're so hot and cold on defense right now? I've been watching and I can't put my finger on what the issue is.

I don't know many teams that can play 48 minutes of relentless defense while still trying to keep it respectable on offense. Fatigue and endurance is clearly an issue here and it needs to get built up over the long term.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I can't diagnose it, but I can hope that it's got a lot to do with with still putting together Coach Brown's system. Tonight the paint defense was just a sieve most of the game, and maybe that's Cleveland finding a weakness that we can close up later, or maybe that's personnel. I kind of suspect the latter on tonight's problems. We really need that big mobile defender on this squad, that's what we're missing.

I worry that's not something we can get until next year, but won't be the end of the world.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I don't know many teams that can play 48 minutes of relentless defense while still trying to keep it respectable on offense. Fatigue and endurance is clearly an issue here and it needs to get built up over the long term.

Walton's Kings could do it for about 5 games afterwards they would follow up going 1-9 over the next 10 games.

 

[OptimusRhyme]

Monk and heuter got my pumping my fist again. Big shots down the stretch for both of them. Monk is an X factor we haven’t had since Bobby jackson. Hell if we had anybody that good the last 16 years they would have been starter.

they're fearless, i love the way they attack. Big win!

 

[SacTownKid]

Shout out to Keegan Murray. The stroke was there

If this team can get those set shots like they got tonight for both he and Barnes everything else will flow along with it. Also, his defense on Mitchell was pretty good overall even with the blow by's. Any time he got a step closer than he should have Mitchell blew right by him but overall he did well early giving a little space and relying on his length.

 

[KainLear]

I worry that's not something we can get until next year, but won't be the end of the world.

Yeah, I agree. I wouldn't wanna really shake this roster up too much as they are still gelling. Next year's rookies are pretty stack in talent, maybe we can draft ourselves a Mobley type.

 

[TaxMan]

I can't diagnose it, but I can hope that it's got a lot to do with with still putting together Coach Brown's system. Tonight the paint defense was just a sieve most of the game, and maybe that's Cleveland finding a weakness that we can close up later, or maybe that's personnel. I kind of suspect the latter on tonight's problems. We really need that big mobile defender on this squad, that's what we're missing.

I was a little surprised we didn’t see Len get some minutes. Also thought KZ could have put the clamps on Mitchell when he got cooking in the third. But we won so what do I know…

 

[kingsboi]

Walton's Kings could do it for about 5 games afterwards they would follow up going 1-9 over the next 10 games.

pacing your body and mind for the long haul, not the short haul.

 

[NiNetNiNe]

I mean, our defense wasn't that bad. We had a third quarter let down but overall the defense wasn't worst in the league terrible. More like middling defense terrible, which is a big improvement. But the Cavs are the top one or two defense in the league currently and they couldn't really stop us either.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Lebron might be out against us so we will need to watch out for the trap game but it would be nice to get another

 

[NewArena]

How’d we get Huerter and Monk, again? It’s just crazy to think about. You can see all of our new guys settling into their roles, more and more. Thank God we have a coach that seems to communicate like an Adult.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I was a little surprised we didn’t see Len get some minutes. Also thought KZ could have put the clamps on Mitchell when he got cooking in the third. But we won so what do I know…

Does KZ still exist?

 

[Kingster]

The game changed with the call on Harrison Barnes in the last three minutes. The Kings played with anger. Heurter started it with a basket and they all joined in. You could see it in Fox's eyes - he was PO'd. They had enough; they were going to play very aggressively, no matter what. Loved the attitude and loved the game.

 

[SacTownKid]

I mean, our defense wasn't that bad. We had a third quarter let down but overall the defense wasn't worst in the league terrible. More like middling defense terrible, which is a big improvement. But the Cavs were the top one or two defense in the league currently and they couldn't really stop us either.

Yeah, the Kings did better most of the time staying man to man with some bloopers here and there on bad matchups. The issues were the rebounds for sure. The Cavs got 10 more shot attempts in this one.

 

[The_Jamal]

I feel the same way. These games are all nail biters because the defensive stops are few and far between. That makes it hard to build up much of a lead. But unlike past Kings teams, this one actually does have stretches where they look very good on defense and are active in disrupting the other team's sets. Why do you think they're so hot and cold on defense right now? I've been watching and I can't put my finger on what the issue is.

Could just be they're 10 games into a new coaching regime with essentially a brand new player rotation. Fox/Barnes/Mitchell/Metu are the only guys still playing who played on the team game 1 of last year. And Metu was a guy who had to play into his spot, wasn't even a guy they were going to be counting on.

That's what's exciting to me. We're seeing A LOT of good, especially offensively and there's still obviously a whole lot of kinks to be worked out that hopefully comes with more court-time/practice time together. What we saw tonight was all our key cogs clicking at the same time, for the first time all season, and we end up beating a Cavs team that arguably has been the best in basketball through 10 games.

Davion really turned the tide there in the 4th quarter. Brown is going to have some tough decisions because man, his ball pressure on Mitchell and Garland turned this game heavily in favor of the Kings. So they have their guard stopper, but priority #1 needs to be someone who can stick on wings and find some semblance of rim protection. Also loved Fox seemed very content to let that unit go well into the 4th and he was JUCIED up defending Mitchell the final 3 minutes. That's as big a star effort as any.

 

[jiimbob]

I’m happy. Big fan of Monk.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Could just be they're 10 games into a new coaching regime with essentially a brand new player rotation. Fox/Barnes/Mitchell/Metu are the only guys still playing who played on the team game 1 of last year. And Metu was a guy who had to play into his spot, wasn't even a guy they were going to be counting on.

That's what's exciting to me. We're seeing A LOT of good, especially offensively and there's still obviously a whole lot of kinks to be worked out that hopefully comes with more court-time/practice time together. What we saw tonight was all our key cogs clicking at the same time and we end up beating a Cavs team that arguably has been the best in basketball through 10 games.

Davion really turned the tide there in the 4th quarter. Brown is going to have some tough decisions because man, his ball pressure on Mitchell and Garland turned this game heavily in favor of the Kings. So they have their guard stopper, but priority #1 needs to be someone who can stick on wings and find some semblance of rim protection. Also loved Fox seemed very content to let that unit go well into the 4th and he was JUCIED up defending Mitchell the final 3 minutes. That's as big a star effort as any.

NGL I was really scared after the start Brown would lose the team but actually seems like they've used that start and the two L2M screwjobs to light a fire.

 

[The_Jamal]

Shout-out Barnes too. I've been vocal about how bad he's been, but this team is levels better when he's rolling like he was tonight. Was super aggressive getting to the foul line, not passive about firing good C&S 3's and even had a few great defensive possessions.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Shout-out Barnes too. I've been vocal about how bad he's been, but this team is levels better when he's rolling like he was tonight. Was super aggressive getting to the foul line, not passive about firing good C&S 3's and even had a few great defensive possessions.

Same. How do we get this every night?

 

[TaxMan]

I’m happy. Big fan of Monk.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1590551076427952129

I love the push by coach at the end to get monk in the corner for the three

 

[hrdboild]

I can't diagnose it, but I can hope that it's got a lot to do with with still putting together Coach Brown's system. Tonight the paint defense was just a sieve most of the game, and maybe that's Cleveland finding a weakness that we can close up later, or maybe that's personnel. I kind of suspect the latter on tonight's problems. We really need that big mobile defender on this squad, that's what we're missing.

Yeah, those are good points. Maybe the reason it's hard to pin down is that it isn't the same problem every night. Cleveland is a load for anyone so getting crushed on the boards isn't a surprise. The layup drill we allowed to Orlando's wings was more alarming. And it's not like we haven't seen Golden State go on crazy Steph Curry fueled runs before. So some of it is match-up related but this is the league -- you can't call yourself a playoff team unless you have solutions for other team's weapons. Our wings show flashes but aren't consistently strong. Our big rotation this season skews very strongly in favor of offense. I'm still waiting for the Neemias Queta show to begin in earnest. Maybe that's wishful thinking. A Clint Capela type would be a godsend.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

So ESPN will show all of DM's 38 pts in their highlight package, what lone Kings play will they show?

 

[TaxMan]

Same. How do we get this every night?

If we get at least solid contributions from Barnes, Murray and Lyles on a regular basis, we are pretty tough to stop offensively.

 

[iowamcnabb]

The good news is Keegan will continue to grow as the year goes on so we can likely expect more out of him and hopefully everyone is out of their funk and ready to contribute something consistently

 

[206Fan]

I believe in this team. We've gone through 10 games into the season, and just about each one has gone down to the wire. We haven't seen this much competitiveness and functionality since Adelman? Even under Joerger we'd win a tough game by 5pts one night, only to lose by 20pts against a tanking team.

It's really early in the season, but this is probably the best offensive Kings team since 2005? We look like we're running a legitimate offense with all the actions, hand offs, screens, passing, and ball movement. The unselfishness also speaks volume. Anyone remember when we'd have players frozen out of the offense? I don't feel like that here. Everyone touches the ball

 

[Sluggah]

Didn’t realize Luke Walton was a Cavs assistant coach. That explains the win.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Coach Brown giving Jordi credit for their go to play down the stretch. Hopefully there are no more early season firings.