Well that was infuriating until the last six or so minutes when things because absolutely invigorating. Aside from Harrison Barnes nailing three after three to keep the Kings from going down by twenty, nothing about the game really suggested that the Kings were going to beat the Pelicans. Then De'Aaron Fox pressed the supernova button and singlehandedly outscored the Pelicans 17-15 in the entire fourth quarter to will his team to victory and a 3-1 road trip.
Much to Bill Simmons and Amin Elhassan's chagrins, Swipa seems to have officially taken that next step from potential star to full-blown monstrous beat-your-team-all-by-his-damn-self star over the last couple of weeks, pushed over the threshold by a week of the Kings playing some of the worst basketball I have ever seen, and it is glorious.
Seventeen points in one quarter is impressive but it's nothing when you consider that his first points in the quarter didn't happen until somewhere around the six minute mark. Then it was all systems go. While the Pelicans can't exactly be called a great defensive team, especially when Steven Adams is out, their two guards are known as being "defensive guys" with Bledsoe even getting a spot on an All-Defensive team a while back. Both were helpless against the force of nature that was De'Aaron Fox.
There is something to be said about all-universe athleticism meeting skill and experience and whatever it is was on full display on Monday. The change of pace, the crafty handles, the subtle body control, the added strength after years of putting in the work in the weight room, the improved range as a shooter: together it all results in a basketball Voltron aimed to wreak havoc upon the rest of the league and, boy oh boy, am I glad he's on our team.
***
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Josh Hart. Rather than Lonzo, it was the Pelican's OTHER 4th year point guard that Lakers fans swore up and down was better than De'Aaron who gave the Kings the most trouble. While Hart didn't have a great shooting night, he hit the boards hard to the tune of 13 slices of beef and picked up four assists. He also didn't get utterly humiliated by Fox during the fourth quarter like most of his teammates, which counts as a major win for him.
Cory Joseph/ Jason Hart/ Andres Nocioni (But now mostly CoJo) Award- Cory Joseph, who in true CoJo fashion had one of the least productive 14 minutes of playing time you will ever see. It may seem that CoJo gets open quite a lot but in reality that's all just because the opposing team doesn't feel like it even needs to bother to defend him. On defense, Cory was routinely getting lapped by guards, wings, Willie Hernangomez, some of the refs, and badly misplaying sets when he was off the ball. It sounds like I'm over exaggerating how bad he was but I am unfortunately not.
Demarcus Cousins Ref BFF - Marvin Bagley III. Overall it was not a great game for Marvin. Zion is of course too strong for him but that was less of an issue than it probably could have been because the refs were just blasting the whistle whenever Bagley wound up in Williamson's general vicinity in the first place. Marvin wound up getting two very very dubious technicals, including one where he simply jumped up and down in frustration when he got whistled for a foul that didn't exist and got ejected. I'm not sure how else to say it so I'll leave it to Boogie.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award - Stan Van Gundy, who waited to double team Swipa until he was so hot that he was just scoring anyways. Also those Ron Jeremy memes got far less fun now that it turns out he was a serial sexual predator.
Hassan Bein' Hassan Moment of the Night - Not actually in the game but apparently on their day off but it's Hassan antics so I'm letting this slide.
***
Good news, Bawstin Spoats Faithful. Here's a game for ya' ta' eat ya' chowder to to distract you from Tommy Brady making the Super Bowl with another team.
The Celtics come into this game on the back half of a NorCal back-to-back (in New England, they call it a Tedy Bruschi). The Golden State Warriors took them to wire on the back of a huge Steph Curry game but the Celtics (represented by a dude in a sweater vest and smoking a pipe) came out victorious. Thanks to injuries to both Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard, Boston is incredibly thin at guard with just Jaylen Brown (Awesome/All-Star), Kemba Walker (dealing with knee issues), and Jeff Teague (old, washed, and bad at basketball). Couple this with the fact that they were already incredibly thin at the big man position -Theiss (German, sorta short, versatile and gives good effort), Tristan Thompson (Canadian, cheated on a Kardashian), and Robert Williams (Young, solid rim protector, nicknamed Time Lord but also Boo Butt according to Basketball Reference)- and their success this years falls squarely on the shoulders of their two young wing stars and Brad Stevens and playing in the same conference as the Wizards and Pistons and Magic.
Tatum and Brown are very very very very good. Jason Tatum had sorta already made his leap to stardom two seasons or so ago but Jaylen has joined him this year, developing into an explosive scorer while maintaining his defense and adding some extra skill as a secondary playmaker. Now I'm not asking our guys to shut them down but to have a shot at winning this game, the Kings are going to have to at least make their lives difficult.
They're also going to have to really really go at the Boston guards. Kemba is gimpy and wasn't exactly a supreme defender in the first place and Jeff Teague moves like your gramps when he misplaces his arthritis meds. De'Aaron is now clearly better than both guys and if he attacks them and gets them in foul trouble, it could force the Celts to have to adjust everything else to try to slow him down. If Tyrese has anything left hidden in his bag as an attacker, tonight would be a great time to unleash it.
Boston is a good team but still largely incomplete (there is a huge reason that they're currently leading the league in bad Harrison Barnes trade machine ideas) and injured and beatable if the Kings don't get in their own way and turn the ball over every other time down the court and have their typical brainfarts.
Final Prediction: Kings 119, Boston 113
KYLE DRAPER REVENGE GAME! Look, I don't want to sound like a huge homer here but I like the Kings' chances even against a team like the Celtics that plays medium (they can't truly play small without Smart around). Between Jaylen, Jason, De'Aaron, and Tyrese there is going to be lots of good young talent on display tonight and I kinda want De'Aaron and Tyrese to have monstrous nights just to give Bill Simmons an aneurysm. GO KINGS!
