[Game] Kings vs. Pacers, 11/07/21 3pm Pacific 6pm Eastern

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Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#1
Remember to adjust your clocks before you go to bed on Saturday night! It's KANGZ TIME, baby!
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Awards Time
Tony Delk Memorial Award-
Cody Martin. With Kelly Oubre busy being Kelly Oubre and PJ Washington injured, a lot of the Hornets' bench duties fell on Cody Martin's shoulders and he responded with a strong performance on both ends of the floor. This award was sealed the second he blocked a Barnes three from behind.

Cory Joseph Award- No one! It's a scoring explosion party!

Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award- Whoever the hell is in charge of teaching the Hornets how to rebound.

WTF Moment of the Game- Refs just sorta give up reffing halfway through the second quarter and start awarding dead balls to whatever team is closest to them.

+++Game Ten+++
Kings vs. Pacers
@Golden One Center

It's an early matinee game at Golden One! While not as early as the 12:00 start the Kings had in Dallas last week, the 3 pm Sunday matinee games have always tended to be a little weird.

Today's opponents, the Indiana Pacers, roll into Sacramento winners of two of their last three after starting the year 1-6. The Pacers, as you may remember, sent most of last season mired in coaching turmoil, having fired Nate McMillan and replaced him with a bad coach who quickly lost the team and let one of his assistant coaches get into a fight with his own player during a game(against the Kings too!). Short story long, that bad coach is gone now and replaced by former Pacers coach and long-time Mavs coach, who was himself cast out of Dallas due to interpersonal turmoil, Rick Carlisle, in the hope that Carlisle could provide some structure and help the Pacers return to the medium heights they were at in the Nate McMillan era.

Carlisle brings with him an adjusted version of the Nowitzki-era Mavs offense, using All-Star big Domatas Sabonis in the Dirk role and surrounding him with a bevy of longer guards and Myles Turner. Malcom Brogdan is celebrating no longer being eligible for a trade for Ben Simmons by putting up the best numbers of his career. He also sat out their game against the Blazers with a knee issue and his status for the Kings game is unknown. Darkhorse rookie of the year candidate, Chris Duarte occupies another of the guard spots, and has been really really good in the 33 minutes per game role Carlisle has put him in. Caris Levert has had injury issues throughout the start to the season (what else is new?) but also remains a handful to defend despite barely cracking the 20% from three.

This is a winnable game but the Pacers are probably a little better than their record would indicate, just not when Malcolm Brogdan, TJ Warren, and Jeremy Lamb all potentially miss the game due to injuries. If the Kings can resist becoming complacent and also not let Domatas Sabonis get going, they could be looking at another victory.

Matchups
Richaun Holmes vs. Myles Turner - Richaun's coming off the first 20-20 game of his career, having absolutely feasted on the small ball + Plumlee Hornets. The Pacers should provide a different challenge as they start two centers. Turner is among the best shot blockers in the league but on offense mostly plays a catch-and-shoot secondary role on the perimeter, where he's shooting ver 40% from the three point line. There's a chance we put Holmes on Sabonis and stick Barnes or Harkless on Turner just to keep Holmes closer to the action. That said, as always, Holmes will need to get his on offense to keep this fight fair. Advantage: Holmes.
Harrison Barnes vs. Domatas Sabonis - This is where things get wonky. Thanks to the Pacers playing two centers, there's a good chance Harrison Barnes starts the game defending Sabonis. There's not a huge size-disadvantage here because Domas is a smaller center and Barnes is a solidly built 3/4 but I'm not sure we're going to want Barnes to expend all his energy trying to body up Sabonis on defense. Domatas's numbers have slipped under Carlisle and he's having the worst three point shooting year of his career thus far. But he is pretty much a mini-Jokic on offense and an all-star so he's definitely worthy of respect. Advantage: Sabonis
Maurice Harkless vs. Chris Duarte - Duarte is having the best year of any rookie not named Scottie Barnes, partly because he's going to be 25 by the time the season ends and partly because he's really good. He's had an amazing year shooting the ball, with the only thing keeping him out of the 50%/40%/90% club being his relative lack of a mid-range game. As a catch-and-shoot player though, he is dynamite. Duarte's also a solid defender, which means he'll probably be on whoever's hotter of Tyrese or Barnes. He can probably give Tyrese trouble but he'll have issues with Barnes's size and strength (lots of defenders do). Advantage: Duarte
Tyrese Haliburton vs. Caris LeVert - LeVert first popped into the spotlight as an NBA player as the crowning achievement of the Nets player development program in the years where they didn't have any draft picks because Sean Marks traded them all for zombie KG, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry. Unfortunately a series of injuries and a rather serious cancer scare last season have somewhat derailed that career. LeVert is a rangy 6'6" wing-guard who's never really had a consistent enough shot to ascend to star/true plus player status. He's been specially terrible this season, shooting only 22% from three on almost six attempts a game. He's also shooting free throws like a big from the 1990s for some reason. He's got solid defensive tools but is not a particularly solid man-to-man defender. Tyrese feels due for a huge game any day now. I think it's this one. Advantage: Haliburton
De'Aaron Fox vs. Malcolm Brogdan(?) - With Brogdan listed as questionable, there's a chance anything I write here will become moot when he misses the game and the Pacers slide Duarte and LeVert to the sole guard slots and move Justin Holliday into the small forward slot or move TJ McConnell into the starting lineup. Either would be preferable for the Kings to Brogdan playing as he is possibly Indiana's best player at this point. A jack of all trades, Brogdan might best be considered Tyrese Haliburton on steroids, though he is currently having his worst season shooting the ball (yet still averaging 22 points a night). At 6'5"+, he's long on defense thought maybe not exactly what you'd call a fast player. Fox has picked it up over the start of this home stand and is looking closer and closer to a version of the 25/7 guy we saw last season before he caught COVID and missed the last month of games. If Brogdan plays, this should be a fun matchup, if he doesn't I expect Fox to thrive. Advantage: Fox.
Kings Bench vs. Indiana Bench - Another matchup completely predicated on injuries. The Pacers bench isn't terrible but certainly, having to move a player or two into the starting lineup would make it shallower. The Pacers are led by Jeremy Lamb (questionable for the game due to injury) and Justin Holliday off the bench. TJ McConnell's a solid backup point guard but I am confident that Davion is better than him. The other bench player seeing consistent minutes from Rick Carlisle is Torrey Craig, who is essentially older, worse at defense but a slightly better shooter Moe Harkless. It'll be interesting to see if Walton sticks with the slightly expanded rotation he used against Charlotte or if he goes back to a compacted 8-man rotation like we saw against the Jazz and Pelicans. Either way, Hield and Davion is a hell of a one-two punch and the Pacers have been a bad defensive team to start the season. Advantage: Kings.


Final Predictions:
The Pacers aren't a terrible team but they also are running two center lineups and have a bunch of injury concerns and a coach that the Kings have had a lot of success against in recent years for some reason. Last year, the Kings would follow up games like the one against the Hornets with utterly disappointing nine game losing streaks. If they want to prove this year is different, they need to win this one. I believe they will.
Kings 108, Pacers 100
 
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#2
It's a weird thing to say as a Kings fan, but I expect the team to hustle and play hard all games these days (I'm saying that I might jinx it, so that's a double negative). The offense is something that worries me. It's very rare that multiple guards have good shooting games, and last game, everyone came to the party, so much so, that even Moe and TD were hitting these shots. Hopefully, some of them at least retain their mojo, and duplicate the output this time around.

After a very strong start, Barnes has cooled off a bit. This was to be expected, since that ridiculous pace could not be sustained. If the guards are taking and hitting their shots, that's okay, since he is still playing very well overall. However, we need at least some of the guards to score consistently and big from outside.
 
#3
Their size inside is a little scary and makes me feel like our four guard lineup is going to be heavily tested. Sabonis seems like he'll have a field day with whomever ends up guarding him.
 

Larry89

Disgruntled Kings Fan
#5
Their size inside is a little scary and makes me feel like our four guard lineup is going to be heavily tested. Sabonis seems like he'll have a field day with whomever ends up guarding him.
We have Thompson and Alex Len specifically for these situations now.

Also Malcolm Brogdon is a big guard but we have Davion and Tyrese to guard him now, The Pacers aren't particularly good this year, but they do like to run a zone so the Kings will have to adjust
 
#7
W/a range of issues hurting teams like the Warriors, Nets, Lakers, Bucks, and Sixers, there are no elite NBA teams right now; just a few very bad teams, a few very good teams, and a HUGE middle class of teams.

I haven't watched the Pacers this year, but on paper they're certainly WAY better than their record and firmly embedded in that upper middle. But, on the court, they're still finding their way and as such this is the kind of team the Kings need to beat to be a legit playoff-caliber team: a team the Kings *should* beat at home, but one against whom they don't have much margin for error.

After Friday's big win, the danger of an emotional letdown is real, but the Kings have enough guys in Tyrese, Davion, Holmes, and TT who just aren't wired that way - and enough hard-working pros in Buddy, HB, and Harkless - that I'm hopeful they won't succumb to that. After Indy they have the second half of a B2B against a relatively rested Phoenix team that's playing well and doubtless looking to avenge the earlier loss to the Kings. That's also a home game, but ... that's a tough one.

Go Kings!
 
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Kingster

Hall of Famer
#10
It's a weird thing to say as a Kings fan, but I expect the team to hustle and play hard all games these days (I'm saying that I might jinx it, so that's a double negative). The offense is something that worries me. It's very rare that multiple guards have good shooting games, and last game, everyone came to the party, so much so, that even Moe and TD were hitting these shots. Hopefully, some of them at least retain their mojo, and duplicate the output this time around.

After a very strong start, Barnes has cooled off a bit. This was to be expected, since that ridiculous pace could not be sustained. If the guards are taking and hitting their shots, that's okay, since he is still playing very well overall. However, we need at least some of the guards to score consistently and big from outside.
Agreed!
 
#14
We have Thompson and Alex Len specifically for these situations now.

Also Malcolm Brogdon is a big guard but we have Davion and Tyrese to guard him now, The Pacers aren't particularly good this year, but they do like to run a zone so the Kings will have to adjust
For sure, although have we faced two old school sized bigs who play together yet in the regular season? There was the Lakers in preseason, but I dont think we've seen it this season. I doubt either of those two see the floor with Holmes. Will Barnes or Harkness guard Sabonis?
 

SacTownKid

Hall of Famer
#18
Another injured team this season. It seems like all the Kings luck is coming early this season so far. Making up for years of it going the other way, haha. This is an interesting test. Waltons history has been to match up with the opponents strength, so historically that would mean going big. Good teams don't do that. Especially if they are a gimmick like this one. You mismatch them until someone breaks. If it doesn't work THEN adjust. So far this season the Pacers have had the short end more often than not going against smaller teams that force Sabonis to guard pick and roll.
 
#20
Another injured team this season. It seems like all the Kings luck is coming early this season so far. Making up for years of it going the other way, haha. This is an interesting test. Waltons history has been to match up with the opponents strength, so historically that would mean going big. Good teams don't do that. Especially if they are a gimmick like this one. You mismatch them until someone breaks. If it doesn't work THEN adjust. So far this season the Pacers have had the short end more often than not going against smaller teams that force Sabonis to guard pick and roll.
It only took over a decade to get some friggin luck haha. Also got it on Haliburton and Off-Night so it’s POSSIBLE the tide is turning. However, as a Kangz fan knowing the NBA does not want us to succeed I’m still leaning towards “here we go again….”
 
#21
Yeah Indy isn't as bad as their record. They've had some really close losses and have been dealing with significant injuries for most of the year. Can be a classic trap game if we take them for granted because they started 3-7
 
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