Well that went about as expected.
Reminders and whatever else
We're still in the first week of the season so here's one more reminder that soliciting or randomly posting links to illegal streams is strictly against the rules on Kingsfans.com. Please. We don't want to get sued. DO NOT POST LINKS TO ILLEGAL STUFF (this also applies to the internet in general).
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It's also still a good time to refresh ourselves on the general forum rules while the season is still young. The most important rule of course remains "Don't be a jerk." If someone's really ticking you off, I'd advise a liberal application of the forum's "ignore" feature.
YoU cAn ReAd MoRe HeRe
With all that out of the way, let's get on to some basketball.
Previously On...
Wacky Owner Vanity Project of the Night
Award Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award - Justise Winslow, who took time off from his usual spot on the injury report to dominate the Kings as a small small ball 5.
The CoJo Award - Richaun Holmes, who apparently played 14 minutes but did absolutely nothing of note in that time on the court.
Mikki Moore - Domantas Sabonis and Jusef Nurkic, who both started their seasons playing like post-back surgery Lakers victory lap Vlade.
Marvin Bagley High Upside Double Jumper of the Night - Shaedon Sharpe, because he was pretty much the only young guy playing for either team (aside from the 8 or so 25-year-olds in the Kings rotation). He also scored a bunch of points by essentially standing in the corner and/or cutting to the hoop when people forgot he was standing in the aforementioned quarter.
WTF Moment of the Night- Terence Davis gets T'd up for hurting Dame's feelings by dunking on him. (Honorable mention: the phantom kickball call on Sabonis that really looked like incidental contact anyway)
We're Talking Basketball
The big story tonight is of course who is or isn't playing for each respective team. The Clippers are reportedly resting Kawhi Leonard and John Wall on this first night of their back-to-back (they play Phoenix tomorrow). On the other end of the court, Keegan Murray is slated to make his regular season debut for the Kings and, according to some reports from practice yesterday, may even be starting in place of KZ Okpala (important to note that this may have been a "Matchup KZ on Kawhi" thing more than anything so who knows what'll happen now that the Klaw isn't playing).
The Clippers started their season with a win over the Lakers that really wasn't as close as the box score would indicate (the Lakers' inability to hit pretty much any three pointer helps render even the smallest lead nearly insurmountable) with Kawhi and John Wall both coming off the bench in their returns from injury (Kawhi) and being banished from the face of the earth in the name of tanking (John Wall). Both dudes aren't playing tonight but the Clippers rotation is still so deep that they're not to be taken lightly. LA will presumably be led by Paul George, who is one of the 20 best players in the league aside from those infamous stretches when he is decidedly not. Norm Powell and Reggie Jackson provide a strong backcourt attack even without John Wall and LA's commitment to building collection of 6'7"-6'8" guys who do nothing but shoot threes and play defense is admirable (Marcus Morris has reportedly been on the trade block in LA for the last year or so but remains their third or fourth best player).
Coming off of the tough loss on opening night, the Kings are going to have to bring the goods to get this win from the Clippers, who were a playoff team with pretty much this exact roster last year up until Paul George caught COVID the night of the play-in game. Having Keegan back should help things a great deal as I don't anticipate Kevin Huerter shooting like Steph Curry for a second night in row.
I'm also looking for Domantas Sabonis putting together a better performance than whatever the hell that was against Portland. Ivica Zubac is a very solid center but he's also not quite the load Nurkic is for Portland. Considering this entire offensive system we're running revolves around Sabonis's playmaking, he's going to need to show up against an altogether solid defensive team in the Clippers.
De'Aaron Fox has traditionally had his way with the Clippers but I don't think banking on another monster night from Swipe is the best strategy to win tonight's game. If it happens, great. But I'd settle for a solid 25/7 night and a W more than anything.
It's only been one game so I still have absolutely no idea what Mike Brown's rotations are going to look like (considering Keegan's missed the last week due to illness, I don't know if Brown has any idea either). That small ball lineup that we saw in the second quarter of the Blazers game was perhaps the smallest lineup I've ever seen the Kings use (and we've had Keith Smart, George Karl, Luke Walton, and Alvin Gentry all rock with the small ball in the past) but it also wound up being our best defensive unit for the game primarily thanks to Kevin Huerter's defensive versatility (I've been banging this drum since the summer but it feels like people assumed Red Velvet would be a bad defender based entire on him being an awkward looking ginger dude rather than the good defensive piece scouts and stats were suggesting he'd be) and some ultra aggressive hedging (Mike Brown is the first coach in recent Kings history to actually have his guys pick up ball handlers full court, which is a sight for sore eyes).
I'd recommend not overreacting one way or another but we're Kings fans and overreacting to small sample sizes is what we do best.
Injury Report
Kings-
No one listed.
Blazers-
Kawhi Leonard - OUT (Reorganizing his Yu-Gi-Oh card collection)
John Wall - OUT (Accidentally boarded a flight to Taipei)
Final Prediction
Domas gets back on track. Keegan is his usual extra efficient self. Davion makes multiple shots in the game. Marcus Morris does something stupid. The good guys get their first win of the season.
Kings 113, Clippers 108
