[Game] Kings vs. Timberwolves 10/24/2024 7pm Pacific 10pm Eastern

Start of the season Kingsfans.com Panic-O-Meter check in… How we feeling?


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Shouldn't have gone for the 2 for 1. That's what killed them. Fox got a good shot but I would have preferred they went to Derozan and try to get a foul.

These are games that are going to haunt the Kings down the line. I know Minnesota is good but this is the home opener and a game you let get away. Too many of those last year. Already 1 now.
 
I like Fox as a true playmaker, but I think that his stats will go down and he won't get All-NBA, super max extension.
In general we looked good (compared with the horrible last preseason matches), we lost the bench minutes (Lyles -14 in just 11' of action, ouch) maybe there should be some adjustments in the rotation, thought McLaughlin would have a chance to play, Keon wouldn't spend just 11' on the floor (-12 for him too btw).
Those 3-4 good looks in crunch time that were really bad shots cost us.
Regarding the refs we did get two calls late (Randle traveling and Sabonis getting that foul from Gobert) so it's not for them to blame, and I blame them quite often.

Minnesota doesn't look so good this season, lost at Lakers despite them shooting 5/30 from 3 and tonight won the match due to 3 players heroics.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Yeah, the Kings played hard. Now the question moving on is whether or not the Kings can play hard every night because the tools are iffy right now.
I’m not sure how many other teams in the league are going to be as aggressively anti-interior look as the T-Wolves will be though. Their entire game plan was a George Karl fever dream of playing five out all night and either jacking up threes or making blind drives at the rim to the detriment of actually finding open looks.
 
Kings up 10 in the third and the refs united their efforts to get Minny back in the game. That felt like the turning point. It wouldn't have mattered if DeMar made one of those gimmes down the stretch or if we made a better showing of defending their shooting though. Or if Fox wasn't fumbling the ball away.

Bottom line, they are who we thought they were. This Kings offense is going to be a problem for everyone. If they can find a way to be even average on defense they'll make some noise even in a tough Western Conference.
They'll have a really tough time being middle of the pack on defense, without using Keon Ellis a lot. Still don't like removing him from the starting lineup. With Murray and him together, you have a wing stopper and a guard stopper
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Numbers are also skewed by Ant doing his best Westbrick impression with 5-15 from 3pt.

Our defense got really fortunate during crunch time when they missed what seemed like back to back open 3s.
5-15 isn’t a really too far off from Ant’s normal numbers from the perimeter though. He’s a good perimeter shooter but 33% from three isn’t a huge outlier like Randle going 83% from three is.
 
I’m not sure how many other teams in the league are going to be as aggressively anti-interior look as the T-Wolves will be though. Their entire game plan was a George Karl fever dream of playing five out all night and either jacking up threes or making blind drives at the rim to the detriment of actually finding open looks.
The issue with Sac is their ability to consistently switch those screens. Night one and it's obvious, teams are going to do it until they get it. The one thing that has apparently carried over from preseason is that teams might look to get downhill on Domas. That said, overall the Kings G's did all they could and if they play this way, it might not hurt all that much.
 
No overall problem with the performance. I think the Kings looked good.

Wolves made double the amount of threes. Kings erased most of it at the free throw line and not turning it over a lot but that is +27 that is difficult to overcome.

A good portion of them just squaring up and not even the result of defensive breakdowns, but there was a lot in the third.

Kings need to find a balance between the isolation of DDR, Fox and Monk…and the Domas facilitation which was notably scarce tonight. The particular matchup might have a lot to do with that though, so we’ll see.

DDR is a force getting to the line. I think he could’ve shared a bit more in crunch time but he’s just what this team needs.

Domas had a good game regardless in a finisher role. Especially like the threes though there was still some hesitation in the midrange.

Keegan was excellent. I liked that he got the last shot as well.

Fox was strong in the first half. Not as good in the second.

Monk was excellent but the bench as a whole wasn’t very good and still needs some work.

Kings STILL lack front court and wing depth, dynamism and athleticism and it’s why players like Randle have and will continue to cook them.

I think the Kings have improved their team but that is still a pretty glaring hole that I don’t understand why Monte continues to neglect.

Huerter was a hole. I’ll stall him out since he literally just got cleared but that was a problem last season where it seemed every game there was atleast one or two Kings starter be it Huerter, Barnes, or Keegan that just didn’t do anything offensively. We can’t have that this season

On to the next one, we’ll be alright. Wolves have even higher expectations too and they were facing 0-2
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
They'll have a really tough time being middle of the pack on defense, without using Keon Ellis a lot. Still don't like removing him from the starting lineup. With Murray and him together, you have a wing stopper and a guard stopper
Thing is that Keon is just refusing to take threes right now in a way that sorta gets in the way of our offense. He played solidly on defense today but his man was sagging off of him on the other end because Keon wasn’t even trying to ask for the ball.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
I like Fox as a true playmaker, but I think that his stats will go down and he won't get All-NBA, super max extension.
In general we looked good (compared with the horrible last preseason matches), we lost the bench minutes (Lyles -14 in just 11' of action, ouch) maybe there should be some adjustments in the rotation, thought McLaughlin would have a chance to play, Keon wouldn't spend just 11' on the floor (-12 for him too btw).
Those 3-4 good looks in crunch time that were really bad shots cost us.
Regarding the refs we did get two calls late (Randle traveling and Sabonis getting that foul from Gobert) so it's not for them to blame, and I blame them quite often.

Minnesota doesn't look so good this season, lost at Lakers despite them shooting 5/30 from 3 and tonight won the match due to 3 players heroics.
I have no doubt Fox wants to get the biggest paycheck he can, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for us if he takes a step back as a scorer and focuses instead on his defensive disruption. He's capable of impacting the game on both ends. I liked that he played the role of a set-up man tonight. For the most part he was letting other guys cook and his decision to get Sabonis an easy look mid way through the fourth kicked off 7 straight points from the big guy and got us back into the game. That was heady veteran leadership. Ideally he would also make his shots too though.
 
Kings up 10 in the third and the refs united their efforts to get Minny back in the game. That felt like the turning point. It wouldn't have mattered if DeMar made one of those gimmes down the stretch or if we made a better showing of defending their shooting though. Or if Fox wasn't fumbling the ball away.

Bottom line, they are who we thought they were. This Kings offense is going to be a problem for everyone. If they can find a way to be even average on defense they'll make some noise even in a tough Western Conference.
I’m worrried where the 3 point attempts are going to come from. Keegan was the only starter who took threes at volume, what happens when he has an off shooting night? He shot 50 percent and we still made 9 less threes than the Wolves. DDR took 18 field goal attempts and was fouled on another 7 shots that sent him to the line. 25 shots, 2 threes! Unfortunately that just doesn’t work in the modern NBA. Getting to the line is awesome and he makes them at a high rate so that could make us super efficient but we are going to have to close the gap on 3 attempts and makes or we are going to find ourselves losing games where we are the better team. I’m not putting this on DDR, we just have to find out where those shots can come from
 
Thing is that Keon is just refusing to take threes right now in a way that sorta gets in the way of our offense. He played solidly on defense today but his man was sagging off of him on the other end because Keon wasn’t even trying to ask for the ball.
That's a bit of an exaggeration. Part of his value is that he doesn't try to force shots. He takes open shots when they are available
 
This reminded me of the Warriors preseason games where we were playing better and were clearly a better team but the three pointers from Golden state made it close at half time.

There was a ton of things to be excited about with this game: Keegan looks great, Domas stretching the floor, DDR being a dawg, Monk shining. I’m still optimistic.

What do y’all see as a possible solution to the 3 pt volume issue?
 
I have no doubt Fox wants to get the biggest paycheck he can, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for us if he takes a step back as a scorer and focuses instead on his defensive disruption. He's capable of impacting the game on both ends. I liked that he played the role of a set-up man tonight. For the most part he was letting other guys cook and his decision to get Sabonis an easy look mid way through the fourth kicked off 7 straight points from the big guy and got us back into the game. That was heady veteran leadership. Ideally he would also make his shots too though.
I was wondering if DeRozan might lead in scoring this season. Could be the case
 
Thing is that Keon is just refusing to take threes right now in a way that sorta gets in the way of our offense. He played solidly on defense today but his man was sagging off of him on the other end because Keon wasn’t even trying to ask for the ball.
He did what the coaches told him to do in preseason: play defense and only shoot if you have to. Now he has a completely different role, and it's not on him to figure it out on the fly.
 
Totally dumbass play by Sabonis at the end when he fouled Gobert. Of all the people in the NBA, he fouls Gobert???? Absolutely brain-dead play, and then compounds it by fouling Ant shortly afterwards. The Ant foul is somewhat understandable, but the Gobert foul was a gut-wrenching game killer. Very disappointing from a veteran of the caliber of Sabonis.

On a general level, the game was the Wolves taking 3s and the Kings taking 2s and unfortunately the Kings defense on 3s wasn't great. I have a feeling that the losses the Kings experience this season will have that general theme. On the bright side I thought the Kings were offensively cohesive, despite the addition of DDR. There was no "I'll take my turn, you take yours" type of offense that seems to happen so often to NBA teams in these situations. Hats' off to Brown for pretty darned good offense in the first game of the season.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
I’m worrried where the 3 point attempts are going to come from. Keegan was the only starter who took threes at volume, what happens when he has an off shooting night? He shot 50 percent and we still made 9 less threes than the Wolves. DDR took 18 field goal attempts and was fouled on another 7 shots that sent him to the line. 25 shots, 2 threes! Unfortunately that just doesn’t work in the modern NBA. Getting to the line is awesome and he makes them at a high rate so that could make us super efficient but we are going to have to close the gap on 3 attempts and makes or we are going to find ourselves losing games where we are the better team. I’m not putting this on DDR, we just have to find out where those shots can come from
I'm going to push back on this just a bit. I have no problem with DeMar's shot selection because he put points on the board and he's demanding defensive attention whenever he has the ball. We don't need all 5 guys to be shooters and it's refreshing that we finally have a guy who can just go get a bucket at will. It does mean Huerter, Ellis, and Fox can't all be shying away from shooting the three ball in the same game though like they were tonight.
 
They'll have a really tough time being middle of the pack on defense, without using Keon Ellis a lot. Still don't like removing him from the starting lineup. With Murray and him together, you have a wing stopper and a guard stopper
Kevin held his own on defense tonight, thought he was really solid/above average. Monk actually played good defense today too, he locked it down on a couple possessions, but it makes you wonder why he doesn't put more effort on that end...

Overall, I'm pleased with the way Kevin played. Yeah he went 0-3 from 3pt, but he only played 20mins. His missed shots didn't disrupt the flow of the game, and it's further supported by him having a team high +9.

I’m worrried where the 3 point attempts are going to come from. Keegan was the only starter who took threes at volume, what happens when he has an off shooting night? He shot 50 percent and we still made 9 less threes than the Wolves. DDR took 18 field goal attempts and was fouled on another 7 shots that sent him to the line. 25 shots, 2 threes! Unfortunately that just doesn’t work in the modern NBA. Getting to the line is awesome and he makes them at a high rate so that could make us super efficient but we are going to have to close the gap on 3 attempts and makes or we are going to find ourselves losing games where we are the better team. I’m not putting this on DDR, we just have to find out where those shots can come from
I agree with you. It'll get ugly during games where Keegan has an off-shooting night. Your best bet is hoping Huerter gets back to form, we really need him to hit those open shots. I think we saw Brown try to rely on Lyles and Monk for 3s, but Lyles was a complete negative, forcing him to turn to McDermott for 3pt shooting.

I think Doug could be your answer
 
Numbers are also skewed by Ant doing his best Westbrick impression with 5-15 from 3pt.

Our defense got really fortunate during crunch time when they missed what seemed like back to back open 3s.
To that same end, the Wolves got lucky Huerter couldn't hit a grandma crossing the street with a slingshot. Huerter looked BAAAAD. Starting him and playing him 19 mins was an epic fail of Brown. Huerter should be watching and playing limited minutes.
 
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