The Dagger Mentality

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2muchgame

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The Kings don't have it. They have always been unable to put teams that rally on them away. The T'Wolves are clearly the class of the West along with San Antonio. Phoenix is exciting and has a lot of young talent, but lacks the experience. That leaves Sacramento to let opportunities slip by because they lack heart and mental toughness.

Good teams know how to beat Sacramento. Sacramento knows how to beat good teams. In a seven game series, the Kings do just enough to lose. This game shows me that tonight is just a microcosm of the past five years when the Kings have had the talent and the opportunities to win. Oh, I know......it's just one game, the playoffs arent until April, stop bitching, blah, blah.

What has this team learned........NOT A DAMN THING!
 
I understand the frustration, but it could have been game 7. Or a loss to the Bulls/Hornets. ;)

I was embarassed, but I know it wasn't a playoff game. Take a cue from this game and build on it. If you fail five hundred times you can still succeed the five hundred and first. :)

Also I second Heuge: 13-6
 
As angry I am now, it's just one game. Even though we should of won this, it happens. Look at the San Antoino Spurs last night (Even though the Kings do it often). Let's just hope the Kings can bounce back from this difficult loss.
 
I couldn't agree more. It's really tough to go through the same problems year after year and not be able to get better. I'm just scratching my head and frustrated at the lack of being able to win these games against the better teams when we lead the whole friggin game and give it away in the last minutes.

At least they play with a better killer mentality against the weak teams. Gives us fans false hope. Oh well.
 
piksi said:
1-4 against "good" teams (SEA, SAN, IN, DAL, PHO)
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We beat Phoenix AND Indiana, but we lost against Dallas, SA, Seattle, Minny twice: 2-5. Really 1-5 considering the state of Indiana.
 
i feel better now after thinking about it

we still have 2 gaems against them

alot more games against elite teams

the whole season left to play well and fix things..

we're not going to win every game, and we're not gonna lose every game neither..

as long as the kings keep improving, i'm happy..
 
Entity said:
the year we had our best record and Webb got hurt. We were 0-4 against SA
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We played one of those game on "hardwood classics" night, and that's a curse, so you can't really count that loss. ;)
 
Entity said:
the year we had our best record and Webb got hurt. We were 0-4 against SA
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LMM said:
we were 1-3 against dallas last yr
and 1-3 against minn, too
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I understand that the two of you are trying to be positive, but pointing out that we were 1-10 against top teams the year that we were "allegedly" the best team in the league is not a positive thing; in fact, it's pretty much the opposite of a positive thing...
 
Mr. S£im Citrus said:
I understand that the two of you are trying to be positive, but pointing out that we were 1-10 against top teams the year that we were "allegedly" the best team in the league is not a positive thing; in fact, it's pretty much the opposite of a positive thing...
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Maybe they are saying that the Kings didn't turn 'the switch' on just yet... we usually turn it on right before the playoffs, and turn it off right before the first game 7 that we play.
 
^^ i'm just saying that eventhough we had that record against those teams in the previous years, we still had the chance in the playoffs..

i just didn't want to dwell on this game like it's the end of the world cause we already lost twice to minny.. i'm so not happy with the loss, but i have to sleep :)
 
Bummer... didn't see the game so I can't really comment. I don't really expect the Kings to win games like this one anymore, I'm just trying to go along for the ride and enjoy myself. :) We've had a few years now to develop killer instinct... maybe they can figure it out before the playoffs start? :D
 
what kills me about this dumb timberwoofs team is the kings always seem to be great in the first 3 QT's and choke it away in the 4th. i'd almost rather be blown out then be good for most of the game only to lose in the end. those are the most aggrivating losses IMO.

i might blow up if the kings lose another game like them to the woofs. :mad:
 
Evenstar said:
what kills me about this dumb timberwoofs team is the kings always seem to be great in the first 3 QT's and choke it away in the 4th.
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What it shows is that the Kings aren't getting beat because of talent, they are getting beat because they don't have anyone that takes control and leads the team in these situations. I really haven't seen anyone on the team that consistently will get the team into an offensive set that is going to get a high percentage look at the basket. We saw a bit of it in the Memphis and Pheonix road games. But why did it not show up in the 2 games against the Wolves? If the execution consistency isn't coming from the players, it has to come from the coach. It's not really Adelman's style, but he just might have to start calling plays at the end of close games.
 
Evenstar said:
what kills me about this dumb timberwoofs team is the kings always seem to be great in the first 3 QT's and choke it away in the 4th. i'd almost rather be blown out then be good for most of the game only to lose in the end. those are the most aggrivating losses IMO.

i might blow up if the kings lose another game like them to the woofs. :mad:
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IMO it wasn't that the Kings choked and lost this one, it was the Minnesota bench that got us. I'm proud of the effort we get night in and night out from Songaila and Bobby. And Barnes and Ostertag do what they can, but the fact is that those four don't stand a chance when compared with a Minnesota bench of Hudson, Griffin, Olowakandi, Hassel, Hoiberg, and Johnson.

Essentially our team has three parts: the starters, the usable bench (tag, barnes, bobby, songaila) , and the rookies (evans, martin, daniels). When you look at Minnesota, they don't have just 9 guys like us, they have a solid 11 cast of characters to come in and play. Its frustrating!!!! Bring back the bench mobb!!!!
 
WalMatt23 said:
IMO it wasn't that the Kings choked and lost this one, it was the Minnesota bench that got us. I'm proud of the effort we get night in and night out from Songaila and Bobby. And Barnes and Ostertag do what they can, but the fact is that those four don't stand a chance when compared with a Minnesota bench of Hudson, Griffin, Olowakandi, Hassel, Hoiberg, and Johnson.

Essentially our team has three parts: the starters, the usable bench (tag, barnes, bobby, songaila) , and the rookies (evans, martin, daniels). When you look at Minnesota, they don't have just 9 guys like us, they have a solid 11 cast of characters to come in and play. Its frustrating!!!! Bring back the bench mobb!!!!
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Yup that's how I see it. It seems like their bench just annihalated us. Griffin, Hoiberg are officially Kings killers. Ofocurse it doesn't help that nobody could buy a bucket in the last 6 mins of the game. Oh well such is life and the sun will come up tomorrow. I hope
 
We definitely fell apart on offense in the last 6 minutes. But again -- we scored 105pts!!! It should NEVER have come down to us having to try to score 115 to win the damn thing.

They scored 113pts
They scored 37pts in the 4th quarter
They shot 51% from the floor
They outrebounded us by 13(?)

There is our problem.

As much as Peja turns all invisible on us in these big games, the fact is that the other guys stepped up and made up for his lack of production on offense. We exceeded our season average in points. But if you let another team score 37 on youo in the 4th quarter you are going to lose a LOT of games.
 
As a further aside -- regarding this whole topic, not really buying it as a generalized problem.

There are two problems we DO have:

1) against this team, against the Wolves, they have now time and again done this exact same thing to us. They squeeze and squeeze and squeeze, they have this ferocious HOF maniac driving them on, a huge clutch PG, and they just match us shot for shot until our guys have crumbled. Against THIS TEAM, we have repeatedly collapsed in the fourth quarter now, and they just have to think that they own us.

2) We have lost an incredible series of Game 7s and Game 5s -- 5 in 6 years. But in those Game 7s we did NOT collapse. We did not fall entirely apart ala Portland in 2000. We DID suffer from a lack of a superstar leader to carry us to victory. But no collapses like the one tonight. Its not exactly the same phenomena. Its the difference from just not finding the way to WIN, and actually finding a way to LOSE as we did tonight. And lest we forget, we were never even susposed to REACH any of those game 5/7s except the one against Dallas, but of course that all chnanged when Webb go hurt. We'd alreay shown cahones just to get there -- Utah favored to sweep, Lakers favored to sweep, Lakers favored to sweep again, Dallas we were favored until Webb got hurt, then they were, and Minnesota, our new problem, was favored to beat us last year as well.

In any case, I'm not woried about us going out and finding a way to lose agaisnt the Mavs, because we don't. We just got done kicking their asses in late game showdowns in May. Who knows about the Spurs -- they've got their own late game issues. But Minnesota -- now they've proven they can do it, and proven it repeatedly. THEM I am scared of.
 
Bricklayer said:
As a further aside -- regarding this whole topic, not really buying it as a generalized problem.

There are two problems we DO have:

1) against this team, against the Wolves, they have now time and again done this exact same thing to us. They squeeze and squeeze and squeeze, they have this ferocious HOF maniac driving them on, a huge clutch PG, and they just match us shot for shot until our guys have crumbled. Against THIS TEAM, we have repeatedly collapsed in the fourth quarter now, and they just have to think that they own us.

2) We have lost an incredible series of Game 7s and Game 5s -- 5 in 6 years. But in those Game 7s we did NOT collapse. We did not fall entirely apart ala Portland in 2000. We DID suffer from a lack of a superstar leader to carry us to victory. But no collapses like the one tonight. Its not exactly the same phenomena. Its the difference from just not finding the way to WIN, and actually finding a way to LOSE as we did tonight. And lest we forget, we were never even susposed to REACH any of those game 5/7s except the one against Dallas, but of course that all chnanged when Webb go hurt. We'd alreay shown cahones just to get there -- Utah favored to sweep, Lakers favored to sweep, Lakers favored to sweep again, Dallas we were favored until Webb got hurt, then they were, and Minnesota, our new problem, was favored to beat us last year as well.

In any case, I'm not woried about us going out and finding a way to lose agaisnt the Mavs, because we don't. We just got done kicking their asses in late game showdowns in May. Who knows about the Spurs -- they've got their own late game issues. But Minnesota -- now they've proven they can do it, and proven it repeatedly. THEM I am scared of.
Click to expand...

WORD Brick!
 
Bricklayer said:
But Minnesota -- now they've proven they can do it, and proven it repeatedly. THEM I am scared of.
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So that must mean you think they are the clearcut favorite to win the title, or at least come out of the West right?
 
Nikos said:
So that must mean you think they are the clearcut favorite to win the title, or at least come out of the West right?
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Nope. Reread what I said. They are OUR nightmare matchup.

Actually they have the talent to knock off everyone else too. But for us they are a real problem. They have everything we do, but with a few bonus ticks that we do not. And of course they've solved Peja in the worst way.

95% of the teams in the league, we are a unique problem for them. We may have matchup problems against certain teams, but we cause them too across the board. We normally have 2 or 3 positions where we are just flat out better than our opponents. Not the Wolves. They matchup right across the board with us personnel-wise -- constructed in similar fashion. When we go in to play them we are hard pressed to point out the spot where we have the prohibitive advantage. It SHOULD be Brad vs. their nobodies. But now with the addition of Griffin, they have been able to counter our big man advantage with a 2nd mini-Garnett.

Garnett is Webb, only better. Multitalented superstar.
Cassel is Bibby, only older. Clutch jump shooting PG.
Hudson is Bobby, only not as good. Energetic scoring point off the bench.
Wally is Peja, only not as good. EXCEPT, Peja turns into a pumpkin against them. Sweet shooting SF.
Spree is a significant advantage over Doug. Really Doug is Hassel - the defensive specialist. We have no Spree.
Brad USED to have a big advantage over Kandi/Johsnon/Madsen, whoever. Now Brad is countered by Griffin, a different stle of player, and one that gives us fits.

The roles are similar. So are the games of the players. But KG is the best in the game, and we can't exploit our advantage at SF because they handle Peja so easily.

We can beat this team -- it goes both ways. We are them just as they are us and it took 7 games last summer. But there is nothing we can point to on paper at this point where we go "see, look at that advantage" and go take advantage of it. We simply have to outplay them in a head to head test of strength on strength. And we're not getting it done.
 
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I fear that kings might have developed some sort of mental insecurity when it comes to the wolves. (and it could have something to do with last year's playoffs). They just can't seem to overcome that colapse in the second half of 4th quarter. They fight hard for 42-43 minutes and then all of a sudden it is a though someone turns the switch and they forget how to play the game.

I am not concerned about the loss itself.... I mean 13-6 isn't a bad record at all (especially not considering we have 5 games coming up at home).... but what I am worried about is whether Kings will be able to overcome this intimidation they are feeling when facing the Wolves. I really feel like it is intimidation....
 
Here is another thing that is puzzling to me.(sorry if these has been mentinoned) We are the number 1 free throw shooting team in the league but when we play the Wolves, we fall apart in that department. Take Brad for instance. He was an 89% free throw shooter until last night and he choked at the line time in and time out. That is probably the most frustrating thing.
 
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