Kings vs Thunder. Battle for supremacy! 4-24-12 Gamethread

[bloatedmaniac]

Kings 59-57 after 1st half.

[bloatedmaniac]

Notes so far:

The first quarter the Kings dominated and made the Thunder look like the Kings. Smooth passing including 5 assists from Isaiah led to a 72% FG. Outlaw was great on offense and was aggressive. Isaiah closed the quarter by getting the ball with 3 seconds left in the quarter, and going coast to coast for a 3.

Second quarter, the team went unglued. Bad defense, weak rebounding, shots started missing, and Durant/Westbrook did their thing. The refs helped by ignoring a lot by the Thunder.

Hayes though had one of the bonehead plays of the year. 0.7 seconds left in the half...he passes the ball to Westbrook under the hoop who makes the layup. *they are seeing whether to count it still or not*

[nuraman00]

Notes so far:

The first quarter the Kings dominated and made the Thunder look like the Kings. Smooth passing including 5 assists from Isaiah led to a 72% FG. Outlaw was great on offense and was aggressive. Isaiah closed the quarter by getting the ball with 3 seconds left in the quarter, and going coast to coast for a 3.

Second quarter, the team went unglued. Bad defense, weak rebounding, shots started missing, and Durant/Westbrook did their thing. The refs helped by ignoring a lot by the Thunder.

Hayes though had one of the bonehead plays of the year. 0.7 seconds left in the half...he passes the ball to Westbrook under the hoop who makes the layup. *they are seeing whether to count it still or not*

Henry Turner said that Outlaw should have his pre-game meal again at the half, and feed it to the rest of the team.

[nuraman00]

I'll be watching the Miami-Boston game in TNT Miami-Boston and Phoenix-Utah. (http://kingsforum.net/live/showthread.php?509-TNT-Miami-Boston-and-Phoenix-Utah).

Can you come get me if the Kings are still up in the 4th (or within 2 points)?

[graumet]

Zoom. Kings looking good tonight.

[nuraman00]

Zoom. Kings looking good tonight.

Why did you say "zoom"? Did someone move quickly on the Kings?

[nuraman00]

OMG! Kings almost up by 10. Ok, I'm switching to the Kings.

[graumet]

Why did you say "zoom"? Did someone move quickly on the Kings?

Au contraire. The kings are the ones moving.

[nuraman00]

77-68, 4:47 left.

[nuraman00]

Au contraire. The kings are the ones moving.

I meant did a Kings player move quickly.

[nuraman00]

So, one of my fantasies has been, for the first time in 12 games, Evans had a big game against Westbrook (or now Durant, since Evans is a SF).

Please tell me he's been good. At either end of the floor.

[nuraman00]

George Karl is watching!

[nuraman00]

Thompson with a jumper.

[nuraman00]

Kings defense forces a Perkins airball, but Westbrook gets the offensive board. Kings eventually force a 24 second violation. And the Thunder foul the Kings when the violation happens, too. :)

[nuraman00]

Outlaw to the line. He'll make both, because it's his day.

[nuraman00]

He rims the first to the side.

[nuraman00]

Some guy dunked on the Kings. That's never happened this season.

[nuraman00]

Evans with a pull up, going to his right. Brick.

[nuraman00]

Thomas layup.

[nuraman00]

Weak technical by Evans. Normally I'd say a player deserves it, but that wasn't a hard slam of the ball.

[nuraman00]

Thomas blocked at the buzzer. 86-82 entering 4th.

[nuraman00]

Cook 4 point play. 86-87. He missed the FT.

[nuraman00]

90 all.

[nuraman00]

Garcia fouls Cook on a 3 point attempt. Cook is taking over.

[graumet]

And the slide begins

[nuraman00]

Hayes great pass to Garcia, but Garcia can't get it.

[nuraman00]

Thompson with a runner!

[nuraman00]

Sweet dribbling move by Evans to get a blocking foul by Ivey.

[nuraman00]

Nice power runner by Evans.

[nuraman00]

I think the Thunder will win this game because of the foul line.

[nuraman00]

Is Cheeks wearing a LiveStrong bracelet?

[nuraman00]

Great pass by Hayes to Thomas, who gets fouled on the layup attempt. Why do the Thunder keep letting that happen?

[nuraman00]

Evans to Thompson!

[nuraman00]

Cousins comes in and dribbles the ball off of his foot.

[nuraman00]

Both teams are playing terrible.

[nuraman00]

Greene with a pull up. Brick.

[nuraman00]

"Royal with a two point goal".

[nuraman00]

Kings get a lucky blocking call on Aldrich.

[bloatedmaniac]

What a BS call on Evans on that fisher 3.

[nuraman00]

Kings are fouling too many 3-point attempts.

[bloatedmaniac]

Cousins with the 2 inside!

[SactoIV]

Oh Tyreke...fucking numb nuts.

[bloatedmaniac]

When Fisher drives on you...you know your defense sucks

[nuraman00]

Fisher with another layup. Cmon, he's not supposed to make layups, only jumpers. This is his 3rd layup at least.

[bloatedmaniac]

Cook another 3. Kings bent over against the Thunder's 3rd line.

[nuraman00]

When Fisher drives on you...you know your defense sucks


Fisher with another layup. Cmon, he's not supposed to make layups, only jumpers. This is his 3rd layup at least.

We agree.

[SactoIV]

Welp, lottery odds, etc.

[nuraman00]

Now Thomas fouls a 3. There have been at least 4 Kings fouls on 3-point shooters.

[nuraman00]

"DeMarcus Cousins has spent more time on his back . . . [couldn't make out next part]."

[nuraman00]

Ok, good game. Switching to TNT.

[bloatedmaniac]

Jerry: It took a few surprise performances from Thunder players to win tonight.

No Jerry, it took bad defense and decisions by the Kings that let the Thunder win.

[bloatedmaniac]

I'm fine with the lose. I just wanted them to play hard and well. They had a great first quarter. They had sparks of life. Their defense will hopefully improve show how, some way next year. Now to lose against the Lakers and on to the lottery.

[nuraman00]

I'm fine with the lose. I just wanted them to play hard and well. They had a great first quarter. They had sparks of life. Their defense will hopefully improve show how, some way next year. Now to lose against the Lakers and on to the lottery.

Yeah, it was a good game. They played hard, and well for 2.5 Q's. They didn't lose by 30.

[graumet]

Cook another 3. Kings bent over against the Thunder's 3rd line.

Probably not the case, but it seems the Kings are on a hot streak for playing against 3-point shooters that go on hot streaks.

[bloatedmaniac]

Probably not the case, but it seems the Kings are on a hot streak for playing against 3-point shooters that go on hot streaks.

The Kings let 95% of the three point opportunities against them go uncontested. God honestly, thats probably a true stat. They never challenge shooters, and it becomes like a practice drill for the opposing team. They leave their man way too much and double/triple team carelessly. Thats all on the Kings, and little to do with the competition. Grant/Jerry get in their sarcastic conversation several times a game, about the value of guarding open three point shooters. The defense is unjustifiably bad.

*cue a Nura image of the King's defense*

[nuraman00]

The Kings let 95% of the three point opportunities against them go uncontested. God honestly, thats probably a true stat. They never challenge shooters, and it becomes like a practice drill for the opposing team. They leave their man way too much and double/triple team carelessly. Thats all on the Kings, and little to do with the competition. Grant/Jerry get in their sarcastic conversation several times a game, about the value of guarding open three point shooters. The defense is unjustifiably bad.

*cue a Nura image of the King's defense*

This was one of the first that popped up in the search results. It's actually not bad. Why don't I remember it though? :(

http://i47.tinypic.com/2s10hg9.jpg

Ok, this is more like it:

http://i47.tinypic.com/5ed93r.jpg

Weird, even though I typed "bad Sacramento Kings defense", I keep seeing pics of good offense by them.

Ok, finally found some more:

185

http://i47.tinypic.com/25qbt3s.jpg

186


187

[nuraman00]

I love how the Kings keep "looking up" at the opposition.

I'm unhappy with the above images, though. I couldn't find a good pic of them leaving shooters open.

I even tried finding some of Ray Allen against the Kings, but couldn't find one that showed him shooting against them.

In all seriousness though, the Kings are actually good at defending 3's, 9th best:

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-percent-of-points-from-3-pointers

Most opponent scoring comes from twos or from FTs.

It's the two's that are the bigger problem than 3's.

[Eze]

Kings have a lack of good footwork, a lack of desire to play defense and have a lot of inexperience in defending.

I mean, think about it - who on the Kings even really played any type of significant defense in college? Nobody, really.

So they're all learning on the fly. Not to mention, I don't think any of the Kings' more elite players are all that concerned with the defensive side of the ball right now.

[graumet]

I love how the Kings keep "looking up" at the opposition.

I'm unhappy with the above images, though. I couldn't find a good pic of them leaving shooters open.

I even tried finding some of Ray Allen against the Kings, but couldn't find one that showed him shooting against them.

In all seriousness though, the Kings are actually good at defending 3's, 9th best:

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-percent-of-points-from-3-pointers

Most opponent scoring comes from twos or from FTs.

It's the two's that are the bigger problem than 3's.

If the Kings are 9th best at defending the 3, is there any validity to my guess that an abnormal number of perimeter players had abnormally high number of made attempts when playing the Kings? I can think of several games were this seemed to be the case.

[nuraman00]

If the Kings are 9th best at defending the 3, is there any validity to my guess that an abnormal number of perimeter players had abnormally high number of made attempts when playing the Kings? I can think of several games were this seemed to be the case.

Yes, there is some validity. Because that stat is actually "percentage of points that come from 3s".

If you look at opposing 3-point percentage, they are 19th. Which isn't horrible IMO, considering their overall defense.

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-three-point-pct

Kings are last in opposing eFG%:

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-effective-field-goal-pct

And 29th in non-blocked 2-point %:

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-non-blocked-2-pt-pct

20th in points from 3-pointers:

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-points-from-3-pointers

So yeah, when you look at 29th in non-block 2 point %, which shows that if they don't block a shot, they'll give up a basket more than other teams. I think twos are the bigger problem.

Being 9th in percentage of points from 3's; 19th in opposing 3-point percentage; and 20th in points from 3's, means they're bad, but now awful.