[Game] Kings vs. Warriors, 10/27/2023 7pm Pacific 10pm Eastern (ESPN)

[Caccia]

Monk is a very erratic player. I don't think I'm ready for 30 mins of Monk lol.

You could also argue that coming off the bench twice in the game is a tough job, especially when you are primarily a shooter. There are not many guys like Lou Williams. Starting and getting starters' minutes makes it easier to be consistent in shooting, passing, ball handling, and defense. You are not constantly cooling off on the bench and heating up on the court. Monk showed that in LA., when he started 38 games, as I posted a couple of weeks ago.

What is different so far this season (and preseason) is that Malik has really been looking to pass the ball, a lot. It's just two games, but he has more assists than even Sabonis and Fox, in two-thirds the minutes. And we know he can play with both. Last night, the Kings went on a 14-0 run with Fox, Monk, Vezenkov, and McGee on the court.

I'm not smart enough to figure out how it would work. But maybe you and Mike Brown are right, that starting two guys in the backcourt at 6' 3" would be a defensive nightmare. On the other hand, they are both fast as greased lightning. I just think Mike Brown should give Monk a chance. Frank Vogel certainly did, and he is a pretty fair coach.

 

[Sac.Kings]

Missed the second half but this loss really doesn’t even confuse me just by looking at the stats. Can’t shoot that poorly from 3, have that many turnovers, poor play from our starting SG and expect to win. If Huerter can’t shoot and is in a funk this bad, then I repeat my question from preseason — why even have him out there? Teams are targeting him and it’s killing us. He needs to be brought off the bench until he sorts this out.

Also, it’s pretty clear to me Davion cannot be our backup PG. Apart from Kevin, this is our second weakest link. The guy is allergic to offense. Still can’t shoot, can’t drive without getting blocked or missing a layup and can’t run the offense. A good portion of our rotation is new with 1 guy being brand new to the league. I am not surprised by turnovers and some rough play. That will only improve but our most glaring issues are definitely Huerter and Davion. Can’t have 20% of our rotation giving us a zero on offense. Unacceptable. It allows the opposing team to pack the paint or double another player.

 

[mrlaze]

I'm still on the Heurter wilts under pressure bandwagon. I dont get why brown would put him on Curry?!

Maybe we should get some of our 45 guards to slap Currys forearms everytime he shoots?

 

[gilly420]

Yikes. Guess we are not quite ready. Fox was nice late but we really needed him to answer Curry in the 3rd q when he killed us. Sabonas ok but feel like Looney still got the best of him when it mattered. Huerter is lost and lacks any inside game where he can get a few easier shots. Pregame I was begging the Kings to be aggressive and attach the rim. They did not and got their asses whooped at the home opener.

 

[twslam07]

So we just made the playoffs last year after a record long drought. The age of our core/big 3 are 27, 25, and 23. This is going to be a journey and we’re not going to become a championship caliber team overnight.

Huerter has been a solid player for us, and we shouldn’t look to cast him aside so quickly. That’s not to say you don’t look for upgrades along the way, but you don’t act out of desperation and move him immediately at all costs. We need to be patient and tactical with our personnel moves. Fortunately, that seems to be Monte’s MO.

 

[Folsomkingsfan]

So we just made the playoffs last year after a record long drought. The age of our core/big 3 are 27, 25, and 23. This is going to be a journey and we’re not going to become a championship caliber team overnight.

Huerter has been a solid player for us, and we shouldn’t look to cast him aside so quickly. That’s not to say you don’t look for upgrades along the way, but you don’t act out of desperation and move him immediately at all costs. We need to be patient and tactical with our personnel moves. Fortunately, that seems to be Monte’s MO.

Huerter has been bad since April. West is tougher than last season. How long can you afford to be patient?

 

[twslam07]

Huerter has been bad since April. West is tougher than last season. How long can you afford to be patient?

Saying “since April” is a bit disingenuous knowing that there is a large amount of time between then and now when they aren’t playing.

The point is to not make any knee jerk moves and let your emotions get the best of you. That’s when you end up making poor decisions. If there is a trade out there that makes us better, great! But we should not be moving/dumping Huerter for the sake of moving/dumping Huerter.

 

[ESP47]

Nothing like Curry hitting the dagger and Kayte immediately talking about how much of a pleasure it is to watch him.

On my last nerve. Seemed like Draper wasn't happy about that either.

Warriors just own us and I'm not sure there is anything this team can even do about it. It's like Curry never has anything less than an above average game by his own standards against us.

 

[reptilexcq2]

You could also argue that coming off the bench twice in the game is a tough job, especially when you are primarily a shooter. There are not many guys like Lou Williams. Starting and getting starters' minutes makes it easier to be consistent in shooting, passing, ball handling, and defense. You are not constantly cooling off on the bench and heating up on the court. Monk showed that in LA., when he started 38 games, as I posted a couple of weeks ago.

What is different so far this season (and preseason) is that Malik has really been looking to pass the ball, a lot. It's just two games, but he has more assists than even Sabonis and Fox, in two-thirds the minutes. And we know he can play with both. Last night, the Kings went on a 14-0 run with Fox, Monk, Vezenkov, and McGee on the court.

I'm not smart enough to figure out how it would work. But maybe you and Mike Brown are right, that starting two guys in the backcourt at 6' 3" would be a defensive nightmare. On the other hand, they are both fast as greased lightning. I just think Mike Brown should give Monk a chance. Frank Vogel certainly did, and he is a pretty fair coach.

It's a lot of bad timing and missing seemingly easy layups that piled up and cost the Kings the game imo. Like some of those Sabonis misses under the basket...like how? How is he missing that layup? There are a lot of transition missed baskets. There is bad execution pick n roll by Monk starting on the left side of the floor...it's just bad spacing resulting in turnover. It's just lack of patient. Sabonis as well as he play, he didn't get it done when it matter. How in the world did you let Looney straight drive to the basket for a dunk? And as much as I admire Duarte, he did allowed a few drive layups. Playing the GS required discipline and smartness. I feel they need to double Curry a lot more sooner before he run a pick n roll. You double with a guy further from the ball and have another further away to prepare guarding two players at the same time....i did that in video game and killing opponents online lol. As for Chris Paul, the pick n roll he got and getting wide open shots are way too easy....why don't Kings just switch rather than fighting through it. Overall, team defense is just not good.

 

[upinsmoke]

Nothing like Curry hitting the dagger and Kayte immediately talking about how much of a pleasure it is to watch him.

On my last nerve. Seemed like Draper wasn't happy about that either.

Warriors just own us and I'm not sure there is anything this team can even do about it. It's like Curry never has anything less than an above average game by his own standards against us.

Take it on the chin and go back to drawing board until we find a strategy that works. We're talking about an all time great so eventually we need to address the defense holes in the roster until then not much will change.

 

[PorchSurfin]

He will. Still not clear with which team.

Who even says crap like this?

 

[PorchSurfin]

Huerter and Mitchell are about to be traded, packaged with a first or 2 for an upgrade at the 4 would be nice.

 

[hrdboild]

Missed the second half but this loss really doesn’t even confuse me just by looking at the stats. Can’t shoot that poorly from 3, have that many turnovers, poor play from our starting SG and expect to win. If Huerter can’t shoot and is in a funk this bad, then I repeat my question from preseason — why even have him out there? Teams are targeting him and it’s killing us. He needs to be brought off the bench until he sorts this out.

Also, it’s pretty clear to me Davion cannot be our backup PG. Apart from Kevin, this is our second weakest link. The guy is allergic to offense. Still can’t shoot, can’t drive without getting blocked or missing a layup and can’t run the offense. A good portion of our rotation is new with 1 guy being brand new to the league. I am not surprised by turnovers and some rough play. That will only improve but our most glaring issues are definitely Huerter and Davion. Can’t have 20% of our rotation giving us a zero on offense. Unacceptable. It allows the opposing team to pack the paint or double another player.

The last time we played this team Davion scored 14 points in 17 minutes. He also had 12 points and 7 assists in the final pre-season game. He's still the best defender on the team and it's been 2 games. Davion is not the problem. Neither is Huerter -- he's just in a cold spell. He's been too good for too long to write him off after a couple bad shooting games.

The problem is that we have not improved at all on defense which was pretty obvious already just looking at the roster moves in the off-season. It's why our draft night was disappointing and it's why we're going to live and die by the three again unless Monte can pull off a trade for a top level defender who will be on the floor 36+ min every game or Mike Brown can go into his coaching bag and somehow motivate these guys to find a new level of defensive cooperation that we haven't seen from them yet.

 

[Tetsujin]

Huerter has been bad since April. West is tougher than last season. How long can you afford to be patient?

Do you know that? What if he was blowing up the Rico Hines runs this summer?

 

[PorchSurfin]

The last time we played this team Davion scored 14 points in 17 minutes. He also had 12 points and 7 assists in the final pre-season game. He's still the best defender on the team and it's been 2 games. Davion is not the problem. Neither is Huerter -- he's just in a cold spell. He's been too good for too long to write him off after a couple bad shooting games.

The problem is that we have not improved at all on defense which was pretty obvious already just looking at the roster moves in the off-season. It's why our draft night was disappointing and it's why we're going to live and die by the three again unless Monte can pull off a trade for a top level defender who will be on the floor 36+ min every game or Mike Brown can go into his coaching bag and somehow motivate these guys to find a new level of defensive cooperation that we haven't seen from them yet.

You should go back and watch that game. I turned it off after watching Huerter get targeted, missing assignments, being slow to rotate, and losing his man. Huerter was a BIG problem last night.

 

[midtowner]

Take it on the chin and go back to drawing board until we find a strategy that works. We're talking about an all time great so eventually we need to address the defense holes in the roster until then not much will change.

A bad loss like this can be an opening to implement good change. Sometimes the players learn better after getting their butts kicked.

 

[Folsomkingsfan]

Do you know that? What if he was blowing up the Rico Hines runs this summer?

I thought since we were all bball fans that we know 'since April' means the regular season games in April, the series against the Warriors, preseason, and these first two games. That's on me.

 

[Shaqfuey]

What school if you don’t mind me asking?

cordova

 

[The_Jamal]

So we just made the playoffs last year after a record long drought. The age of our core/big 3 are 27, 25, and 23. This is going to be a journey and we’re not going to become a championship caliber team overnight.

Huerter has been a solid player for us, and we shouldn’t look to cast him aside so quickly. That’s not to say you don’t look for upgrades along the way, but you don’t act out of desperation and move him immediately at all costs. We need to be patient and tactical with our personnel moves. Fortunately, that seems to be Monte’s MO.

Hurray! Someone thinking logically. Great post

 

[sactowndog]

You could also argue that coming off the bench twice in the game is a tough job, especially when you are primarily a shooter. There are not many guys like Lou Williams. Starting and getting starters' minutes makes it easier to be consistent in shooting, passing, ball handling, and defense. You are not constantly cooling off on the bench and heating up on the court. Monk showed that in LA., when he started 38 games, as I posted a couple of weeks ago.

What is different so far this season (and preseason) is that Malik has really been looking to pass the ball, a lot. It's just two games, but he has more assists than even Sabonis and Fox, in two-thirds the minutes. And we know he can play with both. Last night, the Kings went on a 14-0 run with Fox, Monk, Vezenkov, and McGee on the court.

I'm not smart enough to figure out how it would work. But maybe you and Mike Brown are right, that starting two guys in the backcourt at 6' 3" would be a defensive nightmare. On the other hand, they are both fast as greased lightning. I just think Mike Brown should give Monk a chance. Frank Vogel certainly did, and he is a pretty fair coach.

I am a Monk fan but 2 guard isn’t his best position. I think Malik could be a top 10 lead guard in this league. Ideally we could trade him for a 2-3 wing player.

 

[Rain man]

Nothing like Curry hitting the dagger and Kayte immediately talking about how much of a pleasure it is to watch him.

On my last nerve. Seemed like Draper wasn't happy about that either.

Warriors just own us and I'm not sure there is anything this team can even do about it. It's like Curry never has anything less than an above average game by his own standards against us.

That the Warriors "own" us is an interesting take given that they are on a two game win streak. We are literally two games removed from blowing the doors off of them in San Francisco in Game 6. They were the better team in the second half of Game 7 (after we played toe to toe in the first half) and they were the better team for about a 12 minute stretch in the 3rd-4th last night where they built a big lead. They hardly own us. I am curious what the takes will be if we win in SF in a few days.

 

[kingdivac]

It's a lot of bad timing and missing seemingly easy layups that piled up and cost the Kings the game imo. Like some of those Sabonis misses under the basket...like how? How is he missing that layup? There are a lot of transition missed baskets. There is bad execution pick n roll by Monk starting on the left side of the floor...it's just bad spacing resulting in turnover. It's just lack of patient. Sabonis as well as he play, he didn't get it done when it matter. How in the world did you let Looney straight drive to the basket for a dunk? And as much as I admire Duarte, he did allowed a few drive layups. Playing the GS required discipline and smartness. I feel they need to double Curry a lot more sooner before he run a pick n roll. You double with a guy further from the ball and have another further away to prepare guarding two players at the same time....i did that in video game and killing opponents online lol. As for Chris Paul, the pick n roll he got and getting wide open shots are way too easy....why don't Kings just switch rather than fighting through it. Overall, team defense is just not good.

I didnt watch the game but sabonis had some
of that in the playoffs. I agree with a comment he needs to sharpen his own shooting, close in especially with his new humongous salary. He seems to sometimes lose focus, and it seemed prevalent vs warriors more vice other teams. You gotta finish around the basket

 

[kingdivac]

That the Warriors "own" us is an interesting take given that they are on a two game win streak. We are literally two games removed from blowing the doors off of them in San Francisco in Game 6. They were the better team in the second half of Game 7 (after we played toe to toe in the first half) and they were the better team for about a 12 minute stretch in the 3rd-4th last night where they built a big lead. They hardly own us. I am curious what the takes will be if we win in SF in a few days.

Owning is probably excessive but theres too many players on the roster not meeting the moment right now vs warriors. Beating the Lakers becomes a bit more imprtant now tomorrow.

 

[SacTownKid]

C'mon man, it's not total domination. They're down by 4pt with less than 1 minute less. I mean the Kings could have made the game closer or even took the lead had they not missed so many crucial free throws. It started to pile up and the next thing you know, they're down double digits with only a couple of Curry 3s. That's when the game got out of control. The GS run is no difference than the Kings run where they took 11 or 12pts lead in the 1st quarter or 2nd quarter. The only difference is the Kings tend to play out of control once they realize they're behind...and stop executing to get better shots. Also, remember...this same Kings team does not play well at home as oppose to on the road. It seems they're not as disciplined and precise with their execution and just play loose.

Yeah, not total domination the whole game, but it was pretty much one sided in terms of one team getting exactly what they want. Again, like last year, you can tell when a team is missing open shots and the Warriors were in that first half. Fox brought this back single handedly pretty much. Also a change in finally taking the defense to Curry rather than letting him continuously square up a poor defender and run step back after step back, or pin down after pin down. The Kings are not loaded with defensive talent to say the least so not being atrocious on that end is paramount. The Nuggets set the measuring stick last season and potential path, get up to around 15-18 in defensive rating and the Kings might be a true contender. Murray is a nice surprise though. He's playing HARD on that end. Maybe he ends up that 3 and D guy rather than 3rd star? Either way I think this increases his core unit possibilities greatly even if he's not the superstar they think he can be.

 

[SacTownKid]

The last time we played this team Davion scored 14 points in 17 minutes. He also had 12 points and 7 assists in the final pre-season game. He's still the best defender on the team and it's been 2 games. Davion is not the problem. Neither is Huerter -- he's just in a cold spell. He's been too good for too long to write him off after a couple bad shooting games.

The problem is that we have not improved at all on defense which was pretty obvious already just looking at the roster moves in the off-season. It's why our draft night was disappointing and it's why we're going to live and die by the three again unless Monte can pull off a trade for a top level defender who will be on the floor 36+ min every game or Mike Brown can go into his coaching bag and somehow motivate these guys to find a new level of defensive cooperation that we haven't seen from them yet.

Yeah, no one player is the issue. The issue right now could be team construction though and Monte knows this. He doesn't look to Beal if he thinks this is truly a finished product. And exactly, this is still a team lacking those wing athletes that can switch. Davion for as good a defender as he is is still the size he is. And a backup on a very guard heavy team where it's somewhat pick your poison between offense and defense. The question is if this is a personnel issue, how do you fix it? I still say the easiest way is to have a solid 3-4 star combination and then fill in those needs around that. First and foremost talent at the top of your roster wins out. Period. Keegan being that 3rd guy is the easy way. Hopefully that's what transpires here. If it does the world is Monte's oyster. Then he can go full Petrie and start picking up that toughness and need fillers.

 

[SacTownKid]

That the Warriors "own" us is an interesting take given that they are on a two game win streak. We are literally two games removed from blowing the doors off of them in San Francisco in Game 6. They were the better team in the second half of Game 7 (after we played toe to toe in the first half) and they were the better team for about a 12 minute stretch in the 3rd-4th last night where they built a big lead. They hardly own us. I am curious what the takes will be if we win in SF in a few days.

This loss could be a good thing in that sense because we'll know a lot more about this team then. Preseason or not, that last loss hurt this team. They came out chippy. Now with Curry dumping all over them Kobe style this becomes a hatred if this Kings teams is anything closer to contending.

 

[macadocious]

I watched the game late last night. Defense wasnt awful. Curry did crazy curry things. Moody hit a couple wild shots. We also missed everything.

It’s an L. We almost made a game of it at the end. ‍♂️

 

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1718124084473782761

gonna assume that this dude wasn’t alive when Kobe was in his prime because I still have nightmares about him cooking the Kings in random regular season games in the clutch.

Nice that we’re the ones with the boogeyman on our team this time around.

 

[Kingster]

C'mon man, it's not total domination. They're down by 4pt with less than 1 minute less. I mean the Kings could have made the game closer or even took the lead had they not missed so many crucial free throws. It started to pile up and the next thing you know, they're down double digits with only a couple of Curry 3s. That's when the game got out of control. The GS run is no difference than the Kings run where they took 11 or 12pts lead in the 1st quarter or 2nd quarter. The only difference is the Kings tend to play out of control once they realize they're behind...and stop executing to get better shots. Also, remember...this same Kings team does not play well at home as oppose to on the road. It seems they're not as disciplined and precise with their execution and just play loose.

C'mon man. You know and I know that this "comeback" is totally meaningless. The Warriors have no fear when they play the Kings. Their only enemy is their own complacency. They relaxed - because they firmly believe they own the Kings - and the Kings made their fervent valiant meaningless and futile comeback.

Curry, Paul, and Draymond, who didn't even play, are delighted to play the Kings. The rest of them are as comfortable as pigs in slop when play the Kings because they know they have Curry, Paul and Draymond. Re-watch Looney fake out Sabonis and slam on his head. Do you think the guy is comfortable or what? Do you think that if he was at all concerned about the outcome of the game he would play guard on the wing and go one-on-one with Sabonis? If Looney had any trepidation about their chances of winning he wouldn't dream of doing that play. He'd fumble the ball out of bounds 50% of the time.

Curry gets shots whenever he wants them. Paul gets shots whenever he wants them. (Heck, freaking 38 year old 6'0" Chris Paul waltzed in the lane for two layups in this game!) Draymond gets to step on people and slap them in the face for the fun of it. These guys are have the time of their lives when they play the Kings.

 

[Kingster]

Not a very good game to say the least, but i wanna mention that Keegan Murray is so clearly playing through a thumb or hand injury and i'd rather he sit out or get it taken care of if it's going to cause him to miss those shots he normally buries in his sleep. That was a small part of the reason we fell behind the way we did. He had some insanely great looks that we've all seen him hit with ease, but i also noticed him touching that wrapped finger and tugging at it a bit in the opening quarter.

Sabonis had to endure his hand injury for the entire season. And we had to endure it with him for the whole season so to speak. Now Murray. I'm with you. If rest for a couple of weeks is going to cure it, do it. I don't want to see him a month from now still gripping that hand after shooting a mediocre percentage.