The Kings finally won a game they were supposed to win for once! Sure, it was closer than it probably should have been but the Kings pretty much led for most of the game aside from one stretch at the end of the third quarter. To the Pelicans' credit, they played really hard for a 1-7 squad missing its two best players and on the second night of a back to back.
The Kings were on the second night of a back to back too but they've also got all of their players and should be better than that.
And now we're 4-4! And our guards don't seem to be spiraling anymore! Huzzah!
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Kira Lewis. Kira was a potential Kings pick before Tyrese slid all the way down to us via divine intervention and he played like a man worthy of a lottery pick on Wednesday. The dude was lightning quick and gave Davion a little trouble to the tune of 14 points in less than 16 minutes. He also was -14 +/- and had no assists. A truly heroic bench performance.
Cory Joseph Award- Maurice Harkless. The man only took four shots. They were all threes. He finished with three points. He played 32 minutes.
Mikki Moore - Tristan Thompson. Dude wasn't bad or anything but in his eight minutes he only had a single block recorded and a lack of stats of that magnitude is worthy of the great Mikki trophy.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Award - Garrett Temple, still in the league as a 35 year old small wing, who's still chugging along but with the added fear that any hard collision or fall might be the one to send him to the retirement home. Great guy, was once a serviceable basketball player, now he's just old.
WTF Moment of the Game - Holmes gets ejected with 10 minutes left in the third quarter after his headband catapults into the stands. He gets fined 15,000 dollars.
+++Game 9+++
Kings vs. Hornets
@Golden One Center
The Hornets also played on Wednesday and got beaten up by the Warriors in San Francisco. In case you were somehow unaware, the Charlotte Hornets have become everyone's favorite league pass team overnight, thanks to LaMelo Ball's playmaking ability and Miles Bridges destroying worlds with his ability to dunk from space. But that doesn't make them invincible and I'm wary of believing in any team that's relying on a Plumlee brother to play major minutes in the long-term (Happy they decided not to get Richaun though). They also have replaced the Kings as the team with the worst defense in the NBA.
The Kings come in with a bit of momentum on their side with the win over the Pelicans and the strong way the 4th quarter ended but have now tightened their rotation to eight men not even ten games into the year, a move he claims is only temporary until the team really sets the tone of its season (although one could argue that a season's tone isn't really set until it's all over). With a day off before the game though, fatigue shouldn't be an issue.
Matchups
Richaun Holmes vs. Mason Plumlee - Remember those dumb debates about whether Plumlee was better than Boogie? Well, it's sorta like that except the Hornets actually chose to go with Plumlee rather than 6'10" elite pick-and-roll big man Richaun Holmes. (They also drafted like three bigs to eventually do what Holmes does already.) Fresh off a randomly ejection, Holmes should be up and ready to go. Plumlee's not a huge bruiser in the paint like most of the guys the Kings have faced this season so hopefully Richaun takes advantage. Advantage: Holmes
Harrison Barnes vs. Miles Bridges - A matchup between two of the most surprising players to start the season. A restricted free agent after this season after Klutch and Mitch Kupchak couldn't come to an agreement on a rookie extension (Bridges apparently wanted the max), Miles Bridges has played not only like an all-star but a dark horse candidate for MVP. Harrison Barnes is almost matching his production on four fewer shots a game though. Whoever wins this matchup might just win their team the game. Advantage: Draw.
Maurice Harkless vs. Gordon Hayward- Hayward is sort of the glue guy for the Hornets in the way that Barnes is for the Kings, two older players that don't necessarily match the timelines of their young prospect-type players. Unlike Harrison though, Hayward has never really been the same player he was in Utah before his ankle nearly decided to abandon the end of his leg. Hayward is still very very good and capable of dropping thirty points on your head on any given night. Moe will have his hands full. Advantage: Hayward
Tyrese Haliburtion vs. LaMelo Ball - A marquee matchup between two of the three best players in last year's draft class, this is what I presume everyone is tuning in to see. LaMelo leads his team in usage% while Tyrese generally seems to refuse to let his usage rise about the 17.7% it's currently at (that's actually been boosted by his strong game against the Pelicans). Both offer similar skillsets though as longer guards with absolutely impeccable court vision and basketball intelligence. Lamelo is also a far more aggressive shooter than Tyrese and, after all the concerns about his shot in the pre-draft process, hitting them at a 40% rate. I don't expect either guy to really slow the other down (That's Davion's job) so I guess this'll come down to how aggressive Haliburton is with his own offense. Advantage: LaMelo
De'Aaron Fox vs. Terry Rozier - De'Aaron's coming off his best game of the season, in which he was perfectly content to be player B or C rather than an extra aggressive player A type. Against Scary Terry, I expect that trend to continue. Rozier isn't necessarily the biggest guard in the world and was never really a great defender even in Boston. With the firepower that Charlotte brings, the Kings need Fox to be efficient and aggressive to win this game. That's not impossible. Advantage: Fox
Kings Bench vs. Hornets Bench - The Hornets will be missing PJ Washington (trapped by a gold digger) for the game in all likelyhood. Depending on how bullish you are on Kelly Oubre, he's their best bench player so that's a big blow for them. Oubre has been his usual hot-and-cold self. He even had a zero point game in San Francisco for old time's sake. Cody Martin has improved into solid rotation guy for them and, elsewhere, 33-year-old Ish Smith has extended his career by become LaMelo's main backup. This is a pretty solid bench though one lacking the explosive scoring potential of a guy like Buddy Hield. Davion also gets to try his hand at putting Melo in supermax. Also Alex Len and Tristan Thompson are bigger and stronger than any backup big the Hornets can through at them. Advantage: Kings.
Final Predictions
This is going to be a hard game, no doubt, but not entirely unwinnable. The Hornets are an explosive offense but if you can slow them down enough, their defense is bad enough that you can probably keep within striking distance. We'll need big games from our guards and Richaun to feast. Also, we're 4-4 even if we haven't really played anything above B basketball all season. I believe in the Kings! (No way this comes back to bite me in the butt...)
Kings 125, Hornets 120
The Kings were on the second night of a back to back too but they've also got all of their players and should be better than that.
And now we're 4-4! And our guards don't seem to be spiraling anymore! Huzzah!
Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Kira Lewis. Kira was a potential Kings pick before Tyrese slid all the way down to us via divine intervention and he played like a man worthy of a lottery pick on Wednesday. The dude was lightning quick and gave Davion a little trouble to the tune of 14 points in less than 16 minutes. He also was -14 +/- and had no assists. A truly heroic bench performance.
Cory Joseph Award- Maurice Harkless. The man only took four shots. They were all threes. He finished with three points. He played 32 minutes.
Mikki Moore - Tristan Thompson. Dude wasn't bad or anything but in his eight minutes he only had a single block recorded and a lack of stats of that magnitude is worthy of the great Mikki trophy.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Award - Garrett Temple, still in the league as a 35 year old small wing, who's still chugging along but with the added fear that any hard collision or fall might be the one to send him to the retirement home. Great guy, was once a serviceable basketball player, now he's just old.
WTF Moment of the Game - Holmes gets ejected with 10 minutes left in the third quarter after his headband catapults into the stands. He gets fined 15,000 dollars.
+++Game 9+++
Kings vs. Hornets
@Golden One Center
The Hornets also played on Wednesday and got beaten up by the Warriors in San Francisco. In case you were somehow unaware, the Charlotte Hornets have become everyone's favorite league pass team overnight, thanks to LaMelo Ball's playmaking ability and Miles Bridges destroying worlds with his ability to dunk from space. But that doesn't make them invincible and I'm wary of believing in any team that's relying on a Plumlee brother to play major minutes in the long-term (Happy they decided not to get Richaun though). They also have replaced the Kings as the team with the worst defense in the NBA.
The Kings come in with a bit of momentum on their side with the win over the Pelicans and the strong way the 4th quarter ended but have now tightened their rotation to eight men not even ten games into the year, a move he claims is only temporary until the team really sets the tone of its season (although one could argue that a season's tone isn't really set until it's all over). With a day off before the game though, fatigue shouldn't be an issue.
Matchups
Richaun Holmes vs. Mason Plumlee - Remember those dumb debates about whether Plumlee was better than Boogie? Well, it's sorta like that except the Hornets actually chose to go with Plumlee rather than 6'10" elite pick-and-roll big man Richaun Holmes. (They also drafted like three bigs to eventually do what Holmes does already.) Fresh off a randomly ejection, Holmes should be up and ready to go. Plumlee's not a huge bruiser in the paint like most of the guys the Kings have faced this season so hopefully Richaun takes advantage. Advantage: Holmes
Harrison Barnes vs. Miles Bridges - A matchup between two of the most surprising players to start the season. A restricted free agent after this season after Klutch and Mitch Kupchak couldn't come to an agreement on a rookie extension (Bridges apparently wanted the max), Miles Bridges has played not only like an all-star but a dark horse candidate for MVP. Harrison Barnes is almost matching his production on four fewer shots a game though. Whoever wins this matchup might just win their team the game. Advantage: Draw.
Maurice Harkless vs. Gordon Hayward- Hayward is sort of the glue guy for the Hornets in the way that Barnes is for the Kings, two older players that don't necessarily match the timelines of their young prospect-type players. Unlike Harrison though, Hayward has never really been the same player he was in Utah before his ankle nearly decided to abandon the end of his leg. Hayward is still very very good and capable of dropping thirty points on your head on any given night. Moe will have his hands full. Advantage: Hayward
Tyrese Haliburtion vs. LaMelo Ball - A marquee matchup between two of the three best players in last year's draft class, this is what I presume everyone is tuning in to see. LaMelo leads his team in usage% while Tyrese generally seems to refuse to let his usage rise about the 17.7% it's currently at (that's actually been boosted by his strong game against the Pelicans). Both offer similar skillsets though as longer guards with absolutely impeccable court vision and basketball intelligence. Lamelo is also a far more aggressive shooter than Tyrese and, after all the concerns about his shot in the pre-draft process, hitting them at a 40% rate. I don't expect either guy to really slow the other down (That's Davion's job) so I guess this'll come down to how aggressive Haliburton is with his own offense. Advantage: LaMelo
De'Aaron Fox vs. Terry Rozier - De'Aaron's coming off his best game of the season, in which he was perfectly content to be player B or C rather than an extra aggressive player A type. Against Scary Terry, I expect that trend to continue. Rozier isn't necessarily the biggest guard in the world and was never really a great defender even in Boston. With the firepower that Charlotte brings, the Kings need Fox to be efficient and aggressive to win this game. That's not impossible. Advantage: Fox
Kings Bench vs. Hornets Bench - The Hornets will be missing PJ Washington (trapped by a gold digger) for the game in all likelyhood. Depending on how bullish you are on Kelly Oubre, he's their best bench player so that's a big blow for them. Oubre has been his usual hot-and-cold self. He even had a zero point game in San Francisco for old time's sake. Cody Martin has improved into solid rotation guy for them and, elsewhere, 33-year-old Ish Smith has extended his career by become LaMelo's main backup. This is a pretty solid bench though one lacking the explosive scoring potential of a guy like Buddy Hield. Davion also gets to try his hand at putting Melo in supermax. Also Alex Len and Tristan Thompson are bigger and stronger than any backup big the Hornets can through at them. Advantage: Kings.
Final Predictions
This is going to be a hard game, no doubt, but not entirely unwinnable. The Hornets are an explosive offense but if you can slow them down enough, their defense is bad enough that you can probably keep within striking distance. We'll need big games from our guards and Richaun to feast. Also, we're 4-4 even if we haven't really played anything above B basketball all season. I believe in the Kings! (No way this comes back to bite me in the butt...)
Kings 125, Hornets 120