[Game] THE Kings vs. Detroit Pistons, 2/7/2024, 7:00p PT/10:00p ET

[Rob-The-Great]

45% from the field and 34% from 3 is very good?

His career PER is below league average. His PER for the season is, like, a fraction of a percent above league average.

On a team like this? Yea I'd say it's not bad at all. But let me ask you. Who has the best trade value on that team? Now I'm not a Cade fan, and I wanted ivey over Murray, so I'm wrong every now and then, but Cade is not the problem in Detroit

 

[iowamcnabb]

Who hates us? Jesus. 7 game road trip, into this? Good lord.

Regardless of dropping tonight's game or not, that stretch was always going to be a back-breaker (or not). Just obviously would have been preferred to head into it with an extra win.

yeh for sure. Basically any team outside of Boston would be lucky to go 4-5 during that stretch. A 2-7 or worse would be tough to come back from unless we rip off 5/6 wins in a row right after

 

[NewArena]

Who hates us? Jesus. 7 game road trip, into this? Good lord.

Regardless of dropping tonight's game or not, that stretch was always going to be a back-breaker (or not). Just obviously would have been preferred to head into it with an extra win.

Yup. Meanwhile, the Lakers routinely get 2-3 days off before their TNT/ESPN games. Must be nice.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

Who hates us? Jesus. 7 game road trip, into this? Good lord.

Regardless of dropping tonight's game or not, that stretch was always going to be a back-breaker (or not). Just obviously would have been preferred to head into it with an extra win.

One of the flaws with the NBA lately, is scheduling where they play a team 3 teams in a very short span. Happened against the Warriors and now with the Nuggets. Shouldn't be a thing

 

[iowamcnabb]

I was wondering the same thing. He kept grabbing at his shoulder the last few games, so i really don’t know. If he needs load management then someone needs to step in and make it happen. I’ll give him credit for playing through whatever this is but that’s all i got

and he has been good on defense. We needed Fourth quarter Fox tonight. We had this game in the bag if we got normal Fox in the remaining 12 minutes

 

[Tizzy Flip]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1755461933082513447

I wouldn’t normally post this doom and gloomer’s post but look at that schedule! T you need to go 3-6 or better during that stretch and then peel off a few games in a row after that to stay in the top 6. We can do it but boy will it be tough.

Well Fox always plays up against Murray, SGA, Booker, and Conley. So I expect us to go 5-4 with a brutal loss to the Spurs

 

[reptilexcq2]

Kings is the ONLY team that sure as hell make an average player like Ivey look like elite superstar in this league lol. This is a pathetic display. In the 4th quarter down the stretch, look at Huerter letting Ivey drove by him for an easy layup. EVEN if he KNEW he's going to the basket, STILL Huerter could not stop him, you can just see it unfold. This is an example of why we need to start trading him and Mitchell to get some upgrade.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

On a team like this? Yea I'd say it's not bad at all. But let me ask you. Who has the best trade value on that team? Now I'm not a Cade fan, and I wanted ivey over Murray, so I'm wrong every now and then, but Cade is not the problem in Detroit

I didn't say that he was "the problem," I said that I don't think that he's the best player on the Pistons, and I think that every metric besides PPG backs me up on that.

I also don't think that trade value is a particularly useful metric for determining who the best/most valuable player on a team is.

 

[Folsomkingsfan]

I can’t be mad about this. Since Fox always bounces back from these types of games. He does seem to have some inner motivation that pushes him whenever he gets doubted.

Also can’t be mad when I have the freaking Super Bowl to look forward to!

A team built around a player who can only find motivation when his team loses to bad teams is the sign of a bad team

 

[The Effort Police]

Who hates us? Jesus. 7 game road trip, into this? Good lord.

Regardless of dropping tonight's game or not, that stretch was always going to be a back-breaker (or not). Just obviously would have been preferred to head into it with an extra win.

To be honest I'm not really scared of the rough parts of the schedule anymore compared to these trap games like tonight lmao.

Just gotta tread water I guess. Not going to get a chance to gain ground on the teams above us until March it seems.

At least we went 5-2 during the roadtrip. That's an understated success, which if you recall we had a brutal 5 game roadtrip before that, which was underwhelming but overall 7-5 in their last 12 road games. Had it been a more ho-hum 5-7 compounded with this loss and the next 9 and things could've gotten uglier than they probably will end up being.

 

[Folsomkingsfan]

When Keegan Murray gets in his head it leads to some scary terrible basketball

 

[Rob-The-Great]

I didn't say that he was "the problem," I said that I don't think that he's the best player on the Pistons, and I think that every metric besides PPG backs me up on that.

I also don't think that trade value is a particularly useful metric for determining who the best/most valuable player on a team is.

Wait, so what exactly are you basing who's the best player on Detroit by? He's the best trade piece, there leading scorer, the main person teams plan for each game. What are you saying exactly? In fact, who is there best player in your opinion?

 

[NewArena]

Well Fox always plays up against Murray, SGA, Booker, and Conley. So I expect us to go 5-4 with a brutal loss to the Spurs

Lmao this sounds about right, maybe even 6-3 with a blowout loss to the spurs, actually.

 

[NewArena]

To be honest I'm not really scared of the rough parts of the schedule anymore compared to these trap games like tonight lmao.

Just gotta tread water I guess. Not going to get a chance to gain ground on the teams above us until March it seems.

At least we went 5-2 during the roadtrip. That's an understated success, which if you recall we had a brutal 5 game roadtrip before that, which was underwhelming but overall 7-5 in their last 12 road games. Couple a more ho-hum 5-7 and compound it with this loss and the next 9 and things could've gotten uglier than they probably will end up being.

Whew. This is important to remember and I’m now going to relax, as the Kings don’t really surprise me much anymore. I expect better play against the good to great teams. Now I'm going to hype myself for tomorrow, knowing I’ll likely wake up to some cash consideration-2nd round pick type of deal.

 

[SacTownKid]

Who hates us? Jesus. 7 game road trip, into this? Good lord.

Regardless of dropping tonight's game or not, that stretch was always going to be a back-breaker (or not). Just obviously would have been preferred to head into it with an extra win.

If the Kings do well, that could set up a glorious stretch heading into the playoffs.

 

[joemama]

Just keep losing.
We keep our pick.
Best way to improve is young affordable talent.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

Last seasons record won't get it done this season, the top teams are pulling away. Its not that 1 game separation like last year. I enjoyed last season as much as anyone trust me, but now the expectations are rightly higher.

It's not so much the record, it's the inconsistencies. One game we can win a championship, the next....we lose to the Pistons.

Someone said you can't tell how good a team is based off there record. I complete disagree. You are what your record is period. If my kid gets Fs but is smart enough to get As. She's still a F student

 

[Rob-The-Great]

Just keep losing.
We keep our pick.
Best way to improve is young affordable talent.

We are too good to keep losing. We are either going to be average for a while, or make a trade and get good. We won't be bad enough to improve in the draft for a few years. Team is built too well for that

 

[captain bill]

Thankfully only caught the last 5 minutes of this. Was still expecting us to go on a run. The missed call on the foul on Monk followed by the double tech could have been up to a 5 point swing. With Pistons shots falling the way they were it prob wouldn't matter but still an annoying way to lose

We've now dropped into the play-in bracket. There's enough of a cushion that we shouldn't fall past 10. But missing the playoffs in year 2 of MB would for sure be a major failure. We'd at least keep our pick and be able to trade it once the selection is made, altho idk if that's preferable to sending ATL the pick this season to open up future flexibility

 

[SacTownKid]

Just keep losing.
We keep our pick.
Best way to improve is young affordable talent.

Nah, this draft is pretty guard heavy. That's probably why a lot of teams aren't looking to hoard up on picks this year. Most teams, including Sac, don't need guards. The experience and getting to the postseason as a routine is >>> a middling lotto pick in a weak draft.

 

[Tetsujin]

Just keep losing.
We keep our pick.
Best way to improve is young affordable talent.

This is probably not the draft to tank to keep the pick for lol

The Huerter trade was amazing in that it got us a good player in Kevin and Monte magically made it so that our pick is probably going to convey in the weakest draft in a decade or so

 

[k_dubb90]

I hate that you're right... never looked at it that way. Keegan has been playing like crap. His last 5 games have single handily dropped his season average of 16ppg to 15.5ppg... and that's counting a 33pt performance.

He needs to collect himself together. He's no longer a 22-year-old rookie. His last several performances have been unacceptable as our 3rd best player.

Just no emotion, no energy, no life

 

[hrdboild]

I think the Pistons are bad because I've watched them play a decent amount this season, including a couple times in their house. Did they play well tonight? Sure, I'll give them credit for that. One key was Ivey got his confidence going and the Kings couldn't stop him, not to mention Burks and Sasser... And Fox had a very disappointing game. I agree that the coaching staff could have done way better, especially with the playing times of some guys.

To just gloss over the loss and state the Pistons are a better than terrible team is missing the point that not only should have the Kings won tonight, but even more so considering they've dropped games to the Hornets and Blazers already this season in similar ways. I'm usually a "hey it's just a loss, let's move on to the next" type of person but this one sews a weird kind of perplexity regarding this team

I'm not glossing over the loss. Of course we should find a way to beat the Pistons if we want to be called a playoff team. But that's just it -- we have to beat them and we didn't do that on any level. So yeah, I'm just as concerned as any Kings fan right now -- I just also want to credit this young Pistons team who have had an absolutely abysmal year and are still coming to play in mid-February and looking pretty good for a night.

Here's where I sit with this team... Even in our winning streak I felt like we were winning in spite of our defense rather than because of it. I can live with this offense even though I think we were more effective when Fox was primarily a slasher instead of a volume jump shooter. They're inconsistent and it's not my favorite style of basketball but there's enough data points to warrant staying the course with it. However, any time we have an off shooting night we're going to lose if we can't figure out how to defend pick and rolls. Collapsing everyone into the paint and giving up wide open threes is a terrible strategy. So is allowing a screener to come up to the top of the key and willingly make the switch so that suddenly our worst defender is matched up with their top scorer. And I lost count of how many times we ran into the screener or fought to get through the screen and got called for a foul. That's just not smart basketball.

You have to know refs are going to favor the offense. I'm pretty sure that's why Huerter got ejected. The NBA makes the rules based on how they want the game to look and we have to play within those rules. The Kings are flat out refusing to make those adjustments and then complaining instead when the officials call the same fouls in the 4th quarter that they called in the first. I've been really critical of the officiating this season but tonight I think it was on us for refusing to take the hint. The most frustrating part of it is that I think we are a good team and we have players who are capable defenders but during the course of the game they're just not executing anything sharply. Maybe we've just hit the wall and this is as good as we're going to get without adding more wing defenders and a true rim protector. Maybe we're still a couple years away from getting all the pieces right.

 

[KF8]

We are too good to keep losing. We are either going to be average for a while, or make a trade and get good. We won't be bad enough to improve in the draft for a few years. Team is built too well for that

I'm on the boat of being average for this season since there are no significant moves we can make this season to make a huge difference for the kings. Our draft assets are tied up since we owe the hawks a pick which doesn't allow for much flexability when trading (this tie up will relinquish after this season). Secondly there are no guys out there the kings can trade for who would make a huge difference. Siakam and OG no longer available and other big name guys aren't getting traded. Not many choices out there.

 

[Remi]

I have seen only 3rd and 4th quarters of this game and I can say that Kings played best, when Sabonis and Monk played duo. Jacking 3 didnt work at all, so Kings had to stick with DHO ....
Credit to Pistons who were shooting lights out tonight (is it some Kings karma?)

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Wait, so what exactly are you basing who's the best player on Detroit by? He's the best trade piece, there leading scorer, the main person teams plan for each game. What are you saying exactly? In fact, who is there best player in your opinion?

The advanced metrics indicate that it's Jalen Duren, and I am inclined to agree with that.

 

[kingsboi]

This Pistons team isn't terrible. Sasser was dropping buckets out there. I also think they look a lot better when Cade isn't playing. He's just a bad fit on this roster. They need to cut bait and just build around this Ivey, Thompson, Duren, Sasser lineup. Credit to them for taking it to us. The Kings played about 10 minutes of good defense out of 48. That's just not going to get it done regardless of what happens on offense.

precisely. this same Pistons team beat the Thunder recently too, all that talent just needs to start meshing and keep playing together

 

[iowamcnabb]

The advanced metrics indicate that it's Jalen Duren, and I am inclined to agree with that.

to be fair you are big man biased.

 

[Caccia]

That's not what I saw. The Kings offense is guys taking step back threes or driving and kicking out to shooters. This isn't lack of effort, they're playing exactly the way Mike Brown wants them to and it's not working. The only time our defense presented any resistance at all was that stretch in the third and into the early fourth when Davion was in the game and he's the guy Kings fans most want to see traded. Explain that one. Most of these players get caught ball watching and forget their assignments. Most nights he's the one guy doing everything right on defense. Our other guys are pretty good so defenders but horrible off ball. I was really impressed with Kevin Huerter as well. He made some nice plays tonight.

If anything I think the effort appears like it's lagging because the team is already looking forward to that break coming up. I guess if you want to boo them for that it would make sense. What I really want to do though is sit in the film room with them and see if they're actually talking about how terrible the defense has been and why. It was pretty eye opening watching a team with 6 wins on the year use screens to just move our defenders around wherever they wanted them then attack the open space over and over again. They might as well have been running offensive drills in practice for all the resistance we provided and it wasn't for lack of trying. Our guys just look like they don't understand where to be if they can't get over the screen.

Interesting analysis. I still say that what looked like a matchup zone in the first half backfired: daring the Pistons to shoot over the top just gave them confidence once they started to fall.

 

[Bosnian Diehard]

Can’t believe what I saw tonight. Definitely not going to any more games this season. Wasted too much time and money on some atrocious performances.