[Game] Noh@Sac 1/01/2012 6:00pm pst
- Thread starter Larry89
- Start date
TehSwimGuy
Bench
Good block by Reke...
Henkel
Starter
Evans looked great out there tonight. This team has too many people looking for their own shot in the starting lineup and with Cousins out things opened up for our three other gunners. Not that this is a good long term solution, in a perfect world Salmons and/or Thornton wouldn't be out there, just saying it gave us a more balanced line up on the offensive end.
3-8 shooting and leading the team with 5 assists to 1 turnover... he wasn't a superstar tonight but he played a good game and dished the ball like a PG should.
3-8 shooting, 2 steals, and lead the team in assists (5 steals... to one turnover)... he wasn't a superstar tonight but he played a good game and dished the ball like a PG should.
TehSwimGuy
Bench
Well, playing against Jack and Bellinelli, and no Gordon, I'm more interested in their next 4 games, which should be relatively tough. I hope this whole mess gets sorted out in the next day or so. We're going to need DMC, or some sort of rebounder, on this road trip.
Henkel
Starter
Since Beno isn't about to fall off we have to look at Jimmers potential to answer that one, and I just don't see a guy with a very high ceiling when I look at Jimmer.
I'm curious to see Westphal's read on this game. It's basically the same losing formula versus a team that just can't score enough, plus the help of making some ridiculous shots. Also helps that the Hornets aren't a great fastbreak team. This is less a sign of progress than a sign of playing a team you can beat and then having everything go your way. The one thing that looked better was spacing on offense, but they mostly abandoned post play to get that.
Not too much about Cousins from Westphal in the post game:
Reporter: "Coach, do you know if Cousins will be with the team on the road trip?"
Westphal: "I don't know. That's up to him. He said he wanted to be traded."
and
Reporter: "Coach, did DeMarcus give you a reason why he wanted to be traded?"
Westphal: "Yes."
Reporter: "Care to elaborate?"
Westpahl: "No."
Reporter: "Coach, do you know if Cousins will be with the team on the road trip?"
Westphal: "I don't know. That's up to him. He said he wanted to be traded."
and
Reporter: "Coach, did DeMarcus give you a reason why he wanted to be traded?"
Westphal: "Yes."
Reporter: "Care to elaborate?"
Westpahl: "No."
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
That was exactly a huge part of this. We have too many offensive players. That is Petrie's doing. Its not natural, and it creates all kinds of conflicts. Tonight was the most natural shot distribution we've had all season. Two main gun. A third gun (Salmons tonight). Then various guys chipping in for short stretches. That is the way it normally works. People always think that to be a "team' you have to run things like a communist country or some such. But that's not it. The great teams are always very hierarchical. Everybody knows where they are in that hierarchy. And everybody takes repsonsiblity for thier own corner of it. How is Miami built? How was Dallas built? Nwo our big three going forward should be Reke/Thornton and Cousins, not Reke/Thornton and Salmons, but either way, after you get past those three you have to clear out most the rest of those offensive players except for 1 bench scorer as 6th man and replace them with guys like JT and Cisco and Hayes. Guys who do the hard work, shoot only when passed to and its a good shot etc.
RookieOfTheDay
Starter
It really makes me wonder what Cousins said.
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
jcwkings
All-Star
we look alot better with less gunners out there. when guys like cisco are in, they know their role, play defense spot up for open shots and be ready to shoot when our gaurds penetrate. Our star distribution is not balanced. Look at the Thunder, they have a gunner in Durant, and a Gunner in Westbrook, no one else in the starting lineup is a gunner, you have a defensive sg that spots up in Sefolosha, a Jack of all trades PF in Ibaka and a defender in Perkins. Their other gunner is the 6th man in Harden. Our starting lineup has 3 gunners in Cousins, Tyreke, Thornton, and Salmons who at heart is a gunner, but is sucking it up at this point. Imagine if the Thunder had a Big Man that demanded touches in the low post, it wouldn't work for them either. I brought this up before the season, in personnel moves forum, if re-signing Thornton was the best move. While you can't deny Thornton's offensive talents, you also cant deny how imbalanced our starting lineup is.
There is truth in this and it's really important to look beyond it working against weak teams. It's Don Nelson small ball script where the firepower is on the outside and undersized "plucky" big guys try to hold their own in the paint. It works, but only so far. At best it's first round and out come playoff time.
I don't trust Westphal to do what is good for the team in the long run. He's desperate to win and save his job. He's willing to throw the only big on his roster with talent and potential under the bus to stay employed.
What you saw tonight is a microcosm of what we are headed for if Westphal has his way. That includes that disgusting first half where the Hornets killed us on the boards and Hayes looked like a toddler battling big kids.
Livinthedream
All-Star
This is what I've been saying for a few days now. The team is constructed wrong and the coaches haven't been able to get players to buy into changing their approach to the game. Or their roles are not being clearly defined.
gunks
Hall of Famer
Thornton as 6th man would be friggin amazing if he'd buy into it. Then again, if our FO ships off Cousins we wont really have to worry about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQHxUA8ABd8
I love the silent pause from the reporters after Westphal said the team played great.
Damning things:
-Thinking the team did anything but play the same way mostly, but made more shots.
-Praising Travis Outlaw
-Not mentioning the ridiculously bad trans D again
-Energetic effort! Meanwhile, players lax and don't get back in transition.
Just happy and smug all around, out of touch with the reality of the team.
I love the silent pause from the reporters after Westphal said the team played great.
Damning things:
-Thinking the team did anything but play the same way mostly, but made more shots.
-Praising Travis Outlaw
-Not mentioning the ridiculously bad trans D again
-Energetic effort! Meanwhile, players lax and don't get back in transition.
Just happy and smug all around, out of touch with the reality of the team.
I'm not sure which game you watched. Nor am I sure if you know how press conferences go.
I have no idea which "silent pause" you're talking about, but normally, the reporters wait for the coach to finish his opening statement before asking questions, and sometimes they don't all jump in at once with a question once he's finished answering the last one.
The team did play much better than the previous three nights. In fact, they didn't make more shots - 35 FGM, the same as against Chicago and 4-5 more than the Portland/NYK games. Their FG% was a whopping 41%, lower than the 42% in the Chicago game and marginally better than the 38% and 35% against Portland/NYK. The difference was that last night they were largely missing good shots that were taken within the context of the offense. Compared to the free-for-all ugliness that was the previous three games, last night's offense looked great.
Outlaw didn't play very much, but he had a nice block, he played with a lot of energy, didn't make a single mistake that I saw, and he had a nice +5 off the bench (best +/- of any bench player). Seems OK to praise him.
The transition D was much better last night. I think we only got beat on a leakout once. Ariza got a steal at the top that he converted, but no team defends that - it's on the ballhandler (Salmons in this case). Out side of that, there was one other blip I remember on a push where we had two players back but blew our assignments, leaving Kaman alone under the basket. In the previous three games, there were about 5 leakout layups a game. The transition D was much better.
Maybe you're just bitter all around and out of touch with the reality of last night's game.
TehSwimGuy
Bench
I think the only things different were that the offense flowed a little more smoothly.
That and NOLA was 0-13 from 3 point land and had no legitimate problems for the Kings to contend with.
Luckily, our back/back/back games, while tough, are not exactly against the Heat/Wolves/etc, so I think we can do pretty well against them.
Nope.
It looked like the same team against a team too weakened to give it troubles. The Kings were still making the bad moves they were before. For example, Hickson has repeatedly tried to pump fake from the high post and do something with it. Against good teams, they've forced him into traveling, a turnover or a tough shot. Against the Hornets, they did pretty much the same thing but Hickson made the tough shot. There was a little more passing, but it didn't come until late in the game. The Kings faced no adversity because the Hornets weren't strong enough to give them any adversity, and so they didn't face the same situations in which they broke down before.
But please call me out of touch.