So much for the tank.
Winers of five of their last six, are the Kings actually kinda not bad?
De'Aaron is officially blossoming into not just a star but one of the best clutch scorers in the league. Harrison Barnes is having an insanely efficient season as a stabilizing vet presence. Tyrese Haliburton is option 1a or 1b in the Rookie of the Year Race. Richaun Holmes is having another excellent year. Sure the talent only runs about six guys deep but it's there and in this star-driven league, you really only need two or three good players going at the same time to make noise (although I'm sure this year's Mavs would like to dispute this statement), though most teams don't have as dubious a coaching situation as the Kings do with Luke Walton.
The next three games (Nuggets, Clippers, Sixers) will probably tell us more as all these teams are inherently better than pretty much any of the teams we've beaten over this last stretch of games (even the Celtics, who were missing their two best guards when we beat them). Either way, I'm feeling much better about this team now than I did at the beginning of the season.
***
Random NBA Bureaucratic Note of the Day:
But it was okay for Kevin Durant to get ruled out, get ruled okay, play, and then get quarantined mid-game when it turned out it wasn't okay for him to play after all? Also, cancel the All-Star Game please.
***
It's Awards Season!
Tony Delk Memorial Award - Tristan Thompson. For the first three quarters, the Kings has no answer for Thompson, who, albeit with some help from inattentive refs, absolutely owned our bigs on the inside. This didn't extend until the fourth quarter when, for some reason unbeknownst to me, Brad Stevens decided to just leave him sitting on the bench to match up with our Holmes/Barnes/Buddy/Tyrese/Fox death lineup. Not sure why he did that but it certainly didn't hurt our chances at winning.
SAR Award- Jeff Teague. Jeff Teague was an all-star. I thought it had to have been a decade ago but it was only six. Regardless of whether he ever really deserved to be an all-star in the first place, he certainly isn't that player now. De'Aaron cooks lots of players so I won't hold that against him but the man was almost as much of a nothing burger as CoJo, which requires a particular amount of effort.
Mikki Moore- Javonte Green. This award comes down to one play. With a distinct chance to shift the moment to the Celtics in the game's waning moments, Javonte rises for the emphatic dunk... and misses. Now, Richaun was in his way on the play but ultimately didn't end up getting credited for a block there. In other words, this was apparently just a dunk gone wrong.
Cory Joseph/Jason Hart/Andres Nocioni Award - Cory Joseph. You know why.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award - Luke Walton. My man's gonna have to stop playing CoJo for half the game.
Hassan bein' Hassan Moment of the Game -
***
Today's matinee game brings us a third clash with the Denver Nuggets. We won the first two matchups so it sorta feels like this is the part where the cosmos works hard against us to maintain balance and makes us lose.
The Nuggets are in a grove (i.e. Jokic is awesome) compared to when we faced them at the start of the year but are once again dealing with injuries out the wazoo with Gary Harris and PJ Dozier listed as out and Campazzo and Murray listed as questionable. This leaves the Nuggets' depth chart at guard in particular looking thin with Monte Morris and RJ Hampton potential being the only healthy guards suiting up for Mike Malone's squad. If that's the case, expect another onslaught of Swipa and Haliburton action, which would be a perfect way to start out Super Bowl weekend.
Defensively, Joker is good enough of an offensive player to beat you all on his own and MPJ is capable of putting up huge scoring numbers. By no means will it be an easy game.
Final Prediction: Kings 123, Denver 118
I'm starting to believe in this team. And another win here pretty much dumps all that tanking talk down the drain for good. Go Kings!
Winers of five of their last six, are the Kings actually kinda not bad?
De'Aaron is officially blossoming into not just a star but one of the best clutch scorers in the league. Harrison Barnes is having an insanely efficient season as a stabilizing vet presence. Tyrese Haliburton is option 1a or 1b in the Rookie of the Year Race. Richaun Holmes is having another excellent year. Sure the talent only runs about six guys deep but it's there and in this star-driven league, you really only need two or three good players going at the same time to make noise (although I'm sure this year's Mavs would like to dispute this statement), though most teams don't have as dubious a coaching situation as the Kings do with Luke Walton.
The next three games (Nuggets, Clippers, Sixers) will probably tell us more as all these teams are inherently better than pretty much any of the teams we've beaten over this last stretch of games (even the Celtics, who were missing their two best guards when we beat them). Either way, I'm feeling much better about this team now than I did at the beginning of the season.
***
Random NBA Bureaucratic Note of the Day:
But it was okay for Kevin Durant to get ruled out, get ruled okay, play, and then get quarantined mid-game when it turned out it wasn't okay for him to play after all? Also, cancel the All-Star Game please.
***
It's Awards Season!
Tony Delk Memorial Award - Tristan Thompson. For the first three quarters, the Kings has no answer for Thompson, who, albeit with some help from inattentive refs, absolutely owned our bigs on the inside. This didn't extend until the fourth quarter when, for some reason unbeknownst to me, Brad Stevens decided to just leave him sitting on the bench to match up with our Holmes/Barnes/Buddy/Tyrese/Fox death lineup. Not sure why he did that but it certainly didn't hurt our chances at winning.
SAR Award- Jeff Teague. Jeff Teague was an all-star. I thought it had to have been a decade ago but it was only six. Regardless of whether he ever really deserved to be an all-star in the first place, he certainly isn't that player now. De'Aaron cooks lots of players so I won't hold that against him but the man was almost as much of a nothing burger as CoJo, which requires a particular amount of effort.
Mikki Moore- Javonte Green. This award comes down to one play. With a distinct chance to shift the moment to the Celtics in the game's waning moments, Javonte rises for the emphatic dunk... and misses. Now, Richaun was in his way on the play but ultimately didn't end up getting credited for a block there. In other words, this was apparently just a dunk gone wrong.
Cory Joseph/Jason Hart/Andres Nocioni Award - Cory Joseph. You know why.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award - Luke Walton. My man's gonna have to stop playing CoJo for half the game.
Hassan bein' Hassan Moment of the Game -
***
Today's matinee game brings us a third clash with the Denver Nuggets. We won the first two matchups so it sorta feels like this is the part where the cosmos works hard against us to maintain balance and makes us lose.
The Nuggets are in a grove (i.e. Jokic is awesome) compared to when we faced them at the start of the year but are once again dealing with injuries out the wazoo with Gary Harris and PJ Dozier listed as out and Campazzo and Murray listed as questionable. This leaves the Nuggets' depth chart at guard in particular looking thin with Monte Morris and RJ Hampton potential being the only healthy guards suiting up for Mike Malone's squad. If that's the case, expect another onslaught of Swipa and Haliburton action, which would be a perfect way to start out Super Bowl weekend.
Defensively, Joker is good enough of an offensive player to beat you all on his own and MPJ is capable of putting up huge scoring numbers. By no means will it be an easy game.
Final Prediction: Kings 123, Denver 118
I'm starting to believe in this team. And another win here pretty much dumps all that tanking talk down the drain for good. Go Kings!
