It was telling that Grant Napear opened the third quarter with the Kings up 1 and before a shot had been taken he asked Doug “How long do they wait here?”. Hold up. Wait for WHAT? Of course, we know he was referring to how long do they go with this ridiculous small ball lineup that has yielded nothing but disaster since it was ass pulled out of nowhere and inspired from zero data that was positive. He knew the Kings were going to start flat and fall behind because that’s what that lineup does. Sure enough they did. Then they traded baskets for awhile once a real lineup got put in and then they got to do what they do best in single possessions games. Kick the ball around, not get rebounds, and fail to get good shots in crunch time. That lineup has been complete sabotage.
Buddy has been terrible shooting since the break. I’m afraid to calculate what his three point percentage is since coming back. I don’t know what happened. It’s not really a concern going forward but it’s worth noting that the Kings lost probably 3 games during this stretch directly because of Buddys polar vortex. The announcers haven’t seemed to acknowledge it’s been a bad patch, not just “a rough night”. Buddy has been really struggling overall for some time now outside of the OKC game.
Bogdan has struggled. That blown rebound was probably the low point of the Kings season for me. Of course, his value as a playmaker is off the bench utility guy. He clearly doesn’t fit with the starting lineup at SF. Not just for the obvious reason of him not being a small forward. In the role, we need him to be a spot up shooter in that role and unfortunately Bogie has struggled with his outside shot this season. His spot up shot has really been no more reliable than Imans since he entered the starting lineup. The rotation has made Bogdans struggles an even bigger impact since Bogdan actually still plays pretty good with the bench unit because he can work what for the most part has stayed a reliable passing and mid range game..get to the line, get some assists...but he has been a square peg with the small ball starting lineup. As I predicted earlier in the year when there was a few who wanted to shoehorn him into the starting lineup. Turns out you get much of the same numbers but minimize his impact and value significantly. Plus I’m sure he’s injured. Maybe Buddy is too.
This is definetly one of the worst losses of the season. I don’t care about the playoffs at this point but they are not just falling short anymore. They are fading. Theyre about to fall under .500 and they play to the level of the competition now. So I don’t really see that upcoming 7 game stretch and think the Kings can actually rip anything off. There is no carry over from all the moral victories. Kings blow a game to Washington the same way they do to Golden State. It’s not watching them get over a hill but try to break down a wall with their head. You can only sell the learning experience if there appears to be learning. Suns have more high profile wins than the Kings and now the Kings can barely take out the garbage as evident by those alarmingly competitive games vs the Knicks(who weren’t even playing extremely well by their standards)
Needless to say, I found today’s game very very disappointing but I guess if you told me in August...