Orlando shot only 33.3 percent Friday in California's capital.
The Orlando Magic dropped their sixth straight game Friday against the Sacramento Kings, 103-83, tying their previous season-long skid. Their 33.3-percent shooting was their second-worst outing of 2013/14.
DeMarcus Cousins stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, three steals, and a block to lead the Kings, and Rudy Gay added an efficient 22 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists as Sacramento completed the two-game series sweep of the Magic. For Orlando, Tobias Harris contributed 16 points and six rebounds, while Glen Davis--tasked with checking Cousins for much of the night--scored 12 with 12 rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season, but he shot just 4-of-12 from the floor.
The Kings dominated the glass, 54-37, against a Magic team once again playing without Nik Vučević. The third-year center, who leads the team in rebounding, is out indefinitely due to a concussion.
Evan Dunlap and Tyler Lashbrook are always taking your Magic questions for the site's Mailbag feature. Send 'em to OPPMailbag@gmail.com.
Despite letting the Kings open the game by shooting 6-of-6 for 12 points, the Magic built a 24-18 lead after the first period as their defense stiffened: Sacramento missed 14 of its next 17 shots over the rest of the quarter, enabling Orlando to take a small lead behind seven points from Arron Afflalo and another six from Victor Oladipo.
But in the second, Sacramento rallied behind its bench. Jimmer Fredette led the Kings' reserves with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting in the second frame. As a whole, the Kings' second unit scored eight baskets, compared to just four field goals for the entire Magic team, which also turned the ball over six times. The Magic didn't necessarily take bad shots, but nonetheless failed to convert. Their wayward shooting helped to explain how the Kings took a six-point lead into the locker room.
In the third quarter, the game continued to go the Kings' way: the hosts used a 12-2 run in the early stages of the period to build an 11-point lead, their largest of the night. A pair of Afflalo foul shots brought it into single-figures, but the Kings restored the lead to 11 two possessions later, a level they'd maintain through the rest of the period as Orlando's shooting woes continued. Notably, Afflalo and Jameer Nelson--two of the Magic's veteran leaders--lagged back on transition defense in frustration after no-calls on consecutive Orlando shot attempts. The team played frustratedly, but did not channel that energy into productivity.
Magic coach Jacque Vaughn rode his starters for much of the third period, only pulling Nelson for E'Twaun Moore with 1:46 to go. The Kings tacked nine points onto their halftime lead during that long stretch with Orlando's starting five on the floor. The Magic snuck to within 12 points on a Harris stick-back in the final minute of the third.
Maurice Harkless opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer, drawing Orlando to within single-digits for the first time since the 7:24 mark of the third. Though their offense sharpened up, the Magic couldn't put a serious dent into the Kings' lead.
But with Orlando still hanging around, Kings coach Michael Malone went to an unconventionally tall lineup featuring the 6-foot-8 Gay at shooting guard and the 6-foot-9 Derrick Williams at small forward. That Sacramento group got off to an inauspicious start, with Williams stepping out of bounds and Cousins goaltending a spinning Oladipo drive, but it put the game away for good: it scored the game's next eight points to take an 18-point lead with 5:25 to play, prompting Vaughn to pull three of his starters. On a Sacramento fast break moments later, Cousins threw a no-look bounce pass to a streaking Williams for a two-handed windmill jam, bringing the lead to 22 points.
After a poor first quarter the Kings outscored the Magic by 26 the rest of the way to win back to back games at home for the first time this season. DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay led the way with 24 and 22 points respectively.
For one game at least, the Kings managed to meet expectations and actually took care of business at home against a bad, undermanned team.
DeMarcus Cousins continued his All-Star push with another spectacular effort, tallying 24 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and a block in the win. Rudy Gay was phenomenal as well, tallying 22 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists, and shooting 8-13 from the field. Gay is now shooting 51.4% from the field as a King.
Sacramento's Isaiah Thomas had a rare off night (9 points on 2-13 from the field) but did tally 7 assists and 2 steals. Jimmer Fredette and Derrick Williams provided a nice spark off the bench with a combined 25 points.
Orlando was without center Nikola Vucevic and thus had no answer for the Kings inside. The Magic were held to just 33.3% shooting (a season best for the Kings defensively) and were outrebounded 54 to 37. Five Magic players scored in double digits, led by Tobias Harris' 16 points. Arron Afflalo had 15 but shot just 3-12 from the field.
Sacramento will finish up this home stand on Sunday against the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers, who will be with Luol Deng.
The Magic's leading scorer sustained the injury Friday and will likely miss his Denver homecoming.
The Orlando Magic will likely be even more shorthanded against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, given the right foot injury that Arron Afflalo sustained in Orlando's 103-83 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. According to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, precautionary x-rays showed no damage in Afflalo's foot, but he is "highly unlikely" to play Saturday.
Afflalo injured his foot with 4:43 to play in the third quarter, but played through the pain, which sensation he described afterwards as "burning," according to Robbins. He finished with 15 points in 34 minutes, shooting 3-of-12 from the field.
Orlando's star player tweaked his right foot during the third quarter in a loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday.
It appears likely that the Orlando Magic will be without Arron Afflalo for their matchup with the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. The Magic's leading scorer came down awkwardly on his right foot while attacking in transition against the Sacramento Kings on Friday:
Afflalo hurts his right foot against the Kings.
The star forward reported feeling a burning sensation in his foot and came up limping after the play. X-rays on Afflalo's foot and ankle came back negative, according to a report from the Orlando Sentinel.
Afflalo has had a bit of a breakout year for the Magic, averaging per36 highs in points and assists while becoming a do-it-all player for a team that sits at just 12-24 on the year. Orlando could struggle against Denver without him -- Afflalo has seen the court for a team-high 75% of available minutes for the Magic.
Moe Harkless would be moved to the starting lineup if Afflalo is unable to go against the Nuggets.
The Kings last two high-profile acquisitions are making the most of their second chances and it's paying dividends for the Kings.
Last night was not a particularly beautiful game. There was sloppy play on both sides and the Kings got off to a rough start, falling behind to a much worse Orlando team early before storming back in the second quarter to hold onto the lead for good. Sacramento eventually pulled all the way away in the second half as Orlando's offense sputtered.
We could talk about how the Kings held Orlando to just 33.3% from the field (a season-best), how DeMarcus Cousins continues to dominate (24 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and a block) or even how rough a night Isaiah Thomas (9 points on 2-13 shooting) had, but I'm going to focus on Rudy Gay and Derrick Williams.
At the time the Kings acquired both those players, the consensus was that the Kings were buying low. In Williams' case, a former #2 pick hadn't been living up to expectations and for Rudy, his contract combined with his terrible shooting in Toronto made him seem irredeemable in the eyes of many. In his article on the trade, Grantland's Zach Lowe shared this on Gay: "I know GMs who say they wouldn't touch him now in free agency for the midlevel exception".
As Kings fans, all we could do was hope that these guys would turn out to be at least better than the players we sent out to get them: Luc Mbah a Moute, John Salmons, Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson, and Chuck Hayes. We had low expectations.
The narrative has now changed from one of hope to one of redemption. Rudy Gay and Derrick Williams have not yet been in Sacramento a full season, but they both are thriving in their new home. Gay, no longer forced to be the go-to man, has flipped the script upside down and become one of the most efficient players in the NBA. Williams meanwhile has embraced the freedom Michael Malone has given him.
The only Small Forwards shooting better are LeBron James and Chandler Parsons
Gay and Williams were both key contributors in last night's win. Gay notched his second double-double for Sacramento with 22 points (8-13 from the field) and 10 rebounds, but he also had 5 steals and a block. In the last couple games he's either turned his defense up a notch or is becoming more comfortable with the schemes, or maybe both. With his shooting performance last night, Gay is now shooting 51.4% from the field as a King, and 56.6% on two-pointers. The only Small Forwards shooting better are LeBron James and Chandler Parsons. Being able to play off of both Cousins and Isaiah Thomas has taken a lot of pressure off of Gay, whereas in Toronto he was handed the reins and was asked to do way too much.
Williams scored 14 points off the bench for the second game in a row and also grabbed 6 rebounds. One of the things that he's been allowed to do in Sacramento that he wasn't in Minnesota is to lead the breaks if he grabs the ball. He's got a good handle and he's quick to get up the floor as well. He's been getting most of his points by attacking the paint and drawing fouls, an efficient way of scoring and one suited to his strengths. Williams has become Sacramento's go-to bench scoring option the last few games, and that's something I've wanted to see since he went to the bench to make way for Rudy Gay in the starting lineup. Perhaps getting Marcus Thornton out of that unit is what allowed that.
Malone has also been using Gay and Williams in big lineups together. In both the Portland and Orlando games, Sacramento has run a lineup of Isaiah, Gay, Williams, Thompson, and Cousins for significant stretches. According to NBA.com's lineup data, that lineup has shot 59.1% over the last two games and has a +/- of 25.8 per 100 possessions. Obviously that's a small sample size, but it's a lineup that I expect we'll see more often as the season progresses.
Gay and Williams seem to be integral parts of this team going forward. As Kings fans, we've been waiting for years for our GM to turn nickels and dimes into quarters rather than the other way around and Pete D'Alessandro has found a way to do that with both of these last two trades. It's too early to say whether or not Gay and Williams are part of this team's long-term plans, but I think it's safe to say that so far, it's been mutually beneficial.
Random Observations:
Jason Thompson has been busting his ass lately, especially on the defensive end. He's also been way efficient as he's taken only shots the defense has given him.
Cousins PER is now 27.3, 4th in the league. How is this guy not an All-Star again?
If Jimmer Fredette keeps giving us solid minutes like this, we don't need a guy like Andre Miller, at least not this year. He's shown he can be more than competent running the team as a backup PG, and he's still able to look for his shot when necessary.
Quincy Acy is a bundle of energy that I want to be on this team as a bench big for a long time. He's been an underrated part of the Rudy Gay trade.
Ray McCallum got to play for a second and he made a nice stop-and-pop jumper at the elbow. That was fun to see. The Kings haven't really been in a lot of blowouts this year (either way) for him to get much of a chance to play.
I just realized during this game that I should have been calling Marcus Thornton "the Bayou Bummer" all season long. I'm slipping.
What is it with this rookie class of guards? None of them seem to be able to shoot. Oladipo, Michael Carter-Williams and Nate Wolters are the only ones above 40%, and they're just barely.
Expect light attendance for a dicey match-up during the NFL playoffs.
Luckily for the Kings, who face the Cavaliers at 3 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, the Niners play the early game against the Panthers. With a 10 a.m. start, that game should be over by 1:30 p.m. Pacific. That would give the most diehard Niners and Kings fans time to make it out to Sleep Train Arena.
It's reality, that's not totally likely to happen for many folks. The 3 p.m. starts have been a problem all season. They are obviously aimed at bringing families into the gym, and that's a great target. And the Cavaliers aren't going to draw any day of the week. But knowing that at least one local NFL team is likely to be playing in January, I just don't understand the interest in an early game. If the Niners have been a little better this season, they might have been at home with a 1 p.m. start that made even watching both games on TV impossible.
And that's my rant for the day.
MATCHUP OF THE GAME
Rudy Gay vs. Luol Deng
Deng is one of the premier small forward defenders in the league. Gay has been scoring frequently and efficiently. This could be quite a battle!
3 THINGS
1. That defense against the Magic was quite good. It wasn't lucky bounces, either: the Kings seemed to execute the plan consistently. Like Orlando, Cleveland has a horrible offense, No. 26 in the NBA this season. I hope the Kings have another strong defensive performance in them.
2. The second quarter! The Kings have been doing pretty well when the full second unit comes in, as Jimmer Fredette and Derrick Williams are scoring well, Gay is taking some pressure off by initiating the offense, and Aaron Gray is offering up brief respite. The team struggled to adjust to Isaiah Thomas getting into the starting five, but it might finally be happening.
3. In the never-ending debates over DeMarcus Cousins' worth, assess your feeling when he exits the game. Relief or worry? If you say "relief" and you're not hoping for a loss and he's not having one of those increasingly rare disasters of a game, then I think you might be being honest with yourself.
PRE-GAME HAIKU
Deng, they traded him? Bulls gave up on the season. Can't have our pick ... yet.
Below are a series of prediction questions for tonight's game. The first four questions will be asked every game, while the 5th will change each game.
Point value for predictions are listed next to the questions. If you believe that more than one player will lead a category, you can vote for multiple players, and this is worth double points if you are correct, but zero if you are wrong. Alternately, if you only guess one player when multiple players are tied, you get zero points.
All submissions must be input before tip-off. Any submissions after tip-off will not count. You are allowed only one submission and may not change unless specifically stated.
Questions:
1. Who do you think will win the game, and what will the final score be? (1 point for guessing winner. 2 points for guessing winner and correct score of one team. 5 points for guessing winner and exact score)
2. Who will be the game's leading scorer? (1 point for guessing scorer, 2 points for guessing exact points scored)
3. Who will be the game's leading rebounder? (1 point for guessing rebounder, 2 points for guessing exact rebounds)
4. Who will be the game's leading assist man? (1 point for guessing assist man, 2 points for guessing exact assists)
5. Predict Luol Deng's Points, Rebounds and Steals. (1 point for one right answer, 3 points for two right, 5 points for all right)
The Cavaliers are looking to stay undefeated since the Luol Deng trade as they square off against the kings
The Cavaliers have looked much better since removing Andrew Bynum from their lineup,and the Kings have looked better since acquiring Rudy Gay. The Kings are 6-8 in games with Rudy Gay and he is shooting 51.4% from the floor since putting on the purple.
Where on my eyeballs: Fox Sports Ohio/ NBA League Pass
Music:
Feeling good, feeling great, how are you?
What to watch for the Cleveland Cavaliers:
Can C.J. Miles continue his strong play? Miles is 17-25 combined in his last two games. When he is rolling like this it adds another dimension to the Cavs offense and makes it a lot harder to focus on just Kyrie Irving in the back court.
How many minutes will Luol Deng play tonight? Deng played 21 minutes in his debut with the Cavs and was apparently on a minutes limitation despite being healthy. Hopefully he's had time to learn more of the offense and is able to play more minutes. The Cavaliers would really benefit from being able to put him on the Kings dangerous offensive option, Rudy Gay.
Will Kyrie Irving ruin Isaiah Thomas' life? It's possible.
Lost in the Deng good time we had after the Utah win was the fact that it was only our third road win of the year. Tonight's game in Sacramento is the second of a five game road trip. In order for the Cavaliers to complete the turnaround this season they will need to improve their road record. With this game against the Kings and Tuesday's against the reeling Lakers, the Cavs have a prime opportunity to build on their road record.
What to watch for the Kings:
BOOGIE! I love Demarcus Cousins. While he is a below average defensive player for his position and can be prone to making boneheaded decisions on and off the court, he also features one of the best low post games in the league as well as a surprising ball handling/ play making ability for a big man. He's a terror on the boards and is a handful for any big in the league. Cousins is averaging 29.5 and 13 so far in the month of January. Whether or not the Cavaliers can slow him down will go a long way towards determining who comes away with a win tonight.
Isaiah Thomas has been a pleasant surprise for Sacramento. He's averaging 19.1 points and 6.3 assists per game this season. While he's small in stature, he has provided a major punch for the Kings and allowed them to move their starting point guard at the start of the year, Greivius Vasquez, along with others in order to upgrade their small forward position with Rudy Gay.
Rudy Gay has dramatically improved the production the Kings have received from their perimeter. The key to slowing him down is to force him to settle for jumpers. Gay is only shooting 25.7% from three since joining the Kings. While he's not THAT bad, he's never been a great shooter and is usually at his best attacking the rim. Deng's defense will be very important in slowing down Gay.
The Kings annihilated Cleveland. Like, it was ugly beautiful.
The Sacramento Kings have won three straight games after annihilating the Cleveland Cavaliers at home 124-80. Yep, a 44-point win for the Kings. Isaiah Thomas outscored Kyrie Irving 26 to seven. Irving shot 3-14 from the floor; Isaiah and Ben McLemore each defended him. He looked pretty awful except for one spurt in the third. His defense was pretty poor outside of the first quarter, too.
Rudy Gay was a modern-day Kevin Martin with 20 points on 8-12 shooting. DeMarcus Cousins was strong and efficient with 16 points on 5-9 shooting and 10 rebounds. Derrick Williams and Jimmer Fredette were nice off the bench too, offering up 13 each. But the story of the game might have been Jason Thompson, who finished with eight points and 16 big rebounds, including six on the offensive end. He utterly destroyed former No. 4 pick Tristan Thompson (6 points, 3 rebounds).
Cleveland won the first quarter by two points. The Kings went +46 over the last 36 minutes.
Now to the road and, specifically, Indiana on Tuesday. Until then, we dance.
The Sacramento Kings have some nice offensive weapons. They all worked against the Cavs tonight.
The Cleveland Cavaliers came into tonight's game rested and with positive spirits coming off of two convincing victories. They made their west to the land of purple and met another bad team that has put together some solid play of late, the Sacramento Kings.
It didn't go well. In a season that has seen the Cavs get blown out on several occasions, this goes down as their most lopsided loss yet. That's pretty embarrassing if you think about it. The Cavs were outscored 65-30 in the 2nd half.
First 12:38 of this game: #Cavs 35-30. Next 18:34 of this game: #Kings 52-23. Well then, offense (and defense).
The Cavaliers didn't really defend in this game. The Kings were taking uncontested three pointers all game. They made a lot of them. They finished 15-30 from three point range, and shot 52% overall from the field. The Cavaliers came into the game 15th in the NBA in points surrendered per 100 possessions. That ranking might take a hit.
The Cavaliers couldn't shoot in this game. Not Kyrie Irving, who was 3-14 from the field, 0-3 from three point range, and 1-4 from the free throw line. He is usually pretty good at shooting basketballs threw circles with netting attached. Not tonight. Not Dion Waiters, who was 1-7 from the field, 1-5 from three point range, 1-2 from the free throw line.
Cleveland as a team was 11-23 from the free throw line, which is horrendous in every sense of the word. They shot under 40% from the field against one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
Tristan Thompson was invisible for much of the night. Anderson Varejao had a great first half, but by the start of the 4th quarter I am told Henry Sims was seen hanging up "Missing" signs with his face on it all around Arco Arena.
The blowout loss meant that Anthony Bennett and Sergey Karasev got some run. Neither were particularly good. Bennett had 3 points on 5 shots, and added three rebounds. His effort level looked good. Karasev scored on a nice cut but was otherwise quiet.
C.J. Miles had 14 points on 8 shots. He didn't miss a three, including one at the end of the first quarter to beat the buzzer from about 45 feet. I like him a lot. It was nice of him to show up. Everyone else, I don't know. Hope they catch the flight to Los Angeles for Tuesday night's matchup with the Lakers.
The Cavaliers are now 1-1 on a 5 game west coast road trip that I hoped they would get two wins on. That is still very possible, but tonight was not particularly encouraging. Hopefully this is a learning experience and team will bring the necessary focus for the rest of the trip.
Let's get this out of the way first: the Cleveland Cavaliers have been a pretty bad team this season, and adding a player -- even one as good as Luol Deng -- is not instant salvation. As Kings fans, we know this better than most: adding Rudy Gay didn't make Sacramento instant world-beaters. Integration is a process, and no player you can actually trade for during most seasons will singlehandedly turn around a sunk ship.
So the opponent the Kings faced on Sunday was not great, and that can't be ignored. The same applies to Friday's 20-point win against the Magic. You don't get to play Orlando and Cleveland 82 times, and the opponent doesn't always play like garbage on offense. But the Kings did things that are repeatable in both games, and by repeating those things Sacramento can be a much better team.
Here are those things.
1. One chance and out for the opponent. The Kings held Orlando to 11 offensive boards in 54 chances (20 percent). The Kings held Cleveland to six in 44 opportunities (14 percent). League average this season is about 26 percent, and the Kings rank No. 7 on the season, allowing 24 percent. When you struggle to make opponents miss, you have to rebound well on defense and limit those putback chances. The Kings did so in the two blowout wins.
2. Close hard on threes. It's a tricky balance in defending shooters: if you close too hard, you open yourself up to dribble penetration or open mid-range jumpers. But if you don't close hard enough -- as was the case most of the season for the Kings -- you're conceding more open threes. The Kings have been closing hilariously hard lately, often leaving the defender out of the play. But it's helped, at least in the past two games as overcommitment hasn't resulted in easy buckets for the opponent.
3. Defense to offense to defense. The Kings' defense is worst in transition. Transition offense for the opponent usually comes from a poor offensive possession for the Kings. In the two blowouts, the Kings played really sane offense that usually resulted in buckets. So the Magic and Cavs had to set up in the halfcourt, which allowed Sacramento's defense to get set. And on a decent portion of the Kings' halfcourt stops, Sacramento was able to turn good defense into quick transition offense. The cycle is unstoppable!
4. Efficient offense. Two great offensive performances for the Kings. Sacramento was just 3-14 from long-range against Orlando, but shot 58 percent inside the arc and hit 18-19 from the line. The Kings went 15-30 from long-range against Cleveland and shot 53 percent inside the arc against Cleveland. However they did it, they did it. The Gay-Cousins-Thomas combo is really working, and Derrick Williams and Jimmer Fredette have been brilliant of late.
The Kings will not win by 40 again this season. There will almost assuredly be more losses than wins from this point on. But there were some incredibly encouraging signs over the past three games, especially on defense over the past two games. Progress is all we can demand.
The win against the Blazers was really nice, but I was more interested to see how the Kings would do against the Magic and Cavaliers. The Kings haven't done a good job of beating these lesser teams, but they did so handily this time. The Kings aren't good enough that they can take plays or nights off, and that was hopefully a tough lesson they learned after last week's losses to the Sixers and Bobcats.
I find it interesting after games to go read opposing team's game threads to see what they were saying about our players. Of late, I'm seeing a lot of respect for DeMarcus Cousins' talent, which as we know, has turned into big time production this year. While I'm not yet ready to call him the best center or big man in the NBA, I definitely think he can be one day. What he's been able to do this year is not a feat that has been matched very often in NBA history. Here's the complete list of players that have tallied 23 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists a game by the age of 23: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Tim Duncan, Charles Barkley, Bob Lanier, Sidney Wicks and DeMarcus Cousins. If you increase the age to 24 you only add Bob McAdoo, Elgin Baylor, Spencer Haywood, and Shaquille O'Neal. Cousins is turning into an elite player before our eyes.
Jason Thompson deserves a lot of credit for turning his season around these past couple weeks. Thompson has been very active on the defensive end lately and is racking up boards at an above average rate. Against the Cavaliers, Thompson set his season-high with 16. Jason is also being very efficient with his offensive looks, and is now at 52.0% for the season and climbing (he had been shooting a career-worst just a month ago). If Thompson can keep this up, it will be good for both him and the Kings.
When Isaiah moved to the starting lineup, the big question was who would handle the backup PG duties: Jimmer Fredete or rookie Ray McCallum. The answer at first didn't seem clear, with Fredette getting the main opportunities but doing so poorly that Malone was playing Isaiah Thomas 40 minutes a game and letting Rudy Gay handle the ball much of the time Jimmer was in. After a couple weeks of consistency though, Malone has grown to trust Fredette and he's getting a little more lee-way. Jimmer himself is looking much more confident and has really provided a spark off the bench. His per-minute scoring numbers are phenomenal and he's shooting at a good percentage as well. If he can keep it up, then the Kings probably don't need to go looking for another backup PG like Andre Miller (those talks appear to have gone nowhere), at least not this year.
Since Marcus Thornton has moved to the starting lineup, Derrick Williams has been the go-to guy for Sacramento's bench and it's been working. Williams scored in double-digits in each game this week (he came one point shy of having 14 in each game) and he did so by shooting 62.5% from the field. Williams is doing a good job of attacking the basket and getting to the line and when he's not doing that he's spotting up from three, where even though he isn't phenomenal there, he's enough of a threat that you have to respect his shot. This is a role that Williams can really blossom in, and there will still be opportunities for him to play with the starters when Michael Malone uses that big lineup with Thomas and Gay as the backcourt.
I really like what Quincy Acy has brought to the team. When there's a loose ball, he's usually the one diving to the floor to get it. It doesn't matter what end of the court it is, Quincy is bringing the energy regardless. He's a perfect bench big in that respect, and it's especially nice that he has some semblance of an offensive game, unlike most other guys that play his style of basketball.
8. Isaiah Thomas and co. stepping up their Defense
The Kings as a whole did a good job of stepping up their defensive intensity this week, but I thought Isaiah Thomas deserves an extra bit of credit for the job he did against Nelson and then Irving (Yes, I know Lillard scored 41 but he was hitting shots on everybody and from crazy spots). Those two guys combined for just 13 points on 5-25 shooting. With Thomas acting as the first line of defense, he needs to be playing defense like this on a consistent basis so this was good to see.
9. Carl Landry Inching Closer to Return
By all account, Carl Landry's rehabilitation is going well, and we could see him playing a game for the Kings before the end of the month. If Carl can bring what he does, he will add just another weapon to the Kings offense that already has so much. Him, Derrick Williams and Jimmer Fredette will be a nice bench for Mike Malone to play with, and that's assuming nobody else (like any of the SGs) steps up.
The Bad:
1. No consistency at SG
I think Marcus Thornton has been playing better as of late, but he still hasn't been able to find his shot from outside. Right now Marcus is shooting 37% from the field and just 31.0% from three. We know Marcus can shoot the ball, he's proven that in his first few years in the league. I don't know what's different this year but I hope he's able to find a way out of his rut soon.
As for Ben, he's still really raw, but it's disconcerting to see him miss so many wide open shots. It's way too early in his career to make a judgement of him, especially when there's solid data to show that shooters typically take a while to transition their game from college to the NBA. I guess I had just hoped that Ben would have been more NBA ready instead of how raw he really is.
2. 4th Quarter vs. Portland
The Kings win against the Blazers was indeed impressive, but man was that 4th quarter painful. For one, the Kings couldn't manage to definitively close out their opponent despite being up 18 points with just half a quarter left. Finally the refs were calling every little thing, whether it was a foul or not, and that turned a 12 minute long quarter into an hour long affair. There were 40+ free throws combined in the final quarter and it was just an exhausting affair. Fortunately for the Kings, they held on for the win.
3. Hamady Goneja
I'm not putting this in the bad category because I think the Kings really needed Hamady N'Diaye, but only because I think he was a class act while he was here and gave a lot of effort whenever his number was called. Best of luck to Hamady for the rest of his career.
The Ugly:
1. The4000's Cemetery Presser
I won't speak too much on this because Greg said it better than I could in his own post on the matter. All I will say is that I hope the pro-arena group learns from this misstep so something like this doesn't happen again.
2. "Never Hungover"
It's nice to see the Maloofs are spending their fortune wisely*
For as much as the national narrative has focused on how good the Raptors have been since they traded Rudy Gay, Gay himself is thriving in Sacramento. In his 15 games here, he's shooting at a career-high efficiency level and contributing in almost every other area of the game as well, from rebounding to passing to defending. I don't think Rudy will be able to sustain these percentages (the only SF shooting better right now is LeBron James), but I also don't think we'll ever see him as bad as he was in Toronto. Being able to play off of DeMarcus Cousins and Isaiah Thomas has taken Gay's game to another level, and Gay himself has upped his defensive intensity this week. If this is the Gay we get on a consistent basis, I have absolutely no problem with him being our SF long term.
After researching the Maloof family, I can come to no other conclusion than I was wrong about the whole evolution thing. My bad. Sorry, and no hard feelings."
"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my retirement. I shall take noPTO, claim no Outlaws, trade for no Salmons. I shall claim no attention and seek no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the voice in the darkness. I am the watcher in the halls. I am the shield that guards the realms of NBA 3.0. I pledge my life and honor to the Kings, for this night and all the nights to come."
Big Cuz becomes the first player in NBA history to get a Flagrant Foul 2 against himself, he was promptly ejected.
Last Week's Runner-Up: SacramentoKing
Cuz gets angry at his headband for it's inability to defend him from sweat.
This Week's Picture:
A reminder of the rules for the Caption Contest. Leave your caption in the comments below, and the most rec'd (to recommend a comment, hit action, then rec) caption wins.
Nostradumbass Prediction for Next Week:
@ Indiana 1/14 L (The Pacers are an incredibly good and solid team and they match up well at almost every position against us. I will consider beating them in Indiana more shocking than the Kings beating the Heat)
@ Minnesota 1/15 L (The Timberwolves are a team that the Kings could beat, but I'm gonna give the advantage to the Wolves on the second night of a back to back for Sacramento. Cousins also always has trouble with Pekovic)
@ Memphis 1/17 L (Maybe Rudy's addition here will help us out but we always seem to play poorly against the Grizzlies)
@ Oklahoma City 1/19 W (Shockingly I think the Kings can beat the Thunder, especially with Westbrook out. They don't have an answer for Cousins, and Durant will actually have to expend energy on the defensive end against Gay)
Nostradumbass Record for the Year: 14-21
Random Observations from around the league:
So Pau didn't get traded for Bynum, but Luol Deng did, which is interesting. I think he makes the Cavaliers a better team, but I'm not so sure the Cavs should be trying to be a better team right now. They've given up assets to acquire a player who may or may not be on the team next year, and it will lower the value of their own draft pick along the way. I'm not sure Chris Grant is going to last the year in Cleveland if they don't make the playoffs and/or lose Deng in the offseason.
I think the nickname jersey game between the Heat and Nets was a fun idea, but I think it would have been even more fun if they had let the fans choose the nickname. That way we wouldn't have been stuck with silly things like "JJ" for Joe Johnson.
Even more injuries for the NBA. Ryan Anderson is likely out for the season and Jrue Holiday will be out for a while too.
Sacramento's talented young big man gets recognized by the NBA for his excellent stretch of games.
The jury is still out on whether DeMarcus Cousins will be named to the All-Star game, but it was nice to see that today he got recognized as the Western Conference Player of the Week by the NBA. Carmelo Anthony won the award for the East.
Cousins averaged 25.0 points (on 56.2% from the field) to go with 12.7 rebounds and more importantly led the Kings to a 3-0 week with wins against the Blazers, Magic and Cavaliers. Cousins joins LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Love as the only NBA players averaging at least 23 points and 11 rebounds on the season. Cousins is also just one of 10 players 6'10 or taller averaging 3 assists a game and is also by far the best big man at stealing the ball, with 1.9 a game. His PER of 27.1 is 5th overall in the league behind just LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Kevin Love.
Cousins has also recorded 23 double-doubles on the season, including 10 in a row, matching Chris Webber's Sac-era record streak from 2002-03.
If Cousins can keep up this level of play (or even surpass it), this won't be the last time he's recognized by the NBA for his accomplishments.
Who knows if it will have a long-term impact, but it certainly changed things over the last three games.
We've seen the Kings hold player-only meetings before.
Heck, just last season Johnny Salmons called one. But not much came of it as the Kings continued to spiral further into the depths of the Western Conference standings under a Salmons trance.
But will it be different this time?
Recently, DeMarcus Cousins and Isaiah Thomas called a player-only meeting and while it's way too early to judge the long-term impact of it, the Kings' current three-game winning streak (the first of the season) would indicate that it changed something for the better.
The team has held its last three opponents (Portland, Orlando and Cleveland) to an average of 38 percent from the field and they also dominated the glass in the last two games (out-rebounding their opponents 104-69). The mood in the locker room has noticeably improved, the rotations on defense have been there and the players are actually talking and smiling on the floor. Maybe they could be…having fun?
DeMarcus Cousins, who was named Western Conference player of the Week on Monday, said the meeting helped a lot in the communication department.
"The main thing is guys just communicating with one another and being able to talk with one another, so that's the biggest thing and that was something we really stressed in that meeting and I mean we've been doing a great job so far," Cousins told reporters after the Kings beat the Cavs by 44 points on Sunday. "I really feel like that meeting helped us out a lot, and I feel like some guys were holding a lot of stuff in we had to get off our chest and, I mean, we've been playing some good basketball since."
Rudy Gay has been stellar so far as a member of the Kings (in 10 of his 15 games with the team, he has scored 20 points or more. He also is shooting a career-high 52 percent from the field, not bad at all.) Gay said the player-only meeting helped everyone in the locker room grow up a little.
"We've become adults within these couple of games and we're playing like it" -Rudy Gay
"The player meeting to me was just a way of us just, you know, a way of the team to become adults. We've become adults within these couple of games and we're playing like it," Gay said. "Got us to really trust each other and do away with the petty stuff and, you know, the selfish play."
Jason Thompson, who has been through his fair share of player-only meetings over his five-plus seasons with the Kings, said he's noticed a difference since the meeting as well.
"Sometimes you need talks like that and certain types of motivation and I think for the most part, you know, we got a lot out of it," Thompson told reporters Sunday. "Ever since that meeting, a lot of things have changed."
Not underestimating opponents with poor records was apparently a point of emphasis at the meeting, and the Kings certainly appear to have got a lot out of that because they did not underestimate the Magic or Cavs. Instead, they decided to vaporize them.
The unfortunate part of all of this, however, is now the team is setting off on a six-game road trip through the Western Conference (Indiana, Minnesota, Memphis, Oklahoma City, New Orleans and Houston.) The Kings will have to build on what they established at home in these last three games if they want to have any sort of success over this stretch.
"We still have a long way to go so just try to take the momentum from these games, carry it to the next, but at the same time, just staying focused on the goal and that's being a consistent team defensively and offensively and playing together, communicating," Cousins said of the road trip.
Being consistent is something we all know has been a problem for these guys. Head coach Michael Malone knows that all too well.
"Consistency has been a word that we have used a lot, it's something that we have not shown that we can be most of season but in our last three games … I think the defense has been consistent, the effort has been there, the communication has been there," Malone said in his post game press conference Sunday. "Do we have breakdowns? Without a doubt, but our breakdowns are happening a little bit less often at the moment."
Maybe everyone from the players to the coaches to the fans will be scratching their heads a little bit less often in the near future.
As reported yesterday, the Wolves have recalled Shabazz Muhammad from the D-League after a four game stint in which he played very well. The Wolves now have 15 players in Minnesota and relatively healthy; it's the first time that's happened for a long, long time.
Tomorrow marks the highly anticipated return to Minnesota of Derrick Williams with the Sacramento Kings. The tension will be palpable, and the national media is already going nuts. It reminds me of Lebron's first visit to Cleveland after he signed with Miami...wait. No it doesn't. Sorry, I got carried away there.
The Kings have actually won three in a row behind the strong shooting of Rudy Gay, but will be on the 2nd night of a road back to back tomorrow after playing in Indiana tonight. This will be the Wolves first game against the Kings this season, and then after a visit to Toronto, they will see the Jazz for the first time on Saturday.
Most of you know about this, but here is a link to vjl110's 2014 draft spreadsheets. He has tremendous work in there, so we're pretty lucky to have access to that data.
The second part of Britt Robson's long Flip Saunders interview has been published in the Minn Post. More word salad. He did say this about Kevin Love:
The other thing this is, I don't know if I have ever been around a guy, in 17 years [in the NBA] that has been as committed as he has been committed to the organization. What I mean by that is he does more in the community than probably anybody we have, whether it is coat drive or other things. When we were going out for a practice facility, he came with us to go out and talk to people. When the business people had sponsors in and they wanted somebody to come, if they call him up, he is usually the first guy who is going to go. Downstairs he signs 25 autographs before practice, balls and other things the community relations people use.
So he has been a guy who has been totally engaged within our team and our organization. That's why when I hear a lot about the window of opportunity; you are always concerned until you have somebody. You are always concerned because - did he feel slighted when he didn't get the maximum deal [in terms of the 5-year length] that he wanted? No question. And we've talked about it many times. And we talk a lot. Kevin and I go out to lunch a lot and we talk about the team, and everything. But I do believe he really does like it here. There is no question. And I do believe if we do the right things, he'll be here.
Today in History
1783: Congress ratifies U.S.-Britain peace treaty 1900: Puccini's Tosca premieres in Rome 1914: Assembly line for Model-T introduced by Henry Ford 1953: Marshal Tito elected president of Yugoslavia 1978: Sex Pistols final concert (Winterland, San Francisco)
Today's musical birthday is Dave Grohl, born in 1969.
After altering their roster and seeing some player leadership emerge, the Sacramento Kings face the Pacers tonight in far better shape than their record indicates.
The Sacramento Kings shook up their season by trading for Rudy Gay and Derrick Williams, two talented players who have struggled find team success in the NBA. Gay has always been able to put up numbers but it didn't translate to enough winning in Memphis and Toronto. Williams didn't even up put numbers in Minnesota compared to his lofty draft status as a dynamic wing coming out of Arizona.
Now the two are part of a Kings playing rotation that is supplementing All-Star play from DeMarcus Cousins and strong point guard production from Isaiah Thomas. The Kings are finding success of late, which coincides with a players' only meeting. In the past couple of weeks, the Kings have beaten Miami, Houston and Portland and arrive at the Fieldhouse after winning their last three games. That includes a 124-80 demolition of the Cleveland Cavaliers in their last game.
Fortunately, the Pacers have been off for three days soaking up all of this info on the new-look Kings so they should have a plan of attack ready to go to slow down the visitors. The Kings will no doubt be up for the chance to test their new winning formula against the top team in the East. Should be a fun one!
Make sure you check out my latest Pacers discussion on The Phil Naessens Show. We delve into the action last week with a heavy dose of David West.
