[Game] Kings vs Houston Rockets, 3/10/2024, 3:00p PT/6:00p ET
- Thread starter QWERTYLICIOUS
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The Effort Police
Starter
I thought they played excellent in the first half otherwise but the 3s were so bad Houston kept it close.
Then in the second half defense was only average to above average and the 3s never recovered.
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
My concern is that Fox has turned into a player who settles for the 3 too often. It's great that he has improved there, but I don't know that shooting more of them is the best strategy, when his elite skill is getting into the mid and short range
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
That's true, but that's where the defense and other things come in. The Celtics shoot more 3's than the Kings but we can all guess what the difference is. I think it's that the Kings are far more dependent on 3's since on defense they are so inconsistent and are as reliant on Fox as they are to create individual offense. They can't close the gap on a bad Fox game with anything other than someone other than Domas showing up big time. The Kings this year have a 0.4 net rating which is 17th in the NBA and puts them right about where they usually are at somewhere in the 10-13 range as a team league wide in terms record on any given day.
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
or find closer shots and take the ball to the hole more, when they aren't falling. Murray is almost exclusively a 3 point shooter. The guy has more to his game, including post skills,....call some other plays for him so he can develop that in this league. It will payoff in the long run
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
At this point the Kings just need to keep it within range of the 6th, 7th, and 8th slot. There is no use to try and risk injury to force it to 5. If Fox is going to have to burn himself up again, let it be in the playoffs, not now. Once the playoffs start then burn it on both ends. Until then, play it soft and easy as possible! lol.
The Effort Police
Starter
I mean, this is true. That's why the Celtics are where they are and we are where we are.
I'm just saying it couldn't really be avoided tonight, and they didn't really jack up 40-50 3s anyway. I thought they played good enough defense that they should've won had the shooting just been passable. We know that's not the cause all or even the majority of the time, but it was there tonight, especially in the first half
The Effort Police
Starter
It really might come down to the April 12 matchup against the Suns.
Though the Suns have their final soft stretch in the week of March 20th, after that it's nothing but pain until the end of the season. If they flub one or two of those game in that four game stretch, it might not even come down to that.
Home and home against the Mavericks in late March is important too.
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
Well, they've got the Bucks next and the Lakers the next night. Who the hell knows how this will end up, with how inconsistent at home they are
Kingster
Hall of Famer
So it's just a coincidence then?
"A ton" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, and everything is relative. Sure, all the teams in the league are shooting "a ton" of threes, relative to the "glory years," but when you're shooting a ton of threes even compared to your contemporaries, you should be shooting better than the Kings are. Sacramento came into this game 14th in the league in 3pt% but 4th in attempts. Something seems out of alignment there: all three of the teams that attempt more threes than the Kings shoot significantly better from that distance. A three-point shot is not more efficient, if you can't hit them.
White_Chocolate
Starter
You didn’t lie
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
we are taking 4 more than the team with the 14th most and 9 more than the team that takes the least.
White_Chocolate
Starter
Too accurate haha
sactowndog
All-Star
Yeah Rockets +7 was the easiest money all year. Kings struggle with every team with long wings and the Rockets qualify. I hoped the Kings could pull out a close win but no luck.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
I was just breezing over some of the team stats and there has definitely been some regression efficiency wise compared to the opposition. The Kings are just slightly less efficient on 3's than last season, however, the opponent is shooting nearly 2%-3% better from three this year as opposed to last. Opponents are shooting nearly 40% on 3's against the Kings but aren't really taking any more than last season on average. The Kings two point offense is down a bit, and the PPG totals have dropped nearly 2 ppg. The cratering is the free throws and it's likely mostly from Barnes and Keegan swapping roles. Barnes has had a lot less iso chances and Keegan has been dropping down to about a 1 FTA per game average post all star. Barnes for the last two seasons has been averaging 5+ FTA's per game and this year it has been cut in half. Murray got there tonight, but it was like a lot of his offense, it was off contact created via the team offense or pass, not via a replicatable move that will show up every night hence the big swings in his offense. Two more 3's per game and 2.5 less free throws for Barnes and you have your likely drop on offense. Overall though yes, it's all relative to competition and the talent levels have increased at the top of both conferences this year. It's playing out like a lot of pundits predicted although the Kings by the numbers haven't really even improved much in fact in terms of net rating, they've been falling. +2.6 last year, to +0.4 this year. The defense for most of the year has been better but relative to the other top teams the offense is now basically average.
reptilexcq2
Bench
This team is meant to win one and lose one only. Beat good team, lose to weak team. Win on the road, lose at home.
Unfortunately its looking likely this team will be a play-in causuality this year, especially if playing at home.....inexplicable lack of motivation at home. They're starting to remind me more of pre-2023 Kings - unable to put together 3 to say nothing of 4 quarters of good baskeball.
It's wild how the window has shifted to the point that you think that all the teams shoot "a ton" of threes, but you don't think that 4 is a lot.
reptilexcq2
Bench
This team is nothing compare to the Webber era w/ the crazy loud Kings fans. I remember, I feel sorry for teams coming to visit us and play in front of the crowd because they just couldn't play well w/ the loud noises. But under this team, it seems the opposite...teams just enjoy playing here and playing well and that's a problem.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Brown has had his fair share of mistakes recently, but it's more likely that the Kings are just average themselves however it's games of being unbeatable practically to games where they never really had a chance. Huge variance. This isn't a playing down to competition thing, it's a make or miss thing and when you are that kind of team you will be up and down. The question is how to rise above that status long term. The two ways typically are increasing your top talent base or getting better defensively. That's usually about it. Still, we have to see the playoffs, that tells the story. Shooting teams have gotten far but the problem with teams like that is they can also be up and down by the year. I think with Fox and Domas though there is enough consistency where those kind of serious up and down swings are unlikely. This is all about "breaking through" now.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Teams shoot an average of 86 field goals attempts a game, so no I don’t consider 4 a lot
kingsboi
Hall of Famer
both states have some of the highest obesity rates in the country
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
I haven’t seen anything on Keegan. Do we have any reports of an injury?
I skipped the 4th quarter, but did keegan tweak something ingame
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megapoxy
Starter
Udoka has the physique and the face of a villain. He has created a team that plays physically, dirty if needed (mostly at home) and mostly the fact that Houston has only 7+1 wins on the road is due to not all the fouls are called when they are hosts. Of course Sacramento and refs is another story, Kings never get (especially this season) so many chances to go to the line, they did in first half but protesting and complaining for the whistles led to not so many to be called in the 2nd half. Of course this wasn't why we lost, Mike Brown lost again the coaching battle (3rd time in a row from Udoka) he stuck to the same system that was proven to be successful in the first half, same rotation, again left some players in the bench that could perhaps help (Duarte that had a good couple of last games after the ASG but disappeared after that, Kessler only gets to play with Stockton lately) and lost the match quite easily. Don't even know why he called for a time out when Kings had a nice run at the middle of the last quarter.
It seems the big weakness of the Kings right now is the "3" (small forward) position. Barnes is not at his best (like 80% of the season at least), Murray in offense has been awful lately, and from the bench there is no "3" coming, Brown choses 3 guards mostly but it's a system that cant be effective for a big period of time. We couldn't score at all in the paint in the 2nd half while giving a lot of points in our paint. Today there wasn't a single player that was consistent for the whole match. Sabonis had a perfect 1st quarter, good 2nd and then Rockets "read" his game and stopped him effectively. Huerter and Barnes justified their presence on the trade block, Murray couldn't connect from a distance, Fox had a decent first half, 9 rebounds (due to good block outs from his teammates mostly) and 1 assist, let alone the "hero ball" that didn't go well, the 2-3 shots from distance that barely made the rim (along with Keegan). From the bench Monk was good mostly late in the game, Davion was decent, I liked Keon's effort in defense while Lyles didn't do so much and he seems hesitant to hit the 3 after missing several the previous 2-3 matches.
Luckily we won't play the Rockets again (unless there is a miracle and they make the play in) but other teams will most likely copy their tactics and cause us issues when facing them. Shooting 19% from three while letting your opponent hit over 40%, I mean all visitors in G1C are boosted with confidence that they can hit from anywhere. Those back2back 3s from FVV that narrowed the gap in the 1st half proves that, shooters like playing there.
Sacramento Kings, the only team allowing opponents to hit better than 81% on free throws and better than 40% on threes when they play at home. We are supposed to give emphasis on defense, not focusing so much on the offense but it doesn't seem to work and it's making everything worse.
Tomorrow vs the Bucks we will probably win because we face a strong team in theory but it won't change anything in the long run. And we have so many 'easy' matches to mess things again till the end of the regular season, and so many at G1C.
It seems the big weakness of the Kings right now is the "3" (small forward) position. Barnes is not at his best (like 80% of the season at least), Murray in offense has been awful lately, and from the bench there is no "3" coming, Brown choses 3 guards mostly but it's a system that cant be effective for a big period of time. We couldn't score at all in the paint in the 2nd half while giving a lot of points in our paint. Today there wasn't a single player that was consistent for the whole match. Sabonis had a perfect 1st quarter, good 2nd and then Rockets "read" his game and stopped him effectively. Huerter and Barnes justified their presence on the trade block, Murray couldn't connect from a distance, Fox had a decent first half, 9 rebounds (due to good block outs from his teammates mostly) and 1 assist, let alone the "hero ball" that didn't go well, the 2-3 shots from distance that barely made the rim (along with Keegan). From the bench Monk was good mostly late in the game, Davion was decent, I liked Keon's effort in defense while Lyles didn't do so much and he seems hesitant to hit the 3 after missing several the previous 2-3 matches.
Luckily we won't play the Rockets again (unless there is a miracle and they make the play in) but other teams will most likely copy their tactics and cause us issues when facing them. Shooting 19% from three while letting your opponent hit over 40%, I mean all visitors in G1C are boosted with confidence that they can hit from anywhere. Those back2back 3s from FVV that narrowed the gap in the 1st half proves that, shooters like playing there.
Sacramento Kings, the only team allowing opponents to hit better than 81% on free throws and better than 40% on threes when they play at home. We are supposed to give emphasis on defense, not focusing so much on the offense but it doesn't seem to work and it's making everything worse.
Tomorrow vs the Bucks we will probably win because we face a strong team in theory but it won't change anything in the long run. And we have so many 'easy' matches to mess things again till the end of the regular season, and so many at G1C.
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